Ons tel die dokumente.

Here, ons means we.

In Afrikaans, ons is commonly used for we / us / our, depending on the sentence. In Ons tel die dokumente, it is the subject, so it means we.

Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject.

So:

• ek tel = I count
• jy tel = you count
• ons tel = we count
• hulle tel = they count

This is much simpler than English, where we say I count but he counts. In Afrikaans, the verb usually stays the same.

Tel usually means count.

So in this sentence, it means counting the documents one by one or working out how many there are.

Depending on context, tel can sometimes also mean things like add up or matter/count, but in Ons tel die dokumente, the most natural meaning is count.

Die means the.

A very important point is that Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns: die dokument = the document
• plural nouns: die dokumente = the documents

So unlike English, Afrikaans does not change the article for singular vs. plural. It is simply die in both cases.

The noun dokumente is the plural form of dokument.

• dokument = document
• dokumente = documents

Many Afrikaans nouns form the plural with -e, though not all nouns follow exactly the same pattern.

Also, the sentence uses die dokumente, which clearly means the documents, not the document.

Yes, in this simple main clause, the word order is very similar to English:

• Ons = subject
• tel = verb
• die dokumente = object

So it follows a basic Subject–Verb–Object pattern:

Ons tel die dokumente
= We count the documents

This makes sentences like this quite easy for English speakers.

No. Tel is the main verb, so no extra verb like is is needed.

English also works the same way here:

• We count the documents
  not
• We are count the documents

So Ons tel die dokumente is already a complete sentence.

A rough guide for English speakers is:

Ons → somewhat like ons / awns
tel → like tell
die → usually like dee
dokumente → roughly doh-kuh-MEN-tuh

A rough full pronunciation could be:

Ons tel die dokumente → awns tell dee doh-kuh-MEN-tuh

The exact sounds depend on accent, but this should help as a starting point.

No, not in standard Afrikaans.

Although it is spelled die, it is normally pronounced more like dee, not like the English verb die.

This is a very common point of confusion for beginners.

No. Even though tel looks a bit like English tell, it does not mean tell.

• tel = count
• vertel = tell

So:

• Ons tel die dokumente = We count the documents
• Ons vertel... = We tell...

This is a useful vocabulary distinction to remember.