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

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.

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.

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.

This is one of the most important features of Afrikaans negation.

Afrikaans often uses a kind of double negative structure. When a negative word such as niks (nothing / anything in negative contexts) appears, the clause still usually ends with nie.

So:

• ek kon niks skryf nie

This does not mean a double negative in the English sense. It is simply the normal Afrikaans way to say I could not write anything or I could write nothing.

They do different jobs:

• niks = nothing / anything
• nie = the negative marker that helps make the whole clause negative

In this sentence:

• niks tells you what was not written: nothing / anything
• final nie closes the negative construction

So niks ... nie works together as part of the normal Afrikaans negative pattern.

Met means with, and here it shows the body part used to do the action:

• met daardie hand = with that hand

Daardie means that.

So:

• daardie hand = that hand
• met daardie hand = with that hand

This is natural Afrikaans for saying which hand was used or could not be used.

• die can mean the
• daardie means that

So:

• die hand = the hand
• daardie hand = that hand

In the sentence, daardie points to a specific hand, probably one already known from the context.

Afrikaans verbs do not change the way English verbs do for he/she/it.

In English:

• I help
• he helps

In Afrikaans:

• ek help
• hy help
• die salf help

So help stays the same. There is no extra -s ending.

It can often cover both ideas, depending on context.

Afrikaans simple present is broader than English simple present. So:

• Die salf help can mean The ointment helps
• and in some contexts it can also be understood like The ointment is helping

English chooses between helps and is helping more often than Afrikaans does.

After a modal verb like kon, Afrikaans normally uses the main verb directly, without te.

So:

• ek kon skryf = correct
• ek kon te skryf = incorrect

You often see te in other structures, but not after modal verbs like kan/kon, wil, moet, sal.

Not in the same way that some other conjunctions do.

Maar is a coordinating conjunction meaning but, so the second clause keeps normal main-clause word order:

• maar ek kon gister ...

That is why you get ek kon, not something with the verb moved to the end.

Both can work, depending on how natural the English sounds.

Afrikaans:

• ek kon gister niks met daardie hand skryf nie

Possible English translations:

• I could write nothing with that hand yesterday
• I couldn’t write anything with that hand yesterday

In natural English, couldn’t write anything usually sounds more normal, even though niks literally corresponds to nothing.