Die verdagte is onbekend.

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

A few useful things about die:

• It is used for all genders. Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender like German.
• It is also used for both singular and plural nouns.
• So die can mean the whether the noun is one thing or more than one thing.

In this sentence, die verdagte means the suspect.

In modern Afrikaans, verdagte is a normal noun meaning suspect.

It is related to verdag, which means suspicious. So the idea is similar to the suspicious person becoming the suspect.

For a learner, the safest approach is simply:

• verdagte = suspect as a noun

So in Die verdagte is onbekend, verdagte is the subject of the sentence.

Afrikaans and English are related Germanic languages, so some very common words look the same.
Is is the present-tense form of to be, just like English is.

A very important difference is that Afrikaans verbs usually do not change much for person or number:

• Ek is = I am
• Jy is = you are
• Hy is = he is
• Hulle is = they are

So even though is looks familiar, it is actually even simpler than English.

Because here the adjective comes after the verb is. In Afrikaans, adjectives used this way are usually in their basic form, without -e.

So:

• Die verdagte is onbekend = The suspect is unknown

But when the adjective comes before the noun, it often takes -e:

• die onbekende verdagte = the unknown suspect

This is a very common pattern in Afrikaans:

• after is: onbekend
• before a noun: onbekende

On- is a negative prefix, much like English un-.

So:

• bekend = known / well-known
• onbekend = unknown

This is a useful pattern to notice in Afrikaans vocabulary. In many words, on- creates the opposite meaning.

Both are possible, but they are built differently.

• onbekend is a single adjective meaning unknown
• nie bekend nie is a negated phrase meaning not known

So these are both possible:

• Die verdagte is onbekend.
• Die verdagte is nie bekend nie.

The first is usually more compact and feels like a direct equivalent of unknown.
The second shows the normal Afrikaans negation pattern with nie ... nie.

This is helpful because it shows that Afrikaans can express the idea either:

• with a negative prefix: onbekend
• with sentence negation: nie bekend nie

Yes, in this sentence it is very close to English:

• Die verdagte = subject
• is = verb
• onbekend = complement/adjective

So the structure is:

Subject + is + adjective

That gives:

Die verdagte is onbekend.

This feels familiar to English speakers, although Afrikaans word order can become different in other sentence types.

Not by itself. Die can be singular or plural.

You tell the difference from the noun form or from context.

Here, verdagte is singular, so the sentence means The suspect is unknown.

If it were plural, it would usually be:

• Die verdagtes is onbekend. = The suspects are unknown.

Notice two useful things there:

• plural noun: verdagtes
• the verb still stays is

You would move the adjective before the noun, and then it usually takes -e:

• die onbekende verdagte = the unknown suspect

Compare:

• Die verdagte is onbekend. = The suspect is unknown.
• Die onbekende verdagte = The unknown suspect.

This is a very useful contrast, because it shows the difference between:

• a predicative adjective after the verb: onbekend
• an attributive adjective before the noun: onbekende