Vocabulary

Dutch and English share numerous cognates, which are words that have similar forms and meanings in both languages. For example, “huis” (Dutch) and “house” (English) both mean “house.” These similarities can assist learners in acquiring vocabulary quickly.

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Verb Conjugation

Both Dutch and English have relatively simple verb conjugation systems compared to other languages. In both languages, verbs have only a few inflected forms. For instance, in Dutch, the verb “to be” is “zijn” and its forms are “ben” (I am), “bent” (you are), and “is” (he/she/it is), which resemble the English equivalents.

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Sentence Structure

Dutch and English generally follow a similar subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure. For example, “Ik lees een boek” (Dutch) translates to “I am reading a book” (English), following the SVO pattern.

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Prepositions

Dutch and English employ comparable prepositions to express relationships between objects, people, or locations. Examples include “in,” “op,” and “naar” (Dutch) which correspond to “in,” “on,” and “to” (English), respectively. For instance, “Ik ben in het park” (Dutch) translates to “I am in the park” (English).

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Plural Nouns

Both Dutch and English form plural nouns by adding “-s” or “-en” at the end. For example, “boek” (Dutch) becomes “boeken” (books) and “book” (English) becomes “books.”

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False Friends

While there are many similarities, there are also false friends—words that appear similar but have different meanings in each language. For example, “gift” (English) means “poison” in Dutch, while “actueel” (Dutch) means “current” in English.

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