Ons maak die voëllys.

In this sentence, ons is the subject and means we.

A useful extra point: Afrikaans also uses ons for us in object position.

• Ons maak die voëllys. = We are making the bird list.
• Hulle help ons. = They help us.

So the form stays the same, and the role in the sentence tells you whether it means we or us.

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek maak
• Jy maak
• Hy/Sy maak
• Ons maak
• Hulle maak

This is much simpler than English, where you have I make but he makes. In Afrikaans, maak stays maak.

Literally, maak often means make or do, but in this sentence it has the natural sense of make up, draw up, or compile.

So with die voëllys, maak means something like:

• make the bird list
• compile the bird list
• draw up the bird list

This is a very normal use of maak in Afrikaans.

Die means the.

Afrikaans uses die as the definite article for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all genders

So unlike some other languages, you do not have to learn different forms for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns.

Examples:

• die voël = the bird
• die voëls = the birds
• die lys = the list

Because Afrikaans very often writes compound nouns as a single word.

Here:

• voël = bird
• lys = list
• voëllys = bird list

This is similar to how Dutch and German form compounds, and Afrikaans does it very regularly.

A helpful rule: the last part usually tells you what kind of thing it is.
So voëllys is a kind of lys.

The ë shows that the vowels are pronounced separately rather than being merged into one sound.

So voël is pronounced in two syllables, not as one single vowel sound.

The two dots are called a diaeresis. In Afrikaans, they are often used to show that vowels should be kept apart in pronunciation.

That is why voël looks a little unusual to English speakers, but the spelling is helping you pronounce it correctly.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Afrikaans simple present often covers both:

• We make the bird list
• We are making the bird list

If you want to make the ongoing action more explicit, Afrikaans can use a longer structure such as:

• Ons is besig om die voëllys te maak.

That more clearly means We are busy making the bird list or We are making the bird list.

Yes, in this simple main clause the word order is very similar to English:

• Ons = subject
• maak = verb
• die voëllys = object

So the pattern is:

subject + verb + object

That said, Afrikaans has a strong verb-second pattern in main clauses. For example, if another element comes first, the verb still stays in second position:

• Vandag maak ons die voëllys. = Today we are making the bird list.

So in the original sentence, the word order is simple and very natural.

It works very naturally as a descriptive compound noun, even if the exact word is not something you see every day.

Afrikaans is very comfortable creating compounds like this, so a learner should get used to reading them as one unit.

Even if you have never seen a compound before, you can often understand it by splitting it up:

• voël
  • lys
• bird + list
• bird list

This is a very useful reading strategy in Afrikaans.