My broer verander die kanaal met die afstandbeheer.

Yes. In Afrikaans, my in My broer means my.

So:

• my broer = my brother

This can feel a little confusing for English speakers because my is spelled exactly like English my, but it is also pronounced a bit differently in Afrikaans. It is not the object pronoun me.

Because die is the normal definite article in Afrikaans, meaning the.

In this sentence:

• die kanaal = the channel
• die afstandbeheer = the remote control

Afrikaans does not change the for gender or case the way some other languages do. So die is used very widely.

No. Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender in the same way languages like German or Dutch do.

So you use:

• die broer = the brother
• die kanaal = the channel
• die afstandbeheer = the remote control

The article stays die.

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

So:

• Ek verander = I change
• Jy verander = you change
• Hy verander = he changes
• My broer verander = my brother changes

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not add -s for he/she/it in the present tense.

Yes. Verander means change or to change.

In this sentence it is used transitively, meaning something is being changed:

• verander die kanaal = change the channel

Afrikaans learners should note that verander can often work like English change, both for changing something and for becoming different, depending on context.

The sentence uses normal Afrikaans main-clause word order:

• My broer = subject
• verander = verb
• die kanaal = object
• met die afstandbeheer = prepositional phrase

So the pattern is basically:

Subject + Verb + Object + Other information

That is very similar to ordinary English word order here.

Met means with.

Here it shows the instrument used to do the action:

• met die afstandbeheer = with the remote control

So it tells you how the brother changes the channel.

Afstandbeheer is the Afrikaans word for remote control.

It is a compound noun:

• afstand = distance
• beheer = control

So literally it is something like distance control.

Compound nouns are very common in Afrikaans, just as in Dutch and German.

Because Afrikaans often writes compound nouns as a single word.

So instead of writing something like distance control as two separate words, Afrikaans combines them:

• afstand + beheer → afstandbeheer

This is very normal in Afrikaans spelling.

Yes. Broer is the standard everyday word for brother.

So:

• my broer = my brother
• jou broer = your brother
• sy broer = his brother

It is a very common basic family word.

Yes. Verander here is a simple present form, and Afrikaans often uses the present tense where English might use either:

• changes
• is changing

depending on context.

So My broer verander die kanaal could mean:

• My brother changes the channel
• My brother is changing the channel

The exact English translation depends on the situation.

Yes, Afrikaans can move parts of the sentence around for emphasis, but that may affect word order.

The neutral version is:

• My broer verander die kanaal met die afstandbeheer.

If another element is placed first, Afrikaans normally keeps the finite verb in second position. For example:

• Met die afstandbeheer verander my broer die kanaal.

That is still grammatical, but the original sentence is the more straightforward basic order for learners.

You usually know from context.

Kanaal can mean:

• a channel on TV
• a canal
• sometimes another kind of channel, depending on context

In this sentence, met die afstandbeheer makes it clear that it means a TV channel, because a remote control is used for television, not for a water canal.

No. Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns.

So in this sentence, the nouns stay lowercase:

• broer
• kanaal
• afstandbeheer

You only capitalize where normal spelling rules require it, such as at the beginning of a sentence or in proper names.