Learn Dutch: Gisteren ging ik naar het stadscentrum. - Yesterday I went to the city center.

The word stadscentrum is a compound noun made from stad (city) and centrum (center). The -s- in the middle is a linking sound (called a tussen-s) used to connect the nouns smoothly. A helpful trick for English speakers: if you can translate the connection using an English possessive 's (like the city's center), the compound very often takes a linking -s- in Dutch!

Why do we use het for stadscentrum if city is de stad?

For all compound words in Dutch, the very last noun in the chain determines the article. Since the base word is het centrum, the entire compound becomes het stadscentrum, completely ignoring that the first part is de stad.

Why is the word order ging ik and not ik ging?

Because the sentence starts with the time word Gisteren (Yesterday). Dutch uses a strict verb-second rule for main clauses. To keep the verb ging in the second position, the subject ik has to swap places with it. This swap is called inversion, and it is something learners often forget to do after time or place words.

Why use naar here to say to instead of tot?