Learn Dutch

Goedemorgen, new learner here. Native English speaker looking to get a foothold into the Dutch language.

I have started using Duolingo to begin learning the very basic words and phrases. I’m really enjoying it and wish to supplement this learning with some more activities.

A large part of what I’m looking for to help is activity based learning. Duolingo I find easy to use consistently because I can go at my own pace, it has a bit of visual stimuli and a variety of activities, something along those lines would be great, but more so where I can try and use what I’m learning rather than just taking in the information without any way to then utilise it to better grasp how the language functions in practice.

Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of spare time, so something on a similar bitesize level to Duolingo in terms of time would be great.

Bedankt.

hallo! so i have a slight issue, i’ve started learning dutch recently and have gotten onto learning negatives and negating sentences, but i’m struggling on when to use ‘geen’ or ‘niet’ now, i’ve seen lots of explanations of when to use which one but they all seem a bit too complex for me to wrap my head around, so if somebody could explain it to me like really simply i would very much appreciate it!

I’ve been learning Dutch now for 3 months and I’m listening to music now but I was thinking is just watching the Dutch news a good way aswell I’ve picked up some basic words like hello thank you bye and stuff

I've spent so long reading and writing it, but listening I have a problem with still.

I need to spend some time listening to TV series with subtitles so I can relate the written word with the spoken sound.

Advice on where I can watch Dutch TV series with Dutch subtitles?

Or any similar resource?

So, I'm reading a Tom Poes story and it contains this paragraph:

'Het is het Wezelbloed,' sprak op dat moment neef Edelhart tot de herbergier. 'Iemand die dat in zich heeft, staat nergens voor. Is er soms nog een gevaar in de buurt dat bestreden moet worden! Spreek vrijuit!'

In this context, a character is claiming that having "het Wezelbloed" makes someone strong and fearless, and that a particular character with weasel blood has just conquered someone dangerous and should be asked to fight other bad people.

The part that confuses me is "staat nergens voor." I have three ideas about what this could mean.

• Contextually, it would make most sense if the character was saying that nothing can stand in the way of someone with weasel blood, but I'd expect this to be conveyed something more like "Niets staat voor iemand die dat in zich heeft," or something like that.

• The fact that "nergens" is used rather that "niets" probably means that the "voor" applies to that negative pronoun rather than the "iemand." In this case, is this is same meaning of "staan voor" as in "hij staat ervoor" - "he stands for/advocates it."? Is the character saying that someone with weasel blood has no fixed values, and can be called upon to do anything? I just don't think that makes as much sense in the story.

• Alternatively, maybe "voor" isn't applying to "nergens", and "nergens" is used not because it is the object of a preposition but because it actually means "nowhere." The dictionaries I'm looking at only translate "voorstaan" as meaning "uphold, maintain, advocate," but could it have a kind of existential meaning in this case? "Someone with that in them, can't be found anywhere" - something like that?

None of these hypotheses fully fit the evidence I have, please help.

Hello everyone i”m looking to get my b2 certificate would love to learn more from you which books should I use to prepare and also tips and tricks. Also i”m looking to buy second hands books too Thank you

In this screenshot, they use "Kan" for "could". But shouldn't it be "kon" (which is what GT also says). Or can "kan" also be used for "could"

Alvast bedankt!

https://preview.redd.it/ayl1orunp01d1.png?width=695&format=png&auto=webp&s=c600bbdecfafde4ad61ea8dd636f6d1fbe65f149

As a native Dutch speaker, I can not reconmend the show wie is de mol? enough. Its one of the most popular game shows in the netherlands and has been around since 1999. The premise of the show is 10 famous Dutch people try to earn as much money doing tasks in a foreign country. 1 of the contrstants is the Mole and tries to sabotage the earning proces. The youtube channel WIDMEnglish subs has some seasons with English subtitles and NPOStart has the seasons 5-24 (but not with English subtitles last time I checked).

Its a fun show with lovely location shots and lots of spoken Dutch in a non childish way :)

Hello guys,

Quick question on the beautiful Dutch language (I am around A2). From what I see, the word order is usually:

"Ik+verb+graag/het liefst+the rest of the sentence". But what happens if "time" comes in? Is it like this?

