Die toeskouer juig wanneer die tuisspan 'n drie kry.

Yes, drie normally means three. But in sports context, especially rugby, ’n drie kry means to score a try. So here drie is being used as a noun, not just as the number.

This is something you often have to learn from context. In a rugby sentence, ’n drie is very likely a try.

Toeskouer means spectator.

It is related to the verb toeskou, which means to watch / look on as a spectator. The ending -er often makes a noun for a person who does the action, like watcher or spectator.

So:

• toeskou = to watch
• toeskouer = spectator

In Afrikaans, die is the definite article for the. It is used for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all grammatical genders

So both of these mean the:

• die toeskouer = the spectator
• die tuisspan = the home team

Unlike languages such as German or French, Afrikaans does not change the according to gender or case.

Juig means to cheer, to rejoice, or to shout in celebration.

In this sentence, it means the spectator cheers when the home team scores.

A useful thing to notice: Afrikaans verbs are often quite compact and do not change form much, so juig stays juig regardless of the subject in a present-tense sentence like this.

Because wanneer introduces a subordinate clause.

In Afrikaans, subordinate clauses usually send the conjugated verb to the end. So:

• main clause: Die toeskouer juig
• subordinate clause: wanneer die tuisspan ’n drie kry

That final kry is a very common Afrikaans pattern after words like:

• wanneer = when
• omdat = because
• dat = that
• as = if/when

So this word order is normal Afrikaans grammar.

Wanneer means when.

Yes, in many everyday contexts, Afrikaans speakers may also use as where English uses when, especially for repeated events or informal speech. But wanneer is clear, standard, and very natural here.

So:

• wanneer die tuisspan ’n drie kry = when the home team scores a try

Just remember that both wanneer and as can trigger subordinate-clause word order.

Because ’n is the normal indefinite article in Afrikaans, meaning a/an.

So:

• ’n drie = a try

Een means one as a number, and it is only used when you want to stress the number itself.

Compare:

• Hy kry ’n drie. = He scores a try.
• Hy kry een drie, nie twee nie. = He scores one try, not two.

Also note that ’n is written with an apostrophe and is never capitalized, even at the beginning of a sentence.

’n is usually pronounced like a very weak uh sound, similar to the unstressed a in English about.

So ’n drie sounds roughly like:

• uh DREE

It is usually not stressed. The main stress falls on the noun after it.

It often does mean get, but Afrikaans kry is very flexible and is used in many expressions where English might use a different verb.

Here, ’n drie kry literally looks like get a try, but the natural English meaning is score a try.

This is a good example of how you should learn some Afrikaans verb + noun combinations as set expressions.

Afrikaans very often forms compound nouns as a single word.

So:

• huis = house / home
• span = team
• tuisspan = home team

English often writes these as two words, but Afrikaans commonly joins them. This is extremely normal in Afrikaans, and compound words are everywhere.

Usually, no. Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate nearly as much as English verbs do.

For example, juig stays the same:

• Ek juig = I cheer
• Jy juig = you cheer
• Die toeskouer juig = the spectator cheers

And kry also stays the same in basic present-tense use:

• Ek kry
• Jy kry
• Die span kry

So Afrikaans is often simpler than English in this area.

Not exactly as written. Die toeskouer is singular, so it means the spectator.

If you wanted the spectators, you would say:

• Die toeskouers juig wanneer die tuisspan ’n drie kry.

A learner should notice that plural is often shown on the noun itself, here with -s:

• toeskouer = spectator
• toeskouers = spectators

Most likely, yes.

The phrase ’n drie kry strongly points to rugby, where a try is a scoring action. So even if the English meaning has already been given, a learner should recognize that the vocabulary is tied to a sports context.

That context helps explain why drie does not simply mean the number three here.