Once you are past a few hundred, Dutch numbers split into two kinds of building block. Honderd and duizend fuse onto the number in front of them as one solid word; miljoen and miljard stand apart as separate words that behave like nouns. And lurking in this territory is the single most expensive false friend in the whole Dutch number system: miljard means "billion," not "milliard," and biljoen means "trillion," not "billion." Mistranslate that on a financial report and you are off by a factor of a thousand. This page lays out the large-number system, the long scale that drives it, and the punctuation conventions that look backwards to English eyes.
The building blocks from a hundred up
| Figure | Dutch | English | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | honderd | a hundred | fuses; usually no een |
| 1 000 | duizend | a thousand | fuses; usually no een |
| 10 000 | tienduizend | ten thousand | one solid word |
| 100 000 | honderdduizend | a hundred thousand | one solid word |
| 1 000 000 | (een) miljoen | a million (10⁶) | separate word; noun-like |
| 1 000 000 000 | (een) miljard | a billion (10⁹) | separate word; noun-like |
| 1 000 000 000 000 | (een) biljoen | a trillion (10¹²) | separate word; noun-like |
The dividing line falls at a million. Everything below a million attaches as one unbroken word: tienduizend, honderdduizend, driehonderdduizend. Everything from a million up is written as a separate word and takes een when you mean exactly one: een miljoen, een miljard.
Het concert trok meer dan honderdduizend bezoekers.
The concert drew more than a hundred thousand visitors. (one solid word: honderdduizend)
De stad telt ruim achthonderdduizend inwoners.
The city has well over eight hundred thousand inhabitants.
Miljoen and miljard behave like nouns
Unlike honderd and duizend, the words miljoen, miljard and biljoen are grammatically nouns. That has two practical consequences. First, they stay separate from the counting number: twee miljoen, drie miljard, never tweemiljoen. Second, in a counting phrase they do not take a plural ending — you say twee miljoen euro, not twee miljoenen euro.
De renovatie kostte ruim twaalf miljoen euro.
The renovation cost well over twelve million euros. (miljoen stays singular)
De staatsschuld bedraagt inmiddels vierhonderd miljard.
The national debt now amounts to four hundred billion. (miljard = 10⁹)
A plural form miljoenen / miljarden does exist, but only in the loose, uncounted sense "millions of / billions of," where no exact number is attached:
Miljoenen mensen keken naar de finale.
Millions of people watched the final. (loose 'millions of' → plural miljoenen)
The long scale: why miljard is "billion"
This is the part to get tattooed on your forearm. Dutch uses the long scale, the same system as German, French and most of continental Europe. English (in its modern, American-led usage) uses the short scale. The two diverge above a million:
| Power | Dutch (long scale) | English (short scale) |
|---|---|---|
| 10⁶ | miljoen | million |
| 10⁹ | miljard | billion |
| 10¹² | biljoen | trillion |
| 10¹⁵ | biljard | quadrillion |
So the chain runs miljoen → miljard → biljoen → biljard, alternating -joen and -jard, each step a factor of a thousand. The trap is that Dutch biljoen looks and sounds like English "billion" but means a thousand times more (a trillion). A Dutch news report saying een biljoen euro is talking about 10¹² euros — what English calls a trillion.
Volgens schattingen is het bedrijf meer dan een biljoen dollar waard.
By some estimates the company is worth more than a trillion dollars. (biljoen = 10¹² = trillion)
De wereldwijde schuld liep op tot ruim driehonderd biljoen dollar.
Global debt rose to well over three hundred trillion dollars.
Nederland telt ongeveer achttien miljoen inwoners, niet achttien miljard.
The Netherlands has about eighteen million inhabitants, not eighteen billion.
Reading 1.234.567: the point is the thousands separator
Continental Europe, including the Netherlands, flips the English punctuation. The point (.) groups thousands; the comma (,) is the decimal marker. So 1.234.567 is "one million two hundred thirty-four thousand five hundred sixty-seven," and 3,5 is "three point five" (three and a half).
| Written | Means | Read aloud |
|---|---|---|
| 1.000 | 1000 | duizend |
| 1.234.567 | 1,234,567 | een miljoen tweehonderdvierendertigduizend vijfhonderdzevenenzestig |
| 3,5 | 3.5 | drie komma vijf |
| 1.500.000 | 1,500,000 | anderhalf miljoen |
Note anderhalf miljoen for 1,500,000: anderhalf ("one and a half") is the idiomatic way to say 1.5 of something, and it sits in front of miljoen just like a number.
