Sy herlaai die lugtyd.

Here Sy means she.

Afrikaans sy can also mean his when it is possessive, for example sy boek = his book. In this sentence, though, Sy is followed by the verb herlaai, so it is clearly the subject pronoun she.

It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

Herlaai is built from:

• her- = re- / again
• laai = load

So the literal idea is reload. In everyday English, for phone credit, top up is often the most natural translation.

Yes. Herlaai is one word.

The her- part is a real prefix attached to the verb, not a separate word. So you write herlaai, not her laai.

A useful extra point: verbs with prefixes like her- usually do not take an extra ge- in the perfect tense. So:

• Sy het die lugtyd herlaai. = She topped up the airtime.

Lugtyd means airtime, especially prepaid mobile phone credit in South African usage.

It is a compound noun:

• lug = air
• tyd = time

Afrikaans normally writes compound nouns as one word, so lugtyd is correct.

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

So die lugtyd = the airtime.

A few useful things about die:

• it does not change for gender
• it is used for both singular and plural
• it is the normal word for the

If you wanted to say her airtime, you would normally say haar lugtyd, not die lugtyd.

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek herlaai
• Jy herlaai
• Sy herlaai
• Ons herlaai

This is much simpler than English, where you have I reload but she reloads.

In this simple sentence, yes. It is:

• Sy = subject
• herlaai = verb
• die lugtyd = object

So it follows a normal subject–verb–object pattern, like English.

But Afrikaans has an important extra rule: in many sentences, the finite verb must stay in second position. For example:

• Vandag herlaai sy die lugtyd. = Today she tops up the airtime.

And in a subordinate clause, the verb often moves to the end:

• ..., omdat sy die lugtyd herlaai. = ..., because she tops up the airtime.

Yes. The Afrikaans present tense often covers both:

• she tops up
• she is topping up

Context usually tells you which meaning is intended.

If you want to make the ongoing action very explicit, Afrikaans can use:

• Sy is besig om die lugtyd te herlaai.

That is closer to She is busy topping up the airtime / She is topping up the airtime.

You would say:

Sy herlaai nie die lugtyd nie.

Afrikaans usually uses a double nie in ordinary negation:

• first nie after the verb
• second nie near the end of the clause

That double negative pattern is one of the most important features of Afrikaans sentence structure.