Building a Date
You already know the months and the ordinal numbers — Dutch combines them into dates with de + ordinal + month:
| Today is the third of May. | Vandaag is het de derde mei. |
| Tomorrow is the fourth of May. | Morgen is het de vierde mei. |
Events on a Date: op
An event happens op a date, just like on a day of the week:
| The party is on the first of June. | Het feest is op de eerste juni. |
| The match is on the tenth of March. | De wedstrijd is op de tiende maart. |
| The appointment is on the sixth of September. | De afspraak is op de zesde september. |
A date can also open the sentence. As with every fronted time expression, the verb then comes before the subject:
| On the second of January I do not work. | Op de tweede januari werk ik niet. |
Asking When
Wanneer works for dates exactly as you would expect:
| When is the party? | Wanneer is het feest? |
The Everyday Shortcut
In daily speech and writing, Dutch very often drops the ordinal and uses the plain number instead: tien april ("April 10") rather than de tiende april. Both are correct.
| The concert is on April 10. | Het concert is op tien april. |
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