Ons lees tien boeke.

Ons means we in this sentence.

A useful extra point: ons can also mean us in other sentences, depending on its role.

• Ons lees tien boeke. = We read ten books.
• Hy sien ons. = He sees us.

Here, because ons is the subject, it means we.

In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change according to the subject the way they do in English.

So you get:

• ek lees = I read
• jy lees = you read
• hy lees = he reads
• ons lees = we read

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

It can mean either, depending on context.

Ons lees tien boeke can mean:

• We read ten books (habitually or generally)
• We are reading ten books (right now or around this time)

Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the present continuous.

If you want to be very explicit about an ongoing action, Afrikaans can use a structure like:

• Ons is besig om tien boeke te lees. = We are busy reading ten books.

Because Afrikaans, like English, normally puts numbers before the noun they count.

So:

• tien boeke = ten books
• drie mense = three people
• vyf huise = five houses

This is the normal word order.

Boeke is the plural of boek.

• boek = book
• boeke = books

Many Afrikaans nouns form the plural with -e, while others use -s. You often just have to learn which pattern a noun follows.

Here, because the number is tien, the noun is plural: ten books, not ten book.

Because with a number like tien, Afrikaans normally does not use an article here.

• Ons lees tien boeke. = We read ten books.

That is the same idea as English, where you also say ten books, not the ten books unless you mean specific books already known from context.

If you did want to mean specific books, you could say:

• Ons lees die tien boeke. = We are reading the ten books.

Yes, in this basic statement the word order is very similar:

• Ons = subject
• lees = verb
• tien boeke = object

So the pattern is:

Subject + Verb + Object

However, one important Afrikaans rule is that the finite verb usually stays in the second position in a main clause. So if something else comes first, the verb still comes second:

• Vandag lees ons tien boeke. = Today we read ten books.

That is a useful rule to remember for later.

Yes, ons can be inclusive, just like English we.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• the speaker + the listener
• the speaker + other people, but not the listener

The sentence by itself does not tell you which one is meant. Context does.

No. In this sentence, lees is the main finite verb, so te is not used.

• Ons lees tien boeke. = correct

You use te with an infinitive in certain other constructions, for example:

• Ons probeer tien boeke lees. / Ons probeer om tien boeke te lees.
• Dit is lekker om te lees.

But in a simple present-tense sentence like this one, just use lees by itself.

Afrikaans typically uses a double negative with nie ... nie.

So:

• Ons lees tien boeke. = We read ten books.
• Ons lees nie tien boeke nie. = We do not read ten books.

That double nie is a very common and important Afrikaans pattern.