Once you can count in Afrikaans, the next step is talking about parts of things — halves, thirds, percentages, decimal measurements. Two facts make this page worth your attention. First, Afrikaans builds most fractions transparently out of ordinal numbers, so if you know "third" you almost know "two thirds." Second, and this is the one that genuinely surprises English speakers: Afrikaans writes and reads decimals with a comma, not a point. The number 3.5 is written 3,5 and read aloud as drie komma vyf. Get those two systems straight and you can handle recipes, prices, measurements and statistics with confidence.
Fractions: ordinal + plural -s
The basic recipe for a fraction is: the numerator is a plain cardinal number, and the denominator is the ordinal ("third," "fourth," "fifth"). When the numerator is more than one, the denominator takes a plural -s. This is exactly the English logic ("two thirds," "three quarters"), so it transfers well — the only new thing is the Afrikaans ordinal forms themselves.
| Fraction | Afrikaans | Literally |
|---|---|---|
| 1/3 | 'n derde | a third |
| 2/3 | twee derdes | two thirds |
| 1/4 | 'n kwart | a quarter |
| 3/4 | drie kwart | three quarter(s) |
| 1/5 | 'n vyfde | a fifth |
| 2/5 | twee vyfdes | two fifths |
| 1/10 | 'n tiende | a tenth |
| 3/8 | drie agtstes | three eighths |
Ek het net 'n derde van die boek gelees.
I've only read a third of the book.
Twee derdes van die klas was afwesig.
Two thirds of the class were absent.
Sny die appel in vier kwarte.
Cut the apple into four quarters.
Notice that kwart ("quarter") is a special word borrowed for fourths, just as English uses "quarter" rather than "fourth" for 1/4. Both 'n vierde and 'n kwart exist, but kwart is what you will hear in everyday speech, especially with time and money.
half and its tricky attributive form halwe
The fraction "half" needs its own paragraph because it changes shape depending on its position. On its own, "half" is half. But when it sits directly in front of a noun (the attributive position), it becomes halwe:
| Form | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| half | standing alone / predicative | Die koek is half op. — Half the cake is gone. |
| halwe | before a noun (attributive) | 'n halwe koek — half a cake |
Gee my asseblief 'n halwe brood.
Give me half a loaf of bread, please.
Ons het die werk halfpad gedoen.
We did the work halfway.
Sy het 'n halwe uur gewag.
She waited half an hour.
This half → halwe shift is the same attributive change adjectives undergo, and it is the one fraction form learners forget. 'n half koek sounds distinctly wrong to a native ear; it must be 'n halwe koek.
Decimals: the comma, not the point
Here is the big one. In Afrikaans — following the convention used across most of continental Europe and in South African official usage — the decimal separator is a comma, written tight against the digits, and it is read aloud as komma. So 3.5 is written 3,5 and spoken drie komma vyf. The digits after the comma are usually read individually.
| Written | Read aloud | English |
|---|---|---|
| 3,5 | drie komma vyf | three point five |
| 0,75 | nul komma sewe vyf | zero point seven five |
| 12,8 | twaalf komma agt | twelve point eight |
| 2,25 | twee komma twee vyf | two point two five |
Die pakkie weeg 3,5 kilogram.
The parcel weighs 3.5 kilograms.
Sy het 'n gemiddeld van 8,7 gekry.
She got an average of 8.7.
Die temperatuur was 0,5 grade onder nul.
The temperature was 0.5 degrees below zero.
Percentages: persent and the % sign
A percentage is persent (the noun for the unit), and the symbol is %, just as in English. You say the number followed by persent. The older, more formal phrasing ten honderd ("per hundred") survives in legal and very formal writing but is not used in everyday speech.
Vyftig persent van die mense het gestem.
Fifty percent of the people voted.
Die winkel gee 20 persent afslag.
The shop is giving 20 percent off.
Net 'n klein persentasie het geslaag.
Only a small percentage passed.
Note the related noun persentasie ("percentage") for the abstract proportion, as in that last example — "a small percentage." Keep persent for "X percent" with a number, and persentasie for "the percentage" as a thing.
The vocabulary of parts: breuk and friends
Two umbrella words are useful to recognise. A fraction as a mathematical object is a breuk; the related verb breek means "to break," and a breuk is literally a "broken" number. A desimaal is a decimal. You will meet breuk in school and recipe contexts.
In wiskunde leer ons hoe om breuke op te tel.
In maths we learn how to add fractions.
Rond die desimaal af tot twee plekke.
Round the decimal to two places.
Common mistakes
❌ 3.5 = drie punt vyf
Incorrect — Afrikaans uses a decimal comma, read as 'komma', not a point.
✅ 3,5 = drie komma vyf
3.5 = three point five
❌ twee derde van die klas
Incorrect — more than one part takes the plural -s: derdes.
✅ twee derdes van die klas
two thirds of the class
❌ 'n half koek
Incorrect — before a noun, half becomes the attributive halwe.
✅ 'n halwe koek
half a cake
❌ vyftig persente van die mense
Incorrect — persent has no plural -s after a number.
✅ vyftig persent van die mense
fifty percent of the people
❌ Die pakkie weeg 1,5 kilogram. (read as 'one thousand five hundred')
Incorrect reading — 1,5 means one and a half; the comma is the decimal point.
✅ Die pakkie weeg 1,5 kilogram. (een komma vyf)
The parcel weighs 1.5 kilograms.
Key takeaways
- Fractions = cardinal numerator + ordinal denominator, with plural -s when there is more than one part: 'n derde, twee derdes. See ordinal numbers.
- half becomes halwe directly in front of a noun: 'n halwe koek, not 'n half koek.
- Decimals use a comma, written and read as komma: 3,5 = drie komma vyf. The thousands separator is a space, not a comma.
- Percentages: number + persent (no plural -s); the abstract noun is persentasie.
- Reading the decimal comma as a point — or as a thousands separator — is the classic English-speaker error; see punctuation.
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
- Telling the TimeA2 — How to read the clock in Afrikaans — including the half-system, where half ses means 5:30 and not 6:30, the single biggest trap for English speakers.
- Quantities, Money and MeasurementsB1 — Counting with measure nouns, talking about rand and sent, the decimal comma and space-separated thousands, and hedging amounts with sowat and 'n stuk of.
- Punctuation and QuotationB1 — Afrikaans punctuation where it differs from English — the decimal comma, quotation marks, the colon and dash, and commas around subordinate clauses.
- Ordinal NumbersA2 — How Afrikaans builds 'first, second, third' — the -de versus -ste split, the three small irregulars (eerste, derde, agste), and how ordinals are used for ranks and dates.