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

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

December is koud.

Word

December is koud.

Meaning

December is cold.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Following up a water-damage claim

Breakdown of December is koud.

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Questions & Answers about December is koud.

Why is December capitalized here? Aren’t month names usually lowercase in Dutch?

Yes. In Dutch, month names are normally written with a lowercase letter: december, januari, maart, and so on.

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

December is koud.

If the month appeared later in the sentence, you would usually write:

In december is het koud.

Why is there no the or a before December?

Because December is the name of a month, and month names are treated like proper names in this kind of sentence. Dutch does not use an article here, just like English:

December is koud.
Januari is lang.

You normally would not say de december or een december in this meaning.

Why is the verb is?

Is is the third-person singular present tense of zijn (to be).

The subject is December, which is singular, so Dutch uses is:

December is koud.
De maand is koud.

This works very much like English December is cold.

Why is it koud and not koude?

Because koud comes after the verb is and is being used as a predicate adjective. In Dutch, adjectives after zijn usually stay in the basic form:

December is koud.
Het water is koud.

You often get -e only when the adjective comes before a noun:

de koude maand
een koude winter

So:

December is koud. ✅
de koude decembermaand ✅
December is koude. ❌

Is December is koud a natural Dutch sentence?

It is grammatical and understandable, but it can sound a bit general, literary, or simplified.

In everyday Dutch, people are often more likely to say:

In december is het koud. = In December it is cold.
December is een koude maand. = December is a cold month.

So December is koud is not wrong, but it is a bit less common than those alternatives.

What is the word order in this sentence?

The sentence follows the basic Dutch main-clause order:

subject + finite verb + complement

So here:

December = subject
is = finite verb
koud = adjective/complement

This is the same basic pattern as in English:

December is cold.

Can koud mean both cold in temperature and cold in a figurative sense?

Yes. Koud can describe physical temperature, but it can also be used figuratively, depending on context.

Examples:

Het is koud. = The weather is cold.
Haar handen zijn koud. = Her hands are cold.
Een koude reactie. = A cold reaction.

In December is koud, the most obvious meaning is about weather or climate.

How do you pronounce December is koud?

A rough English-friendly guide is:

December ≈ day-SEM-bur
is ≈ iss
koud ≈ something like kowt (rhyming roughly with out, but with a Dutch sound)

A few useful notes:

The eu sound does not appear in december; the stress is on -cem-.
ou in koud is a Dutch diphthong, somewhat like the vowel in English house.
The final d in koud is often pronounced more like a t sound in normal speech.

Could I also say Het is koud in december?

Yes, absolutely. That is a very natural sentence.

Compare:

December is koud.
In december is het koud.
Het is koud in december.

All are understandable, but the last two often sound more idiomatic in everyday Dutch when talking about weather.

Does December always mean the month itself, or can it mean the weather in December?

Literally, December is the month. But in a sentence like December is koud, Dutch speakers understand that you mean the month of December is cold or December is a cold time.

So the sentence is really using the month name to talk about the typical weather or climate associated with that month. English does the same thing:

December is cold.

Can I replace December with other months in the same pattern?

Yes. The same pattern works with other months:

Januari is koud.
Februari is kort.
Augustus is warm.

Just remember that month names are normally lowercase unless they begin the sentence:

Januari is koud.
In januari is het koud.

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