Sy verdien geld.

Here Sy means she.

A useful warning: sy can also mean his in other sentences, for example sy boek = his book. In Sy verdien geld, it is a subject pronoun meaning she because it comes before the verb.

It is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence.

The word itself is not normally capitalized in the middle of a sentence:

• Sy verdien geld.
• Ek dink sy verdien baie geld.

Verdien usually means earn in a sentence like this:

• Sy verdien geld. = She earns money.

It can also mean deserve in other contexts:

• Sy verdien hulp. = She deserves help.

So the verb has a wider meaning, and the context tells you whether it means earn or deserve.

No. In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change form for different subjects in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek verdien geld. = I earn money.
• Jy verdien geld. = You earn money.
• Sy verdien geld. = She earns money.
• Ons verdien geld. = We earn money.

This is simpler than English, where you have I earn but she earns.

It follows the basic subject–verb–object order:

• Sy = subject
• verdien = verb
• geld = object

So it works very much like English:

• She / earns / money

Because Afrikaans does not need an extra helping verb here.

English may use:

• She earns money
• She does not earn money
• She is earning money

In simple statements like this, Afrikaans just uses the main verb:

• Sy verdien geld.

You do not say Sy is verdien geld.

Because geld means money, which is normally an uncountable noun, just like in English.

So:

• Sy verdien geld. = She earns money.

You would not normally say a money in English, and similarly you do not use an article here in Afrikaans.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

• Sy ≈ say (but not exactly)
• verdien ≈ fer-DEEN
• geld ≈ something like khelt or ghelt, with the Afrikaans g being a throat sound

A few pronunciation notes:

• v in Afrikaans is often pronounced more like f
• ie in verdien sounds like ee
• g in geld is not like the English g in go; it is the rough Afrikaans g/ch sound

In this sentence, geld is an uncountable noun, like English money. So it is not really treated as a normal singular/plural item here.

Usually:

• geld = money

There is a plural form gelde, but it is much less common and is used in more formal or specialized contexts, not in everyday sentences like this one.

You would usually say:

Sy verdien nie geld nie.
= She does not earn money.

This shows the common Afrikaans double nie pattern:

• one nie after the verb or relevant part
• another nie at the end of the clause

A common past-tense version is:

Sy het geld verdien.
= She earned money.

Afrikaans often forms the past tense with:

• het
  • past participle

Here:

• verdien becomes verdien in the participle as well
• so: het verdien

Notice the word order:

• Sy het geld verdien.