Dutch words for every day: days, months, numbers and greetings
Four sets of basic Dutch words, each on a page of its own: the seven days, the twelve months, the numbers and the greetings. Every page gives the written form, the spelling rules that catch learners out, such as lower-case day names or the trema in tweeëntwintig, and the points where the Netherlands and Belgium differ. The Dutch words for dates and numbers are the same in both countries.
Dutch words by topic
Each page opens with a table of the Dutch words and then explains spelling, usage, Belgian and Netherlands forms and common mistakes, with example sentences.
- 01Days of the week in Dutch: maandag to zondag, IPA, abbreviations, useThe days of the week in Dutch are maandag, dinsdag, woensdag, donderdag, vrijdag, zaterdag and zondag. Every name ends in dag, every name is written in lower case, and the week starts on Monday.
- 02Months in Dutch: januari to december, abbreviations, spelling, datesThe twelve months in Dutch are januari, februari, maart, april, mei, juni, juli, augustus, september, oktober, november and december. They come from Latin like the English names, they are written in lower case, and a Dutch date puts the day before the month: 3 maart 2026.
- 03Numbers in Dutch from nul to miljard: spelling rules and ordinalsCounting to ten in Dutch goes een, twee, drie, vier, vijf, zes, zeven, acht, negen, tien. From twenty-one on, numbers in Dutch say the units before the tens, eenentwintig, one-and-twenty, and the whole number up to a thousand is written as a single word.
- 04Greetings in Dutch: hallo, goedemorgen, dag, doei and tot ziensThe everyday greetings in Dutch are hallo and hoi for hello, goedemorgen, goedemiddag and goedenavond by the time of day, and dag, which works for hello and for goodbye. Tot ziens is the neutral goodbye, doei the casual one in the Netherlands.
How Dutch words are written
- NederlandsDutch Latin
- vrijdagFriday Latin
- tweeëntwintigtwenty-two Latin
Dutch uses the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet. The pair ij behaves almost like a letter of its own: at the start of a word both halves are capitalised together, IJsland, IJssel, and in dictionaries it is sorted in one of two ways that Wikipedia's article on Dutch orthography describes. The Dutch alphabet on the alphabets page lists the letter names, from a and be to lange ij and zet.
Accents are rare and have a job. The trema in tweeëntwintig or België marks the start of a new syllable, and the acute in één marks stress. Days and months are written in lower case: maandag, januari.
The language is called Nederlands in the language itself. In Belgium the Dutch of Flanders is often called Vlaams, Flemish, or Belgian Dutch; the written standard is the same in both countries.
Dates, numbers and greetings: what to expect
The Dutch week starts on maandag, and a date runs day, month, year: dinsdag 3 maart 2026. The days of the week in Dutch and the months in Dutch give the short forms ma., di. and jan., mrt. used on calendars.
Numbers say the unit before the ten from twenty-one on, eenentwintig, one-and-twenty, and are written as one word up to duizend. The numbers in Dutch page explains when één takes accents and why a biljoen is an English trillion.
Greetings change with the clock and with the choice between je and u. Hallo and dag are safe everywhere, doei is the casual goodbye of the Netherlands, and the greetings in Dutch page shows why goedemiddag can mean a different hour in Flanders.
Where Dutch is spoken
Dutch is an official language of the Netherlands, of Belgium, where it is the language of Flanders and one of the languages of Brussels, and of Suriname in South America. It is also official in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten in the Caribbean. Wikipedia counts about 25 million speakers in all.
Many Dutch words look familiar to English readers because the two languages share a Germanic past: week, maand and dag are week, month and day. Its closest relatives are Afrikaans, Frisian, German and English. The Germanic word list sets Dutch beside them word by word, and the Belgian country page gives the provinces in Dutch, French and German.
Questions about Dutch words
Is Flemish the same language as Dutch?
Yes. Flemish, or Belgian Dutch, is the Dutch of Flanders. It shares the written standard with the Netherlands and differs in some words and in pronunciation.
Are Dutch days and months capitalized?
No. Maandag and januari are lower case unless they begin a sentence.
Which Dutch words should a beginner learn first?
Greetings and numbers come first: hallo, dag, dank je wel, een to tien. These Dutch words are needed on the first day; days and months follow with the first appointment.
Is ij one letter in Dutch?
It is a pair of letters that behaves like one in some respects: both are capitalised together at the start of a word, as in IJsland.