A Beginner’s Guide to Dutch: Five Early Mistakes to Avoid

If a soccer fan relocated to the Netherlands, early conversations with locals might involve the beautiful game in this beginner’s guide to Dutch. They might discuss some of the best players to ever play for Het Oranje. And they might be surprised to learn that, somehow, they haven’t heard of arguably the greatest of all time.

But after hours of fruitlessly Googling “Yo-an Kr-ow-f”, they might realize that they were being told about someone they knew. Someone they described for years as “Yo-harn Kr-oi-f“. And they might feel deeply embarrassed by this…

Is that an experience someone from the Expat Republic team has endured? Who can say? All we know is that the Dutch language is a minefield for newcomers, which is why this beginner’s guide to Dutch aims for a few early wins. Hopefully, we can help you avoid some of the most common mistakes.

1. Basic Sounds

At the very start of your journey, the most common mistakes come from basic pronunciation. If you arrive in the Netherlands before you have mastered the language, you will probably rely on written translations for help. But asking someone for help finding a product in a store is not as simple as reading translated text in English phonetics. Remember that different combinations of letters take on sounds you may not be used to, and this beginner’s guide to Dutch starts right there.

Irritable vowels

In English, two ‘O’s make an ‘ooh’ sound. In Dutch, you put an ‘O’ and an ‘E’ next to each other for that. So, if you ask someone around Christmas where you might find some turkey (kalkoen), if you read that as ‘kal-koh-en’, they are unlikely to be able to help you.

While a single ‘a’ followed by a consonant usually makes a short sound (the Dutch ‘man’ has an ‘on’ sound), an ‘aa’ makes a longer ‘ah’ sound (so the word for moon, ‘maan’, has an ‘ahn’ ending).

A similar dynamic stands for ‘e’, ‘o’ and ‘u’. One ‘e’ makes an ‘eh’; an ‘ee’ makes an ‘ay’. One ‘o’ is a short sound as in ‘pot’, while an ‘oo’ makes a longer ‘oh’ as in the English ‘boat’. And while one ‘u’ makes an ‘uh’ noise, an ‘uu’ is a more rounded ‘ooh’, as is at the end of the English word ‘manure’.

The letter ‘i’ alone is how English speakers would expect in ‘pit’. But it is rarely combined with itself. Instead, an ‘e’ is added. The ‘ie’ is not sound from English words like ‘pie’, but instead the sharper noise from the end of ‘geographies’.

And of course, a ‘ui’ as in huis, or Cruijff, makes an ‘ow’ sound. Remember this above all else.

Consonant sorrow

Vowels aren’t the only place an expat may trip up with their pronunciation. You will also need to deal with some tricky consonant combinations. That includes the infamous ‘g’, which, when done wrong, sounds like you are trying to cough something up.

Most Dutch accents use a ‘fricative’ for ‘g’. This means that (usually) it sounds more like the ‘ch’ at the end of the Scottish ‘loch’, or the German ‘bach’. The ‘g’ in ‘goed’, for example, becomes this phlegmy ‘gh’. A similar rule of thumb applies when you see a ‘ch’ in a Dutch word. Despite the English-style spelling of ‘school‘, in Dutch it begins with a ‘s-gh’ sound – before that double-vowel closes with a long ‘oh-l’.

The sound for ‘j’ is straightforward – becoming a ‘yuh’ noise rather than the ‘juh’ of English. So, ‘ja‘, the Dutch for ‘yes’, is pronounced ‘yah’. But the difference between a ‘w’ and a ‘v’, which is less intuitive to a non-native ear. A ‘w’ generally takes on the same sound as an English ‘v’ (so ‘web’ becomes ‘v-eb’). You might not hear the difference at first. But the ‘v’ is more like a hybrid between an English ‘v’ and an ‘f’ (so the Dutch for ‘fire’, ‘vuur’, is pronounced ‘f-ooh-r’).

Getting the hang of this will take patience. Remember, it took you years to master your mother tongue as well! Like that process, the best way to start is simple mimicry. Watch Dutch TV, and try to break down how people are saying words you recognise. Record yourself, and compare how you sound.

2. Mixed Up Word Order

Sentence structure can quickly trip you up. The longer the sentence, the more likely things are to become complicated, and this part of the beginner’s guide to Dutch focuses on the patterns that confuse English speakers the fastest.

