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Lesson 6: Time - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Numbers 100-9999 - Time - Days, Months - This and That - Cognates

Numbers 100-9999
Time
This and That
Cognates
100
honderd
click to hear		 101
honderdéén
click to hear		 110
honderdtien
click to hear		 200
tweehonderd
click to hear		 732
zevenhonderd-
tweeëndertig
click to hear		 1000
duizend
click to hear
1967
negentienzevenenzestig
click to hear		 2009
tweeduizendnegen
click to hear		 2012
tweeduizendtwaalf
click to hear		 9999
negenduizendnegenhonderd-
negenennegentig
click to hear
<< - numbers, simple math and dimensions - >>

Time

Time Units
The Clock, Telling Time
The Day
The Days of The Week
The Months
Years
Dutch Thesaurus: Time

Time Units

[a clock]
(de) klok click to hear

[wristwatch]
(het) horloge click to hear
(a word from French)

60 (zestig) seconden in een minuut click to hear ('60 seconds in a minute')
(de) seconde click to hear ('second' - see note below)
60 (zestig) minuten in een uur click to hear ('60 minutes in an hour')
(de) minuut click to hear ('minute')
24 (vierentwintig) uren in een dag click to hear ('24 hours in a day')
(het) uur click to hear ('hour')
7 (zeven) dagen in een week click to hear ('7 days in a week')
(de) dag click to hear ('day')
52 (tweeënvijftig) weken in een jaar click to hear ('52 weeks in a year')
(de) week click to hear ('week')
28 (achtentwintig) tot 31 (éénendertig)
dagen in een maand		 click to hear ('28 to 31 days in a month')
(de) maand click to hear ('month')
12 (twaalf) maanden in een jaar click to hear ('12 months in a year')
(het) jaar click to hear ('year')
365 (driehonderdvijfenzestig) dagen in een jaar click to hear ('365 days in a year')
100 (honderd) jaren in een eeuw click to hear ('100 years in a century')
(de) eeuw click to hear ('century')
The Z in zestig ('60') is often softened to an S.
The time units ending in -R kwartier click to hear ('quarter, 15 minutes') - uur click to hear ('hour') and jaar click to hear ('year') are often used as both singular and plural; the regular plurals are uren click to hear 2 and jaren click to hear.
drie kwartier click to hear ('[3 quarters] 45 minutes') - vier uur click to hear ('4 hours') - vijf jaar click to hear 2 ('5 years') >>
Notice that the 'short A' of dag click to hear ('day') changes to 'long A' for the plural: dagen click to hear - 2 ('days.')
Dutch seconde click to hear ('second') is only the time unit; English 'second' meaning 'number 2' is tweede click to hear ordinal numbers.
(de) seconde
(de) minuut
(het) uur
(de) dag
click to hear - 2 		(second)
(minute)
(hour)
(day)

(de) week
(de) maand
(het) jaar
(de) eeuw
click to hear - 2 		(week)
(month)
(year)
(century)
[an alarm clock]
(de) wekker click to hear 		[a radio-alarm clock]
(de) wekradio click to hear 		[a few kitchen timers]
(de) keukenwekkers click to hear 		[a sundial]
(de) zonnewijzer click to hear
(de) dag click to hear 'day' - dagen click to hear 2 'days'
- note the plural vowel change
dagelijks click to hear 2 'daily' (every day)		 (de) week click to hear 'week'
weken click to hear 2 'weeks'
wekelijks click to hear 2 'weekly' 		(de) maand click to hear 'month'
maanden click to hear 'months'
maandelijks click to hear 2 'monthly'		 (het) jaar click to hear 'year'
jaren click to hear 'years'
jaarlijks click to hear 2 'yearly'

