Sy lees die bundel.

Yes, here Sy means she.

It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence. In the middle of a sentence, it would normally be written sy.

This word can confuse learners because sy can also mean his in other contexts, for example sy boek = his book. But in Sy lees die bundel, it comes before the verb lees, so it is clearly the subject pronoun she.

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change for person in the present tense.

So you get:

• ek lees = I read / am reading
• jy lees = you read / are reading
• sy lees = she reads / is reading
• ons lees = we read / are reading

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not add an -s for he/she/it in the present tense.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use either:

• She reads the anthology
• She is reading the anthology

If you want to make the ongoing action more explicit, Afrikaans can use a longer form such as:

• Sy is besig om die bundel te lees.

That means something like She is busy reading the anthology or She is in the process of reading the anthology.

Die is the definite article, so here it means the.

A very useful point: Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all genders

So there is no separate system like the masculine/feminine/neuter form.

If you wanted a/an instead, Afrikaans usually uses 'n.

No. In Afrikaans, die is usually pronounced like dee.

That is one of the most common pronunciation surprises for English speakers.

So in this sentence:

• die = dee

This is the normal basic word order for a simple statement in Afrikaans:

subject + verb + object

So:

• Sy = subject
• lees = verb
• die bundel = object

That is very similar to English: She reads the anthology.

One thing to remember, though, is that Afrikaans often keeps the finite verb in second position. So if another element comes first, the verb still stays second:

• Vandag lees sy die bundel. = Today she is reading the anthology.

Usually by putting the verb before the subject:

• Lees sy die bundel?

That means Is she reading the anthology? or Does she read the anthology?

So the statement:

• Sy lees die bundel.

becomes the question:

• Lees sy die bundel?

In standard Afrikaans, you normally use two instances of nie:

• Sy lees nie die bundel nie.

This is a very important Afrikaans pattern. In a simple sentence like this:

• the first nie comes after the verb
• the second nie comes at the end of the clause

So:

• Sy lees die bundel. = She reads / is reading the anthology.
• Sy lees nie die bundel nie. = She does not read / is not reading the anthology.