Hy is skuldig.

Hy means he.

It is the third-person singular masculine subject pronoun, used when talking about one male person.

Examples:

• Hy is moeg. — He is tired.
• Hy is skuldig. — He is guilty.

A beginner should also notice that hy is written with a lowercase letter unless it starts the sentence.

Is is the present-tense form of to be in Afrikaans.

In this sentence, it links hy and skuldig, just like English he is guilty.

A very useful thing to know is that Afrikaans does not change this verb for different persons in the present tense:

• Ek is — I am
• Jy is — you are
• Hy is — he is
• Ons is — we are
• Julle is — you all are
• Hulle is — they are

So unlike English, you do not have to memorize am / is / are. Afrikaans simply uses is.

Skuldig is an adjective.

In Hy is skuldig, it describes the subject hy, so it works as a predicate adjective — an adjective that comes after the verb is.

Compare:

• Hy is skuldig. — He is guilty.
• Hy is siek. — He is sick.
• Hy is gelukkig. — He is happy.

So the pattern is:

subject + is + adjective

Because it comes after is.

In Afrikaans, adjectives often stay in their basic form when they are used after a linking verb like is.

So you say:

• Hy is skuldig.
• Sy is skuldig.
• Hulle is skuldig.

The adjective does not change for gender or number here.

But when an adjective comes before a noun, it often takes -e:

• die skuldige man — the guilty man
• die skuldige vrou — the guilty woman

So:

• after is: skuldig
• before a noun: often skuldige

Yes, in this simple sentence it is very similar to English:

Hy + is + skuldig
He + is + guilty

So the basic structure is straightforward for English speakers.

However, it is helpful to know two related patterns:

Question:

• Is hy skuldig? — Is he guilty?

Subordinate clause:

• Ek dink dat hy skuldig is. — I think that he is guilty.

In a subordinate clause, Afrikaans often sends the verb to the end:

• ... dat hy skuldig is

That is something English speakers often need to get used to.

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation is:

• Hy ≈ hey
• is ≈ iss or a softer iz/əs, depending on speech
• skuldig ≈ SKUL-dikh or SKUL-dukh

A few notes:

• Hy is not pronounced like English high.
• The g in skuldig is the guttural Afrikaans/Dutch-type sound, not the English g in go.
• The stress is usually on the first syllable: SKUL-dig.

If you are a beginner, saying something close to hey iss SKUL-dikh will usually be understandable.

Not always.

In this sentence, skuldig most naturally means guilty.

But Afrikaans can also use skuldig in the sense of owing someone something.

For example:

• Ek is jou 'n verduideliking skuldig. — I owe you an explanation.

So the exact meaning depends on context.
When the sentence is simply Hy is skuldig, the normal interpretation is He is guilty.

You use Afrikaans double negation:

Hy is nie skuldig nie. — He is not guilty.

This is very important in Afrikaans. In many ordinary negative sentences, you use nie ... nie.

Pattern:

• Hy is skuldig.
• Hy is nie skuldig nie.

English speakers often forget the second nie, but in standard Afrikaans it is normally required.

You usually invert the subject and the verb:

Is hy skuldig? — Is he guilty?

This is very similar to English.

Compare:

• Hy is skuldig. — He is guilty.
• Is hy skuldig? — Is he guilty?

So the verb comes first in a yes/no question.

In informal speech and writing, you may see or hear contractions like Hy's, meaning Hy is.

So:

• Hy is skuldig.
• Hy's skuldig. (informal)

For learners, it is best to first become comfortable with the full form Hy is skuldig, since that is the clearest and safest form to produce.

Yes, absolutely.

It has:

• a subject: Hy
• a verb: is
• a complement: skuldig

That makes it a full grammatical sentence in Afrikaans.

Afrikaans often allows very short complete sentences like this:

• Dit is waar. — It is true.
• Sy is gereed. — She is ready.
• Hy is skuldig. — He is guilty.

Yes, it is perfectly natural and grammatical.

It could be used in contexts like:

• talking about a crime or accusation
• giving an opinion
• stating a conclusion

For example:

• Die hof sê hy is skuldig. — The court says he is guilty.
• Ek dink hy is skuldig. — I think he is guilty.

On its own, it sounds a little bare only because it has no context, not because the Afrikaans is unnatural.

No, not in this sentence.

Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender agreement like many other European languages. So skuldig does not change because the subject is male.

You can say:

• Hy is skuldig. — He is guilty.
• Sy is skuldig. — She is guilty.

The adjective stays the same.

That is much simpler than in languages where adjectives must match gender and number.