Die toonhoogte is hoog.

Die means the.

A useful thing for English speakers is that Afrikaans does not have different forms of the for different genders. You use die for masculine, feminine, neuter, and also for plurals.

So:

• die toonhoogte = the pitch
• die toonhoogtes = the pitches

That makes articles simpler than in languages like German or Dutch.

Yes. Afrikaans very often writes compound nouns as one word.

toonhoogte is made from:

• toon = tone
• hoogte = height

So literally it is something like tone-height, but as a normal word it means pitch.

English sometimes uses a single unrelated word, like pitch, where Afrikaans uses a compound.

Because toonhoogte already contains hoogte meaning height, and then the adjective hoog means high.

So the structure is perfectly normal:

• toonhoogte = pitch
• hoog = high

This is not strange in Afrikaans. English does something similar in meaning when we say The pitch is high: the noun already refers to height in sound, and then we still describe it as high or low.

This is the normal main-clause word order:

• Die toonhoogte = subject
• is = verb
• hoog = complement/adjective

So it follows the familiar pattern subject + verb + complement.

Also, Afrikaans main clauses follow the verb-second rule. In this sentence, the subject comes first, so the verb naturally comes second.

For example:

• Die toonhoogte is hoog.
• Vandag is die toonhoogte hoog.

In both sentences, the finite verb is is in the second position.

Because hoog comes after the verb is, so it is being used predicatively. In Afrikaans, adjectives used this way usually stay in their basic form.

• Die toonhoogte is hoog. = The pitch is high.

But when the adjective comes before the noun, it often changes form:

• die hoë toonhoogte = the high pitch

So:

• after is → hoog
• before the noun → hoë

This is a very common pattern in Afrikaans.

Mostly yes. Here is is the present-tense form of wees, the verb to be.

So:

• Die toonhoogte is hoog. = The pitch is high.

It links the subject to a description, just like English is does.

A useful extra example:

• Die toonhoogte is nie hoog nie. = The pitch is not high.

So the verb behaves very much like English to be, even though Afrikaans negation works differently.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• toonhoogte ≈ TOHN-khohkh-tuh
• hoog ≈ khohkh

The important thing is that the g is not the English g in go.

A few pronunciation notes:

• oo is a long vowel, roughly like oh
• the g is a guttural throat sound
• the final -e in hoogte is a weak uh sound

This is only an approximation, but it will point you in the right direction.

It is the Afrikaans guttural g, a sound English does not really have.

A good approximation is the ch in:

• Scottish loch
• German Bach

So hoog does not sound like English hog or hoag with a hard g.

If you cannot make the exact sound yet, using a soft kh-type sound is usually a much better approximation than an English hard g.

Normally, no.

Unlike German, Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns. So toonhoogte stays lowercase unless it begins the sentence.

That is why you write:

• Die toonhoogte is hoog.

and not:

• Die Toonhoogte is hoog.

You only capitalize at the start of a sentence and for proper names.

Yes. Toonhoogte can be used for pitch in general, depending on context.

It can refer to things like:

• the pitch of a musical note
• the pitch of someone’s voice
• the pitch pattern in sound or speech

The surrounding context usually tells you exactly which kind of pitch is meant.

You can do that like this:

• ’n toonhoogte is hoog. = A pitch is high.
• Die toonhoogtes is hoog. = The pitches are high.

Notes:

• ’n means a/an
• toonhoogtes is the plural of toonhoogte
• hoog stays hoog after is

Also, ’n is usually not stressed much in speech; it sounds more like a weak uh than a full English an.