Maak die muuranker vas in plaas daarvan om dit te vervang.

Because vasmaak is a separable verb in Afrikaans.

• The full dictionary form is vasmaak.
• In a main clause or command, the finite verb comes early, and vas moves to the end:
  • Maak die muuranker vas.
• In forms like the infinitive, it usually stays together:
  • Jy moet die muuranker vasmaak.

So maak ... vas and vasmaak belong together; they are just showing up in different sentence patterns.

Not by itself, no. In this sentence, maak is part of the fixed combination maak ... vas / vasmaak.

Here, the combination means something like:

• fasten
• secure
• fix in place
• sometimes tighten, depending on context

So you should understand the meaning from the whole expression, not from maak alone.

Yes. Maak is an imperative here, so the sentence is giving an instruction or command.

Afrikaans often uses the basic verb form for commands:

• Maak die muuranker vas. = Fasten the wall anchor.

There is no subject written, but the implied subject is you, just as in English commands.

Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, very often forms compound nouns as a single word.

So:

• muur = wall
• anker = anchor
• muuranker = wall anchor

English often writes similar combinations as two words, but Afrikaans commonly joins them into one noun.

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

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

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all genders

So Afrikaans does not change the word the way some other languages do.

It means instead of when it is followed by a verb idea.

So in this sentence:

• in plaas daarvan om dit te vervang
• instead of replacing it

This is a very common Afrikaans structure for saying instead of doing something.

In this phrase, daarvan is part of a set expression. Literally, daarvan can mean something like of that or from that, but in this sentence it is best not to translate it word by word.

Think of in plaas daarvan om as one chunk meaning:

• instead of
• more literally, in place of that, to...

So for learners, the safest approach is to memorize in plaas daarvan om + verb phrase as a single pattern.

This is a normal Afrikaans infinitive construction.

• vervang = replace
• te vervang = to replace
• om ... te vervang = to replace ...

After expressions like in plaas daarvan om, Afrikaans commonly uses om to introduce the infinitive clause, and te before the verb.

So:

• om dit te vervang = to replace it

You can think of te as the main infinitive marker, roughly similar to English to, while om helps introduce the clause.

Because in Afrikaans infinitive clauses, the object often comes before the infinitive verb.

So:

• om dit te vervang
• literally, to it replace
• natural English: to replace it

This word order is normal in Afrikaans. You will often see:

• om die muuranker te vervang
• om dit te vervang

So even though English puts it after replace, Afrikaans usually places dit before te vervang.