Learn Afrikaans: Days and Time

Mastering the language of time is essential for scheduling appointments, making plans, and describing your daily routine in Afrikaans. This lesson covers the days of the week, various times of day, and frequency terms that help you navigate both professional and social life. You will notice that many of these terms share a common Germanic root with English, making them relatively intuitive to learn.

One useful pattern to observe is the consistent use of the suffix -dag, which simply means day. This suffix appears in every day of the week, such as Maandag (maan-dag) for Monday and Vrydag (fray-dag) for Friday. It also forms the basis for general time-related words like vandag (fan-dakh) for today and werksdag (verks-dakh) for workday. Note that the letter g in these words is typically pronounced with a guttural sound, often transcribed as kh in phonetic guides.

Another helpful pattern involves describing frequency. To turn a time period into an adverb, Afrikaans often adds the suffix -liks or -eliks to the noun. For example, jaar (yaar) becomes jaarliks (jaar-liks) for yearly, and maand (maant) becomes maandeliks (maan-de-liks) for monthly. Learning these building blocks allows you to talk about everything from a morning oggend (okh-ent) to a century-long eeu (ee-oo). Whether you are planning a vakansie (fa-kan-see) for môre (moo-ruh) or reflecting on gister (khis-ter), these words are the pillars of everyday conversation.