Why English to Dutch is harder than it looks
De or het is not guessable. Every Dutch noun takes one of two articles, and there is no reliable rule for which. Native speakers learn them one by one, and a wrong article is the fastest way for a message to read as non-native even when everything else is right.
Dutch word order moves the verb. Add โbecauseโ or โthatโ to an English sentence and the Dutch verb slides to the end of the clause: omdat ik morgen werk. Short messages are safe; anything with a second clause has to be restructured rather than translated in order.
English politeness padding sounds insincere in Dutch. โI was just wondering if you might possibly be able toโฆโ is normal English and faintly ridiculous in Dutch, where the direct version is the polite one. Simplifying the English first produces much better Dutch.
Diminutives are everywhere and they do more than shrink. Een biertje is not a small beer, it is a casual one; momentje softens a wait. Dutch uses -je constantly to set a friendly register, and English has nothing equivalent, so it has to come from the tone rather than the words.
Written by Hardik Vegad, Co-founder, Translatify. Last updated .
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