Dutch Learning Tips from Rosetta Stone

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About the Dutch language

There are over 20 million native Dutch speakers in the world. It’s the official language of the Netherlands and its overseas territories and also an official language in Belgium, Suriname, and the European Union. Dutch speakers can also communicate with around 10 million speakers of Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch that’s spoken in South Africa and Namibia.

Dutch Learning Tips

Dutch pronunciation and spelling follow logical patterns.
You’ll notice a series of accent marks above certain Dutch letters - these affect pronunciation. Rosetta Stone can help you read and pronounce these letters correctly.
Dutch nouns generally fall into two categories, common and neuter. Common nouns consist of feminine and masculine words.
Adding a ‘-je’ ending to the majority of Dutch nouns turns them into a diminutive, a word that denotes smallness.
The positions of verbs, subjects, and objects are governed by strict rules. These rules determine when the subject is positioned before or after the verb.
There are formal and informal ways to address other people, depending on the age of the speaker and their relationship to the person being addressed.

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