Sitting on the the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname, and is known for its close relation to both German and English.
Dutch
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Classification
Indo-European > Germanic
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Speakers
24 million
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Script
Roman
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Text direction
Left-to-right
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Official language
Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Suriname
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Also spoken
Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten
Dutch
The vast majority of Dutch speakers are in the Netherlands and Belgium but can also be found in Suriname, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten.
Notable minorities of Dutch speakers exist in Indonesia. It also evolved into Afrikaans in South Africa; the two languages remain mutually intelligible to a high degree.
Due to its Germanic roots, which are shared with English, Dutch is reckoned to be one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. Much of the vocabulary is easily recognizable (e.g. appel, tomaat, spook, glas, drillen, etc.) and the grammar is more simple than German.
At Geo Language Services, we provide high-quality translations that ensure your content is precise, relevant and easily understood by Dutch-speaking audiences.
Services offered for this language
Translation / Transcreation / Subtitling / Localization / Adaptation / Copywriting / Authoring / Proofreading / Revision / Editing / Translation quality assurance / Terminology / Linguistic validation / Glossary creation / Dubbing / Voice-overs / Transcription / Typesetting / Simultaneous interpreting / Consecutive interpreting / Conference interpreting / Telephone interpreting / Public service interpreting / Interpreting equipment hire / Foreign language consulting
Interesting fact
About 1% of English words come from Dutch, including such favourites as cookie, frolic, snoop, waffle and walrus.
