By B1 you know the Afrikaans double negative — the clause-closing nie that wraps up almost every negated sentence (Ek werk nie vandag nie). This page builds three high-value phrases on top of that frame: nog nie ... nie ("not yet"), nie meer ... nie ("no longer / not anymore"), and the intensifiers glad nie and hoegenaamd nie ("not at all"). The first two are special because they carry aspect — a sense of where you are on a timeline of expectation — that English splits awkwardly across tense and adverbs. Get them right and your Afrikaans suddenly sounds far more native, because these phrases are everywhere in real speech. The bracketing closing nie stays mandatory throughout; if you need a refresher on it, see the clause-closing nie.
nog nie ... nie — "not yet"
Nog on its own means "still". Negate the clause and nog nie means "not yet" — the action has not happened so far, with the strong implication that it is still expected. The whole thing is bracketed by the closing nie as usual.
Ek is nog nie klaar nie — gee my net vyf minute.
I'm not done yet — just give me five minutes.
Hy het nog nie gekom nie; ons wag al 'n halfuur.
He hasn't come yet; we've been waiting half an hour.
Die pos het nog nie opgedaag nie.
The mail hasn't arrived yet.
The aspectual force is the whole point. Nog nie is the negative twin of al / reeds ("already"): al says the thing has happened sooner than expected; nog nie says it has not happened yet but is anticipated. That expectation is built into the phrase — Ek het nog nie geëet nie does not just report "I haven't eaten"; it implies "...but I'm going to / I'm hungry / it's coming". For the positive side of this aspect, see al and reeds.
Ek het nog nie geëet nie — kom ons gaan saam eet.
I haven't eaten yet — let's go eat together.
nog nooit ... nie — "never (yet)"
Push nog together with nooit ("never") and you get nog nooit — "never yet / never (up to now)", an emphatic statement that something has not once happened in your experience so far. It is stronger and more emphatic than plain nooit, precisely because nog anchors it to the present moment.
Ek het nog nooit so 'n pragtige sonsondergang gesien nie.
I have never seen such a beautiful sunset (in my life so far).
Sy het nog nooit vir hom gejok nie.
She has never once lied to him.
For the full behaviour of nooit on its own, see nooit; here just note that the nog makes it "never yet", emphasising the running tally of your experience.
nie meer ... nie — "no longer / not anymore"
Meer means "more"; nie meer means "no longer / not anymore" — the action used to happen and has now stopped. This is the mirror image of nog nie: where nog nie says "not yet, but coming", nie meer says "used to, but finished". Together they are the two aspectual negatives that frame a timeline.
| Phrase | Meaning | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| nog nie ... nie | not yet | hasn't started — still expected |
| nie meer ... nie | no longer | has stopped — used to happen |
| nog ... (positive) | still | continues now |
| al / reeds (positive) | already | started sooner than expected |
Sy woon nie meer hier nie — sy het na Kaapstad getrek.
She doesn't live here anymore — she moved to Cape Town.
Ons praat nie meer met mekaar nie.
We don't talk to each other anymore.
Ek kan dit nie meer onthou nie.
I can't remember it anymore.
Word order is the thing to watch: meer sits directly after the first nie (nie meer), inside the negative bracket, and the closing nie still seals the clause. Do not let meer drift to the end — that slot belongs to the closing nie.
glad nie and hoegenaamd nie — "not at all"
To intensify a flat negation to "not at all", Afrikaans inserts glad or the more formal hoegenaamd right after the first nie. Glad nie is the everyday choice; hoegenaamd nie is a notch more emphatic and a touch more formal, common in writing and careful speech.
Dit help glad nie om te skree nie.
Shouting doesn't help at all.
Ek is glad nie moeg nie — kom ons stap verder.
I'm not tired at all — let's walk further.
Daar was hoegenaamd geen rede om bekommerd te wees nie.
There was no reason whatsoever to be worried.
Sy het hoegenaamd nie geweet wat aangaan nie.
She had no idea at all what was going on.
Notice glad can stand alone after nie (glad nie), and hoegenaamd often pairs with geen/geen for a sweeping "none whatsoever" (hoegenaamd geen rede). Both still demand the closing nie.
A short word on "nooit weer" — "never again"
A useful neighbour: combine nooit with weer ("again") to get nooit weer ("never again"), a common emphatic. It behaves like the others — bracketed by the closing nie.
Ek gaan nooit weer daardie restaurant toe nie.
I'm never going to that restaurant again.
How English misleads you
English handles all of this with a patchwork: tense for "not yet" (hasn't arrived), an adverb for "anymore" (not anymore), and "at all" tacked on the end. Afrikaans instead has tidy fixed phrases in a fixed position — and crucially, every one of them keeps the closing nie, which English has no equivalent for. The two errors that follow are exactly the ones that fixed-phrase mismatch produces: forgetting the closing nie, and mis-ordering meer or nog inside the bracket.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek is nog nie klaar.
Incorrect — the clause-closing nie is missing: ... nog nie klaar nie.
✅ Ek is nog nie klaar nie.
I'm not done yet.
❌ Sy woon nie hier meer nie.
Incorrect — meer goes right after the first nie: nie meer hier.
✅ Sy woon nie meer hier nie.
She doesn't live here anymore.
❌ Ons praat nie meer met mekaar.
Incorrect — dropping the closing nie; it must seal the clause.
✅ Ons praat nie meer met mekaar nie.
We don't talk to each other anymore.
❌ Dit help nie glad nie.
Incorrect — glad sits right after the first nie: glad nie.
✅ Dit help glad nie.
It doesn't help at all.
❌ Hy het nie nog gekom nie.
Incorrect — the order is nog nie, not nie nog: nog nie gekom.
✅ Hy het nog nie gekom nie.
He hasn't come yet.
Key takeaways
- nog nie ... nie = "not yet" — an aspectual negative that points forward, presupposing the event is still expected; it is the negative twin of al/reeds ("already").
- nie meer ... nie = "no longer / not anymore" — the mirror image: the action used to happen and has stopped. meer sits directly after the first nie.
- nog nooit ... nie = "never yet" (emphatic nooit), and nooit weer ... nie = "never again".
- glad nie and (more formal) hoegenaamd nie = "not at all"; the intensifier slots right after the first nie.
- The clause-closing nie is mandatory in all of these — dropping it is the most common error; see the closing nie.
- For nooit alone, see nooit; for the positive aspect partners al and reeds, see al and reeds.
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- nooit: neverA2 — How nooit ('never') works in Afrikaans, why it still demands a clause-final nie, and why nooit ... nie never cancels out to a positive.
- Expressing 'Already', 'Still', 'Yet'B1 — How the aspectual adverbs al/reeds (already), nog (still) and nog nie (not yet) do the temporal fine-tuning that English handles with the perfect and pluperfect.
- The Clause-Closing nieA2 — Afrikaans negation needs a second nie that closes the clause — it lands after everything, marking the right edge of what is negated, even at the end of a long subordinate clause.
- Afrikaans Negation: The Double NegativeA1 — Afrikaans closes almost every negative clause with a second 'nie' — the signature feature of the language. How the closing nie works and why it does not cancel the negation.
- Placing the First nieA2 — Where the first nie lands relative to objects, adverbs, prepositional phrases and the verb cluster — and why the verb bracket decides for you.