Learning Dutch FAQ

Welcome to the wiki of Nederlands Leren / Learn Dutch. On this page, you will find a small FAQ on how to get started with dutch! If you instead search for the Frequently Asked Question on dutch itself, you can find it here [link]

Self learning or courses?
The first step is to determine what kind of learning is fit for you and your situation. This is a personal decision. However, to decide if self learning is the road you should take, consider the following points:
 * precisely what your goal is
 * your personal will to achieve your goal
 * the timeframe to achieve your goal your time frame
 * your monetary means

Paid Courses and cursus
You can find (some) paid courses |in our resource page but the list is small as we are not focused on paid courses. However you can check Italky and Preply.

Furthermore, if you live in the netherlands you can find schools that are endorsed by the government here. You can also check at your city hall (gemeentehuis) or get books at your local library for free.

How do I get started? Short term planning
A good place to start out is a free course to give an initial feeling of the language as well as a knowledge base upon which you can build on once you're more independent. You can check the courses we have |in our resource page, the large majority of them is fully free. After two/three weeks, you may want to complement the course with some (light) reading of essential (but difficult!) grammar such as dutch word order on specialized sites. Do not hesitate to seek books as well if it falls within your budget or better lend them for free at the library if you live in NL. We also recommend reading the "Methodology: understanding how to learn" section as it will become useful in the coming weeks.

What then? Longer term planning
After this initial phase... well no one can give you a perfect plan to follow. We all learn differently, it's much more of an open choice but there are rough guidelines you can keep in mind:

An example of conceptualization is that to see that a phrase/clause is one self contained 'unit'. If you understand that and you know that the verb comes second in a main clause, you can understand why a subordinate clause coming in the first place in a sentence causes the subject to be after the verb in the main clause
 * Dutch is not English! do not try to translate directly from English, you just cannot.
 * Hold your preferred resources but don't rely solely on them. It's good to use an online course or application to learn, but if you use only one source for knowledge you surely are messing up somewhere. One app or free course cannot possibly contain all you need to know.
 * Learn efficiently. See the "Tips and Tricks of the efficient learner" section for more details.
 * Keep expanding your vocabulary consistently. Depending on persons, you can learn from 4-5 to 20-25 words per day over longer periods, your vocabulary should follow the rest of your skills
 * Determine where you need to improve and work on it. See the related section for more details.
 * Diversify your activities. Learning does not have to be boring, incorporate fun activities in your learning: listen to music & podcasts, watch videos, read books like, [...]. As a sidenote, we have |a list of games that are in dutch.
 * Having a clear mind on how to conceptualize what you have in front of you is important to facilitate learning.

After an initial phase, acquiring more reliable knowledge of basic grammar rules should be the focus

determining what to improve
There are 4 commonly mentioned domains to language proficiency which themselves rely on mastering elements of the language. Those 4 domains are Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking.

If you wish to learn on your own, it's primordial to clearly discern the domains you wish to improve on and systematically work on its components.

All 4 domains rely on understanding grammar (to a certain extent) and vocabulary. As such you should improve your vocabulary and your grammar all throughout your learning process.

On top of that, each individual domain requires additional mastery of certain skills.


 * Reading tends to require a larger vocabulary if you diversify your reading sources. It is more focused on translation from the target language to your starting language. (1)
 * Writing requires a good comprehension of grammar. It is more focused on translation from the starting language to your target language (1)
 * Listening requires listening comprehension (obviously) but also a good command of your already acquired vocabulary and having mapped the words to sounds.
 * Speaking requires training on how to make the sounds as well as quick production of sentences.

Listening and speaking typically can be seen as a step up of reading and writing respectively as they require mostly the same skills but better mastered and, on top of it, the ability to hear and pronounce the sounds of the language. Do not be alarmed if those skills are behind your reading and writing. It is very common among learners but it is, however, an indication that focus has to be put on those two skills.

(1) this becomes less and less true as you progress as you directly think in the target language but this difference in translation 'direction' explains why there are "passive learners" who become good at listening and reading but struggle at writing and speaking. It is because they were not proactive enough and mainly internalize translation from the target language to their own language + a shacky intuition of grammar rules

You need to see new words frequently but as time passes by you need to see them less, this is where spaced repetition and software such asanki help

Tips and Tricks of the efficient learner
[here list of tips and tricks like that one under]


 * Do not take grammar lightly, it's a primordial part of learning and you just cannot do without. Some persons will tell you that you should do without and that it isn't needed but they had to make up for the lack of formal knowledge with 100x the amount in learning grammar intuitively.


 * While it may be very tempting, especially at first, do not try to translate things 1-1. Some things are simply not translatable in a 1-1 basis and it'll play tricks on you to try to compare the languages systematically. Instead, learn precise actions and the way to say it in the target language. A good example of that is the verb "to think". It's tempting to say it's simply "denken" but it's wrong. a few examples: "to think of" as in "to have an opinion about" is "denken van" or, better, "vinden van". "To think of" as in "to have in mind" is "denken aan". While "denken om" is "to not forget" while "thinking about" as in "to reflect upon" is "nadenken".


 * Challenge yourself! do not get sucked into the same sources all the time, it's an open door to stopping your progress! always go for material slightly above your skillset!


 * In english you can easily spot an adverb (quickly) and differentiate it from its corresponding adjective (quick), but in dutch, the difference is not so clear. A lot words are both the adverbial and the adjectival form. This is especially true for words built through the -lijk process (to confirm)

You can notice them because they just are a verb with, usually, a ge- at the start. Some participle past won't start with ge- and not all words beginning in ge- are participle past in dutch.
 * Learning early on how to spot a participle past (stuff like killed, eaten, launched, ...) facilitates vocabulary acquisition! Learning a verb can lend you an adjective and or adverb thanks to its participle past!


 * Be critical, accept your mistakes and seek to be corrected as often as possible. It's especially important for more advanced learners.


 * Do not be too hard on yourself. It's good to have objectives but it's easy to get frustrated in language learning. Everyone experiences plateaus and getting a fluent level takes regular work over long periods, so take it easy and don't burn yourself out.

Where to listen to dutch?
You can do it through podcasts, free retransmission of shows on television websites, educative videos, non educative videos, listening to native talk on communities, taalcafés, online taalcafés, events, ...

Or find yourself a dutch lover you loser!

Where to find people to speak to
You can use apps made for talking such Preply, Hello talk, Tandem and many others. Otherwise if you are in the country you may be able to access programs to talk to older persons (north holland), join communities, taalcafés, online taalcafés, events, ...

How to improve my grammar?
Reading grammar rules on websites is the basis to improve your grammar but on its own it's pointless, you have to use your grammar as well. You may learn the imperative but if you don't see and use it, it won't easily stick around.

How to improve vocabulary?
Seeing the words again and again is mostly what matters, reading them, using them in sentences (production), there is not much more to it beside perhaps making logical link between words.

I can't get people to talk to me in dutch, where do i get speaking training?
You can join voice chats online and learning communities or [more stuff]

Surprisingly, you can also train speaking proficiency by: [more stuff]
 * chatting in a written fashion
 * listening to videos
 * repeating words you hear
 * talking to yourself

Specific advantages of living in the Netherlands
on top of the obvious advantages for learning, these are some lesser obvious advantages of living in the netherlands:


 * you can go to your local library to get learning books for free if it's to self learn, just see at the entry (to verify, it's hearsay)

for another page:

Belgian Dutch sources

a page for people that live there with initiatives