Prices, decimals and quantities in Dutch

Dutch handles money, decimals and measures a little differently from English. The biggest surprise is punctuation: a decimal is written with a comma, not a point — 3,50 (three euros fifty), 0,5 (nought point five). This page shows how to write those numbers and how to say them out loud. If you need the number words themselves first, see cardinal numbers.

Dutch uses a comma for the decimal part and a point to group thousands — the mirror image of English. So English 1,000.50 becomes Dutch 1.000,50.

1. The decimal separator is a comma (komma): 3,5 (3.5), 0,75 (0.75), 37,2 graden (37.2 degrees).
2. In numbers of four digits or more, a point groups every three digits: 1.000 (a thousand), 25.000, 2.350.000.
3. When a number carries a thousands group and a decimal tail at once, both marks show up together — the point up in the whole part, the comma before the cents: € 2.499,95.

Read a decimal aloud with the word komma for the comma: 0,5 is nul komma vijf, 3,5 is drie komma vijf, 1,4 is één komma vier.

Write the euro sign before the amount, with a comma before the cents: € 3,50, € 12,95. Read it as the euros, then the cents, without the words en (and) or cent.

For an amount under a euro you do say cent: € 0,80 is tachtig cent. The plural of euro is normally euro's (with an apostrophe), but after a number the singular is used — see the next section.

After a number, words for money, weight, volume, length and a few time units keep their singular form: twee euro, drie kilo, honderd gram. English adds an -s (three kilos); Dutch does not.

• Money: vijf euro (five euros), vijftig cent (fifty cents) — not euro's or centen here.
• Weight and volume: drie kilo appels (three kilos of apples), honderd gram kaas (a hundred grams of cheese), twee liter melk (two litres of milk).
• Length: tien meter (ten metres), vijf kilometer (five kilometres).
• A couple of time words behave the same way: vijf jaar (five years), twee uur (two hours). But most others take a normal plural: tien minuten, drie weken.
• The measures used in Dutch shops: een ons is 100 grams and een pond is 500 grams (half a kilo), so een pond kaas is half a kilo of cheese.

One exception: when an adjective sits between the number and the noun, the noun goes back to the plural — twee mooie jaren (two lovely years), not twee mooie jaar. Containers also stay countable and take the plural: twee glazen wijn (two glasses of wine).

Say 'times' with keer in everyday Dutch and maal in more formal or written Dutch; both stay singular after a number.

• Ik ben er twee keer geweest. (I have been there twice.)
• drie keer per week (three times a week); één keer (once).
• Maal is the formal word and the one used in sums: twee maal drie is zes (two times three is six).
• Percentages use procent (or the symbol %), also singular after a number: tien procent korting (ten per cent discount), vijftig procent (fifty per cent).

Half amounts have their own words: een half (a half), anderhalf (one and a half), tweeënhalf (two and a half, written with a trema on the ë). Before a noun anderhalf takes an -e: anderhalve liter water (one and a half litres of water).

The comma and point are the classic trap for English speakers. Writing a price as € 3.50 looks like 350 euros to a Dutch reader, and 1,000 reads as the single number one. Keep the comma for the decimal and the point for thousands. The second common slip is adding an -s to a measure after a number: it is twee kilo and vijf euro, never twee kilo's or vijf euro's in a price.