Die broek het 'n ritssluiter en elastiek.

In Afrikaans, broek is normally a singular noun for one item of clothing. So Die broek means the pants/trousers even though English often uses a plural word.

• broek = one pair of trousers / pants
• broeke = trousers / pants in the plural, meaning more than one pair

So this is a normal difference between English and Afrikaans, not a mistake.

Die means the.

A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans does not have different forms of the for gender, and die is used for both singular and plural nouns:

• die broek = the pants/trousers
• die broeke = the pants/trousers (plural)

So die is much simpler than articles in many other languages.

Here, het means has or have.

In this sentence, het is the main verb:

• Die broek het 'n ritssluiter = The pants have a zipper

One helpful feature of Afrikaans is that verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject the way English verbs do. Compare:

• Ek het = I have
• Jy het = you have
• Hy het = he has
• Ons het = we have

So het stays the same.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, meaning a or an.

So:

• 'n ritssluiter = a zipper

Pronunciation:

• 'n is usually pronounced as a very weak uh sound, like a schwa.
• In normal speech it is unstressed.

Writing tip:

• It is written with an apostrophe: 'n
• Even at the beginning of a sentence, it stays lowercase: 'n
• The next word gets the capital letter if needed

So Afrikaans writes 'n, not 'N.

Because elastiek here is probably being used as a material or feature, not as one separate countable object.

In other words:

• 'n ritssluiter = one specific zipper
• elastiek = elastic material / elastic in general

Afrikaans often leaves out the article with materials or mass nouns when speaking generally. So this sentence suggests the trousers have:

• a zipper
• elastic

If you wanted to refer to one separate elastic band as an individual item, 'n elastiek could be possible in another context.

Ritssluiter is the Afrikaans word for zipper.

It is a compound noun, and Afrikaans often writes compound nouns as one word. That is very common. So learners should get used to long combined words.

You may also hear rits by itself in everyday Afrikaans for zip or zipper.

So:

• rits = zip / zipper
• ritssluiter = zipper, more fully expressed

The double s appears because of how the parts join together in the compound.

Yes. This is the normal basic Afrikaans word order for a simple statement:

• Die broek = subject
• het = verb
• 'n ritssluiter en elastiek = what the trousers have

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + object/complement

That is very similar to English:

• The pants have a zipper and elastic.

Afrikaans usually makes negatives with two instances of nie.

So the negative version would be:

Die broek het nie 'n ritssluiter en elastiek nie.

This is a classic Afrikaans pattern:

• first nie usually comes after the verb
• second nie comes at the end of the clause

That double-negative structure is one of the most important grammar patterns in Afrikaans.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• broek: sounds roughly like brook with a rounded vowel, though not exactly English brook
• ritssluiter: roughly rits-sloy-ter or rits-sloi-ter, depending on accent

A few notes:

• oe in broek is a long vowel sound, often like the oo in boot
• ui in sluiter is a difficult Afrikaans/Dutch-type vowel for English speakers, so an approximate sound is fine at first
• r may sound more rolled or tapped depending on the speaker

For a beginner, getting the stress and rhythm roughly right matters more than making every vowel perfect.