Hy rooster die vleis.

• Hy = he
• rooster = roasts or grills
• die = the
• vleis = meat

So the sentence means He roasts/grills the meat.

Hy is the Afrikaans subject pronoun meaning he.

Some related pronouns are:

• ek = I
• jy = you
• hy = he
• sy = she
• ons = we
• hulle = they

In this sentence, hy is the person doing the action.

Usually, no. Afrikaans verbs are much simpler than English verbs.

In the present tense, the verb usually stays the same:

• Ek rooster die vleis = I roast the meat
• Jy rooster die vleis = You roast the meat
• Hy rooster die vleis = He roasts the meat
• Ons rooster die vleis = We roast the meat

So unlike English, Afrikaans does not usually add an extra -s for he/she/it.

Yes. Hy rooster die vleis is in the present tense.

It can mean:

• He is roasting the meat
• He roasts the meat

Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the present continuous, depending on context.

No. Afrikaans uses die as the definite article for the, and it does not change for gender.

That means:

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

This is much simpler than languages that have different forms of the.

Both can be possible, but they mean slightly different things depending on context.

• die vleis = the meat
  This refers to a specific meat, or the meat already known in the conversation.
• vleis = meat
  This is more general.

So:

• Hy rooster die vleis = He is roasting the meat
• Hy rooster vleis = He roasts meat / He is roasting meat

The word order is the normal basic Afrikaans pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object

So:

• Hy = subject
• rooster = verb
• die vleis = object

This is very similar to English:

• He roasts the meat

A rough guide for English speakers is:

• Hy sounds somewhat like hay, but with a different vowel quality common in Afrikaans.
• rooster sounds roughly like ROO-ster, with oo like in food
• die in Afrikaans is usually pronounced like dee, not like English die
• vleis sounds roughly like flays

A rough English-style pronunciation guide would be:

hay ROO-ster dee flays

That is only approximate, but it will help you get started.

It can cover both roast and grill, depending on context.

In everyday South African Afrikaans, if people are talking about cooking meat over fire, you may also hear braai very often.

For example:

• Hy braai die vleis = He is barbecuing/grilling the meat

So rooster is correct, but in some situations braai may sound more natural.

Yes, that can definitely be confusing.

In English, rooster is a noun meaning a male chicken.
In Afrikaans, rooster here is a verb meaning to roast/grill.

So even though the spelling is the same, the meaning is different in this sentence.

Here, vleis is a mass noun, meaning meat in a general substance sense, not a single countable item.

So it behaves more like English meat than like a meat.

If you want to talk about different kinds of meat, context usually makes that clear. In this sentence, die vleis simply means the meat.

Afrikaans usually uses a double negative.

So:

• Hy rooster die vleis. = He roasts the meat.
• Hy rooster nie die vleis nie. = He does not roast the meat.

Notice the two nie words:

1. one after the verb
2. one at the end of the sentence

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern.

A common past-tense form is:

Hy het die vleis gerooster. = He roasted the meat.

This uses:

• het as the past auxiliary
• gerooster as the past participle

Notice that the word order changes:

• present: Hy rooster die vleis
• past: Hy het die vleis gerooster

In a basic yes/no question, Afrikaans usually puts the verb first:

Rooster hy die vleis? = Is he roasting the meat? / Does he roast the meat?

This is similar to the way English changes word order in questions, although Afrikaans does it in its own way.

No. Only the first word of the sentence is capitalized because it starts the sentence:

Hy rooster die vleis.

Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns like German does. So rooster, die, and vleis stay lowercase here.