Die kerk is naby die natuurreservaat.

Die means the in Afrikaans, so it appears before both nouns:

• die kerk = the church
• die natuurreservaat = the nature reserve

Afrikaans uses die as the definite article for all nouns in the plural and for common singular use as well. Unlike languages such as German, Afrikaans does not change the article for gender or case the way English learners might expect.

No. One of the simpler features of Afrikaans is that articles are much less complicated.

For this kind of sentence, you just use die for the. Afrikaans does not require you to learn different forms for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns the way some related languages do.

Naby means near or close to.

In this sentence, it functions like a preposition:

• is naby die natuurreservaat = is near the nature reserve

So you can think of naby as the word that links the church to its location.

No. Naby can be followed directly by the noun phrase.

So:

• naby die natuurreservaat = near the nature reserve

You do not need an extra word between naby and die natuurreservaat.

Yes, in this sentence it is very similar to English:

• Die kerk = subject
• is = verb
• naby die natuurreservaat = location/complement

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + place expression

That said, Afrikaans is a verb-second language, so in other sentence types the word order can shift more than it does in English.

Afrikaans and English are both Germanic languages, so some very common words are related or look similar. Is in Afrikaans is the present-tense form of to be, just like English is.

That is why this sentence feels very familiar to English speakers.

Yes. Afrikaans very often writes compound nouns as a single word.

So:

• natuur = nature
• reservaat = reserve
• natuurreservaat = nature reserve

This is very normal in Afrikaans. English sometimes uses two words where Afrikaans prefers one compound word.

A rough guide for an English speaker:

• kerk ≈ kerrk
  The e is short, and the r is pronounced.
• naby ≈ nah-bay
  Stress usually falls on the second syllable: na-BY.
• natuurreservaat ≈ nah-TEWR-re-ser-vaat
  The aa sound is longer, and r is clearly pronounced.

Pronunciation varies somewhat by accent, but these approximations will help you get close.

Sometimes, but not with exactly the same meaning.

• naby = near / close to
• by = at / by

So:

• Die kerk is naby die natuurreservaat = The church is near the nature reserve.
• Die kerk is by die natuurreservaat can sound more like the church is at or right by the reserve.

If you specifically want near, naby is the better choice.

In Afrikaans, common nouns are not capitalized the way they are in German.

So you write:

• die kerk
• die natuurreservaat

The only reason Die is capitalized here is that it is the first word of the sentence.

Yes. Afrikaans usually uses double negation.

So the negative version would be:

Die kerk is nie naby die natuurreservaat nie.

This literally includes two nie words, which is a normal and important feature of standard Afrikaans grammar.