Sy ontwerp die tafel.

Yes — sy can mean either she or his in Afrikaans, depending on how it is used.

In Sy ontwerp die tafel, it means she because it is being used as the subject of the sentence, followed by a verb:

• Sy ontwerp ... = She designs ...

If sy meant his, it would normally come before a noun:

• sy tafel = his table

So the sentence structure tells you which meaning is intended.

In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject.

So you get:

• Ek ontwerp = I design
• Jy ontwerp = you design
• Sy ontwerp = she designs
• Hulle ontwerp = they design

This is much simpler than English, where you have I design but she designs. In Afrikaans, the verb stays ontwerp.

Here, ontwerp is in the present tense.

So Sy ontwerp die tafel means something like:

• She designs the table
• depending on context, it could also be understood as She is designing the table

Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use either present simple or present continuous. Context usually makes it clear.

Yes, in this basic sentence the word order is the same:

• Sy = subject
• ontwerp = verb
• die tafel = object

So it follows a normal Subject–Verb–Object pattern:

• Sy ontwerp die tafel.
• She designs the table.

This makes simple Afrikaans statements quite easy for English speakers to recognize.

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

So:

• die tafel = the table

A useful thing for English speakers is that Afrikaans uses die for all nouns in the definite sense. It does not change for gender the way articles do in some other languages.

Examples:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kind = the child
• die tafels = the tables

So die is very common and very flexible.

No, Afrikaans nouns do not have grammatical gender in the same way that nouns do in languages like German or French.

So tafel is simply tafel and takes die when you mean the table:

• die tafel

You do not need to learn separate masculine, feminine, or neuter article forms for nouns in ordinary Afrikaans.

Yes. Ontwerp can be a verb or a noun, depending on context.

In your sentence, it is a verb:

• Sy ontwerp die tafel. = She designs the table.

But as a noun:

• Die ontwerp is modern. = The design is modern.

This is similar to English, where design can also be both a noun and a verb.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Sy ≈ say / sigh with an Afrikaans sound somewhere between English say and see, depending on accent
• ontwerp ≈ on-tvairp / on-terp with a rolled or tapped r in many accents
• die ≈ dee
• tafel ≈ TAH-fel

A very rough English-style guide could be:

• Sy ontwerp die tafel
• say on-TVERP dee TAH-fel

But pronunciation guides in English spelling are only approximate. If you are learning spoken Afrikaans, it helps a lot to hear native audio.

Afrikaans does not need an extra helper verb here.

English sometimes uses:

• She designs the table
• She is designing the table
• She does design the table (for emphasis)

In Afrikaans, the basic present form is often just:

• Sy ontwerp die tafel

So the sentence is complete without an extra word like is or does.

Yes — at the beginning of a sentence, Sy is capitalized simply because it is the first word:

• Sy ontwerp die tafel.

If the word appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would normally be lowercase:

• Ek dink sy ontwerp die tafel. = I think she is designing the table.

So the capital letter here is just normal sentence capitalization, not a special grammar rule.