English uses a tidy three-way split for time — at a clock time, on a day, in a longer stretch — and learners reasonably hope Dutch maps onto it one-for-one. It almost does, but not quite: Dutch has four core time prepositions, the cut-off points differ, and one whole category (parts of the day) escapes the prepositions entirely into a frozen genitive form ('s ochtends). This page gives you the working system: which preposition attaches to which size of time-unit, where it diverges from English, and the handful of fixed forms you simply memorise.
The four-way system at a glance
The rule of thumb is specificity of the time-unit: the smaller and more pinpointed the moment, the "tighter" the preposition. Clock times get om, calendar days and dates get op, larger containers (months, years, seasons) get in, and events you are inside of get tijdens.
| Preposition | Used for | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| om | clock times only | om drie uur, om half acht | at three o'clock, at half past seven |
| op | days of the week, dates | op maandag, op 5 mei | on Monday, on 5 May |
| in | months, years, seasons, parts of the day | in mei, in 2025, in de zomer, in de ochtend | in May, in 2025, in summer, in the morning |
| tijdens | events, periods you are inside of | tijdens de vergadering | during the meeting |
| met | named holidays | met Kerst, met Pasen | at Christmas, at Easter |
Om — the clock-time preposition
Om is reserved for points on the clock. Whenever you name an hour, a half-hour, a quarter, or any "what time?" answer, the preposition is om.
De trein vertrekt om kwart over zeven.
The train leaves at quarter past seven.
Zullen we om half acht afspreken?
Shall we meet at half past seven? (literally 'at half eight' — Dutch half acht = 7:30, half-way to eight, not 8:30!)
De winkel gaat om negen uur open en om zes uur dicht.
The shop opens at nine and closes at six.
Note the embedded trap inside om half acht: Dutch half acht is 7:30, "half-way to eight," not 8:30. That is a clock-reading issue rather than a preposition issue, but it bites learners constantly, so it is worth flagging here. The preposition stays om regardless.
Op — days and dates
Op covers the calendar grid: named weekdays and full dates. This is the one that lines up neatly with English on (on Monday, on 5 May), so it rarely causes trouble — as long as you don't let it spread to clock times.
Op maandag heb ik altijd vergadering.
On Mondays I always have a meeting.
Mijn verjaardag valt dit jaar op een zondag.
My birthday falls on a Sunday this year.
We zijn op 5 mei getrouwd.
We got married on 5 May.
A subtlety: a bare weekday with no preposition often means "this coming one" (Ik kom maandag, "I'm coming on Monday"), while op maandag leans toward the habitual "on Mondays." Both are everyday Dutch; the op version is the one to use when you want the recurring reading or simply want to be explicit.
In — the larger containers
In is for time-units you picture as a container you are inside of: months, years, seasons, decades, centuries — and, importantly, the named parts of the day when they take an article (in de ochtend, in de avond). The logic is spatial: a month or a year is a big box, and the event sits in it.
In de zomer gaan we meestal naar Frankrijk.
In summer we usually go to France.
Het boek is in 2025 verschenen.
The book came out in 2025.
In de ochtend ben ik het scherpst.
I'm sharpest in the morning.
In april kan het hier nog flink vriezen.
In April it can still freeze hard here.
Watch the article with parts of the day: in *de ochtend, in **de avond — Dutch keeps the *de, where English drops it ("in the morning" does keep it, but "at night" does not, which is where the next section comes in).
The genitive forms: ’s ochtends, ’s middags, ’s avonds, ’s nachts
Here Dutch leaves the preposition system entirely. For the recurring, habitual "in the mornings / in the evenings / at night," Dutch uses a frozen genitive — a fossil of the old case system — written with an apostrophe-s: ’s ochtends, ’s middags, ’s avonds, ’s nachts. There is no preposition at all; the 's (a reduced old des, "of the") does the work, and the -s on the noun is the genitive ending.
| Genitive form | Meaning | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| ’s ochtends / ’s morgens | in the morning(s) | de ochtend / de morgen |
| ’s middags | in the afternoon(s) | de middag |
| ’s avonds | in the evening(s) | de avond |
| ’s nachts | at night | de nacht |
’s Avonds drink ik nooit meer koffie.
