Die woord beteken ‘vriend’.

Yes. In this sentence, die is the definite article, equivalent to English the.

So:

• die woord = the word

It is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence, not because Afrikaans capitalizes all nouns.

Yes, very close. Die in Afrikaans is usually pronounced much like English day? Actually no—it is closer to English dee? Not quite either. The standard Afrikaans pronunciation is roughly dee with a short, light vowel sound, often represented as dee /di/.

So although it is spelled like English die, you should not pronounce it like English die /daɪ/.

Yes. Woord is directly related to English word and has the same meaning.

A useful comparison:

• Afrikaans woord
• Dutch woord
• English word

The double oo shows a longer vowel sound than in English.

Beteken is the verb. It means means or to mean.

In this sentence:

• Die woord = the subject
• beteken = the verb
• vriend = what the word means

Afrikaans verbs are often simpler than English verbs because they usually do not change form depending on the subject:

• Ek beteken
• Jy beteken
• Die woord beteken

So unlike English I mean / he means, Afrikaans often keeps the same verb form.

Yes, this is a normal main-clause word order in Afrikaans, and it matches English quite closely:

• Die woord = subject
• beteken = verb
• vriend = object/complement

So the pattern is basically:

Subject + Verb + Object

That makes this sentence very straightforward for English speakers.

Because here vriend is not being used as an ordinary noun phrase like a friend or the friend. It is being mentioned as a word/meaning item.

In other words, the sentence is telling you what the word means, so vriend is being presented as the translation equivalent.

That is why Afrikaans often writes it simply as:

• Die woord beteken vriend.

rather than:

• Die woord beteken 'n vriend.

If you said 'n vriend, that would sound more like the word means a friend, which is possible in some contexts, but here the bare form is the normal dictionary-style way to give meaning.

The quotation marks show that vriend is being mentioned as a word form, not just used normally in a sentence.

This is very common when talking about language. In English we do the same thing:

• The word friend means vriend.
• Friend is a noun.

So the quotes help signal: this is the word itself.

By itself, vriend normally means friend.

In some contexts, words for friend can be used more romantically, but if you want to be clear, Afrikaans often uses more specific expressions depending on context.

For a learner, the safest default is:

• vriend = friend

Context will tell you if anything more specific is meant.

Vriend is pronounced roughly like freent, but with an Afrikaans v sound at the start.

A rough guide:

• v = like English v
• ie = like ee
• final d is present, though it may sound softer than in English

So an approximate English-style guide is:

• vreent

Not perfect, but close enough for a beginner.

Afrikaans usually uses double negation. So:

• Die woord beteken nie vriend nie.

This literally looks like:

• The word means not friend not

But natural English would be:

• The word does not mean friend.

That final nie is a very important Afrikaans feature.

You could build other sentences, but Die woord beteken vriend is the most direct and natural way to say The word means friend.

Your version sounds more roundabout and less natural for this purpose. When giving a definition or translation, Afrikaans usually prefers the simple verb beteken.

So for learners, the best model is:

• Die woord beteken vriend.

No. Unlike German, Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns.

So:

• woord
• vriend

stay lowercase unless they begin a sentence.

The only reason Die is capitalized here is that it is the first word of the sentence.