Die passasiersregte is belangrik.

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

A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all grammatical genders

So unlike English, you do not change the article depending on number or gender.

Afrikaans usually writes compound nouns as one word, much more consistently than English does.

So:

• passasiersregte = passasiers
  • regte

This is the normal Afrikaans way to write passenger rights or passengers' rights.
If you separated it into two words, it would look unnatural or incorrect in standard Afrikaans.

That -s- links the first part of the compound to the second part.

In practice, passasiersregte corresponds closely to English passengers' rights. The first part, passasiers-, refers to passengers, and the second part, regte, means rights.

So the word is built in a way that feels like:

• passasiers = passengers
• regte = rights

Together: passasiersregte.

It is plural.

The key part is regte, which is the plural of reg.

So:

• reg = right
• regte = rights

That means:

• passasiersreg = passenger right
• passasiersregte = passenger rights

Because in Afrikaans, the present tense of to be is much simpler than in English.

Afrikaans uses is with:

• I
• you
• he/she/it
• we
• they

So both of these are correct:

• Die passasiersreg is belangrik.
• Die passasiersregte is belangrik.

Even though the second subject is plural, the verb is still is.

Here belangrik comes after the verb is, so it is being used predicatively. In that position, Afrikaans normally uses the basic adjective form.

So:

• Die passasiersregte is belangrik. = The passenger rights are important.

But when the adjective comes before the noun, Afrikaans often uses -e:

• die belangrike passasiersregte = the important passenger rights

So the difference is mainly about position:

• after is → belangrik
• before the noun → often belangrike

The word order is very straightforward and similar to English:

• Die passasiersregte = subject
• is = verb
• belangrik = predicate adjective

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + adjective

That is why the sentence feels familiar to an English speaker.

You would say:

Die passasiersreg is belangrik.

The only change is the noun:

• passasiersreg = passenger right
• passasiersregte = passenger rights

The verb stays is in both cases.

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation is:

• die → dee
• passasiersregte → roughly pah-sah-SEERS-rekh-tuh
• belangrik → roughly buh-LUNG-rik

A few notes:

• The g in words like regte is not like English g in go. It is a throaty sound, similar to the ch in Scottish loch.
• die in Afrikaans does not sound like the English verb die.

Sometimes, yes, depending on the meaning.

With die, the phrase is specifically the passenger rights.
Without die, Passasiersregte is belangrik can sound more like a general statement: Passenger rights are important.

So:

• Die passasiersregte is belangrik. = the passenger rights are important
• Passasiersregte is belangrik. = passenger rights are important

Both can be grammatical, but they are not exactly the same in nuance.