'n Nuwe eeu begin.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, the equivalent of English a or an.

So:

• 'n nuwe eeu = a new century

The apostrophe is just part of the spelling. It is not a contraction in the English sense.

A useful writing rule:

• At the start of a sentence, the next word is usually capitalized, not 'n itself.

So you normally write:

• 'n Nuwe eeu begin.

not:

• 'N nuwe eeu begin.

Because it is the first full word of the sentence.

In Afrikaans, when a sentence begins with 'n, the article itself usually stays lowercase, and the following word gets the capital letter:

• 'n Nuwe eeu begin.

But in the middle of a sentence, it would be:

• Ek sien 'n nuwe eeu.

So the capital letter is not special to nuwe; it is just there because of sentence position.

Nuut is the basic form meaning new, but when it comes before a noun, Afrikaans often uses an inflected adjective form.

So:

• nuut = new
• 'n nuwe eeu = a new century

This is very common in Afrikaans. Many adjectives change form before nouns.

Compare:

• Die boek is nuut. = The book is new.
• 'n nuwe boek = a new book

So in your sentence, nuwe is the correct form because it comes directly before eeu.

Eeu means century.

So:

• 'n nuwe eeu = a new century

It can also be used in broader or more literary ways, similar to English age or era, depending on context, but century is the most direct meaning here.

'n is usually pronounced as a very weak, unstressed sound, like the a in English about or the uh sound called a schwa.

It is not usually stressed the way English an can be.

So 'n nuwe eeu sounds roughly like:

• uh NUH-vuh EE-uh

That is only an approximation, but the key point is that 'n is very short and weak.

Eeu can be tricky for English speakers because it has a vowel combination that does not match a common English spelling pattern.

A rough guide is something like:

• ee-uh

but said smoothly as one word.

So the whole sentence is roughly:

• uh NUH-vuh EE-uh buh-GIN

The stress in begin is usually on the second syllable.

Yes, this is normal.

Afrikaans main clauses usually follow a verb-second pattern. That means the finite verb comes in the second slot of the sentence.

In this sentence:

• 'n nuwe eeu = the subject noun phrase
• begin = the finite verb

Even though 'n nuwe eeu has three written words, it counts as one sentence element. So the verb is still in the normal second position:

• ['n nuwe eeu] [begin]

This is not unusual word order; it is exactly what you would expect in a simple statement.

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form for person or number in the present tense.

So the same verb form is used with different subjects:

• Ek begin = I begin
• Hy begin = he begins
• Hulle begin = they begin

That is much simpler than English, where you have begin but also begins.

So in 'n Nuwe eeu begin, there is no special ending like English -s.

Yes, it is present tense.

Begin here can often be translated as:

• begins
• is beginning

depending on context.

Afrikaans simple present is often broader than English simple present. It can express a general present meaning or something currently happening, depending on the situation.

So without more context, 'n Nuwe eeu begin most naturally means:

• A new century begins or
• A new century is beginning

Yes. That would mean:

• A new century has begun or
• A new century began

The difference is:

• 'n Nuwe eeu begin = present / immediate sense
• 'n Nuwe eeu het begin = completed action, using the perfect tense

So both are grammatical, but they are not exactly the same in meaning.

Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender the way languages like German or Dutch do.

So you do not have to learn different indefinite articles for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns. You just use 'n for all singular countable nouns:

• 'n boek = a book
• 'n vrou = a woman
• 'n kind = a child
• 'n eeu = a century

That makes noun phrases much simpler for learners.

Yes—this short sentence shows several very common Afrikaans patterns:

• 'n for a/an
• adjective before noun: nuwe eeu
• adjective form change: nuut → nuwe
• no verb ending for he/she/it
• normal main-clause word order with the verb in second position

So although it is a very short sentence, it is actually a good example of core Afrikaans grammar.