Numbers in Afrikaans are, in most respects, refreshingly easy: they do not change for gender (there is none), they do not change for case (there is none), and the words themselves are short and regular. There is exactly one real hurdle, and it is worth naming up front because it surprises almost every English speaker: in compound numbers, Afrikaans says the units before the tens, joined by en (and). Drie-en-veertig is literally three-and-forty — and it means 43. This page maps the whole number system and points you to the detail pages for each part.
The system at a glance
Afrikaans numbers come in the usual families, and each has a dedicated page:
- Cardinals — een, twee, drie (one, two, three): the counting numbers. See cardinal numbers.
- Ordinals — eerste, tweede, derde (first, second, third): position in a sequence. See ordinal numbers.
- Telling time — kwart oor agt (quarter past eight). See telling time.
- Dates — days, months, and years. See dates.
- Fractions and decimals — 'n half, drie komma vyf (a half, three point five). See fractions and decimals.
- Quantity and money — prices and amounts. See quantity and money.
Before any of that, meet the numbers themselves and the one rule that governs them.
Counting up: the building blocks
The numbers one to ten are simply vocabulary, and you will use them constantly:
| Numeral | Afrikaans | Numeral | Afrikaans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | een | 6 | ses |
| 2 | twee | 7 | sewe |
| 3 | drie | 8 | agt |
| 4 | vier | 9 | nege |
| 5 | vyf | 10 | tien |
een, twee, drie — kom ons begin.
One, two, three — let's begin.
Daar is tien mense in die kamer.
There are ten people in the room.
The tens are equally regular: twintig (20), dertig (30), veertig (40), vyftig (50), and so on, up to honderd (100) and duisend (1000).
Sy is amper honderd jaar oud.
She is almost a hundred years old.
The one real hurdle: units before tens
Here is the rule that defines Afrikaans numbers. For any compound between 21 and 99, you say the unit first, then en (and), then the ten — and you hyphenate the whole thing. This is exactly how Dutch and German do it (einundzwanzig, eenentwintig), and exactly the opposite of English.
een-en-twintig
twenty-one (literally 'one-and-twenty')
drie-en-veertig
forty-three (literally 'three-and-forty')
twee-en-dertig
thirty-two (literally 'two-and-thirty')
So you read the small digit, then the big one. Vyf-en-tagtig is five-and-eighty = 85. Nege-en-negentig is nine-and-ninety = 99. There is no exception buried in here: once you accept the inversion, every two-digit number from 21 to 99 follows the identical pattern.
Ek het ses-en-twintig rand in my sak.
I have twenty-six rand in my pocket.
Putting hundreds and thousands together
Above the tens, the logic stacks predictably: hundreds and thousands come first (in English order), and only the final two-digit chunk inverts.
honderd vyf-en-twintig
one hundred twenty-five
duisend nege honderd ses-en-negentig
nineteen ninety-six (1996, as a year: 'thousand nine hundred six-and-ninety')
Notice that honderd and duisend themselves do not invert — only the last pair of digits does. So a long number is read straightforwardly until the very end, where the unit jumps in front of the ten.
A note on the teens
The numbers 11 to 19 are simply vocabulary you memorise; they do not invert in the way the higher compounds do. Elf (11) and twaalf (12) are their own words, and 13 through 19 are built on the unit plus -tien: dertien (13), veertien (14), vyftien (15), sestien (16), and so on. Watch the small spelling shifts — dertien (not drie-tien) and veertien (not vier-tien) — which mirror the tens dertig and veertig.
My seun is dertien en my dogter is sestien.
My son is thirteen and my daughter is sixteen.
Figures or words?
In everyday writing you will see numerals written as figures (43, 100, 1996) far more often than spelled out, exactly as in English. The spelled-out forms matter most when you are speaking, and when a style guide calls for words — for instance, small numbers at the start of a sentence. The detail of when to use figures versus words is covered in the cardinal-numbers page; for now, know that the inversion rule is purely about the spoken and spelled-out form. The figure 43 is read aloud as drie-en-veertig.
Daar was 100 mense daar — wel, amper honderd.
There were 100 people there — well, almost a hundred.
Why this matters more than it looks
The inversion is not just a spelling curiosity — it changes how you listen. When a price or phone number is read out, an English ear waits for the tens and then expects the units; an Afrikaans speaker gives you the units first. If you are not ready for it, vier-en-sewentig (74) can momentarily sound like it starts at four. Training your ear to hold the first digit and wait for the ten is the single most useful thing you can do with Afrikaans numbers. The good news, again: it is fully regular, so this one piece of ear-training covers every number you will ever hear.
Common mistakes
❌ veertig-drie
Incorrect — English order (tens before units). Afrikaans puts the unit first.
✅ drie-en-veertig
forty-three (three-and-forty)
❌ twintig-een
Incorrect — units must come before tens, joined by 'en'.
✅ een-en-twintig
twenty-one
❌ twee en dertig
Incorrect — compound numbers are written as one hyphenated word, not three loose words.
✅ twee-en-dertig
thirty-two (hyphenated)
❌ Ek het twee katte en drie honde — vyf-en-diere altesaam.
Incorrect — 'en' only joins unit and ten inside a number; you cannot bolt it onto unrelated words.
✅ Ek het altesaam vyf diere.
I have five animals altogether.
Key takeaways
- Afrikaans numbers carry no gender and no case — they are essentially invariant words.
- The one defining rule: compound numbers put the unit before the ten, joined by en and hyphenated — drie-en-veertig = 43.
- Hundreds and thousands come first in normal order; only the final two-digit chunk inverts.
- The inversion is completely regular — master it once and every number from 21 to 99 (and beyond) falls into place.
- Train your ear for the unit-first order; spoken numbers are where the inversion catches learners out. Then move on to cardinal numbers and telling time.
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
- Cardinal NumbersA1 — Afrikaans cardinal numbers 0 to a million, built on one mechanical pattern: for 21 to 99 the unit comes before the ten, joined by en — een-en-twintig (21).
- 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.
- 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.
- Dates and the CalendarA2 — Days, months and dates in Afrikaans — days and months are capitalised, dates use ordinals and run day-month-year, op marks the day, and years are read in pieces.
- Fractions, Decimals and PercentagesB1 — How Afrikaans builds fractions from ordinals ('n derde, twee derdes), reads decimals with a comma (3,5 = drie komma vyf) and expresses percentages (vyftig persent).
- 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.