'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, equivalent to English a or an.
So:
The apostrophe is just part of the normal spelling. A few useful points:
Also, if it starts a sentence, the 'n itself still stays lowercase:
So unlike English, you do not write 'N.
Because goeie is the attributive form of the adjective goed.
In Afrikaans, adjectives often change when they come before a noun.
Compare:
So:
This is a very common pattern in Afrikaans.
This is because some Afrikaans adjectives have spelling changes in the attributive form.
With goed, the attributive form is:
So it is not goede in normal modern Afrikaans here, but goeie.
This is simply a form you need to learn as a common pattern. You will see it often:
Very nearly, yes. Basis in Afrikaans usually means basis, foundation, or grounds depending on context.
So 'n goeie basis can suggest:
Because the meaning has already been given to the learner, the key thing to notice is that this is also a very transparent cognate for an English speaker.
A rough guide is:
Die besluit het 'n goeie basis
≈ dee buh-SLUYT het uh KHOO-ee-uh BAH-sis
A few pronunciation notes:
This is only an approximation, but it can help at the start.
No, not in the way they do in some other Germanic languages.
Afrikaans has largely lost grammatical gender and case marking in everyday noun phrases. That means:
So this sentence is grammatically much simpler than the equivalent in languages like German or Dutch.
Almost, yes:
So the word-for-word translation is:
The decision has a good basis.
That is understandable English, though depending on context, English might more naturally say:
So the Afrikaans sentence is straightforward, but the most natural English translation may vary a little by context.