Telling Time

De tijd click to hear ('time') - (de) klok click to hear ('clock') - Klok kijken click to hear 2 ('to tell time') - Hoe laat is het? click to hear ('what is the time?')
[a clock, 3:00]
Drie uur
click to hear 		[a clock, 2:30]
Half drie
click to hear 		[a clock, 3:30]
Half vier
click to hear 		[a clock, 2:45]
Kwart voor drie
click to hear 		[a clock, 6:15]
Kwart over zes
click to hear
[a clock, 2:20]
Tien voor half drie /or/
Twintig over twee
click to hear 		[a clock, 2:55]
Vijf voor drie
click to hear 		[a clock, 3:05]
Vijf over drie
click to hear 		[a clock, 11:58]
Twee voor twaalf
click to hear 		[2:30 on a digital clock]
twee uur dertig (2:30)
click to hear (2:30)
Do note that in time, Dutch 'half ...' means 'half an hour before ...' and not 'half past ...' like (British?) English 'half ....'

vroeg click to hear 'early' - laat click to hear 'late' - op tijd click to hear 2 'in/on time' - te laat click to hear 'too late, not in time'

The Day

zons-
opgang
click to hear
[sunup]
zons-
ondergang
click to hear - 2
[sundown]
[12 O'Clock (Midnight)]
12 uur
's nachts
click to hear
[6 O'Clock (AM)]
6 uur
's morgens
click to hear

[12 O'Clock (Noon)]
12 uur
's middags
click to hear

[6 O'Clock (PM)]
6 uur
's avonds
click to hear - 2
[12 O'Clock (Midnight)]
12 uur
's nachts
click to hear
(de) nacht
click to hear 		(de) morgen
click to hear - 2 		| (de) middag
click to hear
| (de) avond
click to hear

's nachts
click to hear
at night		 's morgens
click to hear
in the morning		 | 's middags
click to hear
in the afternoon
| 's avonds
click to hear
in the evening

vanmorgen click to hear this morning
vanmiddag click to hear this afternoon
vanavond click to hear 2 this evening, tonight
vannacht click to hear tonight / last night
(look at the tense of the verb)
vandaag click to hear 2 3 today
but: morgen click to hear 2 tomorrow
overdag click to hear 2 in the daytime
Tot vanmiddag click to hear See you this afternoon
Tot vanavond click to hear See you tonight
Tot morgen click to hear See you tomorrow
Tot maandag click to hear See you on Monday
Prettig weekend click to hear Have a nice weekend
Vanmorgen scheen de zon. click to hear ('This morning, the sun was shining.')

In Fall and Winter in Holland, the sun rises after 6AM and goes down before 6PM.
Zomertijd click to hear ('Daylight Saving Time')
Middernacht click to hear ('[12] midnight')
een kwartier click to hear 2 ('15 minutes')
drie (3) kwartier click to hear ('45 minutes')
een halfjaar click to hear ('6 months')
anderhalf jaar click to hear ('a year and a half, 18 months')
tientallen jaren click to hear ('[10s] dozens of years')
een paar jaar later click to hear ('a few years later')
twee jaar geleden click to hear 2 ('two years ago') - geleden click to hear ('ago')
Morgen click to hear - 2 means both 'morning' and 'tomorrow,' and (like in English) it's also short for Goedemorgen click to hear ('Good morning!')
For 'morning' there's also the nice Dutch challenge word ochtend click to hear - 's ochtends click to hear - 2 ('in the morning')
Bij 't krieken van de dag click to hear ('at daybreak, at first light, very early in the morning')
The common expression tussen de middag click to hear means during the lunch break, say 12-1PM, between morning and afternoon work or school, but it is a bit strange, when you think of it, 'between the afternoon.' Maybe 'and morning' was dropped somewhere along the way.
The T in 's nachts click to hear ('at night') is sometimes dropped: click to hear.
Schemering click to hear 2 ('twilight') (The length of the grey bars exaggerates the length of the Dutch twilight.)
Duisternis click to hear 2 ('darkness')
Zonsopgang click to hear and zonsondergang click to hear ('sunrise' and 'sundown') are compound words: zons-opgang, zons-ondergang.
Waar blijft de tijd? click to hear 2 3 ('Where does the time go?')
Dutch often uses 'avond' click to hear ('evening') where in English you say 'night.' - Zaterdagavond click to hear 2 ('saturday night' - dancing etc.)
Vanavond gaan we naar de bioscoop. click to hear Tonight we'll go see a movie (at the cinema.)