Het project kostte anderhalf miljoen euro meer dan begroot.
The project cost one and a half million euros more than budgeted. (anderhalf = 1.5)
Op de teller stond 1.250.000 kilometer.
The odometer read 1,250,000 kilometres. (point groups the thousands)
Reading years
Years are read as a plain cardinal in modern Dutch, not split into two halves the way English often says "nineteen eighty-four." So 2024 is tweeduizend vierentwintig and 2008 is tweeduizend acht. The older centuries are commonly read in hundreds: 1984 is usually negentienhonderdvierentachtig, and 1500 is vijftienhonderd.
Ik ben geboren in negentienhonderdtweeënnegentig.
I was born in nineteen ninety-two. (1992 → negentienhonderd…)
De euro werd in tweeduizend twee ingevoerd.
The euro was introduced in two thousand and two. (2002 → tweeduizend twee)
Common Mistakes
❌ Het bedrijf is een biljoen dollar waard, oftewel een miljard.
Incorrect — biljoen (10¹²) is a trillion, not the same as miljard (10⁹).
✅ Het bedrijf is een biljoen dollar waard, oftewel duizend miljard.
The company is worth a trillion dollars, i.e. a thousand billion.
❌ De begroting is twee billion euro.
Incorrect — there is no Dutch word 'billion'; English 'billion' = Dutch 'miljard'.
✅ De begroting is twee miljard euro.
The budget is two billion euros. (miljard = 10⁹)
❌ De stad heeft drie miljoenen inwoners.
Incorrect — after a number, miljoen stays singular.
✅ De stad heeft drie miljoen inwoners.
The city has three million inhabitants.
❌ De prijs was 1,250 euro voor een nieuwe laptop.
Misleading — in Dutch '1,250' reads as 1.25; for one thousand two hundred fifty use a point.
✅ De prijs was 1.250 euro voor een nieuwe laptop.
The price was 1,250 euros for a new laptop. (point = thousands separator)
❌ tweemiljoen euro
Incorrect — miljoen is a separate word, not fused like duizend.
✅ twee miljoen euro
two million euros
Key Takeaways
- Honderd and duizend fuse as one word (honderdduizend); miljoen, miljard, biljoen are separate, noun-like words that take een.
- After a number, miljoen/miljard stay singular (drie miljoen); the plurals miljoenen/miljarden mean a vague "millions/billions of."
- Dutch uses the long scale: miljard = English billion (10⁹), biljoen = English trillion (10¹²). This is the number-one false-friend trap.
- The point groups thousands and the comma is the decimal marker (1.234.567 and 3,5).
- Read recent years as a plain cardinal (tweeduizend vierentwintig); older years often in hundreds (negentienhonderd…).
Now practice Dutch
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Cardinal Numbers 0–100 and BeyondA1 — The full Dutch cardinal number system — 0–20, the units-before-tens reversal for 21–99 written as one solid word, and honderd, duizend, miljoen, miljard for big numbers.
- Teens and Tens: Dertien, Veertig, TachtigA1 — The -tien teens and -tig tens in Dutch, with the must-memorise irregulars dertien/dertig, veertien/veertig and the trap of tachtig (not 'achttig'), plus the 13/30, 14/40 contrast.
- Telling Time and DatesA2 — How Dutch tells the clock — the half-hour trap (half drie = 2:30, not 3:30), kwart over/voor, the 'over/voor half' system, the 24-hour clock — and how to say and write dates.
- Measures and Quantities: Singular Units, Een Paar, Een Stuk of TienA2 — Why units of measure stay singular after a number in Dutch (twee kilo, vijf euro, tien jaar) and the everyday quantity words — een paar, een beetje, een stuk of tien, tientallen.
- Approximation and Collective NumbersB2 — How Dutch says 'roughly' and 'a bunch of' — approximation frames like 'een stuk of tien', 'een jaar of dertig' and 'rond de twintig', and the collective '-tal' forms (tiental, tientallen, tweetal, dozijn) that English handles with 'dozens' and 'scores'.