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Learn Hardcore Dutch: November is koud. - November is cold.

Hardcore Dutch
/Following up a water-damage claim
/November is koud.

November is koud.

November is koud.

November is cold.

Breakdown of November is koud.

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Questions & Answers about November is koud.

Why is November capitalized? Aren’t Dutch month names usually lowercase?

Yes. In Dutch, month names are normally written with a lowercase letter: november, december, januari, etc.

It is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence.

Compare:

November is koud.
In november is het koud.

So the rule is:

sentence-initial → capital letter
elsewhere in the sentence → lowercase

Is November is koud a natural Dutch sentence?

It is understandable, but it is a little less natural than some other ways Dutch speakers would often say this.

More idiomatic alternatives are:

In november is het koud. = It is cold in November.
November is een koude maand. = November is a cold month.

November is koud is grammatically possible, but it sounds a bit like you are describing the month itself as having the quality cold, rather than making the more usual general statement about the weather.

Why is there no article before November?

Because November is the name of a month, and month names normally do not take an article in Dutch.

So you say:

November is koud.
Ik hou van november.
In november regent het vaak.

This is similar to English, where you also usually do not say the November when you mean the month in general.

Why is the verb is used here?

Is is the third-person singular present tense of the verb zijn = to be.

The subject is November, which is singular, so the correct verb form is is.

A quick mini-paradigm:

ik ben = I am
jij bent / ben jij = you are
hij/zij/het is = he/she/it is
wij zijn = we are
jullie zijn = you are
zij zijn = they are

So:

November is koud.

Why is it koud, not koude?

Because koud is used here as a predicate adjective: it comes after the verb is and describes the subject.

After zijn, adjectives usually stay in their basic form:

De soep is warm.
Het water is koud.
November is koud.

You get koude when the adjective comes before a noun:

een koude maand = a cold month
de koude winter = the cold winter

So:

November is koud. ✅
November is een koude maand. ✅

Why isn’t there a het in this sentence? I thought Dutch often says het is koud.

Good question. Dutch often uses het as a dummy subject in weather and temperature expressions:

Het is koud. = It is cold.
Het is warm. = It is warm.

But in November is koud, the sentence already has a real subject: November.

So you do not need the dummy het here.

Compare:

Het is koud in november. = It is cold in November.
November is koud. = November is cold.

Both are possible, but they are structured differently.

If I want to say In November it is cold, what happens to the word order in Dutch?

You say:

In november is het koud.

Notice the word order:

In november comes first.
The verb is comes next.
Then the subject het.

This is a very common Dutch pattern: when something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb still stays in the second position.

So not:

In november het is koud. ❌

But:

In november is het koud. ✅

This is one of the most important word-order patterns in Dutch.

How do you pronounce november and koud?

A rough English-friendly guide:

november → noh-VEM-bər
koud → roughly kowt or kowd, with ow like in cow

A few notes:

The stress in november is on the second syllable: no-VEM-ber
The ou in koud is a Dutch diphthong, somewhat like the vowel sound in English cow
The final d in Dutch can sound a bit like t in actual pronunciation

So koud may sound to English ears a bit like kowt.

Would november ever be lowercase in this exact sentence?

No, not in this exact sentence, because it is the first word.

So:

November is koud. ✅

But if you move it later in the sentence, it becomes lowercase:

In november is het koud. ✅

So the capitalization here is about sentence position, not about the month name itself always being capitalized.

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