Die bydrae is belangrik.

No. In Afrikaans, die is pronounced dee, not dye.

A rough pronunciation of the whole sentence is:

dee BAY-draa-uh is buh-LUNG-rik

That is only an approximation, but it is much closer than reading die the English way.

Here die is the definite article, meaning the.

A useful point for English speakers: Afrikaans uses die for both singular and plural definite nouns. It does not change for grammatical gender.

So:

• die bydrae = the contribution
• die bydraes = the contributions

No, Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way German does. You do not need to learn different words for the depending on whether a noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter.

So die stays die regardless of gender, and it is also used for plural nouns.

Is is the present-tense form of to be in Afrikaans, and Afrikaans is much simpler than English here.

You use is with all persons and numbers:

• ek is = I am
• jy is = you are
• hy/sy is = he/she is
• ons is = we are
• hulle is = they are

So even if the noun were plural, you would still use is:

Die bydraes is belangrik.

Because the adjective comes after is. In that position, Afrikaans usually uses the basic adjective form.

So:

• Die bydrae is belangrik. = adjective after is
• 'n belangrike bydrae = adjective before the noun

This is a very common pattern in Afrikaans:

• after is → basic form
• before a noun → often -e form

In this sentence, yes. The structure is:

subject + is + adjective

So it matches English quite closely:

• Die bydrae = subject
• is = verb
• belangrik = adjective/complement

That makes this sentence quite straightforward for an English speaker.

The plural is bydraes.

So the plural sentence is:

Die bydraes is belangrik.

Notice two important things:

• bydrae becomes bydraes
• is does not change

Yes. Bydrae is related to the verb bydra, meaning to contribute.

That is useful because it helps you connect the noun and the verb:

• bydra = to contribute
• bydrae = contribution

Seeing these word families is very helpful when building vocabulary in Afrikaans.

Put the verb first:

Is die bydrae belangrik?

That is a standard Afrikaans pattern for yes/no questions.

Afrikaans usually uses a two-part negative:

Die bydrae is nie belangrik nie.

This is a very important pattern to learn. In many ordinary negative sentences, Afrikaans uses nie ... nie around the part being negated or across the sentence structure.