Ik+verb+time+het liefst?

To give an example:

Ik kijk s'avonds het liefst naar TV Ik kijk het liefst s'avonds naar TV

Are both of the sentences structurally correct(maybe the emphasis is different ?)Or should the time verb always come before "het liefst" or "graag" like in the first sentence (Ik kijk s'avonds het liefst naar TV)

Thank you in advance

Toen ik klein was, woonde ik in nederland. Ik sprak bijna geen Engels.

Toen ik 12 was, ging ik weg uit Nederland. Dat was 8 jaar geleden - nu ben ik 20.

Engels is mijn moedertaal. Nederlands is mijn tweede taal. En ik weet niet echt hoe ik beter in nederlands zijn zonder in het land te wonen.

Ik bekijk filmpjes in het Nederlands, luister naar Nederlandse muziek (ik steun je echt, Joost Klein), maar ik voel alsof ik me iets mis? Ik maak veel foutjes, soms komt de juiste woord me niet onmiddelijk voor, en, natuurlijk, ik twijfel me heel vaak over "het" of "de", iets dat ik nooit deed toen ik in Nederland woonde. Ik wiste het gewoon.

Moet ik gewoon heel hard oefenen met flashcards, elke dag naar Nederlandse radio luisteren? Misschien een Nederlandse vriendje vinden om ermet te oefenen? Ik wil nog beter woorden, stoppen met foutjes maken die me verraden als een buitenlander - vroeger dachte iedereen dat Nederlands mijn moedertaal was!

Inderdaad is het allemaal erg frustrerend, dus ik zou erg dankbaar zijn op tips. :)

PS. het spijt me als dit moeilijk was om te lezen. Ik kan me niet eens herinneren de laatste keer ik zo'n lange brief in het Nederlands schreef. =)

Ik wilde erover schrijven omdat ik trots ben op hoe ver ik ben gekomen. Ik kan bijna alles op deze sub begrijpen zonder translate en Nederlanders schakelen niet meer over naar Engels als ik met ze praat. Mijn eigen verbetering opmerken is een echt geweldig gevoel. Ik wens iedereen veel succes met het leren van Nederlands, je kunt het wel doen!

Hi all

I am preparing for my A2. Struggling with listening. When I read the paragraph I can answer correctly but when listening the same paragraph I don't understand. It could be due to the pronunciation I understand when I read Vs when I hear.

Please share some tips / solutions

Thanks

Hi! I was looking for some interactive materials that I can boost my Dutch skills with, but I find Duolingo tedious and underwhelming, especially after their update where they have removed all the grammar materials.

I remember there were some old-school BBC TV shows like Mi Vida Loca for Spanish (it was also an interactive show until Adobe killed Flash) or The French Experience for French, but unfortunately I can't find anything similar for the Dutch language. Any suggestions?

(Het spijt me ook als mijn grammatica slecht is of als ik iets verkeerd heb geschreven, ik ben niet zo goed in het Nederlands en heb voor kleine delen hiervan een vertaler gebruikt)

Weet iemand waar ik kan meer casual Nederlands geleren? Ik leer al twee jaar Nederlands en ik denk niet dat ik genoeg weet om de weg te vinden. Kent iemand video's of websites die ik kan bekijken om mij te helpen dingen te leren die ik in het dagelijks leven zou zeggen?

‘Het personeel’ is plural so why don’t we use ‘werken’? Thanks!

(This is how Duolingo has presented its usage to me)

Hey guys,

I'm currently learning a bit Dutch since August 2023 for fun with Duolingo but it seems like I'm stuck for a few months now. I have a streak of 270 days and I'm currently in section 2 unit 30 but over the last weeks, I'm learning the same over and over again and mostly the things I already learned successfully. I know that Duolingo is not the right way to learn a language completely but I think it's really good for the first steps. I'm from Germany and I visit the Netherlands 1-2 times a year for vacations or festivals.

