Die digter lees die gedig.

Because die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

So in this sentence:

• Die digter = the poet
• die gedig = the poem

Afrikaans uses die for both nouns here, just as English uses the more than once in a sentence when needed.

No. One of the easiest things about Afrikaans is that it does not have grammatical gender in the way German does.

That means:

• no masculine/feminine/neuter article system
• no different forms of the for different noun genders
• no case endings here

So die stays die, regardless of whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter in related languages.

They are related words.

• digter = poet
• gedig = poem

Both belong to the same word family connected with poetry. This is similar to English having related words like poet, poetry, and poem, except Afrikaans shows the relationship a bit differently.

A learner may notice that:

• digter is a person
• gedig is the thing produced

So the sentence pairs a poet with a poem, which makes the vocabulary easier to remember.

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• ek lees = I read
• jy lees = you read
• hy lees = he reads
• ons lees = we read

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not add a special -s form for he/she/it in the present tense. So lees stays lees.

Yes. This sentence follows a very familiar Subject–Verb–Object pattern:

• Die digter = subject
• lees = verb
• die gedig = object

So:

• The poet / reads / the poem

That makes this sentence very straightforward for an English speaker.

However, Afrikaans also has an important verb-second pattern in main clauses. So if you start with another element, the verb still comes early:

• Vandag lees die digter die gedig. = Today the poet reads the poem.

Notice that lees still comes before die digter there.

No. In Afrikaans, die is usually pronounced roughly like dee, not like the English word die.

So:

• die ≈ dee

This is a very common beginner trap, because the spelling looks familiar to English speakers, but the pronunciation is different.

The g in Afrikaans is usually pronounced as a harsh throaty sound, somewhat like the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach.

So gedig does not start with an English g sound like in go.

A rough learner-friendly guide:

• gedig ≈ khuh-dikh or guh-dikh, depending on accent and how closely you imitate the Afrikaans sound

The exact sound varies by speaker and region, but the important point is that it is usually a throat sound, not a normal English g.

Because Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns.

Unlike German, Afrikaans only capitalizes:

• the first word of a sentence
• proper names
• certain special cases

So common nouns like digter and gedig stay lowercase unless they begin the sentence.

Afrikaans normally uses a double nie pattern for negation.

So Die digter lees die gedig becomes:

Die digter lees nie die gedig nie.

This is one of the most important sentence patterns in Afrikaans. The first nie usually comes after the verb or verb phrase, and the second nie comes at the end of the clause.

Only the noun phrase would need to change; the verb lees would usually stay the same.

For example:

• Die digters lees die gedig. = The poets read the poem.

Notice:

• digter → digters for the plural
• lees stays lees

Again, this shows how simple Afrikaans verb forms are in the present tense.