Hy gee voor asof hy niks van die verrassing weet nie.

Gee voor means to pretend. It is the everyday meaning of the separable verb voorgee in this sentence.

So Hy gee voor means He pretends or He is pretending.

The literal parts do not help much here; it is best learned as a set expression.

Because voorgee is a separable verb.

In the dictionary, it appears as voorgee. But in a normal main clause, the verb splits:

• Hy gee voor = He pretends

In other forms, it stays together:

• om voor te gee = to pretend
• Hy wil voorgee = He wants to pretend

So the split form in this sentence is completely normal.

Asof means as if or as though.

It introduces the idea that follows the pretending:

• Hy gee voor asof hy ... = He pretends as if he ...

In smoother English, you would often translate the whole thing as:

• He acts as if ...
• He pretends that ...

So asof is the word that sets up the as if clause.

Because asof introduces a subordinate clause, and in Afrikaans, subordinate clauses usually send the verb to the end.

So:

• main clause: Hy gee voor
• subordinate clause: asof hy niks van die verrassing weet nie

That is why weet comes late in the sentence instead of earlier, as it would in English.

This is part of Afrikaans double negation.

Niks already means nothing, so it carries the first negative idea. Afrikaans then usually adds a final nie to complete the negation:

• hy weet niks ... nie = he knows nothing ...

So in this sentence:

• niks = nothing
• final nie = the closing negative marker

This is normal Afrikaans grammar. You do not add another nie before niks here.

The key phrase is weet van, which means know about or know of.

So:

• niks van die verrassing weet nie = not know anything about the surprise

Word for word, it looks like:

• niks = nothing
• van = of/about
• die verrassing = the surprise
• weet nie = know not

But in natural English, it is simply know nothing about the surprise.

Afrikaans usually uses:

• weet for knowing facts, information, or that something is the case
• ken for knowing people, places, or things through familiarity

Here the sentence is about information:

• he knows nothing about the surprise

So weet is the correct choice.

Compare:

• Ek weet dit = I know that
• Ek ken hom = I know him

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use either:

• he pretends
• he is pretending

So Hy gee voor can work for both. Context tells you which English version sounds best.

Yes. A very common alternative is:

Hy maak asof hy niks van die verrassing weet nie.

Maak asof is extremely common for act as if / pretend.

Your original sentence with gee voor is still correct, but learners will often hear maak asof in everyday speech.

Yes:

• Hy = he
• gee voor = pretends
• asof = as if
• hy = he
• niks van die verrassing = nothing about the surprise
• weet = knows
• nie = final negative marker

So the structure is:

[Main clause]
Hy gee voor
= He pretends

[Subordinate clause]
asof hy niks van die verrassing weet nie
= as if he knows nothing about the surprise

That is the basic grammar of the whole sentence.