Die spesie leef in hierdie habitat.

Die is the definite article, meaning the. You use it when you are talking about a specific species that is already known or identified.

• die spesie = the species
• 'n spesie = a species

So this sentence is about a particular species, not just any species.

Here, spesie is singular: species.

In Afrikaans, the plural is usually spesies.

• die spesie leef = the species lives
• die spesies leef = the species / the specieses live
  In natural English, this would usually just be the species live.

So in this sentence, spesie refers to one species.

Leef means live.

One very useful thing in Afrikaans is that verbs usually do not change according to the subject the way they do in English.

For example:

• Ek leef = I live
• Jy leef = you live
• Die spesie leef = the species lives
• Hulle leef = they live

So unlike English, you do not need a special -s form like lives. The verb stays leef.

This is normal Afrikaans main-clause word order. In a basic statement, the conjugated verb usually comes in the second position.

So the structure here is:

• Die spesie = subject
• leef = verb
• in hierdie habitat = prepositional phrase

That gives:

Die spesie leef in hierdie habitat.

This is very similar to simple English word order: The species lives in this habitat.

Hierdie means this or these, depending on the noun.

In this sentence:

• hierdie habitat = this habitat

Afrikaans does not change hierdie for singular vs. plural the way English changes this and these.

Compare:

• hierdie habitat = this habitat
• hierdie habitats = these habitats

So hierdie is very flexible.

Because hierdie habitat already means this habitat.

Just like in English, you do not say this the habitat. You simply say:

• hierdie habitat = this habitat

So hierdie already does the job of identifying the noun, and no extra article is needed.

In is the preposition in, just like in English.

So:

• in hierdie habitat = in this habitat

It introduces the place where the species lives. This part of the sentence is a prepositional phrase showing location.

Yes. Habitat is used in Afrikaans too, and it looks almost the same as in English because it is an international scientific word.

So:

• habitat in Afrikaans = habitat in English

Many scientific and academic words in Afrikaans are similar to English, although pronunciation may differ.

You would say:

Hierdie spesie leef in hierdie habitat.

That is because:

• die spesie = the species
• hierdie spesie = this species

So replacing die with hierdie makes the subject more specific.

Yes. Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form for person or number, leef can correspond to several English forms depending on context:

• I live
• you live
• we live
• they live
• it lives
• the species lives

So in this sentence, English uses lives, but Afrikaans still uses leef.

You would say:

Die spesie het in hierdie habitat geleef.

Afrikaans often forms the past tense with:

• het
  • past participle

Here:

• het geleef = lived

So the original present-tense sentence:

Die spesie leef in hierdie habitat.

becomes the past-tense sentence:

Die spesie het in hierdie habitat geleef.