Watch and read: the time

The Time. We will start with the months. You recognise the names, but mind the pronunciation of some. [DUTCH SPOKEN] januari, februari, maart, april, mei, juni, juli, augustus, september, oktober, november, december. And a few phrases with the months. [DUTCH SPOKEN] In augustus. In August. [DUTCH SPOKEN] 10 maart. March 10th. [DUTCH SPOKEN] op 2 april. On the 2nd of April. Notice the names are not written in capitals.

The names of the days of the week are also not in capitals. [DUTCH SPOKEN] maandag, dinsdag, woensdag [DUTCH SPOKEN] donderdag, vrijdag, zaterdag and zondag. And, again, some phrases. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Op maandag. On Monday. [DUTCH SPOKEN] In het weekend. In the weekend. [DUTCH SPOKEN] komende zondag. Next Sunday. [DUTCH SPOKEN] volgende week Next week. Let’s move on to the parts of the day. [DUTCH SPOKEN] de ochtend or de morgen means the morning.

So this is from 6:00 to 12:00.

The “middag” is the afternoon from 12:00 to 6:00.

The “avond” for the evening is from 6:00 to midnight. De “nacht” is the night. It’s from midnight to 6 o’clock in the morning. Of course these times given are approximate.

The Dutch method of time differs from the English. The principal reason for this is the fact that the half hour is treated just as important as a time as the hour itself. Whereas in English the minutes are reckoned in relation to the hour, in Dutch they are reckoned in relation to both the hour and the half hour. So [DUTCH SPOKEN] het is tien uur. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Het is elf uur. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Het is half elf. And we look ahead to the next hour. And more. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Een kwartier. That’s a period of 15 minutes. “Kwart” is used in time telling. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Het is kwart over tien. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Het is kwart voor elf.

Here you see more detail. Look at the following phrases while I read them. Over. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Kwart over drie. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Vijf over twaalf. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Tien over half zes. Or “voor”. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Kwart voor vier. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Tien voor elf. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Vijf voor half drie. And some phrases. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Hoe laat is het? What time is it? [DUTCH SPOKEN] Om tien uur. At 10 o’clock. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Tien over zes.

Ten past 6:00. [DUTCH SPOKEN] Om half zes.

At 5:30. Notice that in Dutch we do not use PM or AM. The context makes it clear what you mean. Another point to notice is that the word “uur” is dropped if one does not indicate a round hour.