Sy is inderdaad hier.

she

Breakdown of Sy is inderdaad hier.

• hier: here
• wees: to be
• inderdaad: indeed

Questions & Answers about Sy is inderdaad hier.

What does Sy mean here? Could it also mean his?

Here Sy means she.

Afrikaans sy can also mean his in other sentences, for example sy boek = his book. But in Sy is inderdaad hier, the word comes before the verb is, so it is clearly the subject pronoun she.

Because it is at the beginning of the sentence, it is capitalized as Sy, but that does not change the meaning.

Is is used the same way as English is?

Yes, very much so. Is is the present-tense form of to be, just like English is.

So:

• Sy is hier = She is here
• Hy is hier = He is here
• Ek is hier = I am here

One important difference from English is that Afrikaans does not change this verb the way English does. You use is with all persons:

• Ek is = I am
• Jy is = you are
• Hy is = he is
• Sy is = she is
• Ons is = we are

So English has am / are / is, but Afrikaans just uses is.

What does mean exactly?