Date and time notation in the Netherlands

Date

In the Netherlands, dates are written using the little-endian pattern "day–month–year" as is usual elsewhere in Europe and many other countries. Either dashes or slashes are used as separators. Times are written using 24-hour notation.

• dd-mm-yyyy (10-09-2000)
• dddd dd-mm-yyyy (zondag 10-09-2000)
• dddd dd mmmm yyyy (zondag 10 september 2000)

The names and abbreviations of months and days are as follows:

English Dutch Dutch abbreviation January januari jan. February februari feb. March maart mrt. April april apr. May mei mei June juni juni July juli juli August augustus aug. September september sep. October oktober okt. November november nov. December december dec.

English Dutch Dutch abbreviation Monday maandag ma. Tuesday dinsdag di. Wednesday woensdag wo. Thursday donderdag do. Friday vrijdag vr. Saturday zaterdag za. Sunday zondag zo.

Names of months and days are not capitalised in Dutch.

Time

Dutch TV listings magazines invariably use 24-hour notation

In written language, time is expressed in the 24-hour notation, with or without leading zero, using a full stop or colon as a separator, sometimes followed by the word uur (hour) or its abbreviation u. – for example, 22.51 uur, 9.12 u., or 09:12. In technical and scientific texts the use of the abbreviations h, min and s is common – for example, 17 h 03 min 16 s.^[1] The use of the 12-hour clock in numeric writing is not standard practice, not even in informal writing, and writing e.g., "1.30" for 13:30 would be regarded as odd. The actual Dutch terms for a.m. and p.m. are respectively v.m. and n.m. (voormiddag and namiddag), but these are very old-fashioned and even more rare than the use of a.m. and p.m. in written language.

In spoken language, most often time is expressed in the 12-hour clock. However, "a.m." and "p.m." are never used. Instead, an apposition is added, for instance 21:00 is said as "9 uur 's avonds" (9 o'clock in the evening). Half hours are relative to the next hour – for example, 5:30 is said as "half 6". Quarter hours are expressed relative to the nearest whole hour – for example, 6:15, "kwart over 6" (quarter past six) and 6:45, "kwart voor zeven" (quarter to seven). Minutes are usually rounded off to the nearest five minutes and are expressed relative to the closest half-hour. For instance 05:35 is "5 over half 6" (literally "5 past half to 6") and 05:20 is "tien voor half 6" (literally "10 to half to 6").

When the 24-hour clock is used in spoken language, which is not quite common, usually the written form is pronounced with the hours as a number, the word "uur" (hour) and the minutes as a number. For example, 17:21 might be pronounced as "zeventien uur eenentwintig" (seventeen hours twenty-one). Hours over 12 are not usually combined with phrasings using "half", "quarter", "to", or "past".

See also

• Date format by country