Besoedeling is gevaarlik.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Besoedeling ≈ buh-SOO-duh-ling
• is ≈ is
• gevaarlik ≈ khuh-VAAR-lik

A few notes:

• oe in Afrikaans usually sounds like oo in food.
• g is usually a throaty sound, not a hard English g.
• aa is a long a sound.

So the whole sentence sounds roughly like:

buh-SOO-duh-ling is khuh-VAAR-lik

The sentence breaks down like this:

• Besoedeling = pollution
• is = is
• gevaarlik = dangerous

So the structure is very close to English:

• subject: Besoedeling
• verb: is
• description: gevaarlik

It is a very straightforward sentence pattern in Afrikaans.

Mostly yes in a sentence like this.

In Afrikaans, is is the present tense form of to be for all persons:

• Ek is = I am
• Jy is = you are
• Hy is = he is
• Ons is = we are
• Hulle is = they are

So unlike English, Afrikaans does not change between am / is / are in the present tense. It just uses is.

Because besoedeling is being used as a general, abstract noun here, just like English pollution in the sentence Pollution is dangerous.

You would not normally say:

• ’n besoedeling is gevaarlik for this meaning

That would sound odd, because pollution here is not one individual thing. It is the general concept.

If you wanted to talk about specific pollution, you might use die in another context, for example:

• Die besoedeling in die rivier is gevaarlik. = The pollution in the river is dangerous.

Because gevaarlik comes after the verb is, where Afrikaans normally uses the basic adjective form.

Compare:

• Die besoedeling is gevaarlik. = The pollution is dangerous.

But before a noun, Afrikaans often uses -e:

• gevaarlike besoedeling = dangerous pollution

So:

• after is → gevaarlik
• before a noun → often gevaarlike

This is a very common pattern in Afrikaans.

Yes. This sentence uses the normal main-clause order:

• Subject + verb + adjective
• Besoedeling is gevaarlik.

That is very similar to English:

• Pollution is dangerous.

So for simple statements like this, Afrikaans often feels very familiar to English speakers.

For a yes/no question, Afrikaans usually puts the verb first:

• Is besoedeling gevaarlik? = Is pollution dangerous?

So the statement:

• Besoedeling is gevaarlik.

becomes the question:

• Is besoedeling gevaarlik?

That verb-first pattern is very common in Afrikaans questions.

Afrikaans usually uses a double nie in standard negation:

• Besoedeling is nie gevaarlik nie. = Pollution is not dangerous.

This is one of the most important Afrikaans patterns to learn.

Structure:

• subject + verb + nie + rest + nie

So here:

• Besoedeling
  • is
    • nie
      • gevaarlik
        • nie

Yes. Besoedeling is related to the verb besoedel, which means to pollute.

So you can think of it roughly like this:

• besoedel = pollute
• besoedeling = pollution

The ending -ing is a common way of forming a noun from an action, similar to English endings like -ing or -tion in some cases.

Yes. Gevaarlik usually means dangerous, but depending on context it can overlap with ideas like:

• hazardous
• unsafe
• risky

Its core meaning is that something involves danger.

It comes from gevaar, meaning danger. So:

• gevaar = danger
• gevaarlik = dangerous

Yes. Besoedeling is gevaarlik is a natural and correct Afrikaans sentence.

That said, in real life speakers might also say more specific things, such as:

• Lugbesoedeling is gevaarlik. = Air pollution is dangerous.
• Waterbesoedeling is gevaarlik. = Water pollution is dangerous.

But the original sentence is perfectly normal as a general statement.