Sy vou die rokke mooi, maar ek stryk die hemde eers.

In this sentence, Sy means she.

A few useful points:

• sy = she or her, depending on the sentence
• At the beginning of a sentence, it is capitalized: Sy
• they in Afrikaans is hulle

So Sy vou die rokke mooi means She folds the dresses/clothes neatly.

Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form for different subjects in the present tense.

So:

• ek vou = I fold
• jy vou = you fold
• sy vou = she folds
• ons vou = we fold

The same is true for stryk:

• ek stryk = I iron
• sy stryk = she irons

This is much simpler than English, where you say I fold but she folds.

die is the definite article in Afrikaans, meaning the.

Unlike English, Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all grammatical genders

So:

• die rok = the dress
• die rokke = the dresses
• die hemp = the shirt
• die hemde = the shirts

There is no separate word like English the for singular vs. plural. It is always die.

They are plural because the sentence is talking about more than one dress and more than one shirt.

Singular and plural here are:

• rok → rokke
• hemp → hemde

Afrikaans plurals are formed in different ways, often with -e or -s, and sometimes the spelling changes a little.

In these examples:

• rok becomes rokke
• hemp becomes hemde

So you should learn the plural form together with the singular when possible.

Here mooi means neatly, nicely, or beautifully, and it is describing how she folds the dresses.

So in this sentence, mooi is working like an adverb in English.

A very useful thing to know is that Afrikaans often uses the same form for an adjective and an adverb:

• ’n mooi rok = a beautiful dress
• Sy vou die rokke mooi = She folds the dresses neatly/nicely

So even though mooi is often learned as beautiful, in context it can also mean beautifully, nicely, or neatly.

Because in this sentence mooi is describing the verb vou, not the noun rokke.

Compare these:

• die mooi rokke = the beautiful dresses
  
  • here mooi describes rokke
• Sy vou die rokke mooi = She folds the dresses neatly
  
  • here mooi describes vou

So the position changes the meaning:

• before the noun: it describes the noun
• later in the clause: it often describes the action

maar means but.

It links two main clauses:

• Sy vou die rokke mooi
• maar ek stryk die hemde eers

So the sentence contrasts two actions:

• she folds the dresses
• but I iron the shirts first

It works very much like English but.

Because maar introduces another main clause, and main clauses in Afrikaans normally keep the finite verb in the second position.

So after maar, the normal order is:

• ek = subject
• stryk = finite verb
• die hemde = object
• eers = adverb

That gives:

• maar ek stryk die hemde eers

This is different from conjunctions like dat or omdat, which usually send the verb to the end of the clause.

So:

• maar ek stryk die hemde eers = normal main-clause order
• not a subordinate-clause pattern

Here eers means first.

So ek stryk die hemde eers means:

• I iron the shirts first
• or I’ll iron the shirts first

It often suggests that this action happens before another one.

Depending on context, eers can also have other meanings, such as only later, but in this sentence the natural meaning is first.

Afrikaans often places adverbs like eers later in the clause, especially after the object.

So:

• ek stryk die hemde eers

is a very natural word order.

You may sometimes see emphasis change the order, but this version is normal and idiomatic.

A simple way to read the structure is:

• ek = subject
• stryk = verb
• die hemde = object
• eers = time-related adverb

In this sentence, yes: stryk means iron as in ironing clothes.

So:

• Ek stryk die hemde = I iron the shirts

Depending on context, stryk can appear in other expressions too, but for a learner, the most important meaning is the clothing-related one.

Yes, depending on context, rok can refer to a dress, and in some contexts it may also refer to a skirt or a similar garment.

So rokke often means dresses, but the exact translation can depend on context.

If your provided meaning says dresses, then that is the intended meaning here.

Yes: this is a normal present-tense sentence, and Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the present continuous.

So:

• Sy vou die rokke mooi can mean She folds the dresses neatly or, depending on context, She is folding the dresses neatly
• ek stryk die hemde eers can mean I iron the shirts first or I am ironing the shirts first

Afrikaans does not need a special -ing form here the way English often does.