Dutch sits closer to English than any other major language, which is exactly what makes it slippery. Whole sentences look guessable, then the verb turns up somewhere you did not expect and a word you were sure of means something else. The bigger problem is social: the Netherlands speaks such good English that getting anyone to let you practise is genuinely hard.
Word order is where English speakers give themselves away, not vocabulary.
Main clause second, subordinate clause last. It is the same logic as German, and it is the difference between sounding like a beginner and sounding like someone who lives there.
Two articles, no reliable rule, and it changes the adjective in front of the noun. Learn the article with the word, as with German gender, and save yourself relearning it later.
The g in goed, the ui in huis, the eu in leuk. These are the three that get you gently corrected in a shop, and none of them can be learned from a page.
The hardest part of learning Dutch is that everyone is kind enough to answer you in English.
| Say this | When |
|---|---|
| Hoe zeg je...?hoo zay yuh | Missing a word. Asking in Dutch is your best chance of staying in Dutch. |
| Kun je dat herhalen?kun yuh dat her-HAA-len | Can you repeat that. Ask before the conversation slips into English. |
| LekkerLEK-ker | Tasty, nice, pleasant, satisfying. Applies to food, weather, sleep and almost anything good. |
| Gezelligkheh-ZEL-likh | The word Dutch people will tell you is untranslatable. Cosy, sociable, good company, all at once. |
| Doe maardoo mar | "Go ahead", or "sure, that one". Extremely common, and it makes you sound relaxed. |
The single most useful property of a tutor that is not a person: it will keep going in Dutch however long you take to find the word.
Corrections point at where the verb should have gone, which is the mistake that most marks you out as a learner.
On Pro, your speech is scored per sound. The g and the ui are where the marks tend to live.
This language is in beta: it works end to end, and it has had far fewer real conversations behind it than Spanish or Japanese. If something sounds wrong, tell us from inside the app.
Easier than most, and not as easy as it first looks. The vocabulary overlaps heavily, the word order does not, and the sounds written g and ui have no English equivalent at all.
That is the real obstacle. Almost everyone in the Netherlands speaks excellent English and will switch the moment you hesitate, usually to be kind. Practising somewhere that never switches is worth more here than in any other language.
Dosti speaks Standard Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands. Flemish differs mainly in accent and some vocabulary, and the two are entirely mutually intelligible.
Two minutes, no account. Take as long as you like to find the word.
Start speaking Dutch