Breakdown of De lunch is van twaalf tot één uur.
zijn
to be
één
one
twaalf
twelve
het uur
the hour / o'clock
tot
until
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
de lunch
the lunch
Questions & Answers about De lunch is van twaalf tot één uur.
How do you say 'from X to Y' when talking about time in Dutch?
You use van for 'from' and tot for 'to' or 'until'. So, van twaalf tot één exactly matches the English 'from twelve to one'.
Why does één have accent marks on it?
The word een without accents means 'a' or 'an'. Adding the accent marks changes it to één, which means the number 'one'. This tells us the sentence means 'one o'clock', not 'a clock'!
Does uur mean 'hour' or 'o'clock' here?
It means 'o'clock' in this sentence. While uur is also the word for a literal 'hour' (a duration of 60 minutes), when you use it right after a number to tell the time on the clock, it translates to 'o'clock'.
Could I say van twaalf uur tot één uur instead?
Yes, you could, but it sounds a bit repetitive. Just like in English ('from twelve to one o'clock'), you can drop the first uur and just put it at the very end of the time range.
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