Gisteraand was my vriendin regtig moeg, tog het sy alles vir haar gesin voorberei.

Gisteraand means last night or yesterday evening.

Yes, it is normally written as one word in Afrikaans:

• gister = yesterday
• aand = evening

Together, they form gisteraand.

Afrikaans follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses. That means the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

So when the sentence begins with a time expression like Gisteraand, the verb was comes next:

• Gisteraand was my vriendin regtig moeg.

Compare that with a more basic order:

• My vriendin was gisteraand regtig moeg.

Both are correct, but starting with Gisteraand gives emphasis to the time: last night.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

In Afrikaans, vriendin can mean:

• girlfriend
• female friend

So my vriendin is ambiguous unless the context makes it clear.

Regtig means really.

In this sentence:

• my vriendin regtig moeg = my friend/girlfriend really tired

It functions like an adverb modifying moeg.

Afrikaans word order with adverbs can feel a little different from English, but regtig moeg is very natural and common.

Tog here means something like:

• yet
• still
• nevertheless

It introduces a contrast:

• She was really tired,
• yet / nevertheless she still prepared everything for her family.

So in this sentence, tog shows that the second part happened despite the first part.

Again, this is because of Afrikaans word order.

In a main clause, the finite verb usually comes in the second position. Since tog is placed first in the second clause, the verb het must come next:

• tog het sy alles ... voorberei

Not:

• tog sy het ... ❌

This is very similar to other Afrikaans sentences where a fronted element is followed immediately by the finite verb.

Because Afrikaans often uses a perfect tense structure with:

• het = auxiliary
• past participle/main verb at the end

So:

• het ... voorberei = prepared / has prepared

In the clause:

• tog het sy alles vir haar gesin voorberei

the auxiliary het comes earlier, and voorberei goes to the end.

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern.

Vir haar gesin means for her family.

Breakdown:

• vir = for
• haar = her
• gesin = family / household

So she prepared everything for her family.

Here, haar means her.

In Afrikaans, haar can be:

• a possessive form: her
• sometimes an object form in other contexts

In this sentence, it is possessive:

• haar gesin = her family

So vir haar gesin literally means for her family.

Gesin usually refers to a household or immediate family—for example, parents and children living together.

So:

• haar gesin suggests her family at home / her household

Afrikaans can also use familie, which often refers more broadly to family in the general or extended sense.

So gesin is a very natural choice here because it sounds like she prepared things for the people in her home.

Yes.

• is moeg = is tired
• was moeg = was tired

So:

• My vriendin is moeg. = My girlfriend/female friend is tired.
• My vriendin was moeg. = My girlfriend/female friend was tired.

This is the normal past form of wees (to be) in Afrikaans.

Yes. A few natural translations are:

• Last night my girlfriend was really tired, yet she prepared everything for her family.
• Yesterday evening my female friend was really tired, but she still prepared everything for her family.
• My girlfriend was very tired last night; nevertheless, she prepared everything for her family.

The exact English wording may change, but the core meaning stays the same: she was tired, but still did everything for her family.

A rough English-friendly guide could be:

• Gisteraand ≈ KHIS-ter-ahnt
• was ≈ vuss
• my ≈ may
• vriendin ≈ FREEN-deen
• regtig ≈ REKH-tikh / REKH-tig
• moeg ≈ moo-kh (with a guttural ending)
• tog ≈ tokh / tawkh
• het ≈ het
• sy ≈ say
• alles ≈ AH-less
• vir ≈ fer
• haar ≈ haar
• gesin ≈ khe-SIN

The hardest sounds for English speakers are usually the guttural g/ch sounds in words like regtig, moeg, and tog.