Sy gooi die nat papier weg.

Here, Sy means she.

A useful extra note: sy can also mean his in other sentences, for example sy boek = his book. In this sentence, though, it is clearly she because it is the subject before the verb gooi.

Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek gooi = I throw
• Jy gooi = you throw
• Sy gooi = she throws
• Hulle gooi = they throw

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not add an -s for he/she/it here.

Gooi by itself means throw, toss, or cast, depending on context.

In this sentence, it works together with weg to give the idea of throw away.

So:

• gooi = throw
• weggooi / gooi ... weg = throw away

Because weggooi is a separable verb.

The full dictionary form is weggooi = to throw away, but in a normal main clause it often splits:

• Sy gooi die nat papier weg.

This is similar to English throw ... away, where away can come after the object.

Both are correct, but they appear in different sentence patterns.

• Dictionary form: weggooi
• Main clause: gooi ... weg

Examples:

• Sy gooi die papier weg.
• Sy wil die papier weggooi.

So learners should think of weggooi as one verb that often separates in actual sentences.

Die means the.

One helpful thing about Afrikaans is that die is used for all genders and for both singular and plural definite nouns.

For example:

• die boek = the book
• die tafel = the table
• die boeke = the books

So you do not have to learn different words like the masculine, the feminine, etc.

Because adjectives normally come before the noun in Afrikaans, just as they usually do in English.

So:

• nat papier = wet paper
• groot huis = big house
• rooi motor = red car

The order die nat papier is very natural: article + adjective + noun.

Yes, papier is the Afrikaans word for paper.

It is very close to the English word in meaning and form, so it is an easy vocabulary item for English speakers to remember.

The basic structure is:

Subject + verb + object + separable particle

So:

• Sy = subject
• gooi = verb
• die nat papier = object
• weg = particle

That gives:

Sy gooi die nat papier weg.

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern with separable verbs.

No, not in a normal main clause.

Afrikaans normally puts the finite verb early in the sentence, usually in the second position, and the separable part goes to the end:

• Correct: Sy gooi die nat papier weg.
• Not natural here: Sy weggooi die nat papier.

So if you use this sentence type, keep gooi near the front and weg at the end.

It is pronounced roughly like khoy or g-hoy, with a guttural Afrikaans g sound at the beginning.

A few quick notes:

• g in Afrikaans is usually not like the English g in go
• ooi sounds roughly like oy

So gooi is approximately khoy.

The exact sound depends on accent, but that rough guide is enough to help a learner start saying it.