It can mean food or meal, depending on context.
In this sentence, die kos could mean:
With maak, it often has the natural sense of preparing/cooking food.
So even if the literal meaning is make the food, the natural English translation might sometimes be cook the meal.
Here self means herself in the sense of personally or without someone else doing it for her.
So the idea is:
It adds emphasis to who does the action.
It does not mean that she is the object of the verb. In other words, this is not the same as She makes herself food.
Because self here is an emphasizing word, not a reflexive object pronoun.
Compare these:
Sy maak die kos self. = She makes the food herself.
Sy maak vir haarself kos. = She makes food for herself.
So:
That is an important difference.
That is a very normal Afrikaans word order.
In a simple main clause, Afrikaans usually puts the finite verb in the second position:
Then the object comes:
And self often comes later in the clause as emphasis:
This sounds natural and neutral.
You may also see other patterns for different emphasis, for example:
But Sy maak die kos self is a very standard way to say it.
Not necessarily.
self means that she personally does it. It does not automatically mean she is alone.
If you want to say by herself or alone, Afrikaans often uses:
For example:
So self is more about who does it, not whether other people are present.
Afrikaans normally uses double nie for negation.
So:
This is the usual pattern:
That double negative structure is very typical of Afrikaans.
It is in the present tense.
Depending on context, it can mean things like:
Afrikaans present tense can sometimes cover both a habitual meaning and a current meaning, depending on context.
If you want to be more explicitly progressive, Afrikaans often uses:
But the simple present sentence is completely normal.
A rough guide is:
A rough full pronunciation guide could be:
That is only an approximation, but it can help as a starting point.
Yes, very often.
Although maak literally means make, Afrikaans often uses it in situations where English might naturally say:
So depending on the context, Sy maak die kos self could be understood naturally as: