Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien, koop ek niks.

Tensy means unless.

It introduces a condition:

• Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien ... = Unless I see the price tag ...

A useful way to think about it is:

• tensy = if not / unless

After tensy, Afrikaans normally uses an ordinary positive verb form:

• Tensy ek dit sien ... not
• Tensy ek dit nie sien nie ...

So the negative idea is already built into tensy.

Because tensy introduces a subordinate clause.

In Afrikaans, subordinate clauses usually send the conjugated verb to the end. So:

• Tensy
  • ek
    • die pryskaartjie
      • sien

That is why you get:

• Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien

and not:

• Tensy ek sien die pryskaartjie

This is very common in Afrikaans after words like dat, omdat, as, wanneer, terwyl, and tensy.

Because the sentence starts with another element first: the whole tensy clause.

Afrikaans main clauses follow a verb-second pattern. That means the finite verb usually comes second in the clause. If something other than the subject comes first, the verb comes before the subject.

Here, the first position is taken by:

• Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien

So the main clause begins:

• koop ek ...

Compare:

• Ek koop niks nie.
  Normal order when the subject comes first.

• Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien, koop ek niks nie.
  Inversion after the opening clause.

In standard written Afrikaans, most learners should expect:

• Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien, koop ek niks nie.

Afrikaans normally uses double negation, and with niks, the sentence usually still ends with nie.

So for learning purposes, the safest standard version is:

• Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien, koop ek niks nie.

If you ever see niks without the final nie, treat that as something you may encounter, but not the form you should copy first as a learner.

Niks means nothing.

So literally:

• koop ek niks = I buy nothing

But in natural English, this is often translated as:

• I don’t buy anything

That is a good example of how Afrikaans and English handle negatives differently:

• Afrikaans often uses niks
• English often prefers not ... anything

In standard Afrikaans, you would usually say:

• koop ek niks nie

Die means the, so it points to a specific price tag.

That suggests:

• the particular price tag on the item
• the price tag the speaker expects to see before buying

If you said:

• ’n pryskaartjie

that would mean:

• a price tag
• any price tag, more general and less specific

So both are possible, but they are slightly different in meaning:

• die pryskaartjie = the specific price tag
• ’n pryskaartjie = any/a price tag

It is a compound noun, which is very common in Afrikaans.

It breaks down as:

• prys = price
• kaartjie = little card / ticket / tag

So pryskaartjie means something like:

• price tag
• price label

The ending -tjie is a diminutive ending. Very often in Afrikaans, diminutives are simply the normal everyday word and do not always need to be translated as little.

So you usually just translate pryskaartjie as price tag, not necessarily little price card.

Afrikaans often uses the present tense for:

• general habits
• rules
• future situations
• conditional statements

So:

• sien
• koop

do not have to mean only right now. They can describe a general rule or future behavior.

Here the sentence can mean something like:

• Unless I see the price tag, I won’t buy anything even though Afrikaans uses present forms.

This is very normal.

Yes, it is normal here.

The comma separates:

1. the opening subordinate clause
   
   • Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien
2. the main clause
   
   • koop ek niks nie

So the standard punctuation is:

• Tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien, koop ek niks nie.

The comma makes the structure much clearer.

Yes. You can also say:

• Ek koop niks nie tensy ek die pryskaartjie sien.

That means the same thing.

The difference is mainly word order:

• If the main clause comes first: Ek koop ...
• If the tensy clause comes first: koop ek ... in the main clause because of inversion

Both are natural, but the version with tensy first puts stronger emphasis on the condition.