- Changed my iPhone to Dutch (Ik heb mijn iPhone in het Nederlands gezet)
- Changed my MacBook to Dutch (Ik heb mijn MacBook in het Nederlands gezet)
- I should watch movies/series with both Dutch and English subtitles. With Dutch dubbing as well. (Ik zou films/series moeten kijken met zowel Nederlandse als Engelse ondertiteling. En ook met Nederlandse gesproken).
I am willing to spend 1h/day to learning Dutch
- I need to see how I divide that hour into speaking/listening/writing/grammar.
A1 level
- be able to introduce myself, fill forms with personal details
- order food, ask prices, basic greetings
- use present tense mainly
- rely on the other person to speak slowly and simply
- know de/het, basic word order, and simple negation with niet/geen
A2 level
- be able to handle short routine exchanges about familiar topics
- start using past tense
- can describe things in simple connected sentences
B1 level
- deal with most situations while traveling or living somewhere Dutch is spoken
- give reasons for opinions and plans, produce explanations
- understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters
- handle modal verbs with nuance, main clause + subclause combinations, separate verbs correctly in different tenses.
Road to A1
Syllables
I am currently using dutchgrammar.com for learning the absolute basics. For starters, I am going to start with dividing a word into syllables.
Syllabification
A word is divided into syllables by its vowels. If two vowels are pronounced as one (ij), we consider it one vowel. When put together with one or more consonants, every combination becomes a syllable.
There are four rules which apply to most Dutch words:
- If two vowels are separated by one consonant, the consonant forms the beginning of the second syllable.
| Word | Syllables | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| moeten | moe-ten | must, have to |
| maken | ma-ken | to make |
| zeuren | zeu-ren | to whine, to moan |
- If the vowels are separated by more than one consonant, the first syllable gets one consonant, and the second gets the rest of the consonants:
| Word | Syllables | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| paarden | paar-den | horses |
| dingen | din-gen | things |
| wennen | wen-nen | to get used to |
| venster | ven-ster | window |
| enclave | en-cla-ve | enclave |
| obstinaat | ob-sti-naat | stubborn |
- A compound word consists of two or more separate words. We split the compound word at the boundary between the original words, leaving each original word intact. We do the same for words derived from nouns or verbs: vergeetachtig = vergeet + achtig (forgetful = forget + -ish).
| Word | Syllables | Meaning | Incorrect |
|---|---|---|---|
| waarom | waar-om | why (de ce) | not: waa-rom |
| meeteenheid | meet-een-heid | unit of measurement | not: mee-teen-heid |
| broodoven | brood-o-ven | bread oven | not: broo-do-ven |
| koopakte | koop-ak-te | sales contract | not: koo-pak-te |
| huurauto | huur-au-to | rental car | not: huu-rau-to |
I see that it holds for pronunciation as well. I pronounce each individual word and the final one simply makes sense.
- “Ease of pronunciation”: This is what we generally do, but if the second syllable begins with a consonant cluster that’s hard to pronounce, we put one (or more, if needed) of those consonants at the end of the preceding syllable.
- In Dutch, a syllable never begins with two identical consonants (see last row).
| Word | Syllables | Meaning | Incorrect |
|---|---|---|---|
| koortsig | koort-sig | feverish | not: koortsig |
| ambtenaar | amb-te-naar | civil servant | not: am-bte-naar |
| Delftse | Delft-se | from Delft | not: Del-ftse/Delf-tse |
| erwten | erw-ten | peas | not: er-wten |
| startten | start-ten | (we) started | not: star-tten |
The combination ‘ch’
There is one consonant-combination that does not abide by the four syllable rules described before: ch. This combination is never separated. It is another way of writing the letter g.* For this reason, we regard is as a single consonant. The words below are therefore not separated by three consonants (c, h and t) but by two (ch and t or r and ch).
- self note (e acel hhh cand tragi o flegma)
| Word | Syllables | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| lachen | la-chen | to laugh |
| richel | ri-chel | ridge |
| zuchten | zuch-ten | to sigh |
| krachten | krach-ten | forces, energy |
| rechter | rech-ter | judge |
| monarchie | mo-nar-chie | monarchy |
And of course, observing the 4th rule: if ch is enveloped by consonants (e.g. ‘rcht’), we place ch at the end of the preceding syllable (like with koortsig, ambtenaar, etc.). If we do not do this, the second syllable starts with ch + another consonant (which will generally make it hard to pronounce).
| Word | Syllables | Meaning | Incorrect |
|---|---|---|---|
| burchten | burch-ten | castles | not: bur-chten |