Days, months and dates in Dutch: how to say and write them

You book a visit at the huisarts (the family doctor). A day later an email arrives: Uw afspraak: di 03-11, 09:30. (Your appointment: Tue 03-11, 09:30.) Is that the third of November, or the eleventh of March? Then you remember the assistant on the phone asked Kan het dinsdag 3 november? (Can it be Tuesday 3 November?). So it's November. But you only know that because you heard the month name. Dutch dates catch a lot of newcomers out like this.

The days of the week in Dutch and the months in Dutch are easy words. Most of them look familiar. The hard part is the small habits around them: no capital letters, a different date order, and a few short prepositions. This article covers all of it, so you can read and say Dutch dates without guessing.

Days of the week in Dutch

Dutch has seven days. Every one of them is a de-word, and none of them gets a capital letter.

The short forms (ma, di, wo, do, vr, za, zo) show up on calendars, appointment cards and work schedules. Learn them early. A letter from the gemeente (the municipality) might only say di 10 nov, which means Tuesday 10 November.

One more detail. In the Netherlands the week starts on Monday, not Sunday.

To ask which day it is, say this:

Welke dag is het vandaag?

What day is it today?

Het is dinsdag.

It's Tuesday.

Common mistake: writing Maandag or Dinsdag with a capital letter in the middle of a sentence. English needs the capital. Dutch doesn't. You only use one when the day is the first word of the sentence.

Months in Dutch

The months are close to English, so you can probably read most of them already.

Two to watch: maart is March, and mei is May. Also, juni and juli sound very alike when someone speaks quickly. If you're booking something, repeat the date back, or ask them to say it again.

Months have no capital letter either. Holidays do.

Kerst (Christmas), Pasen (Easter) and Koningsdag (King's Day) all keep their capital, because they're names of holidays. Days and months are just ordinary words.

Dutch dates: day, month, year

This is the biggest trap if you're used to American dates. Dutch always goes from small to big. First the day, then the month, then the year.

3 mei 2026

3 May 2026

In numbers, you write 3-5-2026 or 03-05-2026. That means 3 May. It doesn't mean March 5.

So the email at the start, di 03-11, is Tuesday 3 November. When a date has two small numbers, read the day first.

How to say the date in Dutch

Most of the time you just say the normal number, then the month.

Het is drie mei.

It's 3 May.

To ask for the date, say Welke datum is het vandaag? (Which date is it today?) or Wat is de datum vandaag? (What's the date today?). Both get an answer like Het is drie mei. There's a third question too, and it uses ordinal numbers (the "third," the "fourth"):

De hoeveelste is het vandaag?

What's the date today?

Het is de derde.

It's the third.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinals follow one rule. Add -ste to the number for 1, for 8, and for everything from 20 to 100. Add -de for the rest. For dates, that covers every day of the month.

• 1: eerste (first, this one has its own form)
• 2: tweede, 3: derde, 4: vierde, 5: vijfde, 6: zesde, 7: zevende
• 8: achtste (with -ste, because the number already ends in a t sound)
• 9: negende, 10: tiende
• 11 to 19: elfde, twaalfde, dertiende, veertiende, vijftiende, zestiende, zeventiende, achttiende, negentiende
• 20 to 100: twintigste, eenentwintigste, dertigste, eenendertigste, honderdste

Ordinals are also normal inside a date. De eerste mei and op de eerste are both fine. But when you say a full date, the plain number is more common: drie mei, not de derde mei.

Saying the year

Years are said as full numbers. 2026 is tweeduizend zesentwintig. For 1990, the full form is negentienhonderdnegentig. Informally, people say negentien negentig.

Op or in? The time prepositions

English uses "on" for days and dates and "in" for months. Dutch is very close to this. That's good news.

• Use op for a day or a date: op maandag, op 3 mei.
• Use in for a month, a season or a year: in mei, in de zomer, in 2026.
• Use om for a clock time: om drie uur (at three o'clock).

Ik heb een afspraak op maandag.

I have an appointment on Monday.

Now put it together. This is the sentence you'll probably need most:

Ik heb een afspraak op donderdag 12 november om half tien.

I have an appointment on Thursday 12 November at half past nine.

(Half tien means 9:30, not 10:30. There's a separate article on telling the time in Dutch.)

Look at the parts. Op goes with donderdag 12 november, because it's a specific day. Om goes with half tien, because it's a clock time. There's no in anywhere, because the month is part of the full date, not a separate time.

Worth knowing: in everyday speech, Dutch people often drop op for a coming day. Ik bel je maandag means "I'll call you Monday." It's very common. You can say op maandag too, and nobody will mind.

