Die geboorte van die baba was gister.

Because die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

• die geboorte = the birth
• die baba = the baby

Afrikaans uses die for all nouns, regardless of gender. So unlike languages such as German or Dutch, you do not have to learn different forms like the for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns.

No. In this sentence, both instances of die mean the.

Afrikaans die can sometimes look confusing to English speakers because it is used very often, but here it is just the normal definite article:

• die geboorte = the birth
• die baba = the baby

If you want to say this, Afrikaans usually uses hierdie.

van means of here.

So:

• die geboorte van die baba = the birth of the baby

This is a very common Afrikaans structure:

• die naam van die stad = the name of the city
• die kleur van die motor = the color of the car

English often has two options:

• the birth of the baby
• the baby’s birth

Afrikaans usually uses the van structure more naturally in cases like this.

Yes, but the van structure is very common and straightforward in Afrikaans.

So:

• die geboorte van die baba = the birth of the baby

Afrikaans can use possessive forms in some contexts, but with a noun like geboorte, the van phrase sounds very normal. For learners, van = of is a reliable way to understand and build this kind of phrase.

Because the sentence refers to the past: yesterday.

• is = is
• was = was

Since gister means yesterday, the verb has to match past time:

• Die geboorte van die baba is vandag. = The birth of the baby is today.
• Die geboorte van die baba was gister. = The birth of the baby was yesterday.

That is a normal Afrikaans word order.

In a simple main clause, Afrikaans usually keeps the conjugated verb in the second position:

• Die geboorte van die baba = subject
• was = verb
• gister = time expression

So the pattern is: Subject + verb + time

This is very natural in Afrikaans:

• Hy was gister hier. = He was here yesterday.
• Ons gaan môre dorp toe. = We are going to town tomorrow.

Yes. That is also grammatical.

Afrikaans often allows a time expression to come first for emphasis. When that happens, the verb still stays in second position:

• Die geboorte van die baba was gister.
• Gister was die geboorte van die baba.

Both are correct. The second version gives a bit more emphasis to yesterday.

It is grammatical, but in everyday speech many speakers would more naturally say:

Die baba is gister gebore.

That means The baby was born yesterday.

Your original sentence is more literal: Die geboorte van die baba was gister.
= The birth of the baby was yesterday.

So the given sentence is fine, but it sounds a little more formal or noun-based than the more everyday verb-based version.

geboorte is a noun. It means birth.

It comes from the same idea as the verb gebore in is gebore (is born / was born), but here it is being used as a thing or event:

• geboorte = birth (noun)
• gebore = born (used in phrases like is gebore)

So:

• Die geboorte van die baba = The birth of the baby
• Die baba is gebore = The baby is/was born

Because Afrikaans nouns usually do not change form in the way nouns do in some other languages.

In this sentence:

• die baba stays baba
• van die baba also stays baba

Afrikaans does not have a case system like German, and nouns generally do not change depending on their role in the sentence. That makes structures like this simpler for English speakers.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

guh-BOOR-tuh

A few notes:

• the ge- at the start is usually a soft unstressed syllable
• boor sounds roughly like boor in English
• the final -te is a light tuh

The stress is usually on BOOR.

No. Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way Dutch or German do.

That is why the article is simply die for both nouns:

• die geboorte
• die baba

You do not need to memorize separate masculine, feminine, or neuter articles for nouns in Afrikaans.