Days Of The Week, Months Of The Year, Seasons, Weather And Time In Afrikaans

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If you’re new to learning Afrikaans, one of the best things you can do is learn some basic yet commonly-used words. This sets a strong foundation for you to build upon as you progress with your studies.

Some of the most important words in any language are those that deal with the passage of time in one way or another. Being able to describe in Afrikaans when something took place is vital for being able to communicate effectively.

In this post, we’ll cover some of the most important Afrikaans words related to time. These are: days of the week, months of the year, seasons, and time terms. And because we’re weird like that, we’ve also added vocabulary that describes the weather, as this is related to seasons.

Days of the Week in Afrikaans

This section contains a table with the 7 days of the week in Afrikaans, as well as their English translations.

Days of the Week (English)	Dae van die Week (Afrikaans)
Monday	Maandag
Tuesday	Dinsdag
Wednesday	Woensdag
Thursday	Donderdag
Friday	Vrydag
Saturday	Saterdag
Sunday	Sondag

Months of the Year in Afrikaans

This section contains a table with the 12 months of the year in Afrikaans, as well as their English translations.

Months of the Year (English)	Maande van die Jaar (Afrikaans)
January	Januarie
February	Februarie
March	Maart
April	April
May	Mei
June	Junie
July	Julie
August	Augustus
September	September
October	Oktober
November	November
December	Desember

Seasons in Afrikaans

This section contains a table with the 4 seasons in Afrikaans, as well as their English translations.

Seasons (English)	Seisoene (Afrikaans)
Spring	Lente
Summer	Somer
Autumn (Fall)	Herfs
Winter	Winter

Weather in Afrikaans

This section contains a table with vocabulary related to the weather and temperature in Afrikaans, as well as English translations.

The Weather (English)	Die Weer (Afrikaans)
Rain	Reën
Snow	Sneeu
Sunshine	Sonskyn
Wind	Wind
Clouds	Wolke
Fog	Mis
Storm	Storm
Thunder	Donderweer
Lightning	Weerlig

Time in Afrikaans

This section deals with vocabulary associated with the passage of time, including adverbs of time, time of the day, units of time, etc.

Time (English)	Tyd (Afrikaans)
Morning	Môre
Afternoon	Namiddag
Evening	Aand
Night	Nag
Midnight	Middernag
Dusk	Skemer
Dawn	Dagbreek
Second	Sekonde
Minute	Minuut
Hour	Uur
Day	Dag
Week	Week
Weekend	Naweek
Fortnight	Twee Weke / Veertien Dae
Month	Maand
Year	Jaar
Decade	Dekade / Tien Jaar
Century	Eeu
Today	Vandag
Yesterday	Gister
Tomorrow	Môre
Late	Laat
Early	Vroeg
Now	Nou

Telling the Time in Afrikaans

Being able to tell the time in your target language is crucial for effective communication, yet it’s one of those things that often gets skipped at the start of language learning. Some languages make the concept more complicated than it needs to be, which might scare new learners off.

Luckily, Afrikaans isn’t like that. Telling the time in Afrikaans is surprisingly straightforward, especially for English speakers.

Things to note

You form o’clock by simply adding “uur” (hour) to numbers 1 – 12
As in German, you make half past the hour by applying the half to the hour ahead. E.g. half past five (5:30) in English would be written as half ses in Afrikaans
Quarters – use “voor” (before) to signify “to”, and “oor” (over) to signify “past”
If you want to be specific about whether the hour is before or after noon, you could simply add one of these to the number: “in die oggend” (in the morning), “in die middag” (in the afternoon), and “in die aand” (in the evening)

What time is it? (English)	Hoe laat is dit? (Afrikaans)
It’s three o’clock	Dit is drie-uur
6:30	Half sewe
Quarter to eight	Kwart voor agt
Quarter past five	Kwart oor vyf

Wanna learn some more common vocabulary? Check out our Numbers and Counting in Afrikaans post or Take the Animals in Afrikaans quiz and learn 30 animal names.