Sy meet die broodmeel af deur die kombuisskaal te gebruik.

Here it means she.

Afrikaans sy can mean either:

• she as a subject pronoun
• his as a possessive word before a noun

In this sentence, Sy is followed by the verb meet, so it is clearly the subject: She measures out...

Compare:

• Sy meet die broodmeel af. = She measures out the bread flour.
• sy broodmeel = his bread flour

The capital S is only because it is the first word of the sentence.

This is a very common point of confusion. In Afrikaans, meet means measure, not meet in the English sense of encounter or get together with.

So:

• meet = measure
• ontmoet = meet someone

Examples:

• Ek meet die suiker. = I measure the sugar.
• Ek ontmoet my vriend. = I meet my friend.

So although meet looks familiar to an English speaker, its meaning here is different.

Because afmeet is a separable verb.

The full verb is afmeet, which means measure out. In a main clause, Afrikaans often splits separable verbs:

• the conjugated verb part goes earlier in the sentence
• the particle goes later, often near the end

So:

• dictionary form: afmeet
• in this sentence: meet ... af

That is why you get:

• Sy meet die broodmeel af.

Other useful comparisons:

• Sy wil die broodmeel afmeet.
  Here the infinitive stays together as afmeet.
• Sy het die broodmeel afgemeet.
  In the past participle, it becomes afgemeet.

Broodmeel is a compound noun:

• brood = bread
• meel = flour

So broodmeel means bread flour or flour for making bread, depending on context.

Afrikaans very often builds nouns this way by joining shorter words together into one compound.

Because Afrikaans usually writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• brood + meel → broodmeel
• kombuis + skaal → kombuisskaal

This is very normal in Afrikaans and also happens a lot in Dutch and German. English sometimes writes similar expressions as two words, but Afrikaans usually prefers one combined word.

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

In this sentence it appears in:

• die broodmeel = the bread flour
• die kombuisskaal = the kitchen scale

A few useful things to know about die:

• it is used for singular and plural
• it does not change for grammatical gender
• it is much simpler than articles in languages like German

So Afrikaans uses the same die in many situations where other languages might use several different forms.

This means by using the kitchen scale.

The pattern is:

• deur
  • noun phrase + te
    • infinitive

So here:

• deur = by
• die kombuisskaal = the kitchen scale
• te gebruik = to use / using

Together, it expresses the method or means of the action: she measures out the flour by using the kitchen scale.

The word te is the infinitive marker, similar to English to in some contexts.

Because deur ... te and om ... te do different jobs.

• deur ... te = by doing, showing the method
• om ... te = to / in order to, often showing purpose

In this sentence, the idea is the method: she does it by using the scale. So deur is the correct choice.

Compare:

• Sy meet die broodmeel af deur die kombuisskaal te gebruik.
  = She measures out the bread flour by using the kitchen scale.

• Sy gebruik die kombuisskaal om die broodmeel af te meet.
  = She uses the kitchen scale to measure out the bread flour.

Both are grammatical, but they focus on slightly different relationships.

Yes, very often you can.

A natural alternative would be:

• Sy meet die broodmeel met die kombuisskaal af.

That means roughly She measures out the bread flour with the kitchen scale.

The difference is mostly one of style and emphasis:

• met die kombuisskaal sounds more direct and compact
• deur die kombuisskaal te gebruik sounds a bit more explicit about the method

Both are understandable and natural.

Afrikaans main clauses normally follow the verb-second pattern.

That means the conjugated verb usually comes in the second position of the sentence. Here:

• Sy = first element
• meet = second element

Then you get the object:

• die broodmeel

Then later the separated particle:

• af

Then the phrase explaining the method:

• deur die kombuisskaal te gebruik

So the structure is basically:

Subject + finite verb + object + separable particle + extra information

If you move something else to the front, the verb still stays second:

• Deur die kombuisskaal te gebruik, meet sy die broodmeel af.

That is also correct, and it shows the same verb-second rule.