Die dosis is klein.

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

A few useful things to know about die:

• it is used for singular and plural
• it does not change for gender
• it is one of the most common words in Afrikaans

So die dosis = the dose.

Here, dosis is singular: the dose.

The plural is usually dosisse: the doses = die dosisse.

In this sentence, is is the present-tense form of to be.

Afrikaans is much simpler than English here: you do not get forms like am / is / are. In normal present-tense statements, Afrikaans just uses is for all subjects.

For example:

• Ek is klein. = I am small.
• Jy is klein. = You are small.
• Die dosis is klein. = The dose is small.

Yes. This sentence follows a very familiar pattern:

• Die dosis = the subject
• is = the verb
• klein = the adjective describing the subject

So it works like English The dose is small:

subject + verb + adjective

Because it is being used as a predicate adjective: it comes after is and describes the subject.

In Afrikaans, adjectives in this position normally stay in their basic form:

• Die dosis is klein.
• Die tafel is groot.
• Die water is koud.

So there is no extra ending on klein here.

Yes. You can put it before the noun if you want to say the small dose:

• die klein dosis

That is different from Die dosis is klein:

• die klein dosis = the small dose
• Die dosis is klein. = The dose is small.

So one is a noun phrase, and the other is a full sentence.

A simple English-friendly approximation is:

dee DOH-sis is klayn

A few notes:

• die sounds like dee, not like the English verb die
• dosis has the stress on the first syllable: DOH-sis
• is is short, like iss
• klein has an ei sound somewhat like klayn

Exact pronunciation varies a bit by speaker, but that approximation is good for a learner.

Afrikaans normally uses a double nie in standard negation:

Die dosis is nie klein nie.

That means The dose is not small.

Pattern:

• subject + is + nie + adjective + nie

So:

• Die dosis is klein. = The dose is small.
• Die dosis is nie klein nie. = The dose is not small.

No. Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way languages like German do.

So you do not need to learn dosis as masculine, feminine, or neuter. You just use die as the definite article.

That makes sentences like this much easier to build.

No. Afrikaans does not capitalize all nouns.

So dosis and klein are written in lowercase here. The only reason Die is capitalized is that it is the first word of the sentence.

Not necessarily. Klein can mean small, little, or low depending on context.

With dosis, English often says small dose or low dose, so the exact natural translation depends on the situation. Grammatically, though, klein is simply the adjective describing the noun.