Ek ken daardie vrou, want sy werk saam met my suster.

In Afrikaans, ken is used for knowing a person, place, or thing through familiarity.

• Ek ken daardie vrou = I know that woman.
• Ek weet is used for knowing a fact or piece of information.

So:

• Ek ken haar = I know her.
• Ek weet wie sy is = I know who she is / I know the fact of who she is.

This is very similar to the difference between saber and conocer in Spanish, if that helps.

Daardie means that.

So:

• daardie vrou = that woman

It is a demonstrative word, used to point out a specific person or thing.

Compare:

• die vrou = the woman
• daardie vrou = that woman
• hierdie vrou = this woman

So daardie is more specific than just die.

Because daardie already does the job of specifying the noun.

In English, we say that woman, not that the woman. Afrikaans works the same way:

• daardie vrou = that woman
• not daardie die vrou

So once you use daardie, you do not add die.

Here, sy means she.

In Afrikaans, sy can mean:

• she as a subject
• her in some possessive uses, depending on context

In this sentence:

• want sy werk... = because she works...

So it is clearly the subject pronoun she.

No. One nice thing about Afrikaans is that verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject.

So:

• Ek werk = I work
• Jy werk = you work
• Sy werk = she works
• Ons werk = we work

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

So sy werk literally looks like she work, but it means she works.

Saam met means together with or, in many everyday contexts, simply with.

So:

• sy werk saam met my suster = she works with my sister

The phrase emphasizes working together / alongside someone.

You will often see:

• Ek gaan saam met jou = I am going with you
• Hy bly saam met sy ouers = He lives with his parents

So saam met is a very common phrase.

Sometimes yes, but the meaning can shift slightly.

• saam met my suster werk strongly suggests working together with my sister
• met my suster werk can also mean work with my sister, but saam met is often the more natural way to express cooperation or being together

In this sentence, saam met sounds very natural because it describes colleagues working alongside each other.

Because want behaves like for or because in a way that keeps normal main-clause word order in Afrikaans.

So you get:

• Ek ken daardie vrou, want sy werk saam met my suster.

Notice the order:

• sy werk = she works

The verb stays in the usual second position pattern.

This is different from omdat, which sends the verb to the end:

• Ek ken daardie vrou omdat sy saam met my suster werk.

So this is a very useful contrast:

• want → normal order
• omdat → verb later/final

Yes, the meaning is very similar, but the word order changes.

With want:

• Ek ken daardie vrou, want sy werk saam met my suster.

With omdat:

• Ek ken daardie vrou omdat sy saam met my suster werk.

Both mean roughly I know that woman because she works with my sister.

The main thing to remember is:

• want keeps normal clause order
• omdat changes the verb placement

Yes. In this sentence, my means my:

• my suster = my sister

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans my can also mean me depending on context:

• my suster = my sister
• Hy sien my = He sees me

So the same form can be possessive or object pronoun. Context tells you which meaning is intended.

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

• my suster

Yes, in this sentence vrou means woman.

Some related words:

• vrou = woman / wife, depending on context
• meisie = girl
• man = man / husband, depending on context

So context matters. Here, daardie vrou simply means that woman.

A rough English-friendly guide:

• daardie ≈ DAAR-dee
• vrou ≈ something like frow or vrow, but with the Afrikaans v sound and a diphthong not exactly like English

A few notes:

• aa in daardie is a long vowel
• ou in vrou is not pronounced like English oo
• The r in Afrikaans may sound stronger than in many English accents

If you want a simple approximation, DAAR-dee frow is a reasonable starting point, though not perfect.

Yes, in informal spoken Afrikaans, daai is very common.

So:

• Ek ken daardie vrou = more standard / careful
• Ek ken daai vrou = more casual spoken Afrikaans

Both are very common, but daardie is the fuller standard form.

Because want introduces a new clause, and Afrikaans normally uses a comma before it.

So:

• Ek ken daardie vrou, want sy werk saam met my suster.

This is similar to English, where a comma is also often used before because or other conjunctions when joining clauses, especially when the sentence is longer or the pause is clearer.

In standard written Afrikaans, the comma before want is normal.

The sentence has two main parts:

1. Ek ken daardie vrou

   • Ek = I
   • ken = know
   • daardie vrou = that woman

2. want sy werk saam met my suster

   • want = because / for
   • sy = she
   • werk = works
   • saam met my suster = with my sister / together with my sister

So the pattern is:

subject + verb + object, want + subject + verb + rest

That is a very common and useful Afrikaans sentence pattern.