Ek droog my hande met 'n handdoek af.

Because afdroog is a separable verb in Afrikaans, much like some verbs in Dutch and German.

• The full verb is afdroog = to dry off / dry
• In a main clause, the verb splits:
  • Ek droog ... af.
• In some other structures, it can stay together:
  • om my hande af te droog = to dry my hands

So droog is the main verb part, and af moves to the end.

Yes, often afdroog means to dry off / wipe dry, while droog by itself can simply mean to dry or be dry, depending on context.

Compare:

• Ek droog my hande af. = I dry my hands / I dry my hands off
• Die klere droog. = The clothes are drying / dry

So the af adds the idea of finishing the drying or wiping something dry.

In Afrikaans, my is the normal possessive adjective before a noun:

• my hande = my hands
• my boek = my book

English distinguishes my and mine, but Afrikaans usually uses my before the noun.

Myne can exist in some contexts, but not here. Before a noun, my is the correct form.

Because hande is the Afrikaans plural of hand.

• hand = hand
• hande = hands

Afrikaans plurals are formed in different ways, and -e is a very common plural ending.

Because Afrikaans, like English, does not normally use the before a possessive.

Compare:

• my hande = my hands
• not the my hands

So this works just like English in that respect.

Met means with.

So:

• met 'n handdoek = with a towel

It introduces the instrument or means used to do the action.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, meaning a or an.

So:

• 'n handdoek = a towel

A few useful things to know:

• It is always written as lowercase 'n, even at the start of a sentence in standard writing.
• The next word gets the capital letter if needed:
  • 'n Handdoek lê daar.
• In pronunciation, 'n is usually very weak, like a schwa sound.

Because this sentence is a normal present-tense statement, not an infinitive.

Afrikaans present-tense main clauses do not use a word like English to:

• Ek droog my hande af. = I dry my hands.

But if you want the infinitive to dry, Afrikaans often uses om ... te:

• om my hande af te droog = to dry my hands

So to only appears in certain structures, not in a basic statement.

Because in a normal main clause, separable verbs split, and the prefix goes to the end.

The basic pattern is:

• subject + verb + rest + separated prefix

So:

• Ek = subject
• droog = verb stem
• my hande met 'n handdoek = rest of the sentence
• af = separated prefix at the end

That is the expected standard word order.

Yes, that can be possible, because Afrikaans allows some flexibility with word order, especially with adverbial phrases like met 'n handdoek.

But the most neutral and natural order here is:

• Ek droog my hande met 'n handdoek af.

That version presents the object my hande right after the verb, which is very common and clear.

Yes, historically it is made up of:

• hand = hand
• doek = cloth

So handdoek literally corresponds to something like hand cloth, but in normal usage it simply means towel.

Usually 'n is pronounced very weakly, like the unstressed vowel in English about.

So met 'n handdoek sounds roughly like:

• met uh HAND-doek

The stress is not on 'n. It is a small, unstressed function word.

Yes. Droog can be both a verb and an adjective.

• As a verb:
  • Ek droog my hande af. = I dry my hands.
• As an adjective:
  • My hande is droog. = My hands are dry.

This is common in Afrikaans: the same word can function in more than one way depending on context.

Because Afrikaans verbs are much less inflected than English verbs. In the present tense, the verb usually stays the same regardless of the subject.

For example:

• Ek droog
• Jy droog
• Hy droog
• Ons droog

So Afrikaans is simpler than English here: you do not get forms like I dry / he dries. The verb stays droog.

Then the separable verb comes back together in the infinitive construction, usually with om ... te:

• om my hande met 'n handdoek af te droog = to dry my hands with a towel

Notice the difference:

• Main clause: Ek droog my hande met 'n handdoek af.
• Infinitive: ... af te droog

That is a very important pattern to learn with separable verbs in Afrikaans.