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.
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. |
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 Dutch; Flemish: uur (hour) or its abbreviation Dutch; Flemish: u. - for example, Dutch; Flemish: 22.51 uur, Dutch; Flemish: 9.12 u., or Dutch; Flemish: 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., "Dutch; Flemish: 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. (Dutch; Flemish: voormiddag and Dutch; Flemish: 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 "Dutch; Flemish: 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 "Dutch; Flemish: half 6". Quarter hours are expressed relative to the nearest whole hour - for example, 6:15, "Dutch; Flemish: kwart over 6" (quarter past six) and 6:45, "Dutch; Flemish: 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 "Dutch; Flemish: 5 over half 6" (literally "5 past half to 6") and 05:20 is "Dutch; Flemish: 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 "Dutch; Flemish: uur" (hour) and the minutes as a number. For example, 17:21 might be pronounced as "Dutch; Flemish: zeventien uur eenentwintig" (seventeen hours twenty-one). Hours over 12 are not usually combined with phrasings using "half", "quarter", "to", or "past".