Die drukmeter meet die stoomdruk.

Because die is the normal definite article in Afrikaans, equivalent to English the.

In this sentence:

• die drukmeter = the pressure gauge
• die stoomdruk = the steam pressure

A useful thing for English speakers: Afrikaans does not have different forms of the for gender, like German der/die/das. It mostly just uses die for the.

Yes. Afrikaans very often writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• druk = pressure
• meter = meter/gauge
• drukmeter = pressure gauge

This is very normal in Afrikaans and similar to Dutch and German. English sometimes writes these as two words, hyphenated words, or one word, but Afrikaans strongly prefers the solid compound form.

For the same reason: it is a compound noun.

• stoom = steam
• druk = pressure
• stoomdruk = steam pressure

In Afrikaans, the last part of the compound is usually the main word, and the earlier part describes it. So stoomdruk is a kind of druk.

It follows the basic subject–verb–object pattern:

• Die drukmeter = subject
• meet = verb
• die stoomdruk = object

So the structure is:

The pressure gauge measures the steam pressure.

This is straightforward and very similar to English in a simple main clause.

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

Compare with English:

• I measure
• you measure
• it measures

In Afrikaans, you normally just use the same form:

• ek meet
• jy meet
• die drukmeter meet

So Afrikaans is simpler here than English.

In practice, it is both the basic verb form and the present-tense form.

Afrikaans often uses the same form for:

• the dictionary form of the verb
• the present tense in a sentence

So meet can mean to measure as a verb entry, and also measures / measure in an actual sentence, depending on context.

Yes. They are related in meaning:

• meet = to measure
• meter = meter/gauge, an instrument used for measuring

So the sentence nicely pairs:

• the instrument: drukmeter
• the action: meet

That kind of pattern is common in Afrikaans and often easy for English speakers to remember.

Mainly from word order and meaning.

In a normal Afrikaans main clause, the finite verb is in the second position. Here the sentence begins with the subject:

• Die drukmeter | meet | die stoomdruk

So the noun phrase before the verb is understood as the subject, and the noun phrase after the verb is the object.

Also, semantically it makes sense: a gauge measures pressure, not the other way around.

A common way to form the past in Afrikaans is with het + ge-.

So you would typically get:

Die drukmeter het die stoomdruk gemeet.

Notice:

• het is the auxiliary
• gemeet is the past participle of meet

This is a very common Afrikaans past-tense pattern.

Meet is pronounced with a long ee sound, roughly like English mate without the glide is not right, and not like English met either. It is closer to a steady long vowel, approximately /meːt/.

A rough learner-friendly guide:

• meet sounds more like mayt with a pure long vowel
• not like English meet with the English ee
• not like met

If you know some Dutch pronunciation, it is similar to Dutch meet.

In this particular sentence, there is actually no letter g in those two words, but English speakers often ask about Afrikaans consonants in general.

The trickier sound here is really r and the vowels, not g.

A few quick pronunciation notes:

• druk has a short u sound, not like English oo
• stoom has a long vowel, roughly like stoam with a pure vowel
• drukmeter and stoomdruk are compounds, so saying each part clearly helps

If you want, you can mentally split them as:

• druk + meter
• stoom + druk

Yes, in Afrikaans die can appear in other roles in other contexts, but in this sentence it is simply the definite article the.

For a learner, the safest reading here is:

• die before a noun = the

So in Die drukmeter meet die stoomdruk, both instances are just ordinary the.

Usually not here. Drukmeter and stoomdruk are normally written as single words.

Hyphens in Afrikaans are used in some special cases, but ordinary noun compounds like these are generally written solid. So:

• drukmeter ✓
• stoomdruk ✓

That is the standard spelling.

The regular plural would be:

drukmeters

So, for example:

• Die drukmeters meet die stoomdruk.

Afrikaans plurals often add -s or -e, depending on the word. Here -s is the expected plural ending.

Yes, but then Afrikaans word order rules become important.

For example, if you move the object to the front for emphasis, the finite verb still stays in the second position:

Die stoomdruk meet die drukmeter would change the meaning and sound wrong in context, because now the steam pressure looks like the subject.

But if you add another element at the start, the verb must still stay second:

• Vandag meet die drukmeter die stoomdruk.

So the key rule is: in a main clause, the finite verb is normally in position 2.