Die bouplan was voorheen nie gereed nie.

Die is the definite article in Afrikaans, equivalent to English the.

A useful thing for English speakers to know is that Afrikaans does not change the article for gender or number:

• die bouplan = the building plan
• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die planne = the plans

So die is much simpler than articles in many other languages.

Bouplan is a compound noun:

• bou = build / building
• plan = plan

Together, bouplan means building plan or construction plan.

Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, often writes compound nouns as one word. So where English might write building plan, Afrikaans commonly uses bouplan.

Was is the past tense of is and wees/to be.

So:

• is = is
• was = was

In this sentence, was tells you the sentence is in the past:

• Die bouplan was ... = The building plan was ...

Afrikaans often uses this simple past form with to be, just as English does.

Voorheen means previously, formerly, or earlier.

It is an adverb, because it gives extra information about when something was true.

In this sentence:

• was voorheen nie gereed nie means something like
• was previously not ready

So voorheen modifies the whole situation and places it in an earlier time.

This is one of the most important features of Afrikaans: double negation.

In many normal negative sentences, Afrikaans uses:

• nie ... nie

So:

• Die bouplan was nie gereed nie = The building plan was not ready

In your sentence, voorheen is inserted, but the same pattern remains:

• Die bouplan was voorheen nie gereed nie

A simple way to think about it:

• the first nie usually comes before the part being negated
• the second nie usually comes near the end of the clause

English speakers often want to use only one nie, but standard Afrikaans normally needs both here.

Because voorheen is part of the middle of the sentence, and the negation is aimed at gereed.

Compare:

• Die bouplan was voorheen nie gereed nie.
• literally: The building plan was previously not ready.

The adverb voorheen comes before the first nie, which is natural here.

You may also hear slightly different word orders in context, but this version is very normal and idiomatic.

Gereed is an adjective meaning ready.

Afrikaans adjectives do not always take an -e ending. Whether they do depends on how they are used.

Here, gereed comes after the verb was and describes the subject:

• Die bouplan was gereed.
• The building plan was ready.

In this position, Afrikaans usually uses the basic form:

• gereed, not gereede

So this is similar to English predicate adjectives:

• The plan was ready

Mostly yes. The structure is fairly familiar to an English speaker:

• Die bouplan = subject
• was = verb
• voorheen = adverb
• nie gereed nie = negative predicate

So the overall order is close to:

• The building plan was previously not ready

Afrikaans often feels more English-like than many other languages in simple main clauses, although things like the double negation are different.

It is possible to move adverbs around in some contexts, but Die bouplan was voorheen nie gereed nie is the more straightforward and natural way to say The building plan was previously not ready.

If you say:

• Die bouplan was nie voorheen gereed nie

the emphasis can shift, and it may sound more like:

• It was not previously ready with stronger focus on not previously.

So both word order and emphasis matter. The original sentence is a good standard model.

You would remove the two nies:

• Die bouplan was voorheen gereed.

That means:

• The building plan was previously ready

This is a good way to see how the negative frame works:

• affirmative: was voorheen gereed
• negative: was voorheen nie gereed nie

Here is a rough English-friendly guide:

• Die ≈ dee
• bouplan ≈ boh-plahn
  
  • bou sounds roughly like boh
• was ≈ vuss or vahs depending on accent
• voorheen ≈ foor-hayn
• nie ≈ nee
• gereed ≈ guh-reet

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• g in Afrikaans is often a throaty sound, not a soft English g
• ee in gereed is a long vowel
• nie is usually pronounced like English knee with an n

Gereed is a very common and correct word for ready.

Another common word is klaar, but it often leans more toward:

• finished
• done
• completed

So:

• Die bouplan is gereed = The building plan is ready
• Die bouplan is klaar can suggest the building plan is finished/completed

Sometimes both are possible, but gereed is the safer choice when you specifically mean ready rather than finished.

A very literal breakdown is:

• Die = the
• bouplan = building plan
• was = was
• voorheen = previously / formerly
• nie = not
• gereed = ready
• nie = final negative marker

So, very literally:

• The building plan was previously not ready

This kind of breakdown is useful because it shows that the sentence is not mysterious at all: the main new grammar point is really the Afrikaans nie ... nie negation pattern.