A conversation is not a single block of speech; it is a sequence of topics that get opened, interrupted, parked, picked up again, and eventually closed. Fluent speakers manage these transitions with little signposting words — and Afrikaans has a rich set of them. English speakers tend to lurch between topics with nothing more than a pause, which sounds abrupt in Afrikaans. This page covers the markers that let you slip in an aside, change the subject gracefully, return to where you were, and bring the whole thing to a close. (For general logical connectors like daarom and egter, see connectors; for hesitation noises, see fillers and hesitation.)
Introducing an aside: terloops, tussen hakies
When you want to drop in a side comment without derailing the main topic, Afrikaans reaches for terloops ("by the way / incidentally") or the more colloquial tussen hakies (literally "between brackets," i.e. "parenthetically"). Both flag what follows as a quick detour you'll step back out of.
Terloops, het jy gehoor dat Pieter trou?
By the way, did you hear that Pieter's getting married?
Tussen hakies, jou suster het gebel terwyl jy weg was.
By the way, your sister called while you were away.
Dis 'n lang storie — terloops, wil jy nog koffie hê?
It's a long story — by the way, do you want more coffee?
Both sit at the front of the comment, and crucially they trigger normal Afrikaans inversion: because the marker fills the first slot, the verb stays in second position and the subject follows it (terloops, *het jy...*). This is the same V2 behaviour you get after any fronted element.
Changing or dropping a topic: in elk geval, nou ja, wat dit betref
The workhorse for moving on is in elk geval ("anyway / in any case"). It does double duty: it either returns you to an earlier topic after a digression, or drops the current one and signals you're moving past it. The listener reads which from context.
In elk geval, soos ek gesê het, ons vertrek Vrydag.
Anyway, as I was saying, we leave on Friday.
Dit het nie uitgewerk nie. In elk geval, kom ons praat oor iets anders.
It didn't work out. Anyway, let's talk about something else.
To change topic while explicitly framing the new topic, use wat ... betref ("as for / regarding"). It announces what you're about to talk about, which makes the shift feel deliberate rather than random.
Wat die werk betref, ek dink ek gaan dit aanvaar.
As for the job, I think I'm going to accept it.
Wat dit betref, ek stem heeltemal saam.
As for that, I completely agree.
And then there is nou ja — the most useful conversational hinge in the language, and the one most worth isolating.
nou ja: the multi-purpose pivot
nou ja (literally "now yes") has no clean English equivalent, which is exactly why it's so handy. Depending on intonation and position it can do at least three jobs:
- Topic-drop / moving on: "well, anyway..." — you've said what there is to say and you're shifting.
- Resignation / acceptance: "well, what can you do" — you're accepting an unwelcome fact.
- Winding down / pre-closing: "well then..." — it signals the conversation is heading toward its end.
Nou ja, dis nou eenmaal so.
Well, that's just how it is.
Nou ja, ek moet seker maar loop.
Well, I suppose I'd better get going.
Ons kon niks doen nie. Nou ja.
There was nothing we could do. Oh well.
That third reading — the pre-closing one — is the bridge to actually ending a conversation, which is why nou ja so often kicks off a goodbye.
Summing up: om kort te gaan, kortom
When you want to wrap up a long explanation before closing, two markers compress what you've said. om kort te gaan ("to make a long story short / in short") and the tighter kortom ("in short") both signal that a summary is coming.
Om kort te gaan, ons het besluit om te bly.
To cut a long story short, we decided to stay.
Kortom, dit was 'n ramp.
In short, it was a disaster.
Closing the conversation: ten slotte, laastens, totsiens
Now the actual ending. In structured talk — a speech, a presentation, a written piece — ten slotte ("finally / in conclusion") and laastens ("lastly") mark the final point. They're more formal and belong to organised discourse rather than casual chat.
Ten slotte wil ek almal bedank wat gehelp het.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank everyone who helped.
Laastens, moenie vergeet om die deur te sluit nie.
Lastly, don't forget to lock the door.
In ordinary conversation the closing is warmer and built from set phrases — typically a nou ja pre-close, then a reason to leave, then the goodbye proper:
Nou ja, ek moet gaan — ons praat weer.
Well, I have to go — we'll talk again.
Lekker gesels het. Ons hou kontak, nê?
Nice chatting. We'll stay in touch, okay?
Goed dan, totsiens en ry veilig.
All right then, goodbye and drive safely.
Notice the rhythm: Afrikaans speakers rarely cut a conversation dead. They telegraph the ending (nou ja), give a face-saving reason (ek moet gaan), promise future contact (ons praat weer), and only then say goodbye. Skipping these steps reads as cold.
Common mistakes
❌ By the way, het jy my boek?
Incorrect — English 'by the way' left untranslated; use terloops or tussen hakies.
✅ Terloops, het jy my boek?
By the way, do you have my book?
❌ In elk geval, ek gaan nou loop. (with no V2 inversion)
Word-order slip — after a fronted marker the verb stays in slot two: gaan ek.
✅ In elk geval, nou loop ek. / In elk geval gaan ek nou loop.
Anyway, I'm going to head off now.
❌ Ek moet gaan. Totsiens. (abrupt, no pre-close)
Not wrong grammatically, but bluntly ending with no nou ja / ons praat weer sounds cold in Afrikaans.
✅ Nou ja, ek moet gaan — ons praat weer. Totsiens!
Well, I have to go — we'll talk again. Goodbye!
❌ Wat betref die werk, ek dink ek vat dit.
Word-order slip — the topic noun goes between wat and betref: wat die werk betref.
✅ Wat die werk betref, ek dink ek vat dit.
As for the job, I think I'll take it.
❌ Ten slotte, kom ons gaan kuier. (casual chat)
Register mismatch — ten slotte is for speeches and writing, too formal for ending a chat.
✅ Nou ja, kom ons gaan kuier.
Well, let's go and visit.
Key takeaways
- Drop an aside with terloops or the warmer tussen hakies ("by the way"); both trigger V2 inversion.
- Change or drop a topic with in elk geval ("anyway"), and announce a new topic with wat ... betref ("as for").
- nou ja is the multi-purpose pivot — topic-drop, resignation, and pre-closing — and it's the most useful conversational hinge to master.
- Compress with om kort te gaan / kortom; close formal discourse with ten slotte / laastens.
- Real closings have a rhythm: nou ja → a reason to leave → ons praat weer → totsiens. Don't end a conversation cold.
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Discourse Connectors: in elk geval, trouens, boonopB2 — Sentence-level connectors like boonop, trouens and nietemin take first position and trigger V2 inversion, structuring an argument across sentences.
- Fillers and Hesitation: ag, nou ja, welB1 — The fillers and hesitation markers of spoken Afrikaans — ag, nou ja, wel, eh, soort van, ek meen — plus the famously misunderstood ja-nee, an emphatic agreement that is not a contradiction.
- Small Talk and Phatic CommunicationB1 — How Afrikaners do small talk — the Hoe gaan dit ritual, weather openers as a phatic resource, and the back-channels (regtig?, sjoe, is dit so?) that keep an exchange warm.
- Modal Particles and Discourse Markers: OverviewB1 — Little words like mos, tog, sommer and darem carry the conversational glue of Afrikaans — they add speaker attitude without changing the literal meaning.
- The Particle dan and Conversational danB1 — Beyond 'then': how dan marks inference, mild challenge and conversational engagement — and why every dan is not a temporal sequencer.