Idioms with Numbers and Quantity

Numbers turn up in Afrikaans idiom far more often than the literal sense of the words would suggest. A number inside an idiom almost never means the number — tien is not really ten, duisend is not really a thousand — and the cardinal is frozen: you cannot raise it, lower it, or pluralise it. What makes this small corner of the idiom system worth a page of its own is that two of Afrikaans's most distinctive systems collide here: the fixed cardinals of the numbers and the famous nie ... nie negation bracket. Several quantity idioms are negative ("in no case", "for no money"), and the moment an idiom goes negative it must close the bracket — which is exactly where English speakers come undone.

This page covers traditional, fully attested idioms only. The grammar inside them is ordinary; the trap, as always with idiom, is reading them literally.

Ten to one: tien teen een

Literally "ten against one", tien teen een is the Afrikaans for ten to one — it expresses high likelihood, "I'd bet on it", "the odds are". It comes straight from betting odds, and like English it has drifted into everyday speech as a way of saying almost certainly. The two cardinals are frozen: it is always tien and always een, never nege teen een or tien teen twee.

Notice that the idiom sits at the very front of the clause and is followed by ordinary verb-second order: tien teen een counts as the first element, so the verb (het, reën) comes second and the subject third. Treat the whole phrase as a single adverbial of probability, like English probably or no doubt.

In a jiffy: in 'n japtrap

In 'n japtrap means in no time at all, in a flash, in a jiffy. There is no number on the surface, but it belongs squarely in the quantity family because it quantifies time — it answers how long? with almost none. The word japtrap is a lovely fossil (originally the snap of a trap), used now only inside this fixed phrase; you will essentially never meet japtrap on its own.

A thousand and one things: 'n duisend-en-een dinge

'n Duisend-en-een dinge — literally "a thousand and one things" — means countless things, a huge number of things, exactly as in English a thousand and one chores. This is numerical hyperbole: the cardinal is not counting, it is exaggerating. The grammar point worth noticing is the plural noun: even though the number ends in een (one), the noun is plural, dinge (things), because the whole quantity is large. The cardinal is fixed — you never hear 'n honderd-en-een dinge in this sense.

In the second example you can already see the negation system stirring: the subordinate clause hoekom dit nie sal werk nie carries its own closing nie. Hold that thought — it becomes the headline point of the next idiom.

Under no circumstances: in geen geval nie

In geen geval nie means in no case, under no circumstances, no way. This is the idiom where the number/quantity family meets the negation system head-on. The quantity word here is geen — "no / not any", a quantifier of zero. And the iron rule of Afrikaans is that geen opens a negation bracket that a final nie must close. So the natural, complete form is in geen geval nie, not bare in geen geval.

Look at the first example carefully. The nie does not sit next to geen; it travels all the way to the end of the clause, after gee. That is the bracket in action: geen opens it at the front, nie slams it shut at the back, and everything the negation covers sits in between. English has nothing like this — under no circumstances needs no second negative word, so English speakers consistently forget the closing nie and produce the unfinished-sounding in geen geval.

One and the same: een en dieselfde

Een en dieselfde — "one and the same" — emphasises that two things are identical, the very same one, not merely similar. English does exactly the same doubling: one and the same person. The cardinal een here is emphatic ("the single, identical one"), reinforced by dieselfde ("the same"). It is fixed and unchangeable: never twee en dieselfde, never een en die ander. When a preposition is independently needed — typically with a time or a date — it simply slots in front: op een en dieselfde dag ("on one and the same day").

This one is purely emphatic — no negation, no hyperbole. It is included to show the other end of the spectrum: a number idiom where the cardinal almost means its literal value (a single, identical thing), just heightened for emphasis.

Why the cardinals are frozen

Across all these idioms, the number behaves nothing like a real numeral. A real cardinal can change (een appel, twee appels); an idiomatic cardinal cannot. Tien teen een will never become elf teen een; 'n duisend-en-een dinge will never become 'n duisend-en-twee dinge. This is the single most useful generalisation on the page: inside an idiom, a number is a fixed word, not a count. The moment you try to "do arithmetic" on an idiom — swap, add, pluralise the cardinal — you have broken it. This is why the errors below are all, at root, the same error: treating an idiomatic number as a live numeral.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• In a number idiom the cardinal is frozen: tien teen een, 'n duisend-en-een dinge — you cannot raise, lower, or pluralise it.
• Numbers inside idioms are usually hyperbole or fixed expression, not real counts: duisend means "countless", japtrap means "almost no time".
• Quantity idioms built on geen ("no/none") are negations and must close the nie bracket: in geen geval nie, vir geen geld nie. This is the commonest English-speaker error.
• 'n Duisend-en-een keeps a plural noun (dinge) despite ending in een, because the quantity is large.
• Een en dieselfde is the rare case where the cardinal stays close to its literal value — the single, identical one — used purely for emphasis (op een en dieselfde dag when a preposition is independently needed).