The Week

De Dagen van de Week click to hear The Days of the Week
maandag
click to hear
Monday 		dinsdag
click to hear
Tuesday 		woensdag
click to hear
Wednesday 		donderdag
click to hear
Thursday 		vrijdag
click to hear
Friday 		zaterdag
click to hear
Saturday 		zondag
click to hear
Sunday
In English and Dutch, some of the days of the week are named after the old Germanic gods, like Wednesday for chief god Wotan (Dutch: Wodan) - Thursday for god of thunder Thor (Donar) and Friday for Freya, Mrs Wotan.

door de week click to hear ('on weekdays') - in 't weekend click to hear 2 ('in the weekend')
doordeweekse dag click to hear 2 ('weekday') - weekdag click to hear ('weekday') - werkdag click to hear ('workday')
werkweek click to hear ('workweek') - feestdag click to hear ('holiday')
(de) dag click to hear ('day') - dagen click to hear 2 ('days')

[the sun]
de zon click to hear		 [the moon]
de maan click to hear

The Months

[tapestry]
Leer ons alzo onze dagen tellen click to hear
So teach us to number our days (Ps 90:12)
Tapestry by Elizabeth Sipma-Veenstra
De Maanden
van het Jaar 		click to hear The Months
of the Year 		De Seizoenen click to hear The Seasons
januari click to hear January (de) winter click to hear Winter
februari click to hear February
maart click to hear March
april click to hear April (de) lente click to hear Spring
mei click to hear May
juni click to hear June
juli click to hear July (de) zomer click to hear Summer
augustus click to hear August
september click to hear September
oktober click to hear October (de) herfst click to hear Fall, Autumn
november click to hear November
december click to hear December
all numbers

For the days of the months, Dutch uses regular numbers, and not ordinal numbers like in English:
1 april 1572 click to hear ('April 1st, 1572')
(het) seizoen click to hear ('season')
You may come across the somewhat formal (het) voorjaar click to hear 2 ('Spring') - (het) najaar click to hear 2 ('Fall, Autumn') and (de) nazomer click to hear 2 ('the last weeks of Summer.')

Als de R in de maand zit click to hear 2 ('When there's an R in [the name of] the month') - the time for the daily spoonful of levertraan click to hear 2 ('cod-liver-oil.')

To tell when something happened or is happening Dutch often uses an old form with apostrophe-S at the beginning of the word and an ending in S:

's morgens click to hear in the morning
's ochtends click to hear in the morning
's middags click to hear in the afternoon
's avonds click to hear in the evening
's nachts click to hear at night

's zomers click to hear in summer
's winters click to hear in winter
But it doesn't sound good for lente ('Spring') and herfst ('Fall, Autumn') so another form is used:
in de lente click to hear in Spring
in de herfst click to hear in Fall
's Morgens vroeg click to hear 2 3 ('early in the morning') - 's avonds laat click to hear 2 ('late at night')

Years

2022
tweeduizend-
tweeëntwintig
click to hear 2 		2023
tweeduizend-
drieëntwintig
click to hear 2 		2024
tweeduizend-
vierentwintig
click to hear 3 4 		2025
tweeduizend-
vijfentwintig
click to hear 2 3 		2026
tweeduizend-
zesentwintig
click to hear 2 3
New Year's Eve last year
vorig jaar
click to hear 		this year
dit jaar
click to hear 2 		next year
volgend jaar
click to hear 2 		more previous and next
more years
more numbers

the past
het verleden
click to hear 		the present
het heden
click to hear 		the future
de toekomst
click to hear 		more Past, Present
and Future

then
toen ‑>>
click to hear 		now
nu ‑>>
click to hear 		then
dan ‑>>
click to hear
the day before yesterday
eergisteren
click to hear 		yesterday
gisteren
click to hear 		today
vandaag
click to hear 		tomorrow
morgen
click to hear 2 		the day after tomorrow
overmorgen
click to hear 2