Every Monday, or on Mondays

If something happens every week on the same day, there are three easy ways to say it. The last two both mean "on Mondays."

Ik werk elke maandag thuis.

I work from home every Monday.

Ik werk op maandag thuis.

I work from home on Mondays.

Ik werk 's maandags thuis.

I work from home on Mondays.

The last one is an old form. The 's is a short form of the old word des, which meant "of the." So 's maandags means "on Mondays," as a habit. You can't take it apart in modern Dutch. Just learn 's maandags, 's dinsdags and so on as one chunk.

The same pattern works for parts of the day: 's ochtends (in the morning), 's middags (in the afternoon), 's avonds (in the evening), 's nachts (at night). These can be a habit or a single occasion. It depends on the rest of the sentence.

's Ochtends drink ik koffie.

In the mornings I drink coffee.

Ik kom morgen 's avonds.

I'm coming tomorrow evening.

The first sentence is a habit. The second is one evening. The 's looks the same in both.

Notice the capital O in the first example. When a sentence starts with 's, the next word gets the capital letter, not the apostrophe. So it's 's Maandags werk ik thuis (On Mondays I work from home), with a capital M. In the middle of a sentence, it goes back to lowercase: Ik werk 's maandags thuis.

You can also stick a day and a part of the day together in one word: maandagochtend (Monday morning), zaterdagavond (Saturday evening).

Today, tomorrow, and the words around them

Next come the little time words you'll use every day. They're short, and you'll hear them constantly.

Gisteren was ik bij de huisarts.

Yesterday I was at the doctor.

Overmorgen heb ik vrij.

The day after tomorrow I'm off.

For weeks and years, you use deze, volgende and vorige, but there's one catch. Week is a de-word, so it's deze week. Jaar is a het-word, so "this year" is dit jaar, not deze jaar. And volgend jaar and vorig jaar have no -e at the end, for the same reason.

Volgende week heb ik een afspraak bij de gemeente.

Next week I have an appointment at the municipality.

Parts of today

For "this morning," "this evening" and so on, Dutch has one word each:

• vanochtend: this morning
• vanmiddag: this afternoon
• vanavond: this evening
• vannacht: tonight, or last night

Vannacht has two readings. It depends on the verb. With a future plan, it means tonight. With a past verb, it means last night.

Ik heb vannacht slecht geslapen.

I slept badly last night.

Vanavond kook ik pasta.

This evening I'm cooking pasta.

Where English speakers go wrong

Here are the mistakes English speakers make most often.

1. Capital letters. English speakers write Maandag and Mei by habit. In Dutch, use lowercase, unless the word starts the sentence.

2. American date order. 03-05 is 3 May. Always day first.

3. The double meaning of morgen. This one confuses many learners. Morgen means "tomorrow." But de morgen also means "the morning." Same spelling.

Morgen heb ik een afspraak.

Tomorrow I have an appointment.

So how do you say "tomorrow morning"? You use one word: morgenochtend.

Morgenochtend moet ik vroeg op.

Tomorrow morning I have to get up early.

4. Saying deze jaar. English has one word, "this," for everything. Dutch has two, deze and dit, and it depends on the noun. Deze week, but dit jaar. When you learn a new time word, learn if it's de or het at the same time.

Edge cases

Week numbers

Many calendars in the Netherlands show week numbers, and companies often plan by them. You might see a message like this about a delivery:

De levering komt in week 43.

The delivery comes in week 43.

You don't need to work the number out yourself. A Dutch calendar usually prints it next to each row. Note the preposition: it's in week 43, like a month.

Putting it together

1. Days and months have no capital letter, unless they start the sentence. Holidays like Kerst do.
2. Dates go day, month, year. 03-05-2026 is 3 May.
3. When you say a date, the plain number is more common: drie mei. Ordinals show up in the De hoeveelste is het vandaag? question and its answer, de derde, and in forms like de eerste mei.
4. Ordinals take -ste for 1, 8 and 20 to 100. Everything else takes -de.
5. Op for days and dates. In for months, seasons and years. Om for clock times.
6. 's maandags means "on Mondays" as a habit. 's ochtends and 's avonds can be a habit or one occasion. Learn them as chunks.
7. Morgen means "tomorrow" and also "morning." Use morgenochtend for "tomorrow morning."
8. Deze week, but dit jaar.

Go practice this

Write your next three real appointments in Dutch with the full pattern, for example Ik heb een afspraak op vrijdag 6 november om twee uur. (I have an appointment on Friday 6 November at two o'clock.) Then say each one out loud.

Switch your phone calendar to Dutch if you can.

Listen to a Dutch weather report and count how often you hear gisteren, vandaag and morgen.

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