Die dorp was destyds klein.

Yes. Die is the Afrikaans definite article and here it means the.

So:

• die dorp = the town / the village

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses die for all genders and all plural nouns, so you do not have to learn separate words like the for masculine/feminine/neuter.

Dorp can mean village or small town, depending on context.

In many cases, English translations vary between:

• the village
• the town

So if the sentence has already been translated for you, that translation is probably choosing the most natural English word for the context.

Yes. Was is the past tense of wees (to be) and it corresponds to English was/were.

In this sentence:

• Die dorp was klein = The town was small

Afrikaans does not change the form here for singular/plural in the same way English does:

• English: I was, you were, they were
• Afrikaans: ek was, jy was, hulle was

So was is very common and very useful.

Destyds means something like:

• at that time
• back then
• in those days
• at the time

It adds a sense of then, in that earlier period.

So:

• Die dorp was destyds klein = The town was small back then / The town was small at the time

It is a time adverb.

Yes, adverbs like destyds can sometimes move, but the version you have is very natural.

Current sentence:

• Die dorp was destyds klein.

This has the basic structure:

• subject: Die dorp
• verb: was
• time adverb: destyds
• adjective/complement: klein

You may also see:

• Destyds was die dorp klein.

That version emphasizes destyds a bit more because it comes first. In Afrikaans main clauses, when something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb still stays in the second position:

• Destyds
  • was
    • die dorp
      • klein

In this sentence, klein comes after the verb was, so it is a predicative adjective. Predicative adjectives in Afrikaans normally stay in their basic form.

• Die dorp was klein. = The town was small.

Compare that with an adjective placed before a noun, where Afrikaans often adds -e:

• ’n klein dorp = a small town
• die klein dorp = the small town

So here klein does not need an ending because it is not directly before dorp.

Yes, it is completely normal.

The sentence follows a common Afrikaans pattern:

• Subject + finite verb + adverb + complement

So:

• Die dorp = subject
• was = finite verb
• destyds = time adverb
• klein = complement/adjective

This is a very standard main-clause word order.

You might be understood, but it sounds less natural than Die dorp was destyds klein.

Afrikaans usually places adverbs like destyds before the final adjective in a sentence like this. So the most natural choices are:

• Die dorp was destyds klein.
• Destyds was die dorp klein.

The version with destyds at the very end is possible in some contexts, but it is not the best default choice for learners.

It is a normal word, but it can sound a little more literary or thoughtful than simply saying toe (then) in some contexts.

Compare:

• Die dorp was destyds klein. = slightly more specific/literary: The town was small back then / at that time
• Die dorp was toe klein. = The town was small then

So destyds is not wrong or strange at all—it just has a slightly more marked sense of in those days / at that earlier time.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Die ≈ dee
• dorp ≈ dorp (with a short o, somewhat like in off, depending on accent)
• was ≈ vuss or vahs depending on accent
• destyds ≈ deh-states / deh-stayts (rough English approximation only)
• klein ≈ klayn (rhymes roughly with line)

A rough full approximation:

• dee dorp vuss deh-stayts klayn

Pronunciation varies by region and speaker, so this is only an English-friendly approximation.

In a sentence like this, die means the.

Afrikaans also has other uses of die in different contexts, for example as a relative pronoun in some structures, but for a beginner reading Die dorp was destyds klein, the safest interpretation is simply:

• die = the

So you should read die dorp as the town / the village.

Here are the words and their basic forms:

• die — definite article (the)
• dorp — noun meaning town/village
• was — past tense form of wees (to be)
• destyds — adverb meaning at that time / back then
• klein — adjective meaning small

This can help you recognize the same words in other sentences, especially was, since its dictionary form is wees rather than was.