In the evenings I never drink coffee any more.
’s Nachts is het hier doodstil.
At night it's dead quiet here.
Ik werk ’s ochtends en sport ’s middags.
I work in the morning and exercise in the afternoon.
Note the orthography: the apostrophe is a typographic ’ (a fossilised abbreviation of des), and when one of these opens a sentence, the following word is capitalised, not the ’s — ’s Avonds..., never 'S avonds and never S avonds.
Tijdens — during an event
Tijdens means during and attaches to a bounded event or activity you are inside of: a meeting, a concert, the war, the holidays. It is the preposition for "while X is happening."
Tijdens de vergadering ging zijn telefoon af.
During the meeting his phone went off.
Tijdens de pauze hebben we het er even over gehad.
During the break we talked it over briefly.
Tijdens mijn studie heb ik in een café gewerkt.
During my studies I worked in a café.
A close cousin is gedurende ("throughout, for the duration of"), which is more formal and stresses the whole span (gedurende drie maanden, "for a period of three months"). In everyday speech, tijdens covers most of this ground.
Met — holidays
Named holidays take met (literally "with"), not op or in: met Kerst, met Pasen, met oud en nieuw ("at New Year"). This is idiomatic and has to be learned as a set — there is no logic linking "with" to a holiday; it is simply the fixed pattern.
Met Kerst zijn we altijd bij mijn ouders.
At Christmas we're always at my parents'.
Wat gaan jullie met Pasen doen?
What are you doing at Easter?
A competing form op eerste kerstdag ("on Christmas Day") uses op — but that is because you've now named a specific dated day (Christmas Day), which puts you back in op-territory. The holiday-as-a-season takes met; the named calendar day takes op.
Common Mistakes
The dominant errors all come from forcing English's at / on / in mapping onto a system whose boundaries sit in slightly different places.
❌ De film begint op acht uur.
Wrong — a clock time takes om, never op. 'Op' is for days and dates only.
✅ De film begint om acht uur.
The film starts at eight o'clock.
❌ Ik ben in maandag jarig.
Wrong — a weekday takes op, not in. 'In' is for months, years and seasons.
✅ Ik ben op maandag jarig.
My birthday is on Monday.
❌ Op de avond lees ik graag.
Wrong — a part of the day isn't a calendar day. Use the genitive ’s avonds for the habitual, or in de avond for a specific evening.
✅ ’s Avonds lees ik graag.
In the evenings I like to read.
❌ Op Kerst gaan we naar oma.
Wrong — the holiday-as-a-season takes met, not op. (Op only returns for a dated day: op eerste kerstdag.)
✅ Met Kerst gaan we naar oma.
At Christmas we go to grandma's.
❌ Gedurende de vergadering ging zijn telefoon af.
Not wrong, but stilted for a single short event — gedurende is formal and stresses a long span. Everyday Dutch uses tijdens here. (formal)
✅ Tijdens de vergadering ging zijn telefoon af.
During the meeting his phone went off.
Key Takeaways
- om = clock times only (om drie uur) — this is the error-prone one; never use op or in with a clock time.
- op = days and dates (op maandag, op 5 mei); a bare weekday means "this coming one."
- in = the big containers: months, years, seasons, and specific parts of the day with an article (in mei, in 2025, in de zomer, in de ochtend).
- ’s ochtends / ’s middags / ’s avonds / ’s nachts are frozen genitives for the habitual part of the day — no preposition at all, capitalise the next word at sentence start.
- tijdens = during a bounded event (tijdens de vergadering); gedurende is its formal, long-span cousin.
- met = named holidays (met Kerst, met Pasen) — memorise this; it's idiomatic.
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
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