In Afrikaans, the present tense of wees (to be) is much simpler than in English. The form is is used with all persons and numbers in the present tense:
So even though spelers is plural, is is still correct.
This is one of the nice simplifications Afrikaans has compared with English.
Here, opgewonde is functioning as an adjective.
It comes after the verb is and describes the subject die spelers. In other words, it tells you what the players are like or how they feel.
This is called a predicate adjective: it appears after a linking verb such as is.
So the structure is:
Afrikaans adjectives do not behave like English learners often expect from other languages. In this sentence, opgewonde comes after the verb is, so it stays unchanged.
Compare:
The adjective stays opgewonde in both cases.
This is normal in Afrikaans. When an adjective is used after a linking verb like is, it does not change for singular or plural.
That is a very reasonable question. Opgewonde does look like a past participle, and historically it is related to that kind of form. But in this sentence, it is best understood as an adjective.
So Die spelers is opgewonde is not a perfect tense construction. It does not mean something like the players have excited.
Instead, it simply uses is + adjective:
So for learners, the safest way to read it here is as an adjective describing a state.
Yes. In a yes/no question, the verb usually comes first:
That is the normal question pattern in Afrikaans.
So you can compare:
This verb-first pattern is very common in Afrikaans questions.
The sentence follows a very straightforward pattern:
Subject + verb + adjective
So:
For an English speaker, this is a familiar structure, because it works much like:
So although some individual words are different, the overall grammar is very accessible.