Sy ryg die soom.

• Sy = the subject
• ryg = the verb
• die soom = the object

So the sentence follows the basic Afrikaans pattern:

subject + verb + object

That makes it a very straightforward main-clause sentence.

Yes, sy can mean more than one thing in Afrikaans, which often confuses learners.

In this sentence, Sy means she because it is followed by a verb: ryg.

But sy can also mean his when it comes before a noun, for example:

• sy boek = his book

So in Sy ryg die soom, the structure shows that Sy must mean she, not his.

Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• ek ryg
• jy ryg
• sy ryg
• ons ryg

This is much simpler than English, where you say I sew but she sews. In Afrikaans, the verb normally stays the same.

die is the definite article, so here it means the.

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all genders

So unlike some other European languages, you do not have to learn different forms of the for masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural nouns.

soom is the noun, and together with die it forms the noun phrase die soom.

In the sentence, it is the direct object of the verb ryg. In other words, it is the thing being worked on.

So:

• Sy = the doer
• ryg = the action
• die soom = the thing affected by the action

It is in the present tense.

Depending on context, an Afrikaans present tense can often translate into English in more than one way, for example:

• She hems the hem
• She is hemming the hem

Afrikaans often does not mark that distinction as strictly as English does in simple sentences.

If you wanted other tenses, you could say:

• Sy het die soom geryg. = past
• Sy sal die soom ryg. = future

In this simple sentence, yes. The order is:

Sy + ryg + die soom
subject + verb + object

That said, Afrikaans has a strong verb-second pattern in main clauses. So if you move something else to the front, the verb still stays in second position:

• Vandag ryg sy die soom. = Today she hems the hem.

Notice that sy moves after the verb when Vandag is placed first.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

• Sy ≈ say
• ryg ≈ raykh or rakeh, with a guttural g sound at the end
• die ≈ dee
• soom ≈ soam

A few important notes:

• The g in Afrikaans is usually not like the English g in go. It is often a throaty, guttural sound.
• The y in sy and ryg is not like English y in myth. It is closer to the vowel sound in day or say.

Not always. ryg can have a few related meanings depending on context, such as:

• to thread
• to string together
• to baste / tack loosely in sewing
• to lace

In Sy ryg die soom, the sewing meaning is clear because of die soom.

So this is a good example of how the object helps determine the exact sense of the verb.

Not really.

Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender in the same way that languages like German or Dutch do. That means:

• die does not change for masculine/feminine/neuter
• nouns do not usually force article changes based on gender

The only gender distinction you really notice here is natural gender in the pronoun Sy, meaning she.