Die woord beteken letterlik water.

Here die is the definite article, so it means the.

In Die woord beteken letterlik water, die woord = the word.

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses die for all genders and all plural nouns when it means the. Unlike languages such as German or Dutch, you do not have to learn different forms like the for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns.

Not usually. In Afrikaans, die is commonly pronounced roughly like dee.

So die woord sounds approximately like dee voort.

That can be confusing for English speakers, because it is spelled the same as the English verb die, but it does not sound the same in Afrikaans.

Yes. Woord is the Afrikaans noun meaning word, and it is clearly related to the English word word and Dutch woord.

A few useful points:

• singular: woord = word
• plural: woorde = words

So in this sentence, die woord means the word.

That is just the normal Afrikaans spelling of this word. The oo represents a long vowel sound.

Many English speakers notice that Afrikaans spelling is often more regular than English spelling. So although woord corresponds to English word, the spelling follows Afrikaans sound patterns rather than English ones.

Yes, beteken is a verb. It means to mean, to signify, or to indicate, depending on context.

In this sentence:

• die woord = the subject
• beteken = the verb
• letterlik water = the rest of the statement

So Die woord beteken ... = The word means ...

Afrikaans verbs are much simpler than English verbs in the present tense. In most cases, the verb does not change according to the subject.

So you get:

• ek beteken
• jy beteken
• hy beteken
• ons beteken

That simplicity is one of the nice features of Afrikaans grammar. In this sentence, beteken stays the same after die woord.

Letterlik means literally. It is an adverb here, because it modifies the verb beteken.

So:

• beteken = means
• letterlik = literally

Together:

• beteken letterlik = literally means

Because letterlik modifies the verb phrase beteken water and naturally comes before the final element water.

The sentence structure is:

• Die woord = subject
• beteken = verb
• letterlik = adverb
• water = complement/object of meaning

This word order is very normal in Afrikaans. It is similar to English The word literally means water.

It is not the most natural version for a neutral statement. Die woord beteken letterlik water is the normal and idiomatic order.

If you move letterlik, you may create a different emphasis, and the sentence can sound marked or less natural. For learners, it is best to keep letterlik before water in a sentence like this.

Because that is not how beteken works. In Afrikaans, as in English, mean can take its complement directly.

So:

• Die woord beteken water = The word means water

You do not need a preposition like to here.

Yes, water in Afrikaans also means water. It is both spelled and understood very similarly, although the pronunciation is Afrikaans rather than English.

That makes this sentence easy to recognize for English speakers, because woord, letterlik, and water are all fairly transparent cognates.

In normal speech, the sentence would flow something like:

Die woord beteken letterlik water.

Approximate pronunciation for an English speaker: dee voort buh-TAY-ken LET-ter-lik VAA-ter

That is only an approximation, but it helps show the rhythm:

• die
• woord
• beteken
• letterlik
• water

Yes. Beteken can cover several related meanings, such as:

• mean in the sense of signify
• mean in the sense of refer to
• sometimes matter or be important, depending on context

For example:

• Wat beteken dit? = What does that mean?
• Dit beteken baie vir my. = It means a lot to me.

So in your sentence, the sense is clearly signify: the word literally signifies water.

Yes. It is a very standard Afrikaans main clause pattern:

Subject + verb + rest of sentence

Here that gives:

• Die woord = subject
• beteken = verb
• letterlik water = complement

This is one of the most useful basic sentence patterns in Afrikaans, and English speakers usually find it familiar.