Die lugdiens hoef nie die vlugnommer te vra nie.

Afrikaans usually uses double negation. That means a negative sentence often has:

• one nie after the finite verb or the first important verbal element, and
• another nie at the end of the clause.

So in Die lugdiens hoef nie die vlugnommer te vra nie, the pattern is:

• hoef nie ...
• ... nie at the end

This is one of the most noticeable features of Afrikaans for English speakers.

A rough structure is:

subject + verb + nie + rest of sentence + nie

So:

• Die lugdiens = the airline
• hoef nie = does not need to
• die vlugnommer te vra = ask for the flight number
• final nie = closes the negation

Hoef means need to or have to, but it is very commonly used in negative sentences to mean do not need to.

So:

• Ek hoef nie te gaan nie = I do not need to go
• Die lugdiens hoef nie ... nie = The airline does not need to ...

For an English speaker, it may help to think of hoef as behaving a bit like a modal verb in this kind of sentence.

After hoef, Afrikaans normally uses te before the infinitive.

So:

• hoef te vra = need to ask
• hoef nie ... te vra nie = do not need to ask

This is similar to English to ask, although the placement is different because of Afrikaans word order.

Compare:

• Ek hoef te werk. = I need to work.
• Ek hoef nie te werk nie. = I do not need to work.

So in your sentence, te vra is the infinitive phrase to ask.

In a main clause, Afrikaans usually keeps the finite verb in the second position. Here, the finite verb is hoef.

That gives this order:

• Die lugdiens = subject
• hoef = finite verb
• then the rest of the clause
• vra goes later because it is the infinitive
• final nie closes the negation

So the sentence structure is roughly:

Subject + finite verb + nie + object + te + infinitive + nie

That is why you get:

Die lugdiens hoef nie die vlugnommer te vra nie.

This can feel unusual to English speakers because English would keep ask closer to need: does not need to ask.

Die is the definite article in Afrikaans. It can mean the.

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

• die lugdiens = the airline
• die vlugnommer = the flight number

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not change the article for gender or number in the same way. Die is very common and works for many nouns.

Yes. Afrikaans often forms compound nouns by writing them as one word.

So:

• vlug = flight
• nommer = number
• vlugnommer = flight number

This is very normal in Afrikaans and also happens in Dutch and German. English sometimes writes similar combinations as two words, but Afrikaans often combines them into one.

Other examples:

• huisdeur = house door / front door
• tafeldoek = tablecloth

With vra, Afrikaans can directly take the thing being asked for.

So die vlugnommer vra can mean ask for the flight number.

English often needs for, but Afrikaans does not always use a separate preposition in the same way.

So:

• Ek vra die prys. = I ask the price / I ask for the price.
• Sy vra my naam. = She asks my name / asks for my name.

In some contexts, vra vir also exists in spoken language, especially when asking for a person or sometimes a thing, but here die vlugnommer vra is perfectly normal.

No. They are different.

• hoef nie ... nie = do not need to
• moenie ... nie = must not / do not as a prohibition or command

Compare:

• Die lugdiens hoef nie die vlugnommer te vra nie.
  = The airline does not need to ask the flight number.

• Die lugdiens moenie die vlugnommer vra nie.
  = The airline must not ask the flight number.

So hoef nie means something is unnecessary, while moenie means it is forbidden or instructed not to happen.

Not very naturally. A word-for-word breakdown would look something like this:

• Die = the
• lugdiens = airline
• hoef = need
• nie = not
• die vlugnommer = the flight number
• te vra = to ask
• nie = not

But natural English would rearrange this as:

The airline does not need to ask for the flight number.

So while the parts match up reasonably well, the grammar does not map perfectly word for word.

Yes, you may hear na ... vra in some contexts, because vra na can mean ask about or ask for depending on usage. But it can sound slightly different in nuance.

• die vlugnommer vra = ask for the flight number
• na die vlugnommer vra = ask about / ask for the flight number

In many everyday contexts, the version in your sentence is a straightforward way to express the idea. A learner should definitely recognize vra with a direct object as normal Afrikaans.

No, not in the same way. Afrikaans verbs generally do not conjugate much in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek hoef nie te gaan nie.
• Jy hoef nie te gaan nie.
• Hy hoef nie te gaan nie.
• Ons hoef nie te gaan nie.

The verb hoef stays the same. This is much simpler than English, where you would have need but also sometimes needs.