Current Events > Does anybody here speak Dutch? I've heard it's very similar and close to English

(+) Yeah! (+)

Is it true that Dutch is extremely easy to learn? I've been wanting to learn a foreign language, and I'm looking for one with no frills. Will I get this with Dutch? Is it an easy language to pick up without much effort?

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@alexadorable speaks fake German iirc
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iirc, I remember (unknowingly) watching a movie in Dutch a while back, and wondered if something was wrong with me because it sounded like I should understand but I didn't

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teep_ posted...

@alexadorable speaks fake German iirc

@teep_ fake German huh? I actually just also speak German, but Dutch is my first language.

According to everyone I know who tried to learn it (english speakers mostly) it's very difficult 'cause the sounds we use aren't easy to pronounce for english speakers. Also our sentence structure is weird af for you guys. so. if you wanna do it go for it, but english and dutch are not similar at all.

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dutch sounds like a drunk german trying to speak english

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alexadorable posted...

@teep_ fake German huh? I actually just also speak German, but Dutch is my first language.

According to everyone I know who tried to learn it (english speakers mostly) it's very difficult 'cause the sounds we use aren't easy to pronounce for english speakers. Also our sentence structure is weird af for you guys. so. if you wanna do it go for it, but english and dutch are not similar at all.

This.
Not to mention that the major similarity it has with English is that there are more exceptions than rules when it comes to grammar, conjugating verbs and the like

Sharashaska posted...

dutch sounds like a drunk german trying to speak english

with elements of French too
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De twee talen delen inderdaad wat overeenkomsten. Ik hoor Engelsen het vaak beschrijven als dronken Engels. Ik weet niet zeker hoe moeilijk het is om te leren voor iemand met Engels als zijn moedertaal, maar ik kan me voorstellen dat vooral de uitspraak een uitdaging zal zijn. We gebruiken een aantal klanken die gewoon niet bestaan in de Engelse taal.

(How much did you get from this?)

The two languages do indeed share some similarities. I often hear English people describe it as drunk English. I'm not sure how difficult it is to learn for someone with English as his mother tongue, but I can imagine that pronunciation in particular would be a challenge. We use a number of sounds that just don't exist in the English language.

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Julle is n klomp honde naaiers?
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apparently Frisian is the closest thing to English.

i went to the Netherlands in 2018 for vacation and i tried to learn some basic Dutch to get by. i barely could say "hello do you speak english" >_>

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Hornezz posted...

De twee talen delen inderdaad wat overeenkomsten. Ik hoor Engelsen het vaak beschrijven als dronken Engels. Ik weet niet zeker hoe moeilijk het is om te leren voor iemand met Engels als zijn moedertaal, maar ik kan me voorstellen dat vooral de uitspraak een uitdaging zal zijn. We gebruiken een aantal klanken die gewoon niet bestaan in de Engelse taal.

(How much did you get from this?)

The two languages do indeed share some similarities. I often hear English people describe it as drunk English. I'm not sure how difficult it is to learn for someone with English as his mother tongue, but I can imagine that pronunciation in particular would be a challenge. We use a number of sounds that just don't exist in the English language.

dronken engels :DDD

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Hornezz posted...

Ik hoor Engelsen het vaak beschrijven als dronken Engels.

I hear English speakers have described it (I'm guessing this refers to the Dutch language) as drunk English

Hornezz posted...

Ik weet niet zeker hoe moeilijk het is om te leren voor iemand met Engels als zijn moedertaal, maar ik kan me voorstellen dat vooral de uitspraak een uitdaging zal zijn

I don't know for sure how possible it is ... someone with English as their mother tongue, but I can imagine that especially the ...

Hornezz posted...

We gebruiken een aantal klanken die gewoon niet bestaan in de Engelse taal

As discussed, a part of the sounds that are normal/commonplace aren't in the English language

Edit: okay, that's gebrauchen, not gesprochen. Otherwise I don't think I did too bad!

@alexadorable I can (sort-of) speak Fake German now!
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Sharashaska posted...

dronken engels :DDD

I thought it meant drunk angels lol

matchboxsantana posted...

apparently Frisian is the closest thing to English.

Yeah Frisian is typically considered its closest living relative, with Dutch second

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One thing I've noticed is dutch people can't say the letter r the right way, it's the same as english speakers do, more like a w sound.
Also, their g is more like an r.

Nederlanders, rol uw r godverdomme. En een zachte g.
Ik zou constant fluimen ophoesten als ik jullie g zou uitspreken :)

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Pandamonic posted...

One thing I've noticed is dutch people can't say the letter r the right way, it's the same as english speakers do, more like a w sound.
Also, their g is more like an r.

Nederlanders, rol uw r godverdomme. En een zachte g.
Ik zou constant fluimen ophoesten als ik jullie g zou uitspreken :)

gesproken als een echte vlaming. er is niks mis met onze g verdorie. en ook niet met onze r.....

@teep_ very proud of u. good potato, you get a treat

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alexadorable posted...

gesproken als een echte vlaming. er is niks mis met onze g verdorie. en ook niet met onze r.....

Nee joh tuurlijk niet, is ook wat overdreven, ik vind het gewoon wel lachen als ik jullie rotvewdomme hoor zeggen :p

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alexadorable posted...

very proud of u. good potato, you get a treat

:3
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slk_23 posted...

Is it an easy language to pick up without much effort?

Not really. I think it'd be easier and more applicable to look into a a romantic (ie, spanish or french). English is like 50/50 Romantic/German, and Dutch is pretty close to German. My boyfriend's parents are Dutch and they'll sometimes talk it to each other. I'll pick up about 20%, but some of that is just deductive because of context.

We have oliebollen every new years eve. My boyfriend loathes finding zakdoek's in my pockets, and the hallishropshrop(?) in the kitchen sink goes brrrr
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Pandamonic posted...

Nederlanders, rol uw r godverdomme. En een zachte g.
Ik zou constant fluimen ophoesten als ik jullie g zou uitspreken :)

One time a Belgian dude told me he was from Hent. He was baffled about how I had never heard of it, considering Hent is one of the biggest cities in Belgium. I was like, oh... Gent.


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Hornezz posted...

One time a Belgian dude told me he was from Hent. He was baffled about how I had never heard of it, considering Hent is one of the biggest cities in Belgium. I was like, oh... Gent.

True, people from east and especially west flanders are awful in that regard.
G is an h and h is a g. And they're consistent about it as well. It really doesn't make sense.
Tbf, I can't understand them at all. And that's if they try to speak ABN. If they speak in their dialect I'm absolutely lost. It's a whole different language almost.

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Thebthing about dutch is nobody speaks it outside of the netherlands and even then the dutch much like the germans are really good at learning english

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SauI_Goodman posted...

Thebthing about dutch is nobody speaks it outside of the netherlands and even then the dutch much like the germans are really good at learning english

It is spoken outside of the NL. Its spoken in Suriname.

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Half my family is Dutch and I've taken some Dutch classes and there are similarities, but you wouldn't pick it up really quick imo. It takes some time to learn. Fortunately, a shitload of people in the Netherlands can speak English anyway.

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Its more similar to German than it is to English.

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To me, it's always been a mixture of German, French and English
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Pandamonic posted...

True, people from east and especially west flanders are awful in that regard.
G is an h and h is a g. And they're consistent about it as well. It really doesn't make sense.
Tbf, I can't understand them at all. And that's if they try to speak ABN. If they speak in their dialect I'm absolutely lost. It's a whole different language almost.

I've realized that recently when a friend from the Netherlands was referring to gouda cheese pronounced as Houda

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Pandamonic posted...

Nee joh tuurlijk niet, is ook wat overdreven, ik vind het gewoon wel lachen als ik jullie rotvewdomme hoor zeggen :p

nou voor zover ik weet is de g geen r en de r geen w als ik praat... maar kan aan mij liggen haha

teep_ posted...

To me, it's always been a mixture of German, French and English

@teep_ thats because it is. then again the english is redundant cause english comes from french so.

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alexadorable posted...

nou voor zover ik weet is de g geen r en de r geen w als ik praat... maar kan aan mij liggen haha

@teep_ thats because it is. then again the english is redundant cause english comes from french so.

Didn't English originally come from Danish?

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philsov posted...

English is like 50/50 Romantic/German, and Dutch is pretty close to German.

umm, no. English is a west germanic language. Granted with considerable influence of latin through the Normans, but it is not a romance language

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alexadorable posted...

then again the english is redundant cause english comes from french so.

Bat178 posted...

Didn't English originally come from Danish?

Neither. English comes from the Old English-Anglo Saxon spoken by the germanic tribes who settled in the british isles. It took on significant french influence after the norman conquest but does not come from that

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At least if you're going to Europe, Dutch is fairly well known as being a next to useless language to learn beforehand. Dutch children are forced to learn four languages in school from an early age, with English being one of those languages.

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Bat178 posted...

Didn't English originally come from Danish?

Old English and Danish both have Germanic roots, but they diverged way before Danish emerged as its own language

The only influence Danish has on English is some loanwords introduced during the period of the Danelaw, and even then, it was still more Norse than Danish at that point
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Pandamonic posted...

One thing I've noticed is dutch people can't say the letter r the right way, it's the same as english speakers do, more like a w sound.
Also, their g is more like an r.

Nederlanders, rol uw r godverdomme. En een zachte g.
Ik zou constant fluimen ophoesten als ik jullie g zou uitspreken :)

Dat klinkt hier als een mede Belg nondedju

@alexadorable posted...

english comes from french so.

Not 100%. Many "posh' words for things in English come from French, but the basic language comes from Anglo-Saxon
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TheSavageDragon posted...

Dat klinkt hier als een mede Belg nondedju

Miljaar!
Ik denk dat wij ook de enige zijn hier op ce

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teep_ posted...

Not 100%. Many "posh' words for things in English come from French, but the basic language comes from Anglo-Saxon

i mean as far as I know french influenced it alot since the higher classes spoke it at some point and the lower classes wanted to use it too so it became a mix of the two. without french, modern english would not exist the way it does now.

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alexadorable posted...

teep_ posted...

Not 100%. Many "posh' words for things in English come from French, but the basic language comes from Anglo-Saxon

i mean as far as I know french influenced it alot since the higher classes spoke it at some point and the lower classes wanted to use it too so it became a mix of the two. without french, modern english would not exist the way it does now.

Yeah that's more or less correct. The reason the higher classes spoke it 'at some point' is because William the Conqueror...conquered England and he was French (William of Normandy)
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I dont get people saying english derives from german. I dont understand a damn word of german. French spanish and italian sound more closer to english lmao

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SauI_Goodman posted...

I dont get people saying english derives from german. I dont understand a damn word of german. French spanish and italian sound more closer to english lmao

English and German (and Dutch) are West Germanic languages. Neither derives from the other, but theyre basically siblings. The Scandinavians are half-siblings and the romance are close cousins

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