Die munisipaliteit raam en bereken die verbruik in kiloliter.

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

It appears twice because there are two definite nouns in the sentence:

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

A useful point for English speakers: Afrikaans does not change the definite article for gender. It is just die for all genders, and also for plurals.

Yes. Munisipaliteit is a close cognate of English municipality. It refers to the municipal authority or local government body.

Because it looks so similar to English, it is an easy vocabulary item to recognize.

In this sentence, raam is a verb meaning estimate.

That can confuse English speakers because it looks like English frame. In Afrikaans, raam can indeed refer to a frame in some contexts, but here it is clearly a verb and means to estimate.

So in this sentence:

• raam = estimate
• not a physical frame

The sentence uses two coordinated verbs:

• raam = estimate
• bereken = calculate

They are joined by en, which means and.

Using both verbs gives a slightly formal, administrative feel. It suggests that the municipality both makes an estimate and performs a calculation of the consumption.

Here, verbruik is a noun. It means consumption or usage.

You can tell it is a noun because:

• it is preceded by die
• it comes where the object of the sentence would normally go

So:

• die verbruik = the consumption / the usage

Afrikaans sometimes uses the same form for a noun and a verb, so context is important.

This sentence follows a straightforward main-clause pattern:

• Die munisipaliteit = subject
• raam en bereken = verbs
• die verbruik = object
• in kiloliter = prepositional phrase

So the structure is basically:

Subject + verb(s) + object + extra information

That is fairly close to normal English word order, which makes this sentence easier for English speakers to process.

In kiloliter tells you the unit of measurement.

So it means that the consumption is being estimated and calculated in kilolitres, or using kilolitres as the unit.

The preposition in is commonly used like this when stating the unit in which something is expressed or measured.

Both raam and bereken are in the present tense.

A helpful thing about Afrikaans is that verbs usually do not change form for different subjects in the present tense.

For example:

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

The verb form stays the same.

In this sentence, the present tense can describe:

• a general procedure
• a habitual action
• an official practice

So it does not have to mean only right now at this moment.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

dee mu-ni-si-pa-li-TAIT rahm en buh-REE-ken dee fer-BRAYK in kee-loh-LEE-ter

A few notes:

• die sounds like dee
• raam has a broad ah sound
• bereken has stress on the second syllable
• verbruik contains the Afrikaans ui sound, which is difficult for English speakers; fer-BRAYK is only an approximation
• kiloliter is fairly transparent for English speakers

If you want to sound more natural, verbruik is probably the word worth practicing most carefully.