Sy skryf 'n gedig.

Here it means she, because it is the subject of the sentence.

Afrikaans sy can mean:

• she as a subject pronoun
• her as a possessive word, depending on context

In Sy skryf 'n gedig, it clearly means she, because it comes before the verb skryf and is doing the action.

One small spelling note: sy is only capitalized here because it is the first word of the sentence.

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

In English, you say:

• I write
• she writes

In Afrikaans, it stays the same:

• Ek skryf
• Sy skryf

This is one of the nice simplifications in Afrikaans grammar: no extra -s for he/she/it in the present tense.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use:

• writes
• is writing

So Sy skryf 'n gedig could mean:

• She writes a poem
• She is writing a poem

Usually the situation tells you which meaning is intended.

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

So:

• 'n gedig = a poem

A few important things about 'n:

• it is written with an apostrophe + n
• it is normally not stressed
• it is pronounced like a very weak uh sound, similar to the a in about

It is not a contraction, even though it looks a bit like one to English speakers.

That is just the normal Afrikaans spelling rule.

Even at the beginning of a sentence, 'n itself stays lowercase. Instead, the next word gets the capital letter.

For example:

• 'n Gedig is mooi.

Not:

• 'N gedig is mooi.

So in your sentence, 'n is correctly written in lowercase.

Roughly, skryf sounds like skrayf.

A few pronunciation tips:

• skr- is like English scr-
• y here sounds like the vowel in day or say, but not exactly the same
• f is just f

So an English-friendly approximation is skrayf.

Roughly, gedig is pronounced something like guh-DEKH, but with Afrikaans guttural g sounds.

Useful points:

• the first ge- is usually unstressed
• the stress falls on the second syllable: -dig
• the g sound is not like normal English g in go
• it is a throaty sound, like the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach

So the word may feel tricky at first because both the beginning and the end use sounds English does not normally have.

No. This is the basic normal Afrikaans word order:

Subject + Verb + Object

So:

• Sy = subject
• skryf = verb
• 'n gedig = object

That is very similar to standard English word order:

• She writes a poem

No. Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way some other European languages do.

You do not need to learn whether gedig is masculine, feminine, or neuter. The article 'n stays the same.

That makes Afrikaans simpler than languages like German or Dutch in this area.

You usually make a yes/no question by putting the verb before the subject:

Skryf sy 'n gedig?

So:

• statement: Sy skryf 'n gedig.
• question: Skryf sy 'n gedig?

This is similar to inversion in English, although English often needs do/does:

• Does she write a poem?

Afrikaans does not need an extra helping verb here.

The normal negative form is:

Sy skryf nie 'n gedig nie.

Afrikaans usually uses double nie in a full negative sentence:

• the first nie comes after the verb
• the second nie comes at the end of the clause

So the pattern here is:

• Sy skryf nie 'n gedig nie.

This double negative structure is one of the most important features of Afrikaans grammar.