Die brood koel op die oondrak af.

Because afkoel is a separable verb in Afrikaans.

• The full verb is afkoel, meaning to cool down
• In a main clause, the first part stays with the verb position and the particle goes to the end:
  • Die brood koel op die oondrak af.
• In forms like the infinitive or after certain auxiliaries, it can stay together:
  • Die brood moet afkoel.

This is similar to separable verbs in Dutch and a bit like English verb-particle combinations such as cool down.

Here, koel is a verb.

• koel as an adjective can mean cool
• koel as a verb means to cool
• In this sentence, because it describes an action happening to the bread, it is verbal:
  The bread is cooling down

So Die brood koel af means The bread cools down / is cooling down, not The bread is cool.

That is normal word order for a separable verb in an Afrikaans main clause.

Afrikaans often places:

• the finite verb early in the sentence
• the separable particle at the end

So:

• koel = the finite verb
• af = the particle belonging to afkoel

The phrase op die oondrak goes between them.

A useful way to see the structure is:

• Die brood = subject
• koel = verb
• op die oondrak = prepositional phrase
• af = separable particle

In this sentence, die simply means the both times.

Afrikaans uses die as the definite article for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns

So unlike English, Afrikaans does not change the article. It is just die.

Examples:

• die brood = the bread
• die oondrak = the oven rack

No. Afrikaans verbs are much simpler than English verbs in this way.

The verb usually does not change according to the subject:

• Ek koel af
• Jy koel af
• Die brood koel af
• Hulle koel af

So koel stays koel.
This is one of the nice simplifications in Afrikaans grammar.

Yes, oondrak is one word, and it is a compound noun.

It is made from:

• oond = oven
• rak = rack

So oondrak literally means oven rack.

Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, often writes compound nouns as a single word. English sometimes does this too, but less consistently.

Other similar examples:

• kombuistafel = kitchen table
• badkamerdeur = bathroom door

op means on here.

So op die oondrak means on the oven rack.

It tells you where the bread is while it is cooling down.

This is a straightforward prepositional phrase:

• op = on
• die oondrak = the oven rack

Yes, that is possible.

Both of these are natural:

• Die brood koel op die oondrak af.
• Die brood koel af op die oondrak.

The first version is often a nice neutral way to place the location before the final particle.
The second keeps koel af closer together and then adds the location.

Afrikaans allows some flexibility here, but the version you were given is completely standard.

Because the sentence has die brood, it usually refers to a specific bread/loaf that both speaker and listener can identify.

So it is more like:

• the bread is cooling down on the oven rack

If you were speaking more generally, you might use a different structure depending on context.

Here it means the bread is cooling down rather than someone actively cooling it.

So the focus is on the bread’s change of state:

• it was hot
• now it is becoming cooler

If you wanted to emphasize that someone cools something, Afrikaans could use a different construction depending on context. But Die brood koel af naturally means The bread is cooling down.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

duh broht kool up duh OONT-ruk ahf

A few helpful notes:

• die sounds like duh in Afrikaans, not like English die
• brood has a long oo sound, roughly like in more rounded food
• koel also has a long vowel, somewhat like cool
• oondrak begins with oond, with a long oo sound
• af sounds like ahf

This is only approximate, but it helps avoid one very common mistake: pronouncing die like the English verb die.

Yes. It is in the present tense, and in context it can often correspond to either of these in English:

• The bread cools down on the oven rack
• The bread is cooling down on the oven rack

Afrikaans present tense often covers both a simple present and a present progressive meaning, depending on context.

So the sentence can describe:

• a general event
• what is happening right now

The situation usually makes the intended meaning clear.