2020: tweeduizendtwintig click to hear 2 3
2021: tweeduizendéénentwintig click to hear 2
2022: tweeduizendtweeëntwintig click to hear 2
2023: tweeduizenddrieëntwintig click to hear 2
2024: tweeduizendvierentwintig click to hear 3 4
2025: tweeduizendvijfentwintig click to hear 2 3
2026: tweeduizendzesentwintig click to hear 2 3

Het was vorige maand erg koud click to hear ('Last month [it] was very cold')
Volgende week gaat het regenen click to hear ('Next week it's going to rain')
afgelopen click to hear 2 ('last, past') - afgelopen woensdag click to hear 2 ('last Wednesday')

[old picture of little boy reading]
toen click to hear
lang geleden click to hear ('long ago')
[me, reading]
nu click to hear		 [Then: me as a child on a scooter]
toen click to hear (step click to hear)		 [Now: present me on a scooter]
nu click to hear (step click to hear)
[me reading the standard book about Dos] [me reading the standard book about Dos]
10 (tien) jaar geleden click to hear ('10 years ago')
Terug naar DOS! click to hear ('Back to DOS!')
- 15 (vijftien) jaar geleden click to hear ('15 years ago') -

This and That

[the words pictured]
het huis
de boom
de auto's
click to hear 		(the house)
(the tree)
(the cars)
dit huis
deze boom
deze auto's
click to hear - 2 		(this house)
(this tree)
(these cars)
dat huis
die boom
die auto's
click to hear 		(that house)
(that tree)
(those cars)
hier
daar
click to hear - 2 		(here)
(there)
die
dat
deze
dit
click to hear 		(that/those)
(that)
(this/these)
(this)

Like English 'this/these' and 'that/those,' Dutch has dit/deze and dat/die for when you point or nod at something, to indicate near or far, but the usage is not exactly the same.

As an adjective (this page, those words), use
  • dit and deze for nearby objects
    • deze click to hear for 'de' words (and all plurals)
    • dit click to hear for 'het' words in teh singular
  • dat and die for objects further away
    • die click to hear for 'de' words (and all plurals)
    • dat click to hear for 'het' words in the singular
this car here deze auto hier click to hear [de auto]
these words are hard deze woorden zijn moeilijk click to hear [de woorden]
this house here dit huis hier click to hear [het huis]
that car there die auto daar click to hear [de auto]
those words are easy die woorden zijn gemakkelijk click to hear [de woorden]
that house there dat huis daar click to hear [het huis]
If I'm not mistaken, English uses 'this' for nearby singular and 'these' for nearby plural, 'that' for faraway singular and 'those' for faraway plural.

There's another usage in sentences like this is... and those are... In Dutch, this kind of line always uses dit or dat - there are no plurals here like in English.

this is my car dit is mijn auto click to hear
these are my words dit zijn mijn woorden click to hear
this is my house dit is mijn huis click to hear
that is my car dat is mijn auto click to hear
those are my words dat zijn mijn woorden click to hear
that is my house dat is mijn huis click to hear
'That' still has a third meaning (called 'conjunction') which also translates as dat in Dutch, like in
is it true that ...? is het waar dat ...? click to hear
The word order after this dat will be dealt with in a future lesson.

Die week moet ik werken click to hear ('That week I have to [be at] work')
Dat jaar was heel mooi click to hear ('[That year was very beautiful] That was a good year')
Een dezer dagen ... click to hear ('One of these days ...') - a standard expression with an old-fashioned possessive ending; modern Dutch would be 'een van deze dagen.'

For the many other meanings of dat  and another meaning of die  see (and hear) the 'Dat' Disambiguation Page

Cognates

You may have noticed that some Dutch and English words look alike, and even more telling are similarities in grammatical features like 'this and that' in the paragraph above, or the irregular plurals of 'child: children' and kind: kinderen click to hear
English and Dutch both come from the language of the Germanic tribes that started to spread out from what's now Southern Sweden, Denmark and the coast of Germany about 2300 years ago. Frisian, German, the Scandinavian languages (except Finnish) and the extinct Gothic are other descendants of the Germanic language. And of course, further back, most of the European languages, Persian and Kurdish, and many of the languages of India developed from the language of the Indo-Europeans that roamed Eastern Europe thousands of years ago.
As the Germanic tribes conquered, spread out over a larger area, they grew apart, and entering new environments and encountering other peoples and civilisations, their languages changed, and changes were no longer shared with the old neighbors.
The Angles and Saxons, whose language developed into English, moved to present-day England around 450 AD, where they in turn suffered the viking invasions of 800-1000 AD, and after 1066 they were ruled for a time by another group of vikings that had adopted the French language. Beside the human suffering caused and material damage done, these invasions greatly changed English. 1500 Years ago, the English were close to the Frisians, and it is said that speakers of modern Frisian have less difficulty reading Old English than modern-day English speakers.
Of course, languages adopt words all the time (leenwoorden click to hear 'loan words.') I guess most languages (except French) use a word similar to 'computer,' but that does not mean that they are linguistically related to English. Most European languages have about the same names for the months, but those are from Latin and were spread by the Romans and later the Catholic Church.
Linguists call words from the same root that live on in different languages 'cognates.' They rarely look exactly alike because words change in the course of time, and also because different languages have different phonetic systems, represent sounds with different letters.
The best way to learn about cognates is to hear them spoken. My English and German are not perfect, but you get the idea.
English Dutch German hear
English Dutch German hear
yesterday gisteren Gestern click to hear 2
free vrij frei click to hear 2
cold koud kalt click to hear 2
thunder donder Donner click to hear 2
salt zout Salz click to hear 2
weather weer Wetter click to hear 2
green groen grün click to hear 2 dove duif Taube click to hear 2
snow sneeuw Schnee click to hear 2
white wit weiß click to hear 2
more cognates
Only a small number of words between English and Dutch are cognates. 'Black,' for instance, does not have a Dutch cognate.The ones you notice may make memorizing the words easier.
black zwart schwarz click to hear 2
Dutch Duits Deutsch click to hear 2 The Dutch and German words mean 'German.'
Earlier in the lesson you've seen the names of the seasons:
lente click to hear ('Spring') - zomer click to hear ('Summer') - herfst click to hear ('Fall, Autumn') - winter click to hear ('Winter')
Two of these words are not cognates - but we still find something very similar to the Dutch word 'lente' (Spring) in the English word of 'Lent,' the 40 days of 'fasting' between Ash Wednesday and Easter, and the Dutch word 'herfst' (Fall) looks very much like the English word 'harvest,' which occurs at that time.
Change of meaning while staying in the same general area is very common with cognates. For instance, the Dutch word smal click to hear just means 'narrow,' the Dutch word prettig click to hear means 'pleasant,' and the Dutch word dier click to hear 2 3 is the general word for 'animal.'
Of course there are only 26 letters representing not an endless number of sounds, and they can only be put together in a limited number of pronounceable combinations. Not all words that look alike spring from the same root.
Further Reading:
J.P. Mallory: In Search of the Indo-Europeans
Orrin W. Robinson: Old English and Its Closest Relatives 		['sparrowhawk' brand matchbox]
zwaluw (swallow)
vink (finch)
nachtegaal (nightingale)
duif (dove)
zwaan (swan)
click to hear
 havik (hawk)
uil (owl)
koekoek (cuckoo)
raaf (raven)
kraai (crow)
click to hear 		merel (blackbird)
lijster (thrush)
specht (woodpecker)
roodborstje (robin)
eend (duck)
click to hear 		adelaar, arend (eagle)
ooievaar (stork)
reiger (heron)
meeuw (seagull)
gier (vulture)
(vleermuis (bat))
click to hear 		spreeuw (starling)
mus (sparrow)
click to hear

sperwer click to hear 2 (sparrowhawk)

leeuwerik click to hear 2 (lark)

more animals - 2

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Don't be a dief (thief) / dievegge (female thief) - diefstal (theft) - stelen (to steal) - heler (dealer in stolen goods) - hear Dutch - 2