Die munisipaliteit raam die verbruik.

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, so here it means the.

It appears twice because both nouns are definite:

• die munisipaliteit = the municipality
• die verbruik = the consumption / the usage

Unlike English, Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all grammatical genders

So you do not have to learn different forms like the for one kind of noun and another article for a different kind.

Yes. Munisipaliteit is a close cognate of English municipality. That makes it easy to recognize.

Depending on context, it can refer to:

• the municipality as an institution
• the local authority
• the municipal administration

So in real use, it may sometimes feel closer to the municipal authority than to the abstract English word municipality.

Here raam is a verb meaning estimate, assess, or calculate approximately.

So the sentence is saying that the municipality is putting an estimated figure on the consumption or usage.

This can be confusing because a learner may associate raam with English frame, but in this sentence it is clearly a verb of estimation.

Afrikaans verbs do not usually change form for person or number in the present tense.

So you get:

• ek raam
• jy raam
• hy raam
• ons raam
• hulle raam

That is much simpler than English, where you have I estimate but he estimates. In Afrikaans, the verb stays the same.

In this sentence, verbruik is a noun. It means consumption or usage.

You can tell it is a noun here because it comes after die:

• die verbruik = the consumption / the usage

Afrikaans also has verbruik as a verb in other contexts, meaning consume or use up, but in this sentence it is definitely a noun.

Yes, in this simple main clause the word order is very similar to English:

• Die munisipaliteit = subject
• raam = verb
• die verbruik = object

So the pattern is Subject–Verb–Object.

That makes this sentence fairly straightforward for an English speaker. The main thing to remember is that Afrikaans word order changes more noticeably in some other structures, especially subordinate clauses.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Common possibilities include:

• the consumption
• the usage
• the amount used

For example, with electricity, water, or gas, verbruik often refers to measured usage or consumption. So the exact English choice depends on what is being consumed or used.

A common past-tense version would be:

Die munisipaliteit het die verbruik geraam.

That means The municipality estimated the consumption / usage.

This uses a very common Afrikaans past construction:

• het = auxiliary verb
• geraam = past participle of raam

So this is a useful pattern to learn:

• present: raam
• past: het geraam