Ek wil 'n bankrekening oopmaak.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, so it means a or an.

It is always written with an apostrophe plus a lowercase n: 'n.
That is just the normal spelling in Afrikaans.

A useful extra detail: even at the beginning of a sentence, 'n stays lowercase, and the next word gets the capital letter, for example: 'n Nuwe rekening is oop.

Afrikaans very often combines nouns into a single compound word.

So:

• bank = bank
• rekening = account

Together they form bankrekening = bank account

This is extremely common in Afrikaans. English often uses two words where Afrikaans uses one.

Because wil is a modal verb, meaning want to.

In Afrikaans main clauses, the finite verb usually comes second, and the other verb goes to the end. So:

• Ek = subject
• wil = finite verb in second position
• 'n bankrekening = object
• oopmaak = infinitive at the end

That is why the sentence is:

Ek wil 'n bankrekening oopmaak.

Because oopmaak is a separable verb.

In its full infinitive form, it is written as one word:

• oopmaak = to open

But when it is the main conjugated verb in a sentence, it usually splits:

• Ek maak 'n bankrekening oop. = I open/am opening a bank account.

After a modal verb like wil, it stays together at the end:

• Ek wil 'n bankrekening oopmaak.

So both patterns are correct; they just happen in different sentence structures.

After modal verbs such as wil, kan, moet, and sal, Afrikaans normally uses the bare infinitive, without te.

So you say:

• Ek wil oopmaak.

not:

• Ek wil te oopmaak.

English uses want to open, but Afrikaans uses wil oopmaak.

Usually no. Afrikaans verbs are much simpler than English verbs in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek wil
• Jy wil
• Hy wil
• Ons wil
• Hulle wil

The form wil stays the same.

It is usually pronounced as a very weak uh sound, like the first sound in about.

So learners should not pronounce it like the English letter N. In normal speech it is very light and unstressed.

That means 'n bankrekening sounds more like uh bankrekening than an bankrekening.

'n means a/an, while een means one.

So:

• 'n bankrekening = a bank account
• een bankrekening = one bank account

If you just mean an indefinite bank account, use 'n.
If you want to emphasize the number, use een.

Yes, you may hear open in some contexts, especially in more formal or business-like language.

But oopmaak is very common, natural, and easy to use in everyday Afrikaans. For a learner, Ek wil 'n bankrekening oopmaak is a very good sentence.

It is often fine, but if you want to sound softer or more polite, you can add graag or asseblief.

For example:

• Ek wil graag 'n bankrekening oopmaak.
• Ek wil asseblief 'n bankrekening oopmaak.

graag often gives a sense similar to would like to in English, so it can sound more polite and less blunt.