Telling the Time | Afrikaans Grammar

Telling the time in Afrikaans is mostly easy — until you hit one feature that will quietly trip you up every single day until someone warns you about it. That feature is the word half, and it works the opposite way from English. Read this whole page before you trust yourself to make an appointment, because the difference between half ses and your English instinct is a difference of a full hour.

Asking and answering

The standard question is Hoe laat is dit? — literally "How late is it?", which is exactly how Dutch and German ask it too. The answer almost always begins with Dit is... (often shortened to Dis... in speech).

Hoe laat is dit?

What time is it?

Dit is drie-uur.

It's three o'clock.

Verskoon my, weet jy dalk hoe laat dit is?

Excuse me, do you happen to know what time it is?

Notice that the full hour is drie-uur, written with a hyphen. The word uur (hour) joins onto the number with a hyphen for the o'clock forms: een-uur, twee-uur, drie-uur, vier-uur, vyf-uur, ses-uur, sewe-uur, agt-uur, nege-uur, tien-uur, elf-uur, twaalf-uur.

Die winkel maak om nege-uur oop.

The shop opens at nine o'clock.

The half-system — the one you must get right

Here is the rule, and it is the most important sentence on this page: half X means thirty minutes before X, not after. Afrikaans (like Dutch, German and Afrikaans's whole Germanic family) counts the half-hour up toward the coming hour, not back from the hour just gone.

So half ses is "half on the way to six" — that is, 5:30, not 6:30. Your English brain reads "half" as "half past," and that instinct is wrong here in exactly half the cases on the clock. Burn this in:

Afrikaans	Literally	Actual time	English instinct (WRONG)
halfdrie / half drie	half toward three	2:30	~~3:30~~
half ses	half toward six	5:30	~~6:30~~
half agt	half toward eight	7:30	~~8:30~~
half twaalf	half toward twelve	11:30	~~12:30~~

💡

half X = (X minus one) thirty. The number you say is the hour you are heading toward, never the hour you are in. half ses = 5:30. If you remember only one thing from this page, remember this — it is the single most common time mistake English speakers make in Afrikaans.

Ons eet gewoonlik half ses.

We usually eat at half past five (5:30).

Die trein vertrek halfdrie, nie drie-uur nie.

The train leaves at 2:30, not three o'clock.

Ek staan elke oggend half ses op.

I get up at half past five every morning (5:30).

The form is often written as one word for the common ones (halfdrie, halfses, halfsewe) and as two words otherwise — both spellings are accepted; one word is increasingly standard in print.

Quarters: kwart voor and kwart oor

The quarters use voor ("before, to") and oor ("after, past"). These two little words are the backbone of the whole system, so learn them as a pair:

kwart voor X = a quarter to X
kwart oor X = a quarter past X

These behave just like English "quarter to / quarter past," so they will feel familiar.

Afrikaans	Time
kwart oor vier	4:15
kwart voor vyf	4:45
kwart oor tien	10:15
kwart voor een	12:45

Dit is kwart oor vier.

It's a quarter past four (4:15).

Kom asseblief kwart voor sewe — dan is ons betyds.

Please come at a quarter to seven (6:45) — then we'll be on time.

Minutes: voor and oor again

The same voor / oor pair handles loose minutes. The pattern is [minutes] oor [hour] for past, and [minutes] voor [hour] for to:

tien oor drie = ten past three (3:10)
tien voor agt = ten to eight (7:50)
vyf oor ses = five past six (6:05)
twintig voor nege = twenty to nine (8:40)

Dit is tien oor drie.

It's ten past three (3:10).

Dit is tien voor agt — ons moet nou ry.

It's ten to eight (7:50) — we have to leave now.

The genuinely tricky combination is the five minutes either side of the half-hour, because Afrikaans counts those relative to the half, not to the full hour. So 3:25 is vyf voor halfvier ("five before half-toward-four") and 3:35 is vyf oor halfvier ("five past half-toward-four"). Remember halfvier = 3:30, so:

Afrikaans	Literally	Time
vyf voor half vier	five before 3:30	3:25
vyf oor half vier	five past 3:30	3:35
vyf voor half ses	five before 5:30	5:25

Die fliek begin vyf voor half vier.

The film starts at 3:25.

💡

This "around the half" counting is the most advanced part of the system and is much more common in everyday speech than in writing. If it overwhelms you, you can always fall back on plain minute counts (drie-en-twintig minute oor drie) or — most safely of all — the 24-hour style below. Native speakers will understand you either way.

The om marker: saying at a time

To say something happens at a given time, use om before the time expression. This is the time-point preposition; you will meet it again under time prepositions.

Die vergadering begin om nege-uur.

The meeting starts at nine o'clock.

Sien jou om half ses by die stasie.

See you at 5:30 at the station.

Ons land om kwart voor twaalf.

We land at a quarter to twelve (11:45).

Note that with the bare half X and kwart forms you still use om: om half ses, om kwart oor vier.

The 24-hour clock — your safety net

In timetables, official notices, the army, broadcasting and any context where precision matters, Afrikaans uses the 24-hour clock, read straightforwardly with uur for the hour and the minutes simply named. This style sidesteps the whole half trap entirely, which is why it is worth knowing as a fallback.

Clock	Spoken Afrikaans
14:00	veertien-uur
17:30	sewentien uur dertig
20:15	twintig uur vyftien
06:45	ses uur vyf-en-veertig

Die bus vertrek om sewentien uur dertig.

The bus departs at 17:30.

For rough parts of the day, add die oggend (morning), die middag (afternoon), die aand (evening) or die nag (night): drie-uur die middag (three in the afternoon), agt-uur die aand (eight in the evening).

Ek bel jou môre drie-uur die middag.

I'll call you tomorrow at three in the afternoon.

Common mistakes

❌ Ons eet half ses. (intending 6:30, English 'half past six')

Incorrect — half ses is 5:30, not 6:30. This is the number-one time error.

✅ Ons eet half sewe. (for 6:30)

We eat at 6:30 — half toward seven.

❌ Dit is half oor drie.

Incorrect — never combine half with oor. The half form already counts toward the next hour.

✅ Dit is halfvier. (for 3:30)

It's half toward four — 3:30.

❌ Dit is drie uur. (as 'three hours')

Incorrect for the clock — the o'clock form is hyphenated.

✅ Dit is drie-uur.

It's three o'clock.

❌ Die vergadering begin nege-uur.

Incorrect — to say 'at' a time you need om before it.

✅ Die vergadering begin om nege-uur.

The meeting starts at nine o'clock.

❌ Dit is vier oor kwart. (word order reversed)

Incorrect — the unit comes first: kwart oor vier.

✅ Dit is kwart oor vier.

It's a quarter past four (4:15).

Key takeaways

half X means thirty minutes before X — half ses is 5:30, the opposite of English "half past." This is the one trap that catches every English speaker.
The full hour is hyphenated: drie-uur, nege-uur.
voor = "to/before", oor = "past/after" — used for both quarters (kwart voor/oor) and minutes (tien oor drie).
Minutes near the half-hour count around the half: vyf voor half vier = 3:25.
Use om to say something happens at a time: om half ses. See time prepositions.
When in doubt, the 24-hour clock avoids the half trap completely — a useful safety net.

Now practice Afrikaans

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Afrikaans→