Die president neem 'n besluit.

In Afrikaans, die is the definite article for the.

A few useful points:

• die is used for all genders
• it is also used for both singular and plural
• Afrikaans does not have separate words like Dutch de/het

So:

• die president = the president
• die huise = the houses

That makes articles much simpler than in some other Germanic languages.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, meaning a or an.

So:

• 'n besluit = a decision

It is always written with a lowercase n and an apostrophe in front: 'n

Even at the beginning of a sentence, it usually stays lowercase:

• 'n Man loop daar. = A man walks there.

If the whole sentence is written in capitals, then it becomes:

• 'N MAN LOOP DAAR.

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

So the same basic verb form is used with different subjects:

• ek neem = I take
• jy neem = you take
• hy neem = he takes
• ons neem = we take

That is much simpler than English, where you get I take but he takes.

In this sentence:

• Die president neem ... = The president takes ...

Yes, literally it is take a decision, but idiomatically it means make a decision in English.

This is a normal Afrikaans expression:

• 'n besluit neem = to make a decision

So even though the verb is literally take, the natural English meaning is make.

Because the sentence is talking about one decision, and 'n already shows that it is singular and indefinite.

So:

• 'n besluit = a decision
• besluite = decisions

If you wanted the plural, you might say:

• Die president neem besluite. = The president makes decisions.

This sentence uses the normal main-clause word order in Afrikaans:

Subject + verb + object

So:

• Die president = subject
• neem = verb
• 'n besluit = object

That is very similar to English:

• The president
  • makes/takes
    • a decision

Afrikaans word order becomes more noticeable in other sentence types, especially subordinate clauses, but this sentence is straightforward.

In normal speech, 'n is usually pronounced like a very weak vowel sound, similar to the a in about.

So 'n besluit is not pronounced with a strong en sound. It is usually very light and unstressed.

Also, in speech, the stress falls more on besluit than on 'n.

It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns the way German does.

So inside a sentence you would write:

• Ek sien die president.

Only the first word of the sentence and proper names normally get capitals.

Not grammatically in the way it would be in some languages. Afrikaans does not have a strong grammatical gender system for articles and adjectives.

So die stays the same regardless.

The word president refers to the person’s real-world gender, but grammatically you do not need to change the article.

That is why Afrikaans learners do not need to memorize noun gender in the same way they might in languages like German or French.

Normally, neem 'n besluit is the standard idiomatic expression.

While maak means make, Afrikaans usually says:

• 'n besluit neem = make a decision

So for natural Afrikaans, Die president neem 'n besluit is the better choice.

The infinitive is neem.

Afrikaans dictionaries usually list verbs in this basic form. Unlike English, there is no separate to built into the infinitive itself.

Examples:

• neem = take
• wil neem = want to take
• kan neem = can take

So in your sentence, the verb is already appearing in its basic form:

• Die president neem 'n besluit.

It can do both, depending on context.

It can mean:

• The president is making a decision
• The president makes a decision
• The president takes a decision

Afrikaans simple present often covers both:

• a present action
• a habitual action
• a general statement

Context tells you which meaning is intended.