Ná 'n lang dag droom sy van 'n week by die see, waar sy kan ontspan.

Because Afrikaans usually follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses.

Here, Ná 'n lang dag comes first as a time phrase. Once that first element is placed at the front, the finite verb must come next:

• Ná 'n lang dag droom sy ...

If there were no fronted phrase, you would normally get:

• Sy droom van 'n week by die see ...

So droom sy is normal Afrikaans word order after a fronted phrase.

Ná means after here.

The accent on á often shows emphasis or helps highlight the word in writing. In many contexts, you may also see na without the accent. So the core meaning is still after.

In this sentence:

• Ná 'n lang dag = After a long day

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, the equivalent of English a or an.

A few important points:

• It is written with an apostrophe: 'n
• It is normally not stressed
• It is pronounced like a very short neutral vowel, roughly uh /ə/

So:

• 'n lang dag = a long day
• 'n week = a week

Do not pronounce it like the English letter N.

Because not all Afrikaans adjectives take an -e ending in front of a noun. Lang is one of the common adjectives that normally stays unchanged here.

So:

• 'n lang dag = correct

This is something you gradually get used to in Afrikaans: some adjectives add -e, and some do not, depending on the adjective and the structure.

Because droom commonly goes with the preposition van in Afrikaans.

So:

• droom van iets = dream of/about something

In this sentence:

• sy droom van 'n week by die see = she dreams of a week by the sea

This is just the normal verb-preposition combination you need to learn as a unit:

• droom van

Literally, it means by the sea, but in natural English it often corresponds to:

• by the sea
• at the seaside
• on the coast

So 'n week by die see suggests spending a week at a seaside place, not literally standing next to the water the whole time.

Also note:

• die see = the sea

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

Unlike languages with masculine/feminine/neuter article changes, Afrikaans uses die very broadly. So:

• die see = the sea

That part is nice and simple: Afrikaans articles are much less complicated than in many other European languages.

Because waar refers to a place: where.

In the sentence, 'n week by die see gives a location-like idea, and waar sy kan ontspan means:

• where she can relax

So:

• waar = where
• wat would usually mean that/which, not where

Using waar is the natural choice when the following clause refers to a place or location.

Because the second part is its own clause and needs its own subject.

You have:

• main clause: droom sy van 'n week by die see
• subordinate clause: waar sy kan ontspan

Even though both clauses refer to the same person, Afrikaans still needs the subject in the second clause:

• waar sy kan ontspan = where she can relax

So the second sy is necessary.

Because after a subordinating word like waar, Afrikaans uses subordinate-clause word order.

That means the verb part goes toward the end of the clause. With a modal verb plus an infinitive, you get:

• waar sy kan ontspan

So the structure is:

• waar
  • subject + modal + infinitive

This is why it is not built like a normal main clause.

Because after a modal verb like kan, Afrikaans normally uses the infinitive without om.

So:

• sy kan ontspan = correct
• sy kan om ontspan = incorrect

This is similar to English:

• she can relax not
• she can to relax

Kan means can here.

It shows ability or possibility:

• sy kan ontspan = she can relax

So the idea is that the week by the sea is a place or situation where she is able to relax.

Because Afrikaans normally uses a comma to separate a main clause from a following subordinate clause.

Here:

• main clause: Ná 'n lang dag droom sy van 'n week by die see
• subordinate clause: waar sy kan ontspan

So the comma before waar is standard Afrikaans punctuation.