Hoe gouer ons afvee, hoe minder gevaarlik is die werkplek.

It is the Afrikaans way to express the English pattern the ..., the ... in comparisons.

So:

Hoe gouer ons afvee, hoe minder gevaarlik is die werkplek.
= The sooner we wipe up, the less dangerous the workplace is.

In this structure, the first part sets up a comparison, and the second part shows the result.

Examples:

• Hoe harder jy werk, hoe beter doen jy.
  The harder you work, the better you do.
• Hoe langer ek wag, hoe slegter voel ek.
  The longer I wait, the worse I feel.

Not in the normal question sense.

Afrikaans hoe can mean how in questions, as in:

• Hoe gaan dit? = How are things?

But in this sentence, hoe is part of the fixed comparative pattern hoe ..., hoe ..., where it means something like the more / the less / the sooner.

So here, you should not read it as a literal how question word.

Gouer is the comparative form of gou.

• gou = soon / quickly
• gouer = sooner / more quickly

Afrikaans often forms comparatives with -er, just like English sometimes does:

• groot → groter
• klein → kleiner
• gou → gouer

In this sentence, hoe gouer means the sooner.

Because this sentence is expressing less dangerous, not more dangerous.

Afrikaans commonly uses:

• meer + adjective = more ...
• minder + adjective = less ...

So:

• meer gevaarlik = more dangerous
• minder gevaarlik = less dangerous

You may also see forms like gevaarliker for more dangerous, but for less dangerous, Afrikaans uses minder gevaarlik.

Because afvee is a separable verb.

In a normal main clause, the verb splits:

• Ons vee af. = We wipe up / wipe off.

But in subordinate-style clauses and in infinitive forms, the parts stay together:

• dat ons afvee
• om af te vee

The first hoe clause in your sentence behaves like a subordinate clause, so the verb appears as afvee at the end:

Hoe gouer ons afvee ...

That is why you do not get ons vee af here.

Because the second hoe clause is structured like a main clause with a fronted element.

The phrase hoe minder gevaarlik comes first for emphasis, and Afrikaans main clauses then place the finite verb in second position. That gives:

hoe minder gevaarlik + is + die werkplek

So the word order is following the normal Afrikaans verb-second pattern.

You can think of it like this:

• basic statement: Die werkplek is minder gevaarlik.
• with fronting: Hoe minder gevaarlik is die werkplek.

That is why is appears before the subject.

Because gevaarlik is being used predicatively, after is.

In Afrikaans, adjectives usually do not take -e when they come after a linking verb like is:

• Die werkplek is gevaarlik.
• Die werkplek is minder gevaarlik.

But before a noun, they often do take -e:

• 'n gevaarlike werkplek = a dangerous workplace

So:

• gevaarlike werkplek = adjective before the noun
• die werkplek is gevaarlik = adjective after is

Not exactly, although both can sometimes translate as sooner.

• gou / gouer focuses on soon / sooner, often with the sense of without delay
• vroeg / vroeër focuses more on early / earlier

So in this sentence:

• Hoe gouer ons afvee ... sounds like The sooner / the quicker we wipe up ...

If you said Hoe vroeër ons afvee ..., it would sound more like The earlier we wipe up ...

Both may work in some contexts, but gouer is very natural when the idea is the faster we get to it.

Yes. Werkplek is a compound noun:

• werk = work
• plek = place

So werkplek literally means workplace.

Afrikaans very often writes compound nouns as one word, just like Dutch and German often do. This is very normal in the language.

Other examples:

• skooltas = school bag
• huisdeur = house door
• sonlig = sunlight

The comma separates the two linked parts of the comparative pattern:

Hoe gouer ons afvee, hoe minder gevaarlik is die werkplek.

This is standard and helps show the relationship between:

• the first comparison
• the result in the second clause

It works much like the pause you would naturally make in English: The sooner we wipe up, the less dangerous the workplace is.

Afvee can cover a few related ideas depending on context, such as wipe off, wipe up, or sometimes clear away by wiping/sweeping.

The exact English choice depends on what is being cleaned:

• liquid on a floor: wipe up
• dust from a surface: wipe off
• general mess: sometimes clean up

So the Afrikaans verb is flexible, and the context tells you which English translation sounds best. In your sentence, the important idea is simply that cleaning the area sooner makes the workplace safer.