Days, months and dates in Dutch

Dutch writes the days of the week and the months of the year in lowercase, even in the middle of a sentence: maandag (Monday), maart (March). A full date runs from small to large — day, then month, then year: dinsdag 3 maart 2026 (Tuesday, 3 March 2026).

Learn each day and month as a lowercase word; unlike English, none of them is ever capitalised except at the start of a sentence. More on this in capital letters in Dutch.

Write the day as a plain number with no ending, then the month, then the year: 3 maart 2026. Dutch does not add a suffix to the day number the way English writes 3rd or 4th.

1. Order is day, month, year: 3 maart 2026, not maart 3, 2026.
2. The day number is written as a plain figure (3), but read aloud as an ordinal number with de: 3 maart is spoken de derde maart (the third of March).
3. The year is read as a cardinal number: 2026 is tweeduizend zesentwintig (two thousand twenty-six).
4. In figures the date is written day-month-year with hyphens or slashes: 03-03-2026 or 3-3-2026.

Use op (on) for a day or a full date, and in (in) for a month, a year or a season.

• op + day or date: op maandag (on Monday), op zaterdag (on Saturday), op 3 maart (on 3 March).
• in + month or year: in maart (in March), in 2026 (in 2026).
• in + season: in de lente (in spring), in de zomer (in summer), in de herfst (in autumn), in de winter (in winter). The four seasons are de lente, de zomer, de herfst and de winter.
• For a repeated day, add -s: 's maandags or op maandag (on Mondays).

English speakers capitalise days and months out of habit: Maandag, Maart. In Dutch these stay lowercase mid-sentence — op maandag 3 maart — and only take a capital when they open a sentence. The opposite trap is just as common: adjectives for languages and nationalities are built from place names and do take a capital in Dutch — een Nederlandse krant (a Dutch newspaper), Franse kaas (French cheese) — as capital letters in Dutch explains in full.