Die drukker werk.

The printer works.

Breakdown of Die drukker werk.

• werk: to work
• die drukker: printer

Questions & Answers about Die drukker werk.

What does die mean here, and is it pronounced like English die?

Here die means the.

It is not pronounced like English die. In Afrikaans, die is usually pronounced more like dee.

So:

• die = the
• pronunciation ≈ dee

Does die change for gender, like de, het, or der/die/das in some other languages?

No. Afrikaans is much simpler here.

Die is the normal definite article for nouns, regardless of grammatical gender. Afrikaans does not use different definite articles for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns the way some other Germanic languages do.

So you can think of die as a general the.

How do I know that drukker is singular?

In this sentence, drukker is singular because it has the singular form of the noun.

• drukker = printer
• drukkers = printers

So:

• Die drukker werk. = The printer works.
• Die drukkers werk. = The printers work.

Even though die can also be used with plurals, the noun itself shows you whether it is singular or plural.

What exactly does drukker mean? Is it only a machine?