Learn Hardcore Afrikaans: Sy verloor haar sonbril in die see, maar vind dit later weer. - She loses her sunglasses in the sea, but later finds them again.

The verb verloor is one of the irregular Afrikaans verbs whose simple-past (preterite) form is identical to its present-tense form. In this sentence it functions as present tense (“loses”), especially since the second verb vind is clearly present. If you wanted to mark a completed past action you would normally use the perfect construction with het + past participle:
Sy het haar sonbril in die see verloor, maar sy het dit later weer gevind.
The absence of het here tells you it’s the narrative present, not the perfect past.

Why is the subject pronoun sy omitted in the second clause (“maar vind dit later weer”)?

Afrikaans allows ellipsis (gapping) in coordinate clauses when the subject is the same and obvious. You can drop the second sy to avoid repetition. In more formal contexts you might include it (maar sy vind dit later weer), but everyday usage often leaves it out.

What role does maar play in this sentence, and does it change the word order?

maar is a coordinating conjunction meaning “but.” It joins two main clauses without altering their internal word order. Because it’s not a subordinating conjunction, the main-clause V2 rule still applies. In the second clause the verb vind appears immediately after maar, and the rest of the clause follows in its usual order.

In “Sy verloor haar sonbril,” what function does haar have? How do you know it’s a possessive pronoun?

Here haar is a possessive pronoun meaning “her.” You can tell because it directly modifies the noun sonbril (“sunglasses”). If haar stood alone (no noun after it) it could be an object pronoun (“I see her”), but with sonbril right after, it acts like her in English: her sunglasses.

Why does the sentence use dit in “vind dit later weer” instead of hy or sy to refer back to sonbril?

Afrikaans uses the neuter pronoun dit for inanimate objects. Even though sonbril is a noun, it’s not gendered like people, so you refer back to it with dit (“it”). hy and sy are generally reserved for people (or very personified animals).

Why is sonbril singular in Afrikaans when in English “sunglasses” is always plural?

In Afrikaans sonbril is treated as a singular noun (one device that sits on your nose). Its plural form is sonbrille, but when you mean one pair you keep it singular. English is an exception because items like glasses or scissors are always called in the plural, but Afrikaans does not follow that pattern.

What do the adverbs later and weer mean here, and why is later placed before weer?

later is an adverb of time (“later”), and weer is an adverb of repetition (“again”). The normal order in Afrikaans when you stack adverbs is time → repetition/manner, so later weer means “again at a later time” (i.e. “finds it again later”). Swapping them (weer later) is possible but shifts the emphasis (“once more, then later”).

Why is in used in “in die see” and not another preposition like op?

You use in when something ends up inside a space or container, here the water of the sea (it sank). If the sunglasses had landed on a surface you’d say op (op die strand, “on the beach”). So in die see correctly indicates that they fell into the water.