Ons sorteer papier, karton, glas en metaal.

Ons means we in Afrikaans. It is the subject of the sentence, so it comes first in a normal main-clause word order.

A basic Afrikaans sentence often follows:

subject + verb + rest of the sentence

So here:

Ons + sorteer + papier, karton, glas en metaal

In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject the way they do in English.

So you get:

• Ek sorteer = I sort
• Jy sorteer = you sort
• Ons sorteer = we sort
• Hulle sorteer = they sort

That makes Afrikaans simpler than English in this area. The verb sorteer stays the same.

Afrikaans often leaves out articles when talking about things in a general or material/category sense.

So in this sentence, the words are being used as categories of recyclable material:

• papier = paper
• karton = cardboard
• glas = glass
• metaal = metal

This is similar to English when we say We sort paper, cardboard, glass, and metal, not the paper, the cardboard...

If you added die, it would sound more like you meant specific paper, specific glass, and so on.

They are best understood as mass nouns or category words here, not as countable singular items.

So:

• papier does not mean just one sheet of paper
• glas does not mean only one glass object
• metaal does not mean one metal item

Instead, they refer to the material or recycling category as a whole.

This works much like English:

• We recycle paper
• We recycle glass

Usually, karton means cardboard. In many everyday contexts, especially recycling, that is the natural translation.

Depending on context, it can sometimes refer more broadly to stiff card material, but for this sentence cardboard is the best match.

That is the normal way to list things in Afrikaans, just like in English:

• papier, karton, glas en metaal

The word en means and, and it usually appears only before the final item in the list.

Afrikaans usually does not require a comma before en in a simple list like this.

So this is standard:

papier, karton, glas en metaal

This is similar to English without the Oxford comma. You may sometimes see stylistic variation, but the version without the comma is the normal default in Afrikaans.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

• Ons ≈ ons / awns
• sorteer ≈ sor-TEER
• papier ≈ pa-PEER
• karton ≈ kar-TON
• glas ≈ glahs
• en ≈ en
• metaal ≈ meh-TAHL

A few helpful notes:

• ee in sorteer is a long vowel.
• ie in papier sounds like ee.
• aa in metaal is a long a sound.
• The r in Afrikaans may sound different from English depending on the speaker and region.

Yes. The order of papier, karton, glas en metaal can be changed if you want to emphasize a different item or simply list them differently.

For example:

Ons sorteer glas, metaal, papier en karton.

That is still grammatically correct. The original order is just one natural way to present the list.

Sorteer is a normal Afrikaans verb and is very commonly used, especially for sorting, classifying, or separating items.

Even if it resembles words in other European languages, learners should just treat it as a standard Afrikaans verb. In everyday contexts like recycling, it is exactly the right word.

Yes, you might hear skei in some contexts, because it means separate. But it is not exactly the same as sorteer.

• sorteer = sort into categories
• skei = separate

In recycling, sorteer sounds very natural if the idea is organizing materials by type. Skei can also work if the focus is on keeping them apart.

Yes. In many contexts, simple present Afrikaans can cover both:

• We sort
• We are sorting

So Ons sorteer papier, karton, glas en metaal can mean either, depending on context.

If you really want to emphasize an ongoing action, Afrikaans often uses a construction with besig om te:

Ons is besig om papier, karton, glas en metaal te sorteer.

But the shorter sentence is very natural and common.

Afrikaans usually uses double negation. So:

Ons sorteer nie papier, karton, glas en metaal nie.

Notice the two nie words:

• one after the verb phrase
• one at the end of the clause

That is a very important Afrikaans pattern.