My broer belowe om my terug te bel sodra hy die probleem verstaan.

In this sentence, the two my forms have different jobs:

• My broer = my brother
  Here my is a possessive adjective.
• om my terug te bel = to call me back
  Here my is an object pronoun, meaning me.

Afrikaans uses the same form, my, for both my and me. You tell which one it is from its position in the sentence.

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

So you get:

• ek belowe = I promise
• jy belowe = you promise
• hy belowe = he promises
• ons belowe = we promise

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not add -s for he/she/it in the present tense. That is why my broer belowe is correct.

Om ... te is a very common way to form an infinitive in Afrikaans, often corresponding to English to.

So:

• bel = call
• om te bel = to call

After certain verbs such as belowe, probeer, besluit, and many others, Afrikaans often uses om ... te before the next verb.

So:

• My broer belowe om my terug te bel
  = My brother promises to call me back

A useful thing to notice is that other words can come between om and te, as happens here with my terug.

Because terugbel is a separable verb.

It is made up of:

• bel = call
• terug = back

In some forms, Afrikaans keeps them together, but with te they split:

• terugbel = call back
• terug te bel = to call back

Compare:

• Hy bel my terug. = He calls me back.
• Hy belowe om my terug te bel. = He promises to call me back.

So the te goes before the main verb part, bel, and the separable part terug stays in front of it.

Afrikaans often places the object before the infinitive part of the clause.

So:

• om my terug te bel
  literally looks like to me back call

This word order is normal in Afrikaans. English keeps call earlier, but Afrikaans often lets the object come before the infinitive verb group.

That is why om my terug te bel sounds natural, while English would say to call me back.

Because sodra introduces a subordinate clause, and in Afrikaans subordinate clauses usually send the finite verb to the end.

So:

• main clause: My broer belowe ...
• subordinate clause: sodra hy die probleem verstaan

Inside that subordinate clause:

• hy = subject
• die probleem = object
• verstaan = verb at the end

This is a very important Afrikaans pattern. You see the same kind of thing with words like omdat, dat, and many other conjunctions.

Sodra means as soon as.

It shows that one action will happen immediately after another condition is met.

So here the idea is:

• first: he understands the problem
• then, immediately after that: he calls back

It is more specific than a general when. It emphasizes promptness or immediacy.

Afrikaans often uses the present tense for future meaning when the context already makes the time clear.

In this sentence, the future idea is already clear because:

• belowe implies a future action
• sodra sets up a later moment

So sal is not necessary.

You could say something like:

• My broer sal my terugbel sodra hy die probleem verstaan

But the original sentence is perfectly natural. Afrikaans does not always need an explicit future marker the way English sometimes seems to.

Die means the.

So die probleem = the problem.

Here it refers to a specific problem that both speaker and listener can identify. That is why the definite article is used.

A useful extra point: Afrikaans uses die for both singular and plural definite nouns:

• die probleem = the problem
• die probleme = the problems

Very often, yes, when belowe is followed by another verb in the sense of promise to do something.

For example:

• Ek belowe om te help. = I promise to help.
• Sy belowe om te kom. = She promises to come.

But Afrikaans can also express promises in other ways, depending on the structure. In this sentence, though, belowe om ... te ... is the normal and expected pattern.