How To Tell The Time In Dutch

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To be able to tell the time in Dutch is a good skill to have and relevant to almost everything you will do if you interact with Dutch people, live, or visit the Netherlands.

You do not want to be late meeting your Dutch friends, family or colleagues, the Dutch are quite punctual when it comes to time.

Hoe laat is het?	hoo laat is het?	what time is it?
Weet je hoe laat het is?	vayt ye hoo laat is het?	Do you know what time it is?
Het is een uur	Het is ern uwr	It is one o’clock

To tell the time in Dutch, you will also need to know How to count in Dutch. Especially the numbers 1 through 59 are important when talking about telling the time. If you need a refresher, please look at our article How to count in Dutch.

To tell time we need to address the following topics.

1. Time Units in Dutch
2. Parts of the Day in Dutch

Time units in Dutch

The words that the Dutch use for the time units are very similar to the English ones.

De seconde	der se- konde	The second
De minuut	der mi-nuwt	The minute
Het uur	het uwr	The hour
Kwartier	kvar-teer	A quarter/15 minutes
Driekwartier	dree kvar-teer	Three quarters/45 minutes

Parts of the day in Dutch

twaalf uur ‘s middags	Tvaalf uwr smi-dakhs	noon
twaalf uur ‘s nachts / middernacht	Tvaalf uwr snakhts/ mi-der nakht	midnight
‘s ochtends	sokh-terns	In the morning
‘s middags	smi-dakhs	In the afternoon
‘s avonds	saa-fonts	In the evening
‘s nachts	snakhts	At night

Telling Time 

There are two ways of telling the time.  The digital system and the analogue system. 

Everyone will understand you when you use the digital system, hover the analogue system is more common. 

Using the digital system, you say: 

het is twee uur	het is tvay uwr	It’s two o’clock
het is twee uur vijftien	het is tvay uwr fayf-teen	it’s two fifteen
het is twee uur dertig	het is tvay uwr dehr-tikh	it’s two thirty
het is twee uur vijfenveertig	het is tvay uwr fayf-en-fayr-tikh	It’s two forty-five

The analogue system in Dutch is a bit complicated. Most languages divide the clock in two halves. In the right half, they look backwards to the last hour, in the left they look forwards to the next hour. 

Dividing the Clock

In Dutch, the clock is separated in four parts. 

The first quarter of the clock

This part is easy. It’s just like in English: you look back to the past hour and you say in Dutch:

Het is twee uur	het is tvay uwr	It’s two o’clock
Het is vijf over twee	het is fayf oa-fer tvay	It’s five past two
Het is tien over twee	het is teen oa-fer tvay	It’s ten past two
Het is kwart over twee	het is kvart oa-fer tvay	It’s a quarter past two

The second quarter of the clock

Let’s take a look at the second part of the clock. What you do is you start looking forward to the next
half hour and say:

Het is tien voor half drie.	het is teen foar half dree	It’s twenty past two.
Het is vijf voor half drie.	het is fayf foar half dree	It’s twentyfive past two.
Het is half drie.	het is half dree	It’s half past two.

The third quarter of the clock

Then we go into the third quarter of the clock. You keep in mind the half hour and start looking backwards to it.

Het is vijf over half drie.	het is fayf oa-fer half dree	It’s twentyfive to three.
Het is tien over half drie.	het is teen oa-fer half dree	It’s twenty to three.

The fourth quarter of the clock

And then finally we go to the fourth quarter and you look forward to the next hour.

Het is kwart voor drie.	het is kvart foar dree	It’s quarter to three.
Het is tien voor drie.	het is teen foar dree	It’s ten to three.
Het is vijf voor drie.	het is fayf foar dree	it’s five to three.
Het is drie uur.	het is dree uwr	It’s three o’clock.

Dutch Punctuality

The Dutch are in general quite punctual. Punctuality is regarded as a good virtue. If you are late it’s common to apologize for being late and most of the times you apologies for a late arrival will be accepted good-naturedly. If you are unexpectedly delayed, send a message or call ahead and let the others know when they can expect you.

Do want to learn, speak and read more Dutch?

Now that you understand the vocabulary for telling time in Dutch, the best thing you can do is to keep practicing it daily. Say the time to yourself in Dutch and it will become a habit. People will appreciate that you are trying to speak Dutch. If you want to learn more common words and expressions, then please check out our other posts. 

If you are serious about learning Dutch and you want to master the basics in a short amount of time then check out our easy, fun and fast Online Dutch course.

While it can take you awhile to learn a language by searching things on google and using apps, – with this comprehensive language course, it will just take you a couple of weeks to see some real progress in your abilities. You will be surprised at how  quick you will be able to talk in Dutch and leave a good impression! You want to know what time it is in the Netherlands Right now >> current time in the Netherlands right now