Ons kies die maalgraad vir die koffieboon.

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

• maal = grind / milling
• graad = degree / grade

So maalgraad literally means something like grind grade or grind size. In natural English, this would usually be translated as grind size or grind setting.

Ons means we.

It is the normal Afrikaans subject pronoun for we:

• Ek = I
• jy / u = you
• hy / sy / dit = he / she / it
• ons = we
• julle = you (plural)
• hulle = they

So Ons kies ... means We choose ...

In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject the way they do in English.

For example:

• Ek kies = I choose
• Jy kies = you choose
• Ons kies = we choose
• Hulle kies = they choose

So kies stays kies. This is one of the simpler parts of Afrikaans grammar compared with English.

Die is the definite article in Afrikaans, meaning the.

It appears twice because there are two nouns being marked as definite:

• die maalgraad = the grind size
• die koffieboon = the coffee bean

Afrikaans does not change the article for gender, so you do not have to learn separate forms like the coffee bean vs the grind size. It is just die for both.

Here, both uses are singular because the nouns are singular:

• die maalgraad = the grind size
• die koffieboon = the coffee bean

A useful thing to know is that die can also be used with plurals in Afrikaans. So the article itself does not tell you whether something is singular or plural; the noun does.

For example:

• die koffieboon = the coffee bean
• die koffiebone = the coffee beans

Here, vir means for.

So:

• die maalgraad vir die koffieboon = the grind size for the coffee bean

In this sentence, vir die koffieboon tells you what the grind size is intended for.

A learner should also know that vir is a very common Afrikaans preposition with several uses, including:

• for
• marking some direct objects with people
• to in some expressions

But in this sentence, the meaning is simply for.

The singular koffieboon can be used in a generic sense, meaning coffee bean as a type or category, not necessarily one single physical bean.

This is similar to English, where you can sometimes say things like:

• the coffee bean
• the lion
• the smartphone

to talk about a thing in general.

If you said koffiebone, that would emphasize coffee beans in the plural. Depending on context, both could be possible, but the singular can sound like the coffee bean as a product/type.

The word order is very straightforward and close to English:

• Ons = subject
• kies = verb
• die maalgraad = object
• vir die koffieboon = prepositional phrase

So the pattern is:

Subject + Verb + Object + Prepositional phrase

That makes this sentence quite beginner-friendly.

In this sentence, it is most naturally understood as connected to maalgraad:

• die maalgraad vir die koffieboon
• the grind size for the coffee bean

So the idea is not mainly we choose for the coffee bean, but rather we choose the grind size that is for the coffee bean.

In other words, vir die koffieboon describes which kind of grind size is being chosen.

Because it is made from two nouns:

• koffie = coffee
• boon = bean

Together, koffieboon means coffee bean.

This is very normal in Afrikaans. Many everyday nouns are compounds written as one word. If you are an English speaker, it helps to get used to the idea that where English often writes two words, Afrikaans may write one.

The plural changes boon to bone:

• koffieboon = coffee bean
• koffiebone = coffee beans

So the second part of the compound is the part that changes for plural. This is common in Afrikaans compounds: the main noun at the end usually carries the plural marking.

That depends on context. The given sentence is grammatical, but in real life people might often say something more like:

• Ons kies die maalgraad vir die koffie.
• Ons kies die maalgraad vir die koffiebone.

The original sentence is still useful for learning because it clearly shows:

• a subject (Ons)
• a verb (kies)
• a compound noun (maalgraad)
• a prepositional phrase (vir die koffieboon)

So even if a native speaker might choose a slightly different phrasing in some situations, this sentence is still good for studying core Afrikaans structure.