German and Dutch, how similar are they?

Freiheit

Gerade ein Video auf Niederlandisch ferngesehen, koennte 90% verstehen da es Deutsch aehnelt....seems almost like a dialect of German...Is this generally the case or was I just lucky with this video?. Is German widely spoken in the Netherlands?.

Gute Nacht

F

Amtmann

Dutch, German and English are all Germanic languages. I find Dutch to be closer to English than German is; but, like you, based on my knowledge of German I can read a lot of Dutch too.

Lawrence1895

The Dutch language has different dialects though. But I can't mind too many similarities between Dutch and English, if you hear Dutch people talking, it's much more like dialects from the North of Germany.

And if you hear people from the Flemish part of Belgium, they sometimes don't understand the Dutch and the other way round

peasant

As a southern German, I find Dutch easy (-ish) enough to follow in written form ...impossible when spoken.

Lawrence1895

peasant wrote: »

As a southern German, I find Dutch easy (-ish) enough to follow in written form ...impossible when spoken.

There always seems to be a difference between written and oral language. I went to the Netherlands a few times, they could understand me (I speak a few bits and pieces in Flemish which were mixed with German) but I had no clue what they were talking about

JuliusCaesar

Isn't Dutch a kind of Plattdeutsch? (Of which I know only one word: Erdappel = potato, very similar to Pomme de terre = earth apple!)

Freiheit

Slightly off topic, but reading easily a book by a Swiss German speaker, easy to read, I'm not sure how well I'd understand her speak!

-Feder-Seele-Geschlecht/dp/3729606107/ref=sr_1_1?ie
http://www.amazon.de/Die-weisse=UTF8&qid=1304012002&sr=8-1

Sonnenblumen

Freiheit wrote: »

Gerade ein Video auf Niederlandisch ferngesehen, koennte 90% verstehen da es Deutsch aehnelt....seems almost like a dialect of German...Is this generally the case or was I just lucky with this video?. Is German widely spoken in the Netherlands?.

Gute Nacht

F

Are you serious? There are similarities in the two languages but that's where it ends. Referring to Dutch as Plattdeutsch is very likely to cause offence.

alois

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Are you serious? There are similarities in the two languages but that's where it ends. Referring to Dutch as Plattdeutsch is very likely to cause offence.

calm down man, Freiheit didn't even refer to Dutch as Platt.. only remarking on the HUGE similarities between german and dutch.

Lawrence1895

Of course, there are similarities between Dutch and German, but many people in both countries don't want to speak the other one's language. That's still a kind of left over from World War 2

I went to the Netherlands a few times for football matches, and I always got some surprised looks when I was talking in Dutch

Empire o de Sun

Dutch German (& Swiss German),

You could say that before radio tv and a mass education system, there was a proper Dialect continuum from the alps all the way through modern day germany to the Netherlands and to some extent into england. This is were a person from a town understands and speaks to someone from a neighbouring town, but the further away they you travel the more different the language is. Unitl you get to a stage were someone can't understand someone else.

Nation states have done a pretty good job at killing off dialect continuums.

farwood

there are similarities. yes. but dutch and german are different languages... not just dialects.

I can understand a few word, if they speak slowly enough a few sentences... but thats all.


but of course it is hard to differ for a non-native speaker.
I found myself in a supermarket with my best friend...who lives 30km afar... almost at the dutch border... and i heard an old couple talking.... and said" oh sarah ...this dutch couple....." and she grinned at me and said: "this isnt dutch, its the local dialect of the elder people her"


so boarders are vanishing...at least as long it is in languages

Nina