Die gesprek is kort.

• Die = the
• gesprek = conversation / discussion / talk
• is = is
• kort = short / brief

So grammatically, it is:

• Die gesprek = the subject
• is = the verb
• kort = the description

It works very much like English: The conversation is short.

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

A useful thing for English speakers: Afrikaans does not have different forms like the for gender. In fact, Afrikaans nouns do not use grammatical gender the way some other languages do. So die is used broadly for the.

Examples:

• die boek = the book
• die tafel = the table
• die gesprek = the conversation

In Afrikaans, die is pronounced roughly like dee, not like the English verb die.

So:

• die ≈ dee

This is one of the most important pronunciation points in beginner Afrikaans.

gesprek is pronounced approximately like khuh-SPREK or huh-SPREK, depending on accent and how strongly the g is pronounced.

A rough breakdown:

• ge- = a soft unstressed beginning, something like khuh or huh
• -sprek = stressed, like sprek

The stress is on the second part: ge-SPREK.

The g in Afrikaans is usually not like the English g in go. It is often a throaty sound, similar to the ch sound in some Scottish or Dutch pronunciations.

This sentence is a simple main clause, so Afrikaans uses normal subject-verb-complement order:

• Die gesprek = subject
• is = verb
• kort = complement

So:

• Die gesprek is kort.

That is very similar to English:

• The conversation is short.

Afrikaans word order becomes more different from English in some other sentence types, especially subordinate clauses, but this sentence is straightforward.

Is is the present-tense form of to be here.

One nice feature of Afrikaans is that verbs usually do not change much depending on the subject. So unlike English, where you get am / is / are, Afrikaans often keeps the same form.

Examples:

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

So is is used with many different subjects.

Because kort comes after is, it is being used predicatively. In Afrikaans, adjectives used after a linking verb like is normally do not take an ending.

So:

• Die gesprek is kort. = correct

But when an adjective comes before a noun, it often does take -e:

• 'n kort gesprek = a short conversation

So the difference is:

• predicative: Die gesprek is kort
• attributive: 'n kort gesprek

Yes. Gesprek can mean:

• conversation
• discussion
• talk

The exact English translation depends on context.

For example:

• Ons het 'n gesprek gehad. = We had a conversation.
• Dit was 'n belangrike gesprek. = It was an important discussion.

So gesprek is a flexible everyday word.

Here it means brief or short in duration/length.

Kort can be used in different ways, just like English short:

• 'n kort gesprek = a short conversation
• 'n kort tyd = a short time
• 'n kort man = a short man

So the exact meaning depends on what is being described.

You can change the time quite easily.

Past:

• Die gesprek was kort. = The conversation was short.

Future:

• Die gesprek sal kort wees. = The conversation will be short.

This shows two useful forms:

• was = was
• sal ... wees = will be

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• Die gesprek is kort. = The conversation is short.
  This refers to a specific conversation.

• 'n gesprek is kort. = A conversation is short.
  This sounds more general or less specific, and in many contexts it may sound a bit unusual unless you are making a general statement.

So in most normal contexts, die is used because you are talking about a particular conversation.