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Questions & Answers about De les begint om acht uur.
Why is om used before the time?
In Dutch, om is the preposition you use with specific clock times—just like English “at.” You always say om + [hour] + uur to express “at eight o’clock,” “at three o’clock,” etc.
Why do we say acht uur and not just acht?
Dutch time expressions for full hours pair the cardinal number with uur (hour). Saying acht alone would be ambiguous (“eight what?”). Acht uur literally means “eight hours,” i.e. eight o’clock.
Why is there no article before acht uur?
Fixed time expressions in Dutch use the structure om + [number] + uur without any article. You wouldn’t say om het acht uur or om een acht uur—you simply omit the article.
Why does begint end in -t?
Begint is the third-person singular present tense of beginnen (to begin). Dutch verbs add -t for hij/zij/het (he/she/it) or any singular noun subject:
• ik begin
• jij begint
• hij/zij/het begint
• wij beginnen
Why is the noun les written with de and not het?
Dutch nouns belong to two genders: common (de-words) and neuter (het-words). Les is a common gender noun, so it takes the definite article de. If you wanted “a lesson” in general, you’d say een les begint om acht uur (“a lesson starts at eight o’clock”).
Can you start the sentence with the time, e.g. Om acht uur begint de les? How does that affect word order?
Yes. Dutch main clauses follow the “verb-second” rule. If you lead with a time phrase (Om acht uur), that counts as the first element, so the finite verb (begint) must come second, followed by the subject (de les).
How do you ask “What time does the lesson start?” in Dutch?
You can say:
• Hoe laat begint de les? (“How late begins the lesson?” = “What time…?”)
You might also hear Wanneer begint de les? (“When does the lesson start?”), but hoe laat is the most common for clock times.
Can you use the numeral 8 instead of spelling out acht?
Yes. In informal writing you can write om 8 uur. Just remember: there’s still a space before uur, and you shouldn’t omit uur entirely if you want to be clear.
Why isn’t les capitalized in Dutch, unlike German where all nouns are capital?
Dutch only capitalizes proper nouns (names, places) and the first word of a sentence. Common nouns like les, tafel, boek remain lowercase.
How do you pronounce acht and the “g” in begint?
• acht is pronounced [ɑxt], with a voiceless velar fricative (similar to Scottish “loch”).
• In begint the “g” is a voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in much of the Netherlands (so [bəˈɣɪnt]). In parts of Belgium it may sound closer to [g]. The stress falls on the second syllable: be-GINT.