Afrikaans and English are both Germanic languages, so some very common words look similar. Is in Afrikaans means is in English.
A useful difference, though, is that Afrikaans verbs do not change much for different subjects in the present tense.
For example:
So is stays the same.
Because after is, Afrikaans adjectives usually stay in their basic form.
This is called predicative use of the adjective.
So:
But when an adjective comes before a noun, it often takes -e:
So:
A rough learner-friendly pronunciation is:
LAY-ding or LAY-dung
with the first syllable sounding roughly like lay
A few notes:
So do not pronounce it like lid-ing.
A rough approximation is:
AIRN-stikh or ERN-stikh
Important points:
If you cannot do the guttural sound yet, saying something close to ernstik is often understandable for a beginner.
Yes, it is grammatical and understandable.
However, depending on context, it may sound a bit formal or abstract, because lyding is a fairly weighty noun, like suffering in English.
In everyday speech, people might sometimes choose a more specific or more common expression, depending on what they mean:
But if the intended meaning is specifically the suffering is serious/severe, then Die lyding is ernstig is fine.
Yes, but that would change the meaning slightly.
Compare:
Without die, the sentence becomes more general or abstract, like speaking about suffering in general rather than a particular suffering.
No. Standard Afrikaans uses is, not a contraction like English it's or he's.
So the correct standard form is:
Afrikaans generally does not use apostrophe contractions the way English does for forms of to be.