In teenstelling met verkoopdatums kan oordragsdatums later wees.

Yes. In teenstelling met is a common expression meaning in contrast to or as opposed to.

It is made up of:

• in = in
• teenstelling = contrast / opposition
• met = with / to

So the whole phrase functions like one unit: in contrast to.

You will often see it at the beginning of a sentence to set up a comparison:

• In teenstelling met... = In contrast to...

Because Afrikaans uses verb-second word order in main clauses.

The sentence begins with the prepositional phrase In teenstelling met verkoopdatums. When something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb usually moves into the second position.

So the structure is:

• In teenstelling met verkoopdatums = first element
• kan = finite verb in second position
• oordragsdatums = subject
• later wees = rest of the verb phrase

A more basic word order would be:

• Oordragsdatums kan later wees.

But once the contrast phrase is placed first, kan must come before the subject:

• In teenstelling met verkoopdatums kan oordragsdatums later wees.

Because kan is a modal verb, and in Afrikaans the main verb often goes to the end of the clause after a modal.

Here:

• kan = can / may
• wees = be

So kan ... wees means can be.

This is very similar to other Afrikaans modal structures:

• Dit kan gebeur. = That can happen.
• Sy wil gaan. = She wants to go.
• Ons moet wag. = We must wait.

So later wees = be later, with wees placed at the end because of kan.

Afrikaans often leaves out the article where English might use the, especially in general statements.

So:

• verkoopdatums = sale dates / selling dates
• oordragsdatums = transfer dates

The sentence is talking about these categories generally, not necessarily pointing to a very specific set in the way English often does with the.

Afrikaans can use die when needed, but it is not always required:

• Die oordragsdatums kan later wees. = The transfer dates may be later.

Without die, the sentence sounds more general.

They are compound nouns, which are very common in Afrikaans.

• verkoop = sale / selling
• datum = date
• verkoopdatum = sale date
• verkoopdatums = sale dates

And:

• oordrag = transfer
• oordragdatum = transfer date
• oordragsdatums = transfer dates

Afrikaans often joins words together into one noun, where English would often use two separate words.

So:

• verkoopdatums = literally sale-dates
• oordragsdatums = literally transfer-dates

That s belongs to oordragsdatum, the singular compound form.

It is not just the plural ending. The word is built like this:

• oordrag
  • datum → oordragsdatum

This linking s is common in Afrikaans compounds, although it is not used in every compound.

Then the plural is formed by adding -s to datum:

• oordragsdatum = transfer date
• oordragsdatums = transfer dates

So the full plural form contains:

1. the compound linking s
2. the plural -s

Later is the comparative form of laat in the sense of late.

So:

• laat = late
• later = later

In this sentence, later wees means to be later.

Examples:

• Die trein is laat. = The train is late.
• Die trein kan later wees. = The train can be later.

So later is not the time adverb later as in I’ll do it later. Here it is a comparison: one set of dates may be later than another.

Yes, that is close to the structure, but it sounds less natural in English.

A more natural English rendering would be:

• In contrast to sale dates, transfer dates can be later.
• Transfer dates can be later than sale dates.

The Afrikaans sentence uses the contrast phrase first, but the core comparison is simply that transfer dates may fall later than sale dates.

Yes. In in teenstelling met verkoopdatums, the noun verkoopdatums is the object of the preposition met.

The whole phrase functions as a prepositional phrase:

• met verkoopdatums = with sale dates
• in teenstelling met verkoopdatums = in contrast to sale dates

So verkoopdatums is not the subject of the sentence. The subject is oordragsdatums.

Yes. A simpler version is:

• Oordragsdatums kan later wees in teenstelling met verkoopdatums.

But this version is usually less elegant. The original sentence is more natural because it introduces the contrast first:

• In teenstelling met verkoopdatums kan oordragsdatums later wees.

Afrikaans often places a contrast or setting phrase at the beginning for emphasis, just like English sometimes does.

Either can work, depending on context.

In this sentence, kan expresses possibility, not ability. So in English it could be:

• can be later
• may be later

If the context is factual or explanatory, can is very natural:

• Transfer dates can be later.

If the context is more formal or cautious, may also works:

• Transfer dates may be later.

So here kan is about what is possible, not what the dates are able to do.