# Telling the time in Dutch



## bieq

Hello,

May somebody help me here or I'm just gonna die!  I'm studying how to say the time in Dutch, but it's so different from the way we tell it in Spanish that I just got confused and have some questions about it. Here they are:

9:00 = Het is negen uur
9:05 = Het is vijf over negen
9:10 = Het is tien over negen
9:15 = Het is kwart over negen
9:20 = Het is twintig over negen (*But could it be Het is tien voor half tien?*)
9:25 = Het is vijf voor half tien (*It couldn't be Het is vijf over half tien because that would be 9:35, right?*)
9:30 = Het is half tien
9:35 = Het is vijf over half tien (*But could it be Het is vijfentwintig voor tien?*)
9:40 = Het is tien over half tien (*But could it be Het is twintig voor tien?*)
9:45 = Het is kwart voor tien (*But could it be* *Het is kwart over half tien*?)
9:50 = Het is tien voor tien (*What about Het is twintig over half tien?*)
9:55 = Het is vijf voor tien
10:00 = Het is tien uur.

As you can see, I am _*quite *_confused about how to tell the time in Dutch, so I would appreciate somebody's help. Also, is there any easier way to tell the time, such as just mentioning the hour and minutes? For example:

9:10 = Het is negen en tien (minuten). *Could this be possible?*

Now, what about expressiones such as *9:11*, *9:28*, *9:36*, *9:57*? How would one tell the time aloud in these cases?

Thanks a million!

Bieq


----------



## Frank06

bieq said:


> May somebody help me here or I'm just gonna die!


Well, we're all going to die, but not now . And as far as I can see, you're able to tell exactly when (apart from a few details) so that might be a comfort.


> 9:20 = Het is twintig over negen (*But could it be Het is tien voor half tien?*)
> 9:25 = Het is vijf voor half tien (*It couldn't be Het is vijf over half tien because that would be 9:35, right?*)
> 9:30 = Het is half tien
> 9:35 = Het is vijf over half tien (*But could it be Het is vijfentwintig voor tien?*)
> 9:40 = Het is tien over half tien (*But could it be Het is twintig voor tien?*)






> 9:45 = Het is kwart voor tien
> (*But could it be* *Het is kwart over half tien*?)
> 9:50 = Het is tien voor tien
> (*What about Het is twintig over half tien?*)
> 9:55 = Het is vijf voor tien
> 10:00 = Het is tien uur.





> As you can see, I am _*quite *_confused about how to tell the time in Dutch, so I would appreciate somebody's help. Also, is there any easier way to tell the time, such as just mentioning the hour and minutes? For example:
> 
> 9:10 = Het is negen en tien (minuten). *Could this be possible?*


We could say:
- het is tien over negen
- het is negen uur tien (and here we use 'uur', but not 'minuten')

It might not be the most common way to say "negen uur elf", but it *is* used and it *is* correct. Maybe I should correct myself here: since quite a lot of people use digital clocks (and cell phones) with only numbers, it is heard and said quite often.



> Now, what about expressiones such as *9:11*, *9:28*, *9:36*, *9:57*?


Depends on how precise you want it to be . In casual conversations, it doesn't matter that much, does it . Anyway:
9.11u: het is elf over negen  (het is negen uur elf)
9.28u: het is twee voor half tien - het is negen uur achtentwintig - het is bijna half tien.
9.36: het is zes over half tien - het is negen uur zesendertig - het is ruim vijf over half tien.
9.57: het is drie voor negen - het is negen uur zevenenvijftig - het is bijna tien uur.


----------



## Joannes

Personally I never tell the time with reference to 'half N', and I don't hear it often either. 9:35 for me would be *vijfentwintig voor 10* (or probably a less accurate *half tien* ), 9:20 *twintig na negen*, 9:40 *twintig voor tien*, ...

In the West of Flanders, people don't even say *half tien*, there it's *negen uur dertig*.

Oh, and as you could tell from my examples, I say *na* instead of *over*. I don't think that's substandard though (in contrast to things like *kwart van de negen* etc.)


----------



## Lopes

Isn't something like *tieneneenhalf *common in some part of Flanders to say *10:30*? 

Personally I would allways use 'voor/over half ..'.

If someone asks you the time or when your train is leaving it wouldn't be strange for you to say *achtentwintig over negen*, but it would if someone asks you at what time your appointment is. I personally would never say *negen uur achtentwintig*.


----------



## Joannes

Lopes said:


> Isn't something like *tieneneenhalf *common in some part of Flanders to say *10:30*?


In West Flanders, but actually it's *negenenhalf*, *tienenhalf*. In West Flanders people also say *te* instead of *om* with reference to time.
e.g. *tege wad ure ga-je ghî da zîn? - te negenen, te negenenâlf, zoe etwa*
('hoe laat (lit. 'tegen wat uur') ga je daar zijn?' - 'om negen uur, half tien, zoiets')

(Bieq, don't let this confuse you, this is really dialectal.)

EDIT: because of the *tienen* I just realized we had a thread about this that should be interesting: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=983549


----------



## Frank06

Joannes said:


> Oh, and as you could tell from my examples, I say *na* instead of *over*. I don't think that's substandard though (in contrast to things like *kwart van de negen* etc.)


Substandard or not, we don't always care too much about that, do we .

I often use "na" in my classes, as a pragmatic alternative for "over". Sometimes  students who _just started_ with Dutch have problems hearing a distinction between "voor" en "over", or mix them up.
Hence I point out that we also say "na" in stead of "over". After all, in this region it _is_ indeed used quite often. And as long as they don't mix up "na" and "naar", which surprisingly enough happens a lot, it's okay with me.

Frank


----------



## bieq

Thank you everybody for your kind help. You just saved me from death!


----------

