Hulle het die hond lewend gevind.

Because Afrikaans often uses a split verb form in the perfect tense:

• het = the auxiliary
• gevind = the past participle of vind (to find)

In a normal main clause, the auxiliary usually comes early, and the past participle goes to the end:

• Hulle het die hond lewend gevind.

This is very common in Afrikaans. Compare:

• Ek het hom gesien. = I saw him / I have seen him.
• Ons het dit gedoen. = We did it / We have done it.

So gevind is at the end because that is the usual position for the past participle in this kind of sentence.

Here het is an auxiliary verb used to form the perfect tense.

It comes from hê (to have), but in sentences like this it usually does not mean possession. It helps build the tense:

• hulle het gevind = they found / they have found

So in this sentence, het is not have in the sense of ownership. It is grammatical support for the past action.

Yes. Gevind is the past participle of vind (to find).

A very common Afrikaans pattern is:

• ge-
  • verb stem = past participle

So:

• vind → gevind
• sien → gesien
• maak → gemaak

In this sentence:

• het gevind = found / have found

So Hulle het ... gevind is the normal perfect-tense way to say They found ...

Because lewend is being used after the noun as a complement, not directly before the noun as an attributive adjective.

Here it means something like:

• They found the dog alive.

So lewend describes the state the dog was in when they found it.

Compare:

• die lewende hond = the living dog
  
  • adjective before the noun
• Hulle het die hond lewend gevind. = They found the dog alive.
  
  • adjective after the noun, linked to the object

So lewend is correct here because it functions more like alive in English, not like a normal adjective placed before the noun.

Lewend is an object complement. It describes the hond and tells you the condition the dog was in when they found it.

Structure:

• Hulle = subject
• het = auxiliary
• die hond = direct object
• lewend = object complement
• gevind = past participle

So the idea is:

• They found the dog
• and the dog was alive

English does something similar in sentences like:

• They painted the door red.
• We found him asleep.
• They found the dog alive.

Yes, but it means something a little different in emphasis.

• Hulle het die hond lewend gevind.
  = They found the dog alive.
  This focuses on the result/state when they found it.

• Hulle het die lewende hond gevind.
  = They found the living dog.
  This describes which dog they found.

The first sentence sounds more natural if the important point is that the dog was still alive. The second sounds more like you are identifying one dog among others.

Yes, die here is simply the definite article the.

• die hond = the dog

Afrikaans uses die for singular and plural definite nouns:

• die hond = the dog
• die honde = the dogs

So in this sentence, die is just marking hond as definite.

In this sentence, Hulle means they.

Afrikaans hulle can sometimes also appear in other functions depending on context, but for a learner the most important thing here is:

• Hulle = they

So:

• Hulle het ... gevind. = They found ...

It is the subject of the sentence.

Afrikaans often uses lewend in places where English prefers alive.

English distinguishes:

• a living dog
• the dog is alive

Afrikaans can use forms based on lewe/lewend for these meanings, but the form changes with position:

• die lewende hond = the living dog
• die hond is lewend / die hond lewend gevind = the dog is alive / found the dog alive

So the meaning is similar, but the grammar and form are a bit different from English.

Yes. In a subordinate clause, het usually moves to the end, after the past participle.

Main clause:

• Hulle het die hond lewend gevind.

Subordinate clause:

• ... dat hulle die hond lewend gevind het.
• ... because they found the dog alive.

So the pair het ... gevind becomes gevind het in a subordinate clause.

Formally, it is in the perfect tense:

• het + past participle

So literally it is built like have found. But in Afrikaans, this form is also the normal way to express many past events where English would often use the simple past:

• Hulle het die hond lewend gevind. = They found the dog alive.

So even though the form is perfect, the natural English translation is often just simple past.

Not naturally in this sentence if you want the same meaning.

The standard order is:

• Hulle het die hond lewend gevind.

That keeps lewend close to die hond, which it describes.

If you move it around too much, the sentence may sound unnatural or unclear. So it is best to learn this pattern as:

• subject + het + object + complement + participle

For example:

• Ek het hom siek gesien. = I saw him sick.
• Ons het die deur oop gelos. = We left the door open.
• Hulle het die hond lewend gevind. = They found the dog alive.