Mense dra deesdae kontaklense.

A quick breakdown:

• Mense = people
• dra = wear / carry
• deesdae = nowadays / these days
• kontaklense = contact lenses

So the structure is very direct: People wear nowadays contact lenses, which in natural English becomes People wear contact lenses nowadays or Nowadays people wear contact lenses.

Yes—dra can mean both carry and wear.

In Afrikaans, the same verb is often used for carrying something and wearing something on your body. So:

• Ek dra 'n sak. = I carry a bag.
• Ek dra 'n jas. = I wear a coat.

In Mense dra deesdae kontaklense, the object kontaklense makes it clear that dra means wear.

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

Compare English:

• I wear
• he wears
• they wear

In Afrikaans, it stays the same:

• Ek dra
• hy dra
• hulle dra

So mense dra is normal. There is no special plural ending on the verb.

Afrikaans does not need an extra verb like are in a sentence like this.

English says:

• People wear contact lenses nowadays.

Afrikaans simply uses the main verb:

• Mense dra deesdae kontaklense.

If you were expecting something like people are wear..., that is just not how Afrikaans works. The simple present verb dra is enough.

Because the sentence is making a general statement.

• Mense means people in general, not the people
• kontaklense means contact lenses in general, not a specific set

This is very similar to English:

• People wear contact lenses nowadays.

You would not normally say The people wear the contact lenses nowadays unless you meant some specific people and some specific lenses.

Deesdae means nowadays, these days, or in modern times.

It refers to a present-day trend or habit, not just today.

So:

• deesdae = nowadays / these days
• vandag = today
• nou = now

That means Mense dra deesdae kontaklense is talking about a modern habit, not what people are doing at this exact moment.

Yes, it can move.

The given sentence is perfectly normal:

• Mense dra deesdae kontaklense.

But you can also say:

• Deesdae dra mense kontaklense.

Both mean the same thing. The second version puts a little more focus on nowadays.

The important grammar point is this: if deesdae comes first, the verb still stays in the second position:

• Deesdae
  • dra
    • mense
      • kontaklense

That verb-second pattern is very common in Afrikaans.

Mense is plural: people.

The singular is mens: person / human being.

So:

• 'n mens = a person
• mense = people

Examples:

• 'n Mens dra 'n bril. = A person wears glasses.
• Mense dra kontaklense. = People wear contact lenses.

Also, Afrikaans sometimes uses 'n mens in a general sense like English one or you, but here mense clearly means actual people in general.

The singular is kontaklens = contact lens.

The plural is kontaklense = contact lenses.

It is a compound word:

• kontak = contact
• lens = lens
• lense = lenses

In Afrikaans, compound nouns are usually written as one word, so contact lenses becomes kontaklense.

Yes, that is also understandable and natural.

Afrikaans allows some flexibility with adverbs like deesdae. These are all possible:

• Mense dra deesdae kontaklense.
• Mense dra kontaklense deesdae.
• Deesdae dra mense kontaklense.

The version you were given is a very standard neutral pattern.

A rough English-style pronunciation guide would be:

• Mense ≈ MEN-suh
• dra ≈ drah
• deesdae ≈ DEES-dye
• kontaklense ≈ kon-TAK-len-suh

Put together:

MEN-suh drah DEES-dye kon-TAK-len-suh

A few notes:

• r is usually more tapped or rolled than in most English accents.
• The a in dra is broader than English dray.
• These English approximations are only rough guides, but they help get close.