{"id":6640,"date":"2020-02-17T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T09:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nllanguagep-bali.savviihq.com\/?p=6640"},"modified":"2025-06-17T14:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T12:37:14","slug":"natural-dutch-speaking-like-a-native","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagepartners.nl\/en\/blog\/dutch-as-a-second-language\/natural-dutch-speaking-like-a-native\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural Dutch | Speaking like a native"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does mastering a language actually involve? Chances are that on reading that question you\u2019re thinking about correct use of grammar and an extensive vocabulary. That\u2019s certainly true, words and grammar rules are the building blocks of language, but to master a language you also need to be able to speak naturally<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

By speaking \u2018naturally\u2019 I mean speaking like native speakers do. The tips below, which are based on things I often hear from my students, may help you to sound (more) like a native.<\/p>\n

Less is more<\/h2>\n

If you want to speak Dutch naturally, it\u2019s good to to bear in mind the principle of \u2018less is more\u2019. In practice, this means that you can often leave out the word \u2018gaan\u2019 or \u2018hebben\u2019 at the end of a sentence. A Dutch native speaker will be more likely to say \u2018Ik wil graag een hond\u2019 rather than \u2018Ik wil graag een hond hebben\u2019.<\/p>\n

Wrestling with tenses<\/h2>\n

Dutch uses two tenses to talk about the past: the \u2018onvoltooide tijd\u2019 (imperfect\/imperfectum: ik werkte<\/em>) and the \u2018voltooide tijd\u2019 (perfect\/ perfectum: ik heb gewerkