Dutch/Vocabulary/What time is it?

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.

__:00
Example: In a full sentence time telling is usually initiated with Het is... ("It is ...")

__: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: A more general way of indicating time is to say:

__:20


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:

__:21 to __:29
From __:20 on the reference point is the next half hour point.

Examples:

__: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:

__:31 to __:39
Beyond __:30 the half hour remains the point of reference, using over or sometimes na. Examples:

__:40
From __:40 on the reference point can become the upcoming whole hour Example:

__:41 to __:59
From the quarter hour on, the reference point is the whole hour.

Examples: