The Dutch Language
Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by around 23 million people as a first language and 5 million people as a second language. It is spoken by the majority of people in the Netherlands, where it is the official language, and Belgium, as one of its three official languages. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives English and German. Outside of the Low Countries, Dutch is spoken in the Republic of Suriname, the Caribbean countries of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten, as well as parts of France and Germany, and in Indonesia, while up to half a million native speakers may reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined. The Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa have evolved into Afrikaans, a mutually intelligible daughter language. Afrikaans is spoken by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia.
Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English. Like English, Dutch has not undergone the High German consonant shift. It does not use Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker. It has largely abandoned the use of the subjunctive. Moreover, Dutch has evened off much of its morphology, including most of its case system1. The only similar features shared with the German language is that Dutch still includes two to three grammatical genders such as the use of modal particles, final-obstruent devoicing, and a similar word order. Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic, but there are more loan words from Romance languages as compared to its German cousin. Yet, when compared to the English vocabulary, English has more loans words from Romance languages than Dutch. Dutch vocabulary also has strong similarities with Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. However, Dutch is not mutually intelligible in text or speech with any of the three Scandinavian languages.
History of Dutch
Old Dutch was a set of Franconian dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the 5th century. Over the source of 15 centuries, the Old Dutch has developed through Middle Dutch, and then finally, to Modern Dutch. During that gradual period of development, Old Frisian influence was pushed back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, and eventually replaced Old Saxon, which was spoken in the east of the Low German territories. Dutch was then replaced in adjacent lands in present-day France and Germany.
Dutch Dialects
The West Flemish group of dialects, spoken in West Flanders and Zeeland, is so distinct that it might be considered as a separate language variant. Historically, West Flemish variety was spoken in some parts of France near the Netherlands, known as French Flemish, and is listed as a French minority language. Nonetheless, at present, only a very small and aging minority of the French-Flemish people still speaks and understands West Flemish.
Dutch Alphabets, Consonants, Vowels, and Diphthongs
Dutch Grammar
Similar to German, Dutch places verbs at the end of a sentence after the first initial verb. The underlying structure is basically Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) but the first verb is in second position after the subject. Therefore, if there is only one verb in a sentence, then the structure would be Subject-Verb-Object (SVO).
SVO Example:
Dutch: Ik lees een boek.
s. verb obj.
English: I am reading a book.
SOV Example:
Dutch: Ik wil je een knuffel geven.
s. verb obj.1 obj.2 verb
English: I want to give you a hug.
Plurals
ends with ‘-en’ |
deur (door) = deuren (doors) |
fiets (bicycle) = fietsen (bicycles) |
muis (mouse) = muizen (mice) |
droom (dream) = dromen (dreams) |
duif (dove) = duiven (doves) |
ends with ‘-s’ |
jongen (boy) = jongens (boys) |
sleutel (key) = sleutels (keys) |
telefoon (phone) = telefoons (phones) |
lapel (spoon) = lapels (spoons) |
parel (pearl) = parels (pearls) |
irregular form endings |
kind (child) = kinderen (children) |
stad (city) = steden (cities) |
ei (eggs) = eieren (eggs) |
Articles
de (the - masculine/feminine) |
de man (the man) |
de vrouw (the woman) |
het (the - neuter) |
het kind (the child) |
het kantoor (the office) |
een (a or an) |
Ik heb een boek gelezen. (I have read a book.) |
Verb Tenses
Dutch has only two tenses — Present and Past. However, there are a few other semi-tenses by an interaction of present and past tenses, aspect and mood.
There are altogether 8 basic tenses:
Present |
Ik werk |
I work |
Simple past |
Ik werkte |
I worked |
Perfect |
Ik heb gewerkt |
I have worked |
Pluperfect |
Ik had gewerkt |
I had worked |
Future |
Ik zal werken |
I will work |
Conditional |
Ik zou werken |
I would work |
Future Perfect |
Ik zal hebben gewerkt |
I will have worked |
Conditional Perfect |
Ik zou hebben gewerkt |
I would have worked |
Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers
No. | Cardinal | Ordinal | No. | Cardinal | Ordinal |
1 | één | eerste | 11 | elf | elfde |
2 | twee | tweede | 12 | twaalf | twaalfde |
3 | drie | derde | 13 | dertien | dertiende |
4 | vier | vierde | 14 | veertien | veertiende |
5 | vijf | vijfde | 15 | vijftien | vijftiende |
6 | zes | zesde | 16 | zestien | zestiende |
7 | zeven | zevende | 17 | zeventien | zeventiende |
8 | acht | achtste | 18 | achttien | achttiende |
9 | negen | negende | 19 | negentien | negentiende |
10 | tien | tiende | 20 | twintig | twintigste |
No. | Cardinal | Ordinal |
21 | eenentwintig | eenentwintigste |
22 | tweeëntwintig | tweeëntwintigste |
23 | drieëntwintig | drieëntwintigste |
24 | vierentwintig | vierentwintigste |
25 | vijfentwintig | vijfentwintigste |
26 | zesenentwintig | zesenentwintigste |
27 | zevenentwintig | zevenentwintigste |
28 | achtentwintig | achtentwintigste |
29 | negenentwintig | negentwintigste |
30 | dertig | dertigste |
40 | veertig | veertigste |
50 | vijftig | viftigste |
60 | zestig | zestigste |
70 | zeventig | zeventigste |
80 | tachtig | tachtigste |
90 | negentig | negentigste |
100 | hondred | honderdste |
1000 | duizend | duizendste |
Days of the Weeks, Months, and the Seasons
Days |
dagen |
Months |
maanden |
Monday |
maandag |
January |
januari |
Tuesday |
dinsdag |
February |
februari |
Wednesday |
woensdag |
March |
maart |
Thursday |
donderdag |
April |
april |
Friday |
vrijdag |
May |
mei |
Saturday |
zatertag |
June |
juni |
Sunday |
zontag |
July |
juli |
Seasons |
seizoenen |
August |
augustus |
Winter |
winter |
September |
september |
Spring |
lente |
October |
oktober |
Summer |
zomer |
November |
november |
Autumn |
herfst |
December |
december |