Die salf help, maar ek kon gister niks met daardie hand skryf nie.

The ointment helps, but yesterday I could write nothing with that hand.

Breakdown of Die salf help, maar ek kon gister niks met daardie hand skryf nie.

• ek: I
• skryf: to write
• nie: not
• daardie: that

Questions & Answers about Die salf help, maar ek kon gister niks met daardie hand skryf nie.

Why is it ek kon and not ek kan?

Kon is the past tense form of kan (can / be able to).

• ek kan skryf = I can write
• ek kon skryf = I could write / was able to write

Because the sentence also has gister (yesterday), Afrikaans uses kon to match that past-time meaning.

Why does skryf stay at the end of the clause?

After a modal verb like kan, kon, sal, wil, moet, the main verb usually goes to the end of the clause in its basic form.

So:

• ek kon ... skryf
• literally: I could ... write

This is very normal in Afrikaans and is similar to Dutch and German word order.

Why is gister placed after kon?

In a normal Afrikaans main clause, the finite verb usually comes in the second position. That is happening here:

• ek = subject
• kon = finite verb
• gister = time expression

So the pattern is:

ek kon gister ...

Afrikaans is quite strict about this verb-second pattern in main clauses.