Dutch Facts For Kids

People who live where the language comes from usually call it Nederlands. In Flanders, some people say Vlaams (Flemish) to describe how Dutch sounds there. In parts of the Netherlands, people sometimes say Hollands for the standard way of speaking, but that really refers to one region.

English speakers use the word "Dutch." This word comes from a very old Germanic word that meant "of the people." In the Middle Ages, writers also used Latin forms like Theodiscus to mean the common language. Over time, names changed a little, but Nederlands became the usual modern name.

Dutch grew from older Germanic languages that also birthed English and German. Long ago, the sounds of these early languages shifted, and groups of words changed in similar ways. Around the year 1150, the older form called Old Dutch developed into Middle Dutch, which was a set of related dialects people could still understand.

Middle Dutch became the language for more stories and laws, and its vowels changed so some sounds became quieter in speech. Different regions kept their own dialects—names you might hear are West Flemish, Brabantian, Hollandic, Limburgish, and Dutch Low Saxon—each with its own local flavor.

Dutch is a language people speak in the Netherlands and the northern part of Belgium called Flanders. About 25 million people speak it as their first language, and about 5 million learn it later. It is a West Germanic language, which means it is a cousin of English and German. Because of this family tie, some words and sounds can seem familiar to you.

Dutch also reached other parts of the world. A child of Dutch called Afrikaans grew in South Africa and Namibia. Dutch is also an official language in Suriname and on several Caribbean islands like Aruba and Curaçao.

Linguists put Dutch in the West Germanic group and more exactly in the Low Franconian part. Its closest living relative is Afrikaans, which came from Dutch. Other cousins include German, English, Low German, and Yiddish. Dutch shares some features with English and Frisian, and some features with German, so it sits kind of in between those languages.

Dutch kept some old sounds that High German changed, except for places like Limburg where the patterns are different. In modern times, speakers in Belgium and the Netherlands work together on spelling and language rules, but the way people pronounce words can still show where they come from—like British and American English.

Dutch has some special ways of sounding. Many of its consonants are not followed by a big puff of air like in English, so p, t, k sound a little softer. Dutch lets you hear tight clusters of consonants together, and it kept some rough throat sounds like the g or ch that many learners notice.

At the ends of words Dutch often makes voiced consonants sound voiceless; for example the word spelled 'goed' ends with a t-like sound. The letter r is pronounced differently by people — some roll it, others make a throat r. Also, some sounds change between dialects: Limburgish shows a few German-like changes that other Dutch dialects do not.

Dutch verbs come in a few groups: weak verbs, which make the past tense with a -de or -te ending; strong verbs, which change their vowel (like sing–sang); irregular or mixed verbs that combine patterns; and “half-strong” verbs that share both ways. About six out of ten verbs are weak, and over time many strong verbs become weak. Dutch main sentences often use a verb-second rule: the conjugated verb is the second part of the sentence, while extra verbs often go to the end. In subordinate clauses the verbs usually come at the end.

Most Dutch words come from old Germanic roots, but many loanwords arrived from French, Latin, and more recently English. Some English words are being replaced by Dutch-made words, for example 'skyscraper' became wolkenkrabber. Big dictionaries record these words for people who study the language.

Dutch is the main language in the Netherlands, where almost everyone speaks it, and in much of Belgium, where about six out of ten people speak Dutch. In Belgium, some areas speak mostly Dutch, some speak mostly French, and a small area speaks German. The city of Brussels is officially bilingual, so you hear both Dutch and French there.

Dutch is also the official language in Suriname and on several Caribbean islands like Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. A daughter language called Afrikaans grew from Dutch and is spoken mostly in South Africa and Namibia. Where could you hear Dutch near you?

People speak many different dialects of Dutch. Some big ones are West Flemish, Brabantian, Hollandic, Limburgish, and Dutch Low Saxon. Long ago West Flemish and Brabantian were very important; later Hollandic became more widely used. In Flanders (northern Belgium), Brabantian still has strong influence, and in the Netherlands Hollandic has what people call unofficial prestige.

Some dialects sound quite different. For example, Limburgish has been shaped by nearby German and even had its own early writing. Dutch dialects are also spoken over the border in parts of Germany and used to be heard in northwest France. Today many young people learn standard Dutch at school, so local dialects change.