Tricky Pronunciation. Many new learners find Dutch hard to pronounce. Even the most fluent foreign Dutch-speakers struggle with this, as the language has the weirdest combinations of letters. For example, there are consonant combinations like: nk, sch, ng, and nk.
How hard is it to learn? Dutch is probably the easiest language to learn for English speakers as it positions itself somewhere between German and English. For example, you may know that German has three articles: der, die and das, and English only one: the.
The Foreign Language Institute recommends a total of 24-30 weeks or 600-750 hours of Dutch language learning to reach fluency. Tobian Language School personally recommends 20 – 30 lessons for A2 level with a minimum of 2 weekly lessons. And B2 learners? You'll need to strive for 40 – 50 lessons or up to 50 hours.
C1 – Speaking
You can express yourself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. You can use language flexibly and effectively for social and professional purposes. You can formulate ideas and opinions with precision and relate your contribution skillfully to those of other speakers.
Necessary hours of study per level
A2 proficiency: 180-200 hours. B1 proficiency: 350-400 hours. B2 proficiency: 500-650 hours. C1 proficiency: 700-900 hours.
Learn to speak Dutch in just three months with this practical and comprehensive self-study language course. Whether you're a complete beginner or wanting to refresh your knowledge, Hugo: Dutch in Three Months will have you speaking Dutch fluently in just 12 weeks.
Dutch grammar is easier than German
One of the biggest differences between Dutch and German is in the definite articles. In German there are three, whereas Dutch has two.
2. Learning Dutch Helps with Practicalities. In addition to knowing basic words and phrases to live your new life somewhat independently, there are a few practical reasons too. For instance, knowing some Dutch makes reading restaurant menus, road signs, newspapers, and ingredient lists much easier.
Learning Dutch opens a new world
You'll do fine in English here, but all Dutch conversations will pass you by; a whole new world opens when you understand and speak a bit of Dutch. People will appreciate your effort, and making friends and contacts will be far easier.
If you want to say hi in Dutch, you would simply say “hoi”. The more formal hello is “hallo”. Regional varieties of “hi” include “heuj”, “alo” and “huijj” but sticking to “hoi” or “hallo” is generally all you need.
The two biggest groups of native speakers are the around 17 million people that live in the Netherlands and the 6.5 million in Belgium. But Dutch is an official language in six countries, so apart from the Netherlands and Belgium, it is also an official language in Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Aruba and Suriname.
The World Economic Forum has ranked the Netherlands as the third most educated country in the world. A third of Dutch 25–64-year-olds hold a university degree, which is significantly higher than the OECD average of 24 percent.
If your tongue, lips, and throat are already used to these sounds and accents, then French will be pretty easy. Dutch is Germanic, on the other hand, so its sounds and letter combinations have more of a deep, throaty sound rather than the flowing-off-the-tongue sound heard in French.
Even if you know a lot of vocabulary, without the ability to combine words correctly, you won't form a sentence. However, you don't have to worry about a whole bunch of rules that you'll have a hard time remembering. Dutch grammar is very similar to that of more common foreign languages, such as English or German.
As is the case with German, the vocabulary of Dutch also has strong similarities with the continental Scandinavian languages, but differs quite a lot in text and speech. So, knowing the Dutch language will help you learn quite a few other European languages, namely: English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish.
English students frequently say to me that Dutch is the easiest language to learn. It makes sense because Dutch is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo- ... That said, Dutch has a lot of loanwords, from both French and English, so knowing either of those will help you learn Dutch all the quicker.
Its closest relative is the mutually intelligible daughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch are German, English and the un-standardised languages Low German and Yiddish.
Which is easier to learn: Danish or Dutch? In terms of vocabulary and spelling, Dutch is probably easier for native English speakers since they share many words with a similar pronunciation. The Dutch language borrows lots of words from the French, as does English – although, annoying, they are rarely the same words!
Although Dutch and German are related, it is very difficult for speakers of the two languages to understand each other.
Dutch, German, English, Swedish and Danish are all Germanic languages but the degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages differs. Danish and Swedish are the most mutually comprehensible, but German and Dutch are also mutually intelligible.
B1 is often seen as the hard one. You think you're familiar with Dutch and now it turns out that there is much more to the language: the past tense, the future tense, the passive, idioms, formal language, irregularities and the dreaded "er".
Intermediate Dutch Vocabulary
It contains the 2501 to 5000 most frequently used Dutch words. Fluent in all aspects of daily life if you can remember the 5000 most popular Dutch words. You will be able speak Dutch like a native speaker after high school.