How similar is English and Dutch?

Answer 1

The nearest language to English is actually Frisian, and this has been determined by linguists. Duth is only the second closest language to English.

Actually Dutch and English only have similarities in basic words, but in advanced and tehnical vocabularies, as well as in vocabulary, English is nearer to French.

Old English is a dialect of Old Low German, and is a close cousin of both Frisian and Dutch. Though Modern Day English is roughly 50% French, 30% Frisian, 10% Norwegian, and 10% Other Languages, making it Latinish than Germanish.

Answer 2

In some ways they are deceptively similar; I say this because although many of the words are the same or similar -
for example: de man = the man
wat = what
goed = good
tien = ten
ik was = I was
dank U = thank you
Zee = sea

and so on, partly because of the way Dutch is pronounced, but mainly because of the grammar (which some people describe as being half way between English and German) you would not understand a Dutch conversation unless you had learnt the language.

Answer 3

They are both German languages of which the root source is Indo German. So a large part of their vocabulary is similar (phonetically they follow both the laws of the brothers Grimm- Yes the same who wrote the fairy tales).
But in 1066 the fleet from Normandy (France) landed in Hastings and the invasion of the islands began. What this meant for the language is the following. The Normands (not the Vikings mind you) quickly established themselves as the ruling class ,the nobility, whilst the original tribes , the Saxons were left as the lower classes. The Normands imposed their language in items of luxury, cuisine, wealth and culture. This is the reason why in English you have sometimes two words for the same concept: one coming from the French and one from the (Indo) German: example : mutton (French : mouton, sheep; Dutch: schaap)

Answer 4

My friend,
I started to learn English when I was 12 and that is 56 years ago.I was taught Dutch at home and in school for the first 19 years of my life.Dutch has many similar words with English,many of them are Germanic in origen.However they do not share many words from the latin unlike French and Spanish do.For Example;necesity-noodzakelijkheid,Responsibility-verantwoordelijkheid,immediately-ogenblikkelijk.The grammar is not as difficult as German and not as easy as English.Spelling is phonetic making writing easier than English.There are no super scripts for any letters.The pronounciation is rather difficult. The ' G ' is always like ' jota ' in Spanish

Answer 5

They have a lot of similarities which makes learning vocabulary relatively easy (i.e. name = naam, house = huis, good = goed). It's really the closest language I know of to English.

Answer 6

they are both Germanic lagnaues

not so easy to understand immediately without learning but why not...
also Holan people are knows of their persy perfect Englandian

Answer 7

About as similar as sand is to water!