Lees die etiket.

It is an imperative sentence, meaning a command or instruction.

In Afrikaans, the basic imperative is often just:

• the verb
• followed by the object, if there is one

So Lees die etiket. has the structure:

• Lees = verb
• die etiket = object

It works very much like English Read the label.

Because Afrikaans, like English, usually leaves out you in commands.

Compare:

• English: Read the label.
• Afrikaans: Lees die etiket.

The subject is understood. The sentence is addressed to the person being spoken to, so there is no need to say jy or u.

Here die is the definite article, so it means the.

A very important point for English speakers is that Afrikaans die is used much more simply than English articles:

• die etiket = the label
• die etikette = the labels

Afrikaans does not have different forms like the for gender or case, so die is very versatile.

No. In this sentence, die is the article the, and it is pronounced roughly like dee.

So do not pronounce it like the English verb die.

This is a very common beginner mistake because the spelling looks familiar, but the Afrikaans word is different in both meaning and pronunciation.

Lees is the verb to read, and here it is being used as an imperative: Read!

One useful thing about Afrikaans is that verbs do not change much. The same form often appears in different contexts:

• Ek lees. = I read / am reading
• Ons lees. = We read / are reading
• Lees! = Read!

So the form lees itself does not change to match the person the way English sometimes does.

You can tell from the context and structure.

In Lees die etiket.:

• there is no subject before the verb
• the sentence is short and direct
• it looks like an instruction, such as something you would see on packaging or in a manual

If there were a subject, it would no longer be a plain command:

• Hy lees die etiket. = He reads / is reading the label
• Lees die etiket. = Read the label

So the absence of a subject is a big clue.

Not especially. The word order is very straightforward.

Afrikaans commands often follow this simple pattern:

• Verb + object

So:

• Lees die etiket.
• Maak die deur oop.
• Skryf jou naam.

This is similar to English:

• Read the label.
• Open the door.
• Write your name.

Because die means the, while 'n means a/an.

So:

• Lees die etiket. = Read the label.
• Lees 'n etiket. = Read a label.

In real life, instructions often use die when they mean a specific label that is already present on the product or object.

No. That is another helpful feature of Afrikaans.

Die is used for both singular and plural definite nouns:

• die etiket = the label
• die etikette = the labels

So if you wanted to say Read the labels, you would say:

• Lees die etikette.

Only the noun changes; the article stays the same.

A common way is to add asseblief, which means please.

You can say:

• Lees asseblief die etiket.
• Lees die etiket asseblief.

Both are natural. The second one is especially common in everyday speech.

Afrikaans does not have a completely separate polite imperative form in the same way some other languages do, so adding asseblief is the usual solution.

In Afrikaans, negative commands usually use moenie ... nie.

So:

• Moenie die etiket lees nie.

This is the standard way to make a negative imperative.

Notice that the verb order changes compared with the positive command:

• Lees die etiket.
• Moenie die etiket lees nie.

That moenie ... nie frame is very common in Afrikaans negative commands.

In this sentence, etiket means label or tag.

So die etiket is the label on a product, container, or package.

The word is easy to recognize for English speakers because it looks like etiquette, but in this context it refers to a label, not manners or social rules. So it is important to learn it as its own Afrikaans word and not assume it has exactly the same meaning as the similar-looking English word.