Ons verwyder die afvalwater.

In this sentence, ons is the subject pronoun meaning we.

A useful thing to know is that ons can also mean our, depending on how it is used:

• Ons verwyder die afvalwater. = We remove the wastewater.
• Ons water is skoon. = Our water is clean.

So the meaning depends on the grammar of the sentence. Here, because ons comes before the verb verwyder, it clearly means we.

Usually, no. Afrikaans verbs are much simpler than English verbs in this way.

You get:

• Ek verwyder = I remove
• Jy verwyder = you remove
• Hy verwyder = he removes
• Ons verwyder = we remove

So unlike English, Afrikaans does not normally add -s for he/she/it in the present tense.

Yes, die means the here.

One of the nice things about Afrikaans is that die is used for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all genders

So Afrikaans does not have different forms like de/het in Dutch or der/die/das in German.

Examples:

• die water = the water
• die man = the man
• die vroue = the women

Yes, afvalwater is correctly written as one word.

Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, very often forms compound nouns by joining words together:

• afval = waste
• water = water
• afvalwater = wastewater

This is very normal in Afrikaans. English sometimes writes similar ideas as one word, two words, or with a hyphen, but Afrikaans usually prefers a single compound word.

Not always exactly.

Afvalwater usually means wastewater: water that has been used and is no longer clean, often from homes, industry, or treatment systems.

It can overlap with sewage, but sewage is often more specifically connected with toilets and drains. A more specific Afrikaans word in that area is rioolwater.

So:

• afvalwater = wastewater
• rioolwater = sewage / sewer water

In many contexts, afvalwater is the broader term.

The sentence follows the normal main-clause word order:

Subject + Verb + Object

So:

• Ons = subject
• verwyder = verb
• die afvalwater = object

This is very similar to normal English word order:

• We remove the wastewater.

Afrikaans main clauses usually put the finite verb in the second position, which is why this looks straightforward here.

Afrikaans keeps the verb in the second position in main clauses.

So if you begin with Vandag (today), the subject and verb switch order:

• Vandag verwyder ons die afvalwater.

Literally, this looks like:

• Today remove we the wastewater.

But that is normal Afrikaans word order. This is a very important pattern to learn.

Afrikaans usually uses double negation with nie ... nie.

So:

• Ons verwyder die afvalwater. = We remove the wastewater.
• Ons verwyder nie die afvalwater nie. = We do not remove the wastewater.

This is one of the most famous features of Afrikaans. In many ordinary sentences, you need both nie words.

For a yes/no question, Afrikaans usually uses inversion: the verb comes before the subject.

So:

• Ons verwyder die afvalwater. = We remove the wastewater.
• Verwyder ons die afvalwater? = Do we remove the wastewater?

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not need an extra helper verb like do.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

• verwyder ≈ fur-VAY-der

A few notes:

• The v in Afrikaans is often pronounced closer to an English f sound.
• The stress is on the middle part: ver-WY-der
• The r is an Afrikaans r, which may sound different from an English r depending on the speaker.

This is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.

Yes, verwyder is a standard and common verb meaning remove.

It is often used in formal, technical, and everyday contexts:

• Verwyder die deksel. = Remove the lid.
• Ons verwyder die afvalwater. = We remove the wastewater.

Depending on context, Afrikaans can also use other expressions, but verwyder is a very natural choice here, especially in a technical or process-related sentence.

A very common way to form the past tense in Afrikaans is with het + past participle.

So this sentence becomes:

• Ons het die afvalwater verwyder. = We removed the wastewater.

Notice that verwyder stays the same in form here. Afrikaans past tense is often much simpler than English past tense patterns.