Sy is in die stad gebore.

Because Afrikaans normally says is gebore for was born.

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern:

• is
  • past participle

So:

• Sy is gebore = She was born

Even though is looks like present tense is, the whole expression gives the past meaning was born in English. It is best to learn is gebore as a fixed pattern.

Here, Sy means she.

A useful thing to know is that sy can also mean his in other sentences, for example:

• sy boek = his book

But in Sy is in die stad gebore, it is clearly the subject pronoun she, because it comes before the verb is.

Also, it is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

In Afrikaans main clauses, the finite verb usually comes early, often in second position, and other verbal parts often go later in the clause.

So in:

• Sy = subject
• is = finite verb
• in die stad = place phrase
• gebore = participle/adjective-like form

That is why gebore comes at the end.

This is very normal Afrikaans word order.

Gebore means born. In this kind of sentence, it behaves like a participle or adjective-like form.

For learners, the most helpful approach is simply to remember:

• gebore wees / is gebore = to be / was born

It is not a form you need to build freely every time from a common everyday verb in the same way as many regular ge- forms. Just treat gebore as the standard word used with is for talking about birth.

Afrikaans usually needs the article die with a singular countable noun like stad.

So:

• in die stad = in the city

English sometimes says in town without an article, but Afrikaans normally still uses the article:

• in die stad

So even when English drops the, Afrikaans often does not.

Usually stad means city, but context matters.

In some situations, in die stad can feel similar to English in town, especially if the exact place is not the main point.

If you want to be more specifically town in the sense of a smaller place, Afrikaans often uses dorp instead.

So:

• stad = usually city
• dorp = town / village depending on context

Usually no.

With a named city, Afrikaans normally does not use die:

• Sy is in Kaapstad gebore.
• Sy is in Johannesburg gebore.

So:

• in die stad = in the city
• in Kaapstad = in Cape Town

For a simple statement like this, standard Afrikaans is:

• Sy is in die stad gebore.

That is the normal way to say She was born in the city.

Using was here is generally not the basic form learners should use for this meaning. In some advanced contexts, was gebore can appear with a different time relationship, but for everyday use, the safe pattern is:

• is gebore = was born

So yes, this is one of those places where Afrikaans does not match English word-for-word.

You only need to change the subject pronoun:

• Hy is in die stad gebore. = He was born in the city.
• Hulle is in die stad gebore. = They were born in the city.

Notice that is stays the same. Afrikaans verbs do not change the way English verbs do for different persons in the present tense.