U horlosie is nie so oud soos myne nie, Meneer.

U here means your.

In Afrikaans, u is the polite or formal form of you/your. So:

• u horlosie = your watch or your clock
• jou horlosie = your watch in an informal situation

Because the sentence also has Meneer, the speaker is being respectful, so u fits better than jou.

You will often see u written with a lowercase letter in modern Afrikaans, but U can be capitalized to show extra respect or formality.

So in this sentence, the capital U helps reinforce the polite tone:

• U horlosie ... Meneer

It is a respectful way of addressing someone, similar in feeling to very polite written English.

It can depend on context, but in many everyday situations horlosie refers to a watch.

In this sentence, watch is the most natural interpretation:

• U horlosie is nie so oud soos myne nie = Your watch is not as old as mine

Afrikaans also has klok, which is often used for a clock, especially a wall clock or alarm clock.

This is one of the most important features of standard Afrikaans: negation is usually done with nie ... nie.

So:

• is nie ... nie = is not ...

In this sentence:

• U horlosie is nie so oud soos myne nie

The first nie comes after the verb is, and the second nie closes the negative statement near the end.

English only uses one not, but Afrikaans normally uses this double-negation pattern.

so + adjective + soos means as + adjective + as.

So:

• so oud soos = as old as

That means:

• nie so oud soos myne nie = not as old as mine

This is the standard pattern for this kind of comparison in Afrikaans.

A useful contrast:

• so oud soos myne = as old as mine
• ouer as myne = older than mine

So soos is used in the as ... as type of comparison, while as is used in a than comparison.

Myne means mine.

It is a possessive pronoun that stands on its own, without a noun after it.

Compare:

• my horlosie = my watch
• myne = mine

So in this sentence:

• soos myne = as mine

The noun horlosie is not repeated because it is already understood.

Because my must come before a noun, while myne stands alone.

So:

• my horlosie = correct
• soos my horlosie = possible, but it repeats the noun
• soos myne = more natural when the noun is already understood

In other words:

• my = my
• myne = mine

That is exactly the same difference as in English.

Meneer is being used as a form of direct address, like Sir in English.

The comma shows that the speaker is addressing the person directly:

• ..., Meneer. = ..., Sir.

You could also put it at the beginning:

• Meneer, u horlosie is nie so oud soos myne nie.

That means the same thing. Putting Meneer at the end is just another natural way to say it.

It is capitalized because it is being used as a title or direct form of address.

Compare:

• Daardie meneer staan buite. = That gentleman is standing outside.
• Goeiemôre, Meneer. = Good morning, Sir.

In your sentence, it is directly addressing the person, so the capital letter is natural.

The informal version would usually be:

• Jou horlosie is nie so oud soos myne nie.

Here, jou replaces formal u.

So the difference is mainly tone:

• U horlosie ... = polite, formal, respectful
• Jou horlosie ... = informal, everyday, used with friends, family, or people you know well