Sy is bewus van die risiko.

Here sy means she.

A useful thing to know is that sy can also mean his in other sentences, but not here. In Sy is bewus van die risiko, it must mean she because it is followed by the verb is.

Afrikaans and English are related languages, so some very common words look the same.
Here is is the present-tense form of to be, just like English is.

So:

• Sy is ... = She is ...

Bewus is an adjective here. It means aware or conscious.

In this sentence it comes after is, so it works like a predicate adjective:

• Sy is bewus ... = She is aware ...

It describes sy.

Because bewus normally goes with van in Afrikaans, just as aware normally goes with of in English.

So the pattern is:

• bewus van iets = aware of something

Examples:

• Ek is bewus van die probleem. = I am aware of the problem.
• Hulle is bewus van die gevaar. = They are aware of the danger.

This is something you should learn as a set phrase: bewus van.

Die is the definite article, meaning the.
So die risiko means the risk, a specific risk.

If you said 'n risiko, that would mean a risk, a non-specific one.

Compare:

• die risiko = the risk
• 'n risiko = a risk

Also, Afrikaans uses die for all nouns in the singular definite form, regardless of gender. There is no separate the for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns.

Yes, this is normal Afrikaans word order for a simple main clause.

The structure is:

• Sy — subject
• is — verb
• bewus — adjective/complement
• van die risiko — prepositional phrase

So the sentence follows a straightforward pattern:

Subject + verb + complement + prepositional phrase

This is very similar to English:
She is aware of the risk.

No, not in this position.

In Sy is bewus van die risiko, bewus comes after the verb is, and adjectives used this way generally do not change form.

So you simply say:

• Ek is bewus
• Sy is bewus
• Hulle is bewus

The adjective stays bewus.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• Sy ≈ say / sigh with an Afrikaans-style vowel
• is ≈ iss
• bewus ≈ buh-VUHS
• van ≈ fun or vun
• die ≈ dee
• risiko ≈ ree-SEE-koh

A rough full pronunciation guide:

say iss buh-VUHS fun dee ree-SEE-koh

That is only approximate, but it is a useful starting point.

Usually, when learners first meet bewus, they see it in the pattern bewus van after a verb like is:

• Sy is bewus van die risiko.

That is the most important pattern to learn first.

Afrikaans can use related forms before nouns in some contexts, but for this sentence, the key thing is:

• bewus van = aware of

So if you want to say someone is aware of something, this is the safe and natural pattern to use.

You would use the Afrikaans double negative:

Sy is nie bewus van die risiko nie.

This means She is not aware of the risk.

Notice the two nie words:

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

This double negative pattern is very common in Afrikaans.

Yes. This is a very useful pattern:

[person] + is + bewus van + [noun]

Examples:

• Ek is bewus van die probleem. = I am aware of the problem.
• Ons is bewus van die gevaar. = We are aware of the danger.
• Hy is bewus van die koste. = He is aware of the cost.

So once you know bewus van, you can reuse it with many different nouns.

Yes, two small things are especially worth noticing:

1. Learn the whole phrase bewus van, not just bewus by itself.
   English speakers often want to translate word by word, but this combination is what sounds natural.

2. Sy can be confusing because it can mean she or his in different contexts.
   In this sentence, it clearly means she because it functions as the subject before is.

So a good way to remember the sentence is:

Sy = she
is = is
bewus van = aware of
die risiko = the risk