Die betalingspertyd is vandag.

Die is the definite article, so here it means the.

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans does not have different forms of the for gender. It also uses die for both singular and plural nouns, depending on context.

So in this sentence, die betalingspertyd = the payment deadline / the payment cut-off time.

Because Afrikaans normally writes compound nouns as one word.

So instead of separating the idea into multiple words, Afrikaans joins the parts together:

• betaling = payment
• spertyd = deadline / cut-off time

Together they form betalingspertyd.

This is very common in Afrikaans, so long nouns like this are normal.

Yes — and that is often the best way to learn long Afrikaans words.

You can read it as:

• betaling = payment
• spertyd = deadline, closing time, cut-off time

So the whole word refers to the payment deadline or payment cut-off time.

Learning to spot compound parts is very helpful in Afrikaans.

No. In this word, the s is not showing a plural.

It comes from the second part, spertyd. So betalingspertyd is still a singular noun.

That means the sentence is talking about one payment deadline, not several.

Yes, is is the present-tense form of to be here, but Afrikaans uses it more simply than English.

In English, you have:

• I am
• you are
• he is

In Afrikaans, all of these use is:

• ek is
• jy is
• hy is
• ons is

So Afrikaans does not change this verb in the present tense the way English does.

Because vandag already means today, and Afrikaans normally uses it directly as a time expression.

So:

• is vandag = is today

You do not need a word like on before it.

This is similar to English, where you say The deadline is today, not The deadline is on today.

This is the normal Afrikaans order for a simple statement:

• Die betalingspertyd = subject
• is = verb
• vandag = time expression / complement

So the pattern is basically:

subject + verb + rest

You can also move vandag to the front for emphasis:

Vandag is die betalingspertyd.

When that happens, Afrikaans still keeps the verb in the second position, which is a very important word-order rule.

A rough learner-friendly guide is:

• Die ≈ dee
• betalingspertyd ≈ be-TA-ling-SPER-teit
• is ≈ iss
• vandag ≈ fun-DAKH or vun-DAKH

A few notes:

• The g in vandag is the typical Afrikaans throaty sound.
• The main stresses are usually on TA in betalingspertyd and DAKH in vandag.
• Die is not pronounced like the English verb die.

A careful slow version would be:

dee be-TA-ling-SPER-teit iss vun-DAKH