Hoe laat is het? Saying what time it is quite different from English usage. In the following examples, we use times from 3 to 4 o'clock.
In Dutch time is told by reference to the closest whole or half hour.
__:00 / __:15 / __:30 / __:45
These are the four cardinal moments in an hour. Notice halfvier! The Dutch way of indicating half hours is towards the next hour, not past the previous one.
| 3:00 | 3:15 | 3:30 | 3:45 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| drie uur | kwart over drie | halfvier | kwart voor vier |
__:00
Example:
| 3:00 | drie uur |
In a full sentence time telling is usually initiated with Het is... ("It is ...")
| Hoe laat is het? |
| Het is drie uur. |
__:01 to __:19
 |
|
In this interval reference is made to the previous whole hour with the preposition over or, less frequently na. The word minuut can be omitted in fast speech. Sometimes an inflected form of the numeral tweeën, drieën, vieren is used, but more often this is cut short to just twee, drie, vier etc. The quarter hour __:15 has its own name kwart.
Examples:
| 3:01 | een minuut over drie | een over drie | |
| 3:05 | vijf over drie | vijf minuten over drie | vijf minuten na drieën |
| ... | |||
| 3:15 | kwart over drie | ||
| ... | |||
| 3:19 | negentien over drie | elf voor halfvier | |
A more general way of indicating time is to say:
| Het is even over drieën. | It is just after three. |
| Het is een paar minuten over drie. | It is a few minutes after three |
__:20
twintig over drie
Between 3:15 and 3:20 (depending on the speaker) the reference point starts to shift to the nearest half hour, using the preposition voor.
Example:
| 3:20 | twintig over drie | (reference past the whole hour; not used everywhere), |
| or | ||
| 3:20 | tien voor halfvier | (reference towards the coming half hour) |
__:21 to __:29
From __:20 on the reference point is the next half hour point.
Examples:
| 3:21 | negen voor halfvier |
| 3:22 | acht voor halfvier |
| ... | |
| 3:29 | een (minuut) voor halfvier |
__:30
As said before the way the half hour is indicated differs by a whole hour between Dutch and English. All half hours are written as a single word: halfeen, halftwee, etc. through halftwaalf.
Example:
| 3:30 | halfvier | half past three |
__:31 to __:39
Beyond __:30 the half hour remains the point of reference, using over or sometimes na.
Examples:
| 3:31 | een over halfvier |
| ... | |
| 3:35 | vijf over halfvier |
| ... | |
| 3:39 | negen over halfvier |
__:40
From __:40 on the reference point can become the upcoming whole hour
Example:
| 3:40 | tien over halfvier | |
| or | ||
| 3:40 | twintig voor vier | twintig voor vieren |
__:41 to __:59
From the quarter hour on, the reference point is the whole hour.
Examples:
| 3:41 | negentien voor vier or elf over halfvier |
| 3:42 | achttien voor vier or twaalf over halfvier |
| ... | |
| 3:45 | kwart voor vier |
| ... | |
| 3:55 | vijf voor vier |
| 3:59 | een (minuut) voor vier(en) |