Die spieëlskrif is vreemd.

Die is the definite article, equivalent to the.

A useful thing to know:

• It is pronounced roughly dee
• It is not pronounced like the English word die

Also, Afrikaans uses die for both singular and plural nouns, so the article itself does not tell you the number.

Afrikaans very often forms compound nouns by joining words together.

So:

• spieël = mirror
• skrif = writing, script, handwriting

Together, spieëlskrif means mirror writing or mirror script as a single concept. Writing it as one word is normal in Afrikaans.

The ë shows that the vowels are pronounced in separate syllables rather than blending together.

So spieël is pronounced in two parts, roughly:

• spie-ël
• approximately SPEE-uhl

Without the diaeresis, a learner might wrongly try to compress the vowels too much. The ë helps signal the correct pronunciation.

A rough English-style guide would be:

dee SPEE-uhl-skrift is FRAYMT

Notes:

• die ≈ dee
• spieëlskrif ≈ SPEE-uhl-skrift
• vreemd has a sound a bit like fraymt, though the exact vowel is Afrikaans-specific

This is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.

This is the normal word order for a simple Afrikaans statement:

• Die spieëlskrif = subject
• is = verb
• vreemd = complement/adjective

So it follows the basic pattern:

subject + verb + description

That is very similar to English:

• The mirror writing is strange

Because vreemd is being used predicatively: it describes the subject after the linking verb is.

Compare:

• Die spieëlskrif is vreemd. = The mirror writing is strange.
• die vreemde spieëlskrif = the strange mirror writing

After is, the adjective usually stays in its basic form:

• vreemd

Yes, often it would.

Before a noun, many Afrikaans adjectives take an -e ending. So:

• Die spieëlskrif is vreemd.
• die vreemde spieëlskrif

So this is a very useful contrast:

• after is: vreemd
• before the noun: vreemde

No. In Afrikaans, is is much simpler than English am / is / are.

Afrikaans uses is with all persons:

• ek is = I am
• jy is = you are
• hy/sy is = he/she is
• ons is = we are
• hulle is = they are

So is does not change the way English forms do.

Not always. Vreemd can mean things like:

• strange
• odd
• unfamiliar
• sometimes foreign or not known

In this sentence, strange or odd is the most natural meaning. But in other contexts, the word can be a bit broader.

No, not normally.

Unlike German, Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns. So:

• spieëlskrif stays lowercase
• vreemd stays lowercase

The only capital letter here is Die, because it is at the beginning of the sentence.

You usually make it a yes/no question by putting the verb first:

• Die spieëlskrif is vreemd. = statement
• Is die spieëlskrif vreemd? = question

So the main change is:

• statement: subject + verb
• question: verb + subject