Some of the most useful Afrikaans you can learn isn't grammar at all — it's a stock of ready-made phrases that fluent speakers fire off without a second thought. Trying to build these word by word from English usually produces something stiff and slightly wrong; the fix is to memorise them as single units, the way you learned how are you? or never mind in your own language. This page gives you the highest-value everyday chunks for talking about time, hedging, and keeping a conversation moving. Learn each one as a whole, and you'll sound natural far faster than grammar alone would let you.
Time chunks: the near-future system
Afrikaans has a small set of time words that English speakers consistently get tangled in, because Afrikaans draws finer distinctions about the near future and recent past than English does. The two that matter most are nou-nou and netnou — and confusing them is one of the classic learner stumbles.
Nou-nou (always hyphenated, a reduplication of nou "now") means in a little while, very soon — a short, vague near-future. It's the natural answer to "when are you coming?" when you mean "shortly, give me a moment."
Ek kom nou-nou.
I'm coming in a little while / I'll be there shortly.
Wag, ek bel jou nou-nou terug.
Hang on, I'll call you right back in a bit.
Netnou is the tricky one: depending on context it points either to the recent past (a little while ago) or the near future (shortly, presently). Tense and context disambiguate it.
Ek het hom netnou gesien.
I saw him a little while ago.
Ek sal netnou daar wees.
I'll be there shortly / presently.
So the system runs roughly: netnou (just earlier, past) ← now → nou-nou (very soon) → netnou (a bit later, future). The overlap on the future side is real — both nou-nou and future netnou can mean "soon" — with nou-nou generally feeling a touch sooner and more immediate. The key safety rule: if you mean a moment ago, only netnou works; nou-nou is never past.
A few more handy time chunks worth banking whole:
| Chunk | Meaning | Use |
|---|---|---|
| op pad | on the way / en route | Ek is op pad — "I'm on my way." |
| op die ou end | in the end / eventually | wrapping up a story |
| so nou en dan | now and then / occasionally | frequency |
| te eniger tyd | at any time | availability |
Ek is op pad — ek is oor vyf minute daar.
I'm on my way — I'll be there in five minutes.
Hedging chunks: not committing
When you don't want to commit fully, Afrikaans has neat little phrases for it. The most useful is dit hang af (it depends), often followed by van + the thing it depends on.
Dit hang af van die weer.
It depends on the weather.
Gaan jy saamkom? — Dit hang af.
Are you coming along? — It depends.
Two more everyday hedges: so te sê (so to speak / more or less) softens an approximation, and min of meer (more or less) gives a rough figure.
Dis so te sê klaar.
It's more or less done, so to speak.
Daar was min of meer twintig mense.
There were more or less twenty people.
Keeping the conversation moving
These chunks do the work of connecting and continuing — the glue of relaxed speech. In elk geval (anyway, in any case) lets you brush past a digression and get back on track; hoe dan ook (however, in any event) does similar work with a touch more "be that as it may."
In elk geval, ons moet nou gaan.
Anyway, we'd better go now.
Hoe dan ook, ek het my bes probeer.
In any event, I did my best.
Kom ons sê (let's say) introduces a hypothetical or a rough figure, just like English let's say — perfect for examples and estimates.
Kom ons sê ons ontmoet om sewe-uur?
Let's say we meet at seven?
Sommer net (just because / for no particular reason) is a beloved everyday answer to why? — it shrugs off the need for a reason. And nou ja (well then / oh well) is the all-purpose verbal shrug that resets the conversation or accepts a situation.
Hoekom het jy dit gekoop? — Sommer net.
Why did you buy it? — Just because.
Nou ja, ons sal maar moet wag.
Oh well, we'll just have to wait.
Agreeing and emphasising
Two quick high-frequency chunks for agreement. Ten minste (at least) concedes a silver lining; alte seker and met plesier are warm, emphatic yeses — alte seker means absolutely, certainly and met plesier is with pleasure / gladly, the standard warm reply to a request.
Dit het gereën, maar ten minste was dit nie koud nie.
It rained, but at least it wasn't cold.
Kan jy my help dra? — Met plesier!
Can you help me carry this? — With pleasure!
Gaan jy kom? — Alte seker!
Are you coming? — Absolutely!
Common mistakes
❌ Ek het hom nou-nou gesien. (meaning 'a moment ago')
Incorrect — nou-nou is future-only; for the recent past use netnou.
✅ Ek het hom netnou gesien.
I saw him a little while ago.
❌ Dit afhang van die weer.
Incorrect — the fixed phrase is dit hang af van, with hang and af split this way.
✅ Dit hang af van die weer.
It depends on the weather.
❌ In enige geval, ons moet gaan. (built word-by-word from English)
Incorrect — the set chunk is in elk geval, learned whole.
✅ In elk geval, ons moet gaan.
Anyway, we'd better go.
❌ Net sommer (reversed word order)
Incorrect — the fixed order is sommer net.
✅ Sommer net.
Just because.
Key takeaways
- Learn these as whole chunks, not word by word — that's how fluent speakers store them and how you'll sound natural fastest.
- The near-future system is finer than English: nou-nou = soon (future only), netnou = a moment ago or shortly (let the tense decide). Don't use nou-nou for the past.
- Hedging chunks: dit hang af (van) "it depends," so te sê / min of meer "more or less."
- Continuation glue: in elk geval "anyway," hoe dan ook "in any event," nou ja "oh well," sommer net "just because," kom ons sê "let's say."
- Warm replies: met plesier "with pleasure," alte seker "absolutely," ten minste "at least."
- For more, see time expressions and the discourse connectors.
Now practice Afrikaans
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
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.
- Adverbs of Time: nou, dan, gister, môre, altydA1 — The everyday words that locate an action in time — nou, dan, gister, vandag, môre, altyd, dikwels, soms, nooit — where they sit in the sentence, and the famous two-way ambiguity of netnou.
- Expressions and Idioms: OverviewA2 — A map of Afrikaans fixed expressions — social formulas, everyday idioms, proverbs and exclamations — and why so much of the imagery comes from the farm, the weather and the Dutch heritage.
- Time Expressions and IdiomsA2 — Everyday Afrikaans time phrases as set vocabulary — including the three-step nou / nou-nou / netnou immediacy scale that English simply doesn't have.
- 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.