Ek gee baie om vir my familie, en hulle gee ook om vir my.

Because omgee is a separable verb in Afrikaans.

• The dictionary form is omgee.
• In a normal main clause, the verb splits into gee ... om.

So:

• Ek gee om vir my familie.
• not Ek omgee vir my familie.

This is very common with separable verbs. You will also see the joined form in other contexts, such as the past participle omgegee.

It is a fixed expression meaning to care about.

You should not try to translate it word for word as give about for. That would sound strange in English, and it is not how the Afrikaans expression works.

So learn omgee vir iemand/iets as one unit:

• omgee vir my familie = care about my family
• omgee vir my = care about me

Because vir is part of the expression omgee vir.

The person or thing you care about comes after vir:

• Ek gee om vir jou.
• Sy gee om vir haar kinders.
• Ons gee om vir die natuur.

So in this sentence:

• vir my familie = the people I care about
• vir my = the person they care about

Because baie is modifying the verb phrase and means a lot or very much.

Since the verb is split, the adverb fits naturally between the two parts:

• Ek gee baie om vir my familie.

So the structure is:

• gee
  • baie
    • om vir ...

This is normal Afrikaans word order.

In Afrikaans, my can mean both:

• my as a possessive word: my familie = my family
• me as an object pronoun: vir my = me

The grammar around it tells you which meaning it has.

So:

• my familie → possessive
• vir my → object pronoun

This is completely normal in Afrikaans.

In a main clause, the finite verb usually comes early, and words like ook often come right after it.

So:

• hulle gee ook om vir my

is the natural way to say they also care about me.

If you moved ook somewhere else, the sentence might still be understandable, but this position is the most natural and common here.

Here, hulle means they.

So:

• hulle gee ook om vir my = they also care about me

Afrikaans hulle can also mean them in other contexts, and in everyday language it is often used where English would use their as well. But in this sentence it is clearly the subject, so it means they.

It is grammatically singular, but it refers to a group of people, just like family in English.

So my familie means my family as a group.

If you wanted to be more explicit about individual members, you could use a different word such as familielede for family members.

The comma separates two full clauses:

• Ek gee baie om vir my familie
• hulle gee ook om vir my

Each part has its own subject and verb, so the comma helps show the break clearly. This is very normal punctuation in Afrikaans.

Not exactly.

• omgee vir = care about
• lief wees vir = love or be fond of

They are related in meaning, but they are not identical.

For example:

• Ek gee om vir my familie emphasizes care and concern.
• Ek is lief vir my familie emphasizes love and affection.

Often both can be true, but they are different expressions.

It is present tense.

So the sentence means something like a general present idea:

• I care a lot about my family, and they also care about me.

It can describe a general ongoing situation, not just something happening at this exact moment.

Yes, and that is a very good idea.

A useful pattern is:

• Ek gee baie om vir ...
• Hy/Sy gee om vir ...
• Ons gee ook om vir ...

Examples:

• Ek gee om vir jou.
• Sy gee baie om vir haar kinders.
• Ons gee ook om vir ons vriende.

If you remember omgee vir as a set expression, it will be much easier to use correctly.