Dit is 'n gewone dag by die kantoor.

Yes. Dit is is the straightforward Afrikaans equivalent of It is.

In everyday speech, Afrikaans speakers very often contract it to Dis, which is extremely common in conversation:

• Dit is 'n gewone dag by die kantoor.
• Dis 'n gewone dag by die kantoor.

Both are correct. Dit is is a little more full or neutral; Dis is more natural in casual speech.

In Afrikaans, the indefinite article is written 'n. It corresponds to English a/an.

A few important points:

• It is always written with a small n after the apostrophe: 'n
• It is usually not stressed in speech
• It is pronounced more like a weak vowel sound, roughly like the a in about, not like the English letter name en

So in 'n gewone dag, the 'n is very light and unstressed.

Because gewone is the inflected adjective form used before the noun dag.

The basic adjective is gewoon, meaning something like ordinary or usual. But when an adjective comes before a noun in many normal cases, Afrikaans often adds -e:

• 'n gewone dag = an ordinary day
• 'n gewone man = an ordinary man

So:

• gewoon = base form
• gewone = form used before the noun here

This is one of the first adjective patterns learners meet in Afrikaans.

It can overlap with all of those, depending on context.

In this sentence, gewone most naturally means:

• ordinary
• normal
• typical

So the idea is that it is not a special or unusual day.

Even though English common can be used as a translation, ordinary or normal is often the most natural sense here.

Die is the definite article, meaning the.

One nice thing about Afrikaans is that it does not have grammatical gender like German or Dutch. That means you do not need different forms of the for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns.

So:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kantoor = the office

It is also used with plural nouns in many cases. For learners, this is much simpler than in many other European languages.

Literally, yes, by often means by or at. In this sentence, by die kantoor is best understood as at the office.

So although English by the office can suggest physical closeness next to a building, the Afrikaans phrase here normally means the location or setting is the office.

Depending on context:

• by die kantoor = at the office
• sometimes near the office is possible in other contexts, but not usually the intended meaning here

Yes, but the meaning shifts slightly.

• by die kantoor usually means at the office in a general sense
• in die kantoor means in the office more literally, inside the office

So if you are talking about the workplace as a setting, by die kantoor is very natural. If you want to emphasize physical location inside the room or building, in die kantoor may fit better.

The word order is very straightforward:

• Dit = subject
• is = verb
• 'n gewone dag = complement
• by die kantoor = prepositional phrase giving place/setting

So the structure is basically:

Subject + verb + complement + place phrase

That is one reason this is a good beginner sentence: the order is quite close to English.

Kantoor is pronounced roughly like kun-TOOR, with the stress on the second syllable.

A rough English-friendly guide:

• kan- or kun-
• -toor sounding a bit like tour, but with an Afrikaans vowel quality

The main thing to remember is the stress: kan-TOOR.

This is a very common learner question. In standard Afrikaans, if 'n starts a sentence, the apostrophe stays and the n usually remains lowercase:

• 'n Gewone dag begin vroeg.

If another word is capitalized in a title or heading, practices can vary a bit, but in normal sentence writing, 'n stays in that form.

So 'n is a special-looking word, and it does not behave like a normal capitalized word at the start of a sentence.

In everyday spoken Afrikaans, yes, Dis often sounds more natural and conversational.

• Dit is 'n gewone dag by die kantoor. = fully correct, neutral
• Dis 'n gewone dag by die kantoor. = very common in speech

So if you are learning natural spoken Afrikaans, it is useful to recognize both, even if textbooks often start with the full form Dit is.