Do you know a good way to learn the language better especially for basic conversations? I feel like Duolingo teaches sometimes unnecessary things

I developed these for my students, because they went crazy because of these composite words, in a different word web:

verleiden = to seduce

opleiden = to educate

afleiden = to distract

omleiden = to lead around

This is now a series and there are many more to come if you like them :)

If you want to find more free materials like this, send me a message or take a look at my instagram. All of my materials are for free, so I hope this isn't considered promotion or something. I just thought this might be useful, also since this takes many hours to make

https://preview.redd.it/67r98ol1kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a487be60bf4ebfa40b8f0fb7c0bbda1455ad7d4

https://preview.redd.it/odsu7k22kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=328509ebe2b5b349e0bd44ffe06af061ab91ba16

https://preview.redd.it/hicyoum2kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=a34b5ce4909ddc0df4de68ad77c3b4d0b2a9629b

https://preview.redd.it/icdvr7y2kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=ad07961eed700fda0f9d3256af1e346f3ac3861f

https://preview.redd.it/2sck1ej3kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=c96aa46af80584d1f157d409e35eb65c606b7d15

https://preview.redd.it/g37bhv44kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=06916c529b3cd0e9c3f938feb52c34e63703d317

https://preview.redd.it/ywkt8lz4kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=2fc2e5971f91f81acc1b8d5dd26ecc37af972a55

https://preview.redd.it/1n1af5z6kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf67f324a937ecfde6d20d99202359f06df07e58

https://preview.redd.it/toygnfq7kr0d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=7bac95dc4af0ce28f1af3aac2e6b86c82a04dda4

I’m honestly doing just great with speaking and the kns part. What confuses me was the reading part. Is there any tips you could give me or some practice exams?

If you took the test before, was it that really hard? Dankjewel!!

This morning I was putting my kid into the back of the car whilst waiting for her mum, and said to myself "How long will it take your mum to get here?"

I'm often trying to translate into Dutch in my head, and thought "Hoe lang duurt je moeder om hier to gaan?" would make sense, but the translation on Deepl was "Hoe lang duurt het voordat je moeder hier is?"

I'm not debating the translation, I think it says what I wanted to say better, but would I be understood?

Thank you all for the help you give on this subreddit, it is very much appreciated.

Hoi allemaal! I have a long standing issue with the sounds of “w” and “v”. When I started learning Dutch, I pronounced “w” as /v/, and “v” as /f/. I tried since then to learn the proper “w” sound /ʋ/, but unless I really focus it just comes out as /w/ in conversation.

So I’m wondering. Is it a better idea to just say /v/ in both cases to sound closer to standard Dutch (but risk confusing words like worm and vorm) or just use the English /w/ to differentiate w from v?

Ik wil met anderen spreken (moedertaalsprekers misschien) die mij kunnen helpen meer te leren.

Als ik een afbeelding op mijn telefoon verplaats, "verplaatsen" deze maar als ik zie dat deze bij mensen wordt gebruikt beweegt deze in plaats van dat deze verplaatsen. Waarom?

Hi all! I relocated to the Netherlands and my employer gave me an allowance to be spent on a Dutch course to help with the integration in the country. Do you have recommendations on specific schools for individual/very small group classes? Something like official language institutions that offer courses and preparation for exams? I’m planning to get at least a B1 possibly B2 level. Dank je wel!

Ik moet een presentatie voorbereiden waarin ik over migratie moet praten. Dus ik kom hier om Nederlanders te vragen. Wat zijn de woorden die van buitenlandse oorsprong zijn? Denk aan Turken, Marokkanen maar ook Oost Europeanen.

I've been listening to a dutch song made by students of my uni, to practice my listening/understanding skills, but I'm not 100% sure what it's supposed to mean.

I wanted to have something like News in Levels (https://www.newsinlevels.com/) but for other languages. I didn't find anything that I would like so I created a simple site that creates those simple news. It's written by gpt-4, not the same as by a human but the quality is decent and few people already found it useful.

The site has been live for a few months, and I've just added Dutch a week ago since I began learning the language myself recently. I’m sharing this with you all to see if it might be useful to others as well. The site is completely free and operates without any ads. I would greatly appreciate any feedback or suggestions you might have.

https://www.simplenewsdaily.com/Dutch

Hello! I recently started using the Routledge book, but I realised I don't have the answer key sheet. Does anyone have it by any chance? Or know where I can find it? Thank in advance.