“Ik ga werken” is a blunt-sounding but straightforward way of saying “I’m going to work”. The subject is followed by the verb, which is followed by an abstract noun. That’s an order English speakers will recognise. But noting when you are going to work means something unexpected happens. The sentence then becomes “Morgen ga ik werken”. In English, ‘I’ would remain in the second position. So, a literal translation of this Dutch sentence would be “Tomorrow go I to work” – which sounds a little Shakespearean.

Keep this in mind when formulating sentences as a new speaker. It’s easy to get tangled up. And starting a sentence with something other than a subject may mean you need to think a little more carefully about the formation of the rest of the sentence.

Remember: whatever sits in slot 1 of a sentence, the finite verb must come next. The subject usually follows, if it wasn’t first. “Elke avond leest Jeroen” (“Every evening, reads Jeroen); “In de auto is hij blij” (“In the car, is he happy.”)

This is further modified by the introduction of subclauses, though. After phrases which join two parts of a complicated sentence together – dat (that), omdat (because) or wanneer/terwijl/hoewel (when/while/although) – Dutch pushes the finite verb to the end of the clause.

For example, “Ze blijft thuis omdat ze ziek is” – or “She stays at home because she sick is” sees the verb “is” sitting right at the end. A quick fix here is to try to spot the ‘connecting’ words and anticipate when your ‘poetic’ verbs need to end up. Again, practice makes perfect – and you will need to have patience with yourself. Rome was not built in a day, after all.

Although in the case of ‘omdat’, at least, there is another workaround…

3. Mixing Two Words For One Thing

We all take the peculiarities of our own language for granted; we know because we know. That’s worth remembering when getting frustrated with the ins and outs of Dutch, and the beginner’s Guide to Dutch is here to make those odd little distinctions feel less personal.

That said, in a couple of key places, the Dutch language hinges on articles, which feel oddly fussy. After all, they mean the same thing! Well, yes and no…

Omdat vs want

There are also two words for “because” in Dutch: want and omdat. And the distinction between the two is not exactly intuitive to internationals. Not least because, when you deploy them, they can change the order the rest of your sentence will need to take.

For example, if you wanted to say “I am going home, because I am tired,” there are two ways to do that.

“Ik ga naar huis, want ik ben erg moe.” Or;

“Ik ga naar huis, omdat ik erg moe ben.”

Wonderful… More of that ‘poetry’. Remember: if you can use want in a sentence, what you are saying will retain the subject-verb-object pattern modern English speakers are most used to. But with omdat, an inversion occurs, making the subject-object-verb order. Fortunately, this change always takes place, so once you know it, you know it. But it takes some getting used to.

Instinctively, you might already be thinking, “Alright, well, I’m just going to avoid omdat.” And in informal circumstances, you might have a point. If you find it easiest to use want, and its sentence structure, it can offset having to memorize more simple sentences to develop a feel for this rule. But keep in mind, in a more formal context, omdat may give a better impression.

Want is specifically a personal version of ‘because’. It is used to explain why you say or do something. Meanwhile, omdat is an impersonal ‘because’, which serves to preface an explanation of an action or state of things you are not responsible for. So, for the sake of writing professional emails, or even sitting in job interviews, the more complex structure of an omdat sentence is an occupational hazard you can’t afford to snub.

De vs het

One of the smallest, but most common mistakes a new Dutch speaker will make is confusing the two words for ‘the’. For example, you can go back to de huis (the house), but to get there, you will need to take het fiets (the bike).

Your salvation lies in the origin of the de/het phenomenon. As with le/la in French, the roots of the word are in gendered language; the difference being that, in most other respects, that has long fallen out of fashion in Dutch. Around 75% of Dutch nouns are ‘de‘-words, so that has become the ‘common article’. Meanwhile, ‘het‘ is the ‘neuter’ gender – relating to diminutive nouns.

As outdated as it might seem, we therefore have ‘de jongen’ (the boy), and ‘het meisje’ (the girl). That ‘je’ at the end of ‘meisje‘ is something which can be applied to anything small. When it appears, it means the relevant article becomes ‘het’. A very basic workaround here is to turn any word you are unsure of into a diminutive. But while you might get away with talking about ‘het hondje’ (the little dog), describing someone else sitting at the bar as ‘het mannetje’ could be considered… provocative.

As much as we love an easy answer, we need to think about a longer-term solution here. That means putting in some graft. Flashcards are your friends. Note the endings that most commonly skew to ‘het’. This includes the ‘um’ at the end of ‘het universum’. You should soon be on the right path.

