Days, months and dates in Dutch

3 maart 2026 (3 March 2026) is the standard full-date pattern. Write the day number first, then the lowercase month and the four-digit year. Add a weekday before it if useful: dinsdag 3 maart 2026 (Tuesday, 3 March 2026).

maandag (Monday), maart (March) and winter (winter) all start with a lowercase letter in normal text. At the start of a sentence, the ordinary sentence rule still gives the first word a capital: Maandag begint de cursus. (The course starts on Monday.) See capital letters in Dutch for names and holidays.

3 maart 2026 is the preferred form in ordinary text. The day is a figure with no ending. The month stays lowercase. Do not put a comma before the year or copy an English month-first order into Dutch.

When someone asks Welke datum is het? (What is the date?), a simple answer is drie maart tweeduizend zesentwintig (3 March 2026). Here the day and year use cardinal numbers, the ordinary counting numbers.

A second form uses an ordinal number: de derde maart (the third of March). An ordinal marks position in a sequence. Both forms refer to the same date. When you write the day as a figure, use 3 maart 2026, with no ending after 3.

op 3 maart (on 3 March), op maandag (on Mondays) and in maart (in March) show the basic split. Use op (on) for a full calendar date and often for a recurring weekday. Use in (in) for a month, a year or a season.