You must have all heard about The Netherlands, it is famous for several things: windmills, tulips, art, and the forbidden pleasures of Amsterdam all come to mind. But what about the Dutch language? Here are some fascinating facts about the Dutch language in the Netherlands that you will get to know in this blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dutch is the 56th<\/sup> most commonly spoken language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dutch has 22 million native speakers, and nearly 28 million speakers once you add in people who speak it as a second language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having said that, the Netherlands is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, so the Dutch language contains more of an economic punch than mere numbers might suggest. Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands. However, it also has official status in Belgium. In South America, Dutch remains the official language of Suriname. Fancy a tropical vacation? It is also the official language of Aruba, Cura\u00e7ao, Sint Maarten in the Caribbean. Certainly, Dutch is also one of the official languages of the European Union and the South American Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afrikaans and Dutch are hardly mutually intelligible<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Afrikaans, one of the national languages of South Africa, is descended from the Dutch spoken by Dutch settlers. The two languages are still mutually intelligible, but only barely. Dutch speakers have a simpler time understanding Afrikaans than the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dutch is 3rd<\/sup> most widely spoken Germanic language, behind English and German<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With respect to grammar and pronunciation, Dutch is at times said to be between English and German. Since Dutch is in the same family as English, it is an easy language to learn. Well, it is easier than Russian, to say the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is known for long compound words<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, the longest Dutch word is \u201cKindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedenplan,\u201d which means \u201cpreparation activities plan for a children\u2019s carnival procession\u201d. That is a whopping 53 letters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n While translating between English and Dutch, documents might need to be redesigned to accommodate these long compound words. Also, the text tries to expand when translated from English into Dutch, at times as much as 35%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dutch natives call their language \u201cNederlands\u201d and they call German \u201cduits\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dutch, Duits, and Deutsch all arise from the Old Germanic word theudisk, means \u201cthe language of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 1, 50, 000 people in America speak Dutch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dutch is among the top 15 languages in 3 states, Indiana, Ohio, and Delaware. In fact, the 8th<\/sup> President Martin Van Buren spoke Dutch as a child as his first language. He was the only President to speak English as a second language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The love for the usage of diminutives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Several languages have diminutives. These are the words that are used to express affection or to indicate smallness. For instance in English \u201cKitty\u201d is the diminutive of a kitten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Dutch diminutives are used quite frequently. The prefix \u201cje\u201d or its variations to diminutize all kinds of nouns and adverbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Dutch, diminutives are not only used to indicate size or affection. They are also used to make uncountable nouns countable. For instance, “bier” is “beer”, however, “biertje” is a glass of beer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello-Hello the leading language learning app developers shares Fun Facts, to Know about the Dutch Language<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,82,1],"tags":[134,34,33,35,36,32],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-dutch-language-learning-app","category-learn-foreign-language-with-hello-hello","category-uncategorized","tag-dutch-iphone-app-by-hellohello","tag-dutch-language-learning-android-app","tag-dutch-language-learning-iphone-app","tag-dutch-language-learning-website","tag-how-to-learn-dutch-langauge","tag-learn-dutch-language"],"yoast_head":"\n