Sy sê dit is ook haar gewoonte om vroeg op te staan.

They are different words with different meanings and pronunciation:

• sy = she
• sê = say / says

So:

• Sy sê = She says

The accent in sê matters. It helps show that this is the verb to say, not the pronoun she.

In this sentence, dit is introduces the idea that something is a habit:

• dit is ook haar gewoonte ... = it is also her habit ...

Afrikaans often uses dit is in places where English might also use it is, even if English speakers feel the it is a little empty or structural.

So the sentence is built like this:

• Sy sê = she says
• dit is ook haar gewoonte = it is also her habit
• om vroeg op te staan = to get up early

Ook means also / too.

In dit is ook haar gewoonte, ook comes before haar gewoonte because it is adding to the statement: it is also her habit.

Afrikaans word order with words like ook can feel different from English, but this placement is very natural.

Compare:

• dit is ook haar gewoonte = it is also her habit

If you move ook, the emphasis can change slightly, but this version is standard and natural.

Because sy and haar do different jobs:

• sy = she subject form
• haar = her or hers possession/object form

Here, haar gewoonte means her habit, so Afrikaans needs the possessive form haar.

Compare:

• Sy staan vroeg op. = She gets up early.
• Haar gewoonte is om vroeg op te staan. = Her habit is to get up early.

Gewoonte means habit.

So:

• haar gewoonte = her habit
• dit is haar gewoonte = it is her habit

It refers to something a person regularly does.

A useful related word is:

• gewoon = ordinary / usual

They are related in meaning, since a habit is something usual.

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern used for an infinitive phrase, often corresponding to English to ....

Here:

• om ... te staan = to stand / to get up
• with opstaan split up, it becomes op te staan

So:

• om vroeg op te staan = to get up early

You will see om ... te ... after nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

Examples:

• Dit is maklik om te leer. = It is easy to learn.
• Ek probeer om vroeg te slaap. = I try to sleep early.

Because opstaan is a separable verb.

The full verb is:

• opstaan = to get up / stand up

When Afrikaans uses the infinitive pattern with te, the prefix and main part split:

• opstaan → op te staan

This is very normal with separable verbs.

Examples:

• Ek staan vroeg op. = I get up early.
• Dit is goed om vroeg op te staan. = It is good to get up early.

So the op moves before te staan.

Vroeg means early, and it modifies the action to get up.

In Afrikaans infinitive phrases, adverbs like vroeg often come before the verb phrase:

• om vroeg op te staan = to get up early

This is the natural order.

Compare:

• Ek staan vroeg op. = I get up early.
• om vroeg op te staan = to get up early

So vroeg keeps its role as the adverb describing when the action happens.

Yes, sê is present tense here, and Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject the way English verbs do.

So:

• Ek sê = I say
• Jy sê = you say
• Sy sê = she says
• Hulle sê = they say

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not add an -s for he/she/it in the present tense.

That makes the system simpler.

Yes, absolutely.

• Haar gewoonte is om vroeg op te staan. = Her habit is to get up early.

That version is a little more direct and straightforward.

The original sentence,

• Sy sê dit is ook haar gewoonte om vroeg op te staan,

frames it as something she says about herself, with dit is introducing the statement.

So both are grammatical, but they are structured differently.

Because once again, the verb is separable.

The dictionary form is:

• opstaan

But in this construction, it must split:

• op te staan

So the sentence ends with staan, while op appears earlier in the infinitive phrase.

This is one of the most important patterns to learn in Afrikaans, because many everyday verbs behave like this.

In careful written Afrikaans, dit is is standard.

In everyday speech, many speakers contract it to:

• dis

So you may hear:

• Sy sê dis ook haar gewoonte om vroeg op te staan.

That means exactly the same thing.

This is very common in speech and informal writing, but dit is is the full form.

A useful way to remember it is in three parts:

• Sy sê = She says
• dit is ook haar gewoonte = it is also her habit
• om vroeg op te staan = to get up early

If you learn those chunks, the whole sentence becomes much easier to understand and reuse.

You can then make similar sentences, for example:

• Dit is my gewoonte om vroeg te werk.
• Dit is sy gewoonte om laat te slaap.

The key patterns are dit is ... gewoonte and om ... te ....