Ons het ná middagete televisie gekyk, en later het sy vir haar suster van die program vertel.

Afrikaans usually uses the perfect tense for ordinary past events: het + past participle.

So Ons het ... gekyk is the normal way to say We watched ... or We were watching ..., depending on context. English often uses a simple past, but Afrikaans often prefers this perfect form.

kyk is a regular verb, so its past participle takes ge-: gekyk.

But vertel begins with the inseparable prefix ver-. Verbs with prefixes like be-, ge-, her-, er-, ont-, and ver- normally do not add ge- in the past participle.

So:

• kyk → gekyk
• vertel → vertel

Afrikaans main clauses follow the verb-second rule. That means the finite verb must be in the second position.

Since later is placed first, het must come next:

• Later het sy ... vertel

If the subject were first, then you would get:

• Sy het later ... vertel

Both are possible, but they put the emphasis in slightly different places.

Because en joins two separate main clauses, and each clause needs its own finite verb.

Here the two clauses are:

• Ons het ná middagete televisie gekyk
• later het sy vir haar suster van die program vertel

So the second clause cannot just continue without its own het.

Here vir marks the person receiving the information — basically to her sister.

So vir haar suster vertel means tell her sister or more literally tell to her sister.

Afrikaans often uses vir with people in this kind of role.

With vertel, Afrikaans very often uses van to introduce what is being talked about:

• vir iemand van iets vertel = tell someone about something

So:

• Sy het vir haar suster van die program vertel = She told her sister about the program.

This is one of those patterns you mostly learn as a set expression.

The accent helps show that ná means after.

It also helps distinguish it from na, which can mean to or towards in other contexts. In careful writing, using ná for after is very common.

When talking about meals in a general sense, Afrikaans often leaves out the article.

So:

• ná ontbyt = after breakfast
• ná middagete = after lunch
• ná aandete = after dinner

You would use die only if you meant a specific meal already identified in the conversation.

Because Afrikaans commonly forms compound nouns and writes them as one word.

middagete is literally midday-meal, and writing it as one word is the normal spelling.

televisie kyk is the normal idiomatic way to say watch television / watch TV in general.

So:

• televisie kyk = watch TV

If you add an article, you may change the meaning and make it sound more like looking at the physical television set rather than watching TV as an activity.

Here haar means her in the possessive sense, because it comes before a noun:

• haar suster = her sister

Afrikaans haar can also mean her as an object pronoun in other sentences, but here it is clearly possessive.