By die winkel kon sy nie haar bankkaart vind nie, en toe moes ek betaal.

Yes. In this sentence, by die winkel means at the shop/store.

Afrikaans by often corresponds to English at, especially for location:

• by die huis = at home
• by die dokter = at the doctor’s
• by die winkel = at the shop/store

So even though English learners may first think of by as meaning next to, in Afrikaans it very often means at.

Because By die winkel has been placed at the beginning of the sentence. In Afrikaans main clauses, when something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb usually comes second.

So:

• neutral order: Sy kon nie haar bankkaart vind nie.
• with fronted time/place phrase: By die winkel kon sy nie haar bankkaart vind nie.

This is similar to a verb-second pattern:

1. first element: By die winkel
2. finite verb: kon
3. subject: sy

English does not do this in the same way, so it often feels unusual to learners.

This is the normal Afrikaans way of making a sentence negative. Afrikaans usually uses a double nie structure:

• first nie appears after the finite verb or after the first part of the verb phrase
• second nie appears near the end of the clause

So:

• Sy kon haar bankkaart vind. = She could find her bank card.
• Sy kon nie haar bankkaart vind nie. = She could not find her bank card.

This is one of the most important grammar patterns in Afrikaans.

In a basic clause, the first nie usually comes after the finite verb.

Here the finite verb is kon, so:

• By die winkel kon sy nie haar bankkaart vind nie.

A useful learner rule is:

• put the first nie after the conjugated verb
• put the second nie at the end of the clause

This rule is not perfect for every possible sentence, but it works well for many everyday examples.

Kon is the past form of kan.

• kan = can / am able to
• kon = could / was able to

So:

• Sy kan haar bankkaart vind. = She can find her bank card.
• Sy kon nie haar bankkaart vind nie. = She could not find her bank card.

In this sentence, kon tells you that the event is in the past.

Because kon is a modal verb, and in Afrikaans modal verbs usually send the main verb to the end in the infinitive form.

So:

• Sy kon ... vind
• Ek moes ... betaal

This is similar to English in some ways:

• She could find
• I had to pay

But Afrikaans word order is more strongly fixed here, especially in longer clauses.

Bankkaart is a compound noun:

• bank = bank
• kaart = card

Afrikaans often writes compound nouns as one word, much more consistently than English does.

So:

• bankkaart = bank card
• handsak = handbag
• huisdeur = house door / front door

English learners often want to separate these words, but in Afrikaans the one-word form is normal.

In this sentence, haar means her.

Afrikaans haar can be:

• a possessive pronoun: her
• a noun: hair

Here it is clearly possessive because it comes before a noun:

• haar bankkaart = her bank card

So the structure is:

• haar = her
• bankkaart = bank card

Here toe means something like then.

So:

• en toe moes ek betaal = and then I had to pay

It links the next event in the story to the previous one:

1. she could not find her bank card
2. then I had to pay

Afrikaans toe is very common in storytelling and narration.

Because this is a main clause introduced by toe in the sense of then.

In a main clause, Afrikaans still follows the verb-second pattern:

• toe moes ek betaal

Order:

1. toe
2. moes
3. ek
4. betaal

If toe is being used more like when to introduce a subordinate clause, the word order can be different. But here it means then, so it behaves like the first element of a main clause.

Yes. Moes is the past form of moet.

• moet = must / have to
• moes = had to

So:

• Ek moet betaal. = I must / have to pay.
• Ek moes betaal. = I had to pay.

In the sentence:

• en toe moes ek betaal it means that paying became necessary because she could not find her card.

Because after modal verbs like kan, kon, moet, and moes, Afrikaans normally uses the bare infinitive, without om te.

So:

• Sy kon vind = she could find
• Ek moes betaal = I had to pay

You do not say:

• kon om te vind
• moes om te betaal

That would be wrong in standard Afrikaans.

Yes, that would be grammatically possible, but it changes the emphasis a little.

Compare:

• By die winkel kon sy nie haar bankkaart vind nie.
• Sy kon nie by die winkel haar bankkaart vind nie.

The original sentence puts By die winkel first, which gives the location a bit more prominence and sounds natural in storytelling. The second version is also understandable, but the first feels more like a narrative setup: At the shop, she couldn’t find her bank card...

Usually find.

Vind is the normal everyday word for find:

• Ek kan my sleutels nie vind nie. = I can’t find my keys.
• Sy kon nie haar bankkaart vind nie. = She couldn’t find her bank card.

Locate would be possible in some English contexts, but it sounds more formal than the Afrikaans word does.

It can mean either, depending on the variety of English you use.

• British English: shop
• American English: store

So by die winkel can be translated as either:

• at the shop
• at the store

Both are correct.