My vriend snuffel by die stalletjie rond.

Yes. In Afrikaans, my means my.

So my vriend = my friend.

A useful extra point: Afrikaans my is also the object form me, depending on context:

• My vriend = my friend
• Hy sien my = He sees me

So the word is the same, but the sentence structure tells you whether it means my or me.

Normally, no. Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form for different subjects in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek snuffel = I browse/sniff around
• Jy snuffel = you browse/sniff around
• Hy snuffel = he browses/sniffs around
• My vriend snuffel = my friend browses/sniffs around

This is much simpler than English, where you say I browse but he browses.

Literally, snuffel can mean sniff or snuffle, especially with the nose.

But in a sentence like this, it often means something more like:

• browse around
• look around
• poke around
• nose around

So the idea is that the friend is looking through things casually, probably with curiosity, rather than buying something immediately.

Rond means around.

With snuffel, it gives the sense of sniffing/browsing around rather than just one quick action. It makes the action feel more wandering or exploratory.

Compare:

• snuffel = sniff / browse
• snuffel rond = sniff around / browse around

So rond adds the idea of moving about or searching casually.

Because in Afrikaans, words like rond often behave like a separable particle or adverb that comes later in the clause.

So in a main clause you often get:

• My vriend snuffel ... rond.

This is similar to how some Germanic languages split verb-like combinations.

The important thing for a learner is:

• snuffel rond belongs together in meaning
• but rond is often placed later in the sentence

So even though English says browse around, Afrikaans may separate the two parts.

Here, by means something like:

• at
• by
• sometimes near

So by die stalletjie means at the stall or by the stall.

It tells you the location where the browsing is happening.

Afrikaans by is very common for being at a place:

• Ek is by die huis = I am at home
• Sy staan by die deur = She is standing by the door

So in this sentence, it marks the stall as the place where your friend is looking around.

Stalletjie means little stall, small stand, or booth.

It is a diminutive form of stal.

Afrikaans uses diminutives a lot, and they are very common in everyday speech. A diminutive can suggest:

• small size
• affection
• informality
• sometimes just the normal everyday way to refer to something

So:

• stal = stall
• stalletjie = little stall / stall booth

The ending -tjie is one of the common diminutive endings in Afrikaans.

Because Afrikaans has just one common definite article: die.

So:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kind = the child
• die stalletjie = the stall

Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender articles like German or Dutch. That makes articles much easier for learners.

It can do either, depending on context.

My vriend snuffel by die stalletjie rond can mean:

• My friend is browsing around at the stall
  if you are describing what is happening now

or

• My friend browses around at the stall
  if you are talking about a repeated or habitual action

Afrikaans present tense often covers both meanings, just like English present forms sometimes do.

Yes, to some extent. Afrikaans word order is flexible, but the finite verb usually stays in the second position in a main clause.

The basic sentence is:

• My vriend snuffel by die stalletjie rond.

You could also move the location to the front for emphasis:

• By die stalletjie snuffel my vriend rond.

That sounds more like At the stall, my friend is browsing around.

What you should notice is that when something else moves to the front, the verb still stays in second position:

• By die stalletjie
  • snuffel
    • my vriend
      • rond

It is a very natural combination, yes.

It is not an idiom in the sense that the words lose their meanings completely, but together they form a common idea: to browse around / nose around / sniff around.

So a learner should understand it as a unit of meaning:

• snuffel = browse/sniff
• rond = around
• snuffel rond = browse around / nose around

That will help the sentence feel more natural than translating each word too mechanically.