Dutch: More like German or more like English?
Dutch is often called the bridge language between German and English. And it is understandable why. In one case Dutch seems very alike German and in the other Dutch seems very alike English. I think it’s both true.
Okay, important differences between Dutch and German you’d have to keep in mind: in Dutch we don’t use cases for noun words. And we don’t have the ‘ringel-s’ à β
Some say that Dutch has an overlay of German likeness due to linguistic influence, but that on a basic level, Dutch is more like English. While others say that Dutch is more like German because like German it is a ‘verb second language’ and sends the finite verb to the end of the sentence in subordinate clauses. I think this is also the case in English though.
In the next few examples, you can clearly see how Dutch is more similar to German one time and more similar to English the next.
ENGLISH: Stop the world, I want to get off!
DUTCH: Stop de wereld, ik wil eraf!
GERMAN: Haltet die Welt an, ich möchte aussteigen!
ENGLISH: I want
DUTCH: Ik wil
GERMAN: Ich will
ENGLISH: On the road
DUTCH: Onderweg
GERMAN: Unterwegs
ENGLISH: The other
DUTCH: de andere
GERMAN: das andere
ENGLISH: often
DUTCH: vaak
GERMAN: oft
ENGLISH: sometimes
DUTCH: soms
GERMAN: manchmal
ENGLISH: ten
DUTCH: tien
GERMAN: zehn
10 Comments
Spoken Flemish in particular has an uncanny resonance of Brooklynese.
halo yes that make’s sence i find some dutch
quiet easy it’s the g’s thats the problem
but am getting there
doei doei mark
Yes, I’am going to have to agree with you when saying that Dutch is closer related with English. There are tons of words in Dutch that are related to English it’s incrediable.
Dutch: Tim helpt in de keuken
English: Tim helped in the kitchen
Dutch:tafel
English: table
Dutch: stoel
English:chair, stool
Dutch:huis
English: house
I could probably go on forever. so, I’ll stop now. But before I post this I do have to say that German is does have a similrity with Dutch.
You state “your email is never shared”, but what I believe you mean is “your email address is never shared”
Significant difference !!
Bijzonder verschil !!
Bisonderes unterschied !!
As an English expat living in Friesland, I have learned that the original Angles in the Anglo-Saxons were from the greater Friesland that then existed, and that Friesan is in fact one of the roots of English
dutch-english
Halo, that is a great site, great
dutch less in a complecated words sometimes is easy but i want to learn more
The reason why Dutch is so similar to English and German at the same time can be found if we study histroy of language.
All the three languages belong to the same language family.
Around the 5th century the Second Germanic Sound Shift took place when some consonants changed (e.g. instead of P people started to use F, instead of D they used T). This was the point when the three languages became different from each other. The process of the shift depends on the area where the language was spoken. Old English was unaffected by the shift since it was far away.
The Germanic-speaking area in Europe was divided into two: High Germanic and Low Germanic. High Germanic (German) was spoken in the south, Low Germanic (Dutch) in the north.
The Low Germanic languages did not experince the shift.
So in Old English and in Low Germanic the above mentioned consonants were not shifted.
Let’s make a contrast:
P-F contrast:
shiP (English) SchiFF (German) shiP (Dutch)
sleeP (English) schlaFen (German) slaPen (Dutch)
D-T contrast:
Day (English) Tag (German) Dag (Dutch)
Do (English) Tun (German) Doen (dutch)
But I think if we look at the structure of the language, grammar, Dutch is much more similar to German (since they developed together on the same area), regarding the words (the consonants) it is similar to English.
Have a nice day.
Hello, i speak all three languages!
But i’m speaking italian and serbian too and i think, that dutch have som words from italian
Italian: Camera
Dutch: Kamer
Eng: Room
It: Ma
du: Maar
Eng: But
Dutch has a lot of french words Presis, Avonturr. Its smilar to swedish
Dutch: Tijd
Swedish: Tide
Eng: Time
and and and
But the similarst language to dutch is german or low german, but i’ dont speak low german and have learned the dutch door de duitse taal