Die oorlede kunstenaar het hier gewoon.

Afrikaans usually forms the past tense with het + a past participle.

So:

• het = the auxiliary verb, like have/has
• gewoon = the past participle of woon (to live / reside)

Together, het ... gewoon means lived or sometimes has lived, depending on context.

So:

• woon = live / am living
• het gewoon = lived / has lived

This is very common in Afrikaans:

• Hy het gewerk. = He worked.
• Ons het gekom. = We came.
• Die kunstenaar het hier gewoon. = The artist lived here.

That is normal Afrikaans word order in a main clause.

In a basic statement, Afrikaans often puts:

1. the subject first
2. the finite verb second
3. other information next
4. the past participle near the end

So in this sentence:

• Die oorlede kunstenaar = subject
• het = finite verb
• hier = adverb (here)
• gewoon = past participle

That gives:

Die oorlede kunstenaar het hier gewoon.

This is similar to Dutch and a bit different from English, where we usually keep the verb parts together: The deceased artist lived here.

Oorlede means deceased, late, or dead in a respectful/descriptive sense.

In this sentence, die oorlede kunstenaar means:

• the deceased artist
• or the late artist

It is commonly used when referring to someone who has died, especially in a neutral or respectful way.

Examples:

• my oorlede oupa = my late grandfather
• die oorlede skrywer = the deceased writer

Because:

• die = the
• oorlede = deceased
• kunstenaar = artist

Afrikaans adjectives usually come before the noun, just like in English.

So:

• die kunstenaar = the artist
• die oorlede kunstenaar = the deceased artist

This part is actually quite straightforward for English speakers.

Die means the here, and Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender the way many European languages do.

So the same article die is used for:

• masculine nouns
• feminine nouns
• many plural nouns as well

Examples:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kunstenaars = the artists

So you do not need to learn separate words like der / die / das or le / la. That makes Afrikaans simpler than many other languages.

This is a very common point of confusion.

gewoon can mean different things depending on context:

1. gewoon as the past participle of woon

   • Hy het hier gewoon. = He lived here.

2. gewoon meaning ordinary / normal

   • ’n gewone dag = an ordinary day

3. In some contexts related to Dutch, learners may also associate similar-looking words with usually, but in Afrikaans usually is more often gewoonlik.

   • Ek kom gewoonlik vroeg. = I usually come early.

So in your sentence, because it follows het and comes at the end, gewoon is clearly the verb form meaning lived.

The basic form is woon, which means to live or to reside.

Examples:

• Ek woon hier. = I live here.
• Sy woon in Kaapstad. = She lives in Cape Town.

The past participle is gewoon:

• Ek het hier gewoon. = I lived here.

So:

• woon = live
• gewoon = lived

Afrikaans does not usually use a separate helper like English did to make a normal past statement.

English can say:

• The artist lived here.
• but also think in terms of did live

Afrikaans simply uses the normal past construction:

• Die kunstenaar het hier gewoon.

So you should not expect a separate word meaning did in ordinary past-tense statements.

Yes, depending on context, het + past participle can sometimes line up with either the English simple past or present perfect.

So het gewoon could theoretically be understood as:

• lived
• has lived

But in this sentence, The deceased artist lived here is the natural English translation.

That is because:

• the person is already identified as deceased
• English strongly prefers the simple past in that context

So although the Afrikaans form is the same type of structure as has lived, the best translation here is lived.

Hier means here.

In this sentence it tells you the place where the artist lived:

• het hier gewoon = lived here

Its position is normal in Afrikaans. It often comes after the finite verb and before the participle or final verb element.

Compare:

• Ek woon hier. = I live here.
• Ek het hier gewoon. = I lived here.

So hier fits naturally in the middle of the verb phrase.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

KUNS-tuh-naar

A few notes:

• kuns sounds a bit like kunsts with a short vowel
• ten is unstressed and light
• naar has a long aa sound, somewhat like nahr

And kunstenaar means artist.

It is related to kuns, which means art.

So:

• kuns = art
• kunstenaar = artist

Yes. In die oorlede kunstenaar, oorlede is an adjective describing kunstenaar.

It tells you what kind of artist:

• not style
• not profession
• but status: the artist is deceased

So grammatically:

• kunstenaar = noun
• oorlede = adjective modifying that noun

Yes, but it means something different.

• Die oorlede kunstenaar het hier gewoon.
  = The deceased artist lived here.

This identifies the artist as deceased and then says where that person lived.

• Die kunstenaar was oorlede.
  = The artist was deceased / had died.

That sentence is about the artist’s condition, not about where the artist lived.

So the original sentence is specifically saying that the late artist used to live in that place.