Nadat ek my vinger gesny het, moes ek dit met water was.

Nadat means after.

It introduces a clause that tells you when the main action happened:

• Nadat ek my vinger gesny het = After I cut my finger
• moes ek dit met water was = I had to wash it with water

So nadat is a conjunction used to connect the two parts.

Because Nadat ek my vinger gesny het is a subordinate clause.

In Afrikaans, subordinate clauses usually send the finite verb to the end. In the perfect tense, that means you often get:

• participle + het

So:

• Main clause: Ek het my vinger gesny
• After nadat: ... ek my vinger gesny het

This word order is very common in Afrikaans.

Gesny is the past participle of sny (to cut).

Afrikaans often forms past participles with ge-:

• maak → gemaak
• werk → gewerk
• sny → gesny

So:

• Ek sny = I cut / I am cutting
• Ek het gesny = I cut / I have cut

In this sentence, gesny het gives the completed action: the finger was already cut.

Moes is the past form of moet, which means must / have to.

So:

• Ek moet dit was = I must wash it / I have to wash it
• Ek moes dit was = I had to wash it

Because the sentence is talking about something that happened in the past, moes is used.

No. Here was is the Afrikaans verb to wash.

It is not the English past tense of be.

After a modal verb like moes, Afrikaans uses the bare infinitive at the end:

• Ek moes dit was = I had to wash it
• Ek kan dit was = I can wash it
• Ek wil dit was = I want to wash it

So was is at the end because it is the second verb in the clause.

Because after modal verbs such as moet / moes / kan / wil / mag, Afrikaans normally uses the infinitive without te.

So:

• Ek moes dit was = I had to wash it
• not Ek moes dit te was

This is similar to English after modal verbs:

• I must wash it
• not I must to wash it

Dit means it.

Here it refers to the thing that needed washing — most naturally the finger (or the injured area on the finger).

So:

• my vinger = my finger
• dit = it

Afrikaans often uses dit exactly where English uses it.

Because they do different jobs:

• ek = I → the subject
• my = my → the possessive word

So:

• ek ... gesny het = I ... cut
• my vinger = my finger

This is similar to English:

• I cut my finger

Because my vinger simply means my finger.

Afrikaans uses possessive words like English does:

• my hand = my hand
• my arm = my arm
• my vinger = my finger

So the sentence is directly saying whose finger it was.

Because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause:

• Nadat ek my vinger gesny het, ...

When this kind of clause comes first, Afrikaans normally separates it from the main clause with a comma.

So the structure is:

• subordinate clause first
• comma
• main clause

This is also quite natural in English:

• After I cut my finger, I had to wash it with water.

Met water means with water — it shows the means or substance used for washing.

So:

• dit met water was = wash it with water

If you said in water, that would focus more on being in the water rather than using water as the thing you wash with. In this sentence, met water is the natural choice.

Yes. You can change the order of the clauses.

For example:

• Ek moes dit met water was nadat ek my vinger gesny het.

That still means the same thing.

The difference is mostly one of emphasis:

• Starting with Nadat ... puts the time/background first.
• Starting with Ek moes ... puts the main action first.

The basic independent clause would be:

• Ek het my vinger gesny.

Then, after nadat, the word order changes to:

• Nadat ek my vinger gesny het

This is a very useful pattern to remember:

• main clause: Ek het ... gesny
• subordinate clause: ... ek ... gesny het

If you learn that pattern, Afrikaans word order becomes much easier.