As die buurman môre my laaier teruggee, sal ek hom in die buurt weer help, selfs as dit reën en ek net ’n klein sambreel het.

Here as means if. It introduces a condition: if the neighbor returns the charger tomorrow, then I will help him.

Afrikaans as can sometimes be translated as when in other contexts, but in this sentence the meaning is clearly conditional. The main clause with sal also helps show that.

Because As die buurman môre my laaier teruggee is a subordinate clause. In Afrikaans, subordinate clauses often send the finite verb to the end.

So:

• As die buurman môre my laaier teruggee = subordinate clause
• the verb teruggee goes at the end

This is very common after conjunctions like as, dat, omdat, and terwyl.

Teruggee is a compound verb meaning give back or return.

In a subordinate clause, the parts stay together:

• ... my laaier teruggee

In a main clause, the verb often splits:

• Die buurman gee môre my laaier terug.

So the learner should connect:

• teruggee = dictionary form / infinitive / unsplit form
• gee ... terug = split form in many main clauses

Afrikaans main clauses usually follow a verb-second pattern. That means the finite verb must come in the second slot.

Because the sentence begins with the whole As... clause, that first clause takes the first slot. So the next thing must be the finite verb of the main clause:

• As die buurman ... teruggee, sal ek ... help

If the main clause stood by itself, you would say:

• Ek sal hom weer help.

Sal is the future auxiliary, similar to English will.

So:

• sal ek ... help = I will help ...

After sal, the main verb stays in its basic form:

• sal help
• sal gee
• sal reën if needed

Afrikaans can sometimes use the present tense for future meaning too, but sal makes the future explicit.

Because hom is the object form, meaning him.

Compare:

• hy = he → subject form
• hom = him → object form

In this sentence, ek is the subject of help, and hom is the person receiving the action:

• sal ek hom ... help = I will help him ...

Weer here means again.

So:

• sal ek hom ... weer help = I will help him again

Its position is normal in Afrikaans. With an auxiliary like sal, adverbs such as weer often appear before the main verb:

• Ek sal hom weer help.

The phrase in die buurt is inserted before weer, but weer still clearly belongs with help.

They are related words, but they mean different things:

• buurman = neighbor (specifically a male neighbor)
• buurt = neighborhood, area, or vicinity

So:

• die buurman = the neighbor
• in die buurt = in the neighborhood / nearby

English learners often notice that they look similar. That is because they come from the same general idea of nearness, but one is a person and the other is a place.

Selfs as means even if.

Compare:

• as = if
• selfs as = even if

So the sentence becomes stronger:

• I will help him again, even if it rains and I only have a small umbrella.

This is a very useful expression to learn as a fixed phrase.

Afrikaans uses dit with weather verbs, just as English uses it:

• Dit reën. = It rains. / It is raining.
• Dit sneeu. = It snows. / It is snowing.

So the dit is a dummy subject. It does not refer to a specific thing; it is just required by the sentence structure.

That part is also inside a subordinate clause introduced by selfs as. In subordinate clauses, the verb typically goes to the end.

So:

• ek net ’n klein sambreel het

The word order shows:

• subject: ek
• other information: net ’n klein sambreel
• verb at the end: het

This is the same basic rule you saw earlier with teruggee.

Hê is the infinitive, meaning to have.
Het is the present-tense form, meaning have/has.

So:

• om te hê = to have
• ek het = I have
• hy het = he has
• ons het = we have

Afrikaans verbs usually do not change much for person, but hê → het is an important common form to remember.

These spelling marks are important in Afrikaans:

• môre: the circumflex on ô helps mark the vowel quality
• reën: the diaeresis shows that the vowels are pronounced separately, roughly ree-en, not as one vowel sound
• ’n: this is the indefinite article, meaning a/an, and it is always written with an apostrophe-like mark

A few useful notes:

• ’n is usually unstressed, like a very light uh
• even at the start of a sentence, the article itself stays lowercase: ’n, not ’N

Usually, no. One of the nice things about Afrikaans is that most verbs do not change according to person or number.

For example with gee:

• ek gee
• jy gee
• hy gee
• ons gee

The same is true for help:

• ek help
• sy help
• hulle help

A very common form to learn separately is het from hê, but overall Afrikaans verb conjugation is much simpler than in many other languages.