Ons bereken die tarief.

Here ons means we.

Afrikaans ons can also mean us in other sentences, so it covers both the subject form and the object form that English keeps separate.

Examples:

• Ons bereken die tarief. = We calculate the rate.
• Hy sien ons. = He sees us.

So you have to tell from the sentence structure whether ons means we or us.

Yes. In Ons bereken die tarief, bereken is the normal present-tense verb form.

A helpful point for English speakers is that Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject the way English verbs do.

Compare:

• Ek bereken = I calculate
• Jy bereken = you calculate
• Ons bereken = we calculate
• Hulle bereken = they calculate

So bereken stays the same.

Because Afrikaans verbs are much simpler than English verbs in this way. In the present tense, the verb usually keeps the same form for all persons.

English:

• I calculate
• he calculates

Afrikaans:

• Ek bereken
• Hy bereken

There is no extra -s ending for he/she/it.

Die here means the.

It is the normal definite article in Afrikaans, and unlike English learners might expect, it does not change for gender.

So:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kind = the child

It is also used with plural nouns:

• die tariewe = the rates

So die is a very common all-purpose word for the.

No. Die stays die in both singular and plural.

Examples:

• die tarief = the rate
• die tariewe = the rates

That is easier than in some other languages, because you do not need different forms of the article for singular, plural, masculine, feminine, or neuter.

Tarief usually means something like rate, tariff, fee, or sometimes fare, depending on context.

So this sentence could be used in situations like:

• pricing
• service charges
• taxes or duties
• transport fares
• utility rates

The exact English word depends on what is being calculated. Even if the meaning has already been given, it is useful to know that tarief is a fairly practical, administrative, or business-like word.

This is the normal main-clause word order in Afrikaans:

subject + verb + object

So:

• Ons = subject
• bereken = verb
• die tarief = object

This is very similar to normal English word order:

• We calculate the rate.

Afrikaans often becomes more noticeably different from English when another element is placed first in the sentence, because then the verb still stays in second position.

For example:

• Vandag bereken ons die tarief. = Today we calculate the rate.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

ons buh-REE-ken dee tuh-REEF

A few notes:

• ons sounds roughly like onts/ons, depending on accent
• bereken has the stress on the second syllable: be-RE-ken
• die is usually pronounced like dee
• tarief has stress on the last syllable: ta-RIEF

Pronunciation varies somewhat by speaker and region, but this will get you close.

Yes, pretty closely:

• Ons = we
• bereken = calculate
• die = the
• tarief = rate/tariff

So the structure matches English very well in this sentence. That makes it a good beginner sentence, because both the grammar and the word order are straightforward.

A common past-tense form in Afrikaans uses het plus the past participle with ge-:

• Ons het die tarief bereken. = We calculated the rate.

Notice the pattern:

• het is the auxiliary verb
• bereken stays at the end in the past construction

So the present tense is:

• Ons bereken die tarief.

And the past tense is:

• Ons het die tarief bereken.

A common future form uses sal:

• Ons sal die tarief bereken. = We will calculate the rate.

So the pattern is:

• Ons sal ... bereken

This is very useful because Afrikaans often forms the future in a simple, regular way with sal.

You would usually make tarief plural as tariewe:

• Ons bereken die tariewe. = We calculate the rates.

Notice:

• die does not change
• the noun changes from tarief to tariewe

So the only important change here is the noun form.

It is basically neutral. It sounds natural in business, administrative, technical, or general contexts.

Because bereken and tarief are both fairly practical words, the sentence has a slightly formal or professional feel compared with something more everyday, but it is not unusually stiff or unnatural. It simply sounds like standard Afrikaans.