4. Forgetting Adjective Endings

Adjectives in Dutch often take an ending ‘e’ when they come before a noun… but not always. Speaking aloud, that can mean we expats trip ourselves up again. But if you would like to polish your Dutch to impress people in a live conversation, it’s a detail that can really show you’re making the effort, and the beginner’s guide to Dutch is a good place to make that effort feel systematic.

After noun delight

Things are simplest when the adjective (such as ‘groot’, or ‘big’) comes after a noun, and describes it using a linking verb like zijn (to be), worden (to become), blijven (to remain), and so on. In this case, you never need to add an ‘e’ (pronounced as a final syllable ‘uh’). Whatever the ‘het’ or ‘de’ scenario, the word remains unchanged. For example, both ‘Het huis is groot.’ and ‘De man is groot.’ can conclude without an adjoining ‘e’ for the descriptive word.

Before the noun

Keeping your mind on where your nouns are, if your describing word comes before the thing you are describing, the ‘e’ comes play. “Het grote huis.” “De grote man.” You will also notice adjectives with a ‘long’ double-letter, see that letter turn to a single – as the ‘e’ also serves to help elongate the sound. So, groot (gh-r-oh-t) becomes grote (gh-r-oh-t-uh).

The exception

The above rules go out of the window when a set of three conditions is met in a sentence. Break out those flashcards, because the first depends on you knowing if the adjective comes before a het-word. Second, the noun must be singular – so no plurals (which are always ‘de’ anyway). Third, the determiner (specifying quantity or clarifying noun reference) is one of the following: the indefinite article ‘een‘ (a/an); ‘geen‘ (no/not a); ‘elk‘, ‘ieder‘ (each/every); ‘welk‘ (which); ‘zo’n‘ (such a); or there is no determiner at all.

In this case, you can have “geen grote huizen” – because the noun is plural. But you can also have “geen groot huis”.

It’s an older rule, but one which is still prominent. And to learn it, it’s worth playing about with some text. Work with an adjective you know, and try to form sentences about subjects you enjoy. Experiment to see if you can find where the exception occurs – and you will make it an instinctive piece of knowledge. In the end.

5. The t/d Dilemma

Switching between the past, present and future in any language can be tricky. And it is a common pitfall for non-native speakers of Dutch. While in English, a verb which has been performed usually culminates in a ‘ed’, Dutch (again) has two ways of doing that: a ‘t’ or a ‘d’.

It may not be immediately clear why ‘d’ or ‘t’ should close out any given past-tense verb. It is so tricky that even native speakers rely on a linguistic. A wonderfully-termed ‘ezelsbruggetje’ (little donkey bridge) taught in schools is ‘‘t kofschip’ (named after a common Dutch sailing vessel from the 18th century). If you pluralize a Dutch word, and the letter in the final syllable is in ‘‘t kofschip’, then use a ‘t’. If the letter is not in ‘‘t kofschip’, then use a ‘d’.

When pluralized, ‘fiets’ (bicycle) becomes ‘fietsen’ – so the final syllable is ‘sen’. As ‘s’ is in ‘‘t kofschip’, in past tense, someone has ‘gefietst’. Meanwhile, if you want to say you have ‘signed’ something, ‘teken’ (sign) becomes ‘tekenen’. As ‘nen’ is not in ‘‘t kofschip’, you would say you have ‘getekend’.

Locals will assure you works 100% of the time. But it’s only really fool-proof if you can remember ‘‘t kofschip’ off the top of your head. But the mental arithmetic of having to quickly pluralize every verb you want to use in the past tense is not so easy for the rest of us. At least initially.

Fortunately, this is not such a big deal verbally. Whether you say ‘gespeld’ or (incorrectly) ‘gespelt’, your expat’s accent means the distinction is unlikely to be audible. But if you need to start sending professional emails or letters in Dutch, this distinction can make all the difference – so prepare! Write yourself a list of common verbs – things you enjoy doing, and are likely to need to talk/write about. Then test yourself: pluralize them, and work out how they look as a past-tense verb.

Conclusion

Even with some of the basics covered, it is important to remember something. Making mistakes is the best way to learn, and that’s the real point of this beginner’s guide to Dutch. As has been noted before on Expat Republic, we internationals are often too cautious for our own good. We sweat the small stuff in ways that the native speakers we converse with are rarely even conscious of. Don’t let the fear of being wrong hold you back from the one way of mastering Dutch: trying to speak it.

Hopefully, with this list, we’ve given you a few early wins so that you can get out there with a little more confidence. That’s all you really need to kick-start your journey, whether you decide to take lessons or learn through your daily experiences.