Die sonpaneel is 'n kragbron wat die kragbank laai.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, so it means a or an.

In this sentence, 'n kragbron means a power source.

A few useful things to know:

• It is always written with an apostrophe: 'n
• It is usually not stressed in speech
• It is pronounced more like a very short uh sound, not like the English letter N
• If it comes at the start of a sentence, Afrikaans normally still writes 'n, not 'N

So Die sonpaneel is 'n kragbron = The solar panel is a power source.

Yes. In this sentence, both instances of die mean the:

• Die sonpaneel = the solar panel
• die kragbank = the power bank

Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender the way German or Dutch does, so you do not have to learn different forms like masculine, feminine, and neuter articles. Die is the normal definite article for nouns.

That makes Afrikaans simpler for English speakers:

• die = the
• 'n = a/an

Because the sentence is classifying the solar panel as one example of a type of thing.

• 'n kragbron = a power source
  This means the solar panel belongs to the category power source.
• die kragbron = the power source
  This would sound like you mean one specific, already identified power source.

So Die sonpaneel is 'n kragbron means The solar panel is a power source, not the power source.

Here wat means that or which.

It introduces a relative clause:

• 'n kragbron wat die kragbank laai
  = a power source that charges the power bank

So wat links kragbron to the extra information about it.

Important: wat can also mean what in other contexts, but that is not what it means here.

The thing doing the charging is die sonpaneel, more specifically 'n kragbron.

In the relative clause, wat refers back to kragbron. So the full idea is:

• Die sonpaneel is 'n kragbron
• Die kragbron laai die kragbank

These are combined into:

• Die sonpaneel is 'n kragbron wat die kragbank laai

So wat stands for the power source, the thing that charges the power bank.

This is normal Afrikaans relative-clause word order.

A simple main clause would be:

• Die kragbron laai die kragbank
  = The power source charges the power bank

When you turn that into a relative clause with wat, the noun being described is pulled out in front, and wat introduces the clause:

• 'n kragbron wat die kragbank laai

Here, wat already represents the subject, so what remains is:

• object: die kragbank
• verb: laai

That is why you get wat die kragbank laai.

Usually, no. Afrikaans verbs are much simpler than English verbs in this way.

The verb laai stays the same with different subjects in the present tense:

• ek laai = I charge
• jy laai = you charge
• hy laai = he charges
• ons laai = we charge

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not usually add an -s equivalent for he/she/it in the present tense.

So laai is correct here regardless of the subject being sonpaneel or kragbron.

Yes. Afrikaans uses compound nouns very freely, and they are often written as one word.

In this sentence:

• sonpaneel = son
  • paneel = solar panel
• kragbron = krag
  • bron = power source
• kragbank = krag
  • bank = power bank

This is very common in Afrikaans. English sometimes writes these as separate words, hyphenated words, or single words, but Afrikaans often prefers a single combined word.

A few helpful pronunciation points:

• 'n is a very short unstressed uh
• g in words like kragbron and kragbank is a guttural sound, similar to the ch in Scottish loch for many speakers
• aa in laai is a long ah sound
• wat sounds roughly like vuht or wuht, depending on accent
• die in Afrikaans is usually pronounced roughly like dee, not like English die

A rough learner-friendly reading might be:

• Die sonpaneel is 'n kragbron wat die kragbank laai
• dee son-pah-neel is uh khrahkh-bron vut dee khrahkh-bank laa-ee

The exact sound depends on accent, but those points will help a lot.

Yes. In English, both can work depending on style:

• a power source that charges the power bank
• a power source which charges the power bank

In everyday Afrikaans, wat is the normal relative word here. So as a learner, you can usually think of wat as that/which when it introduces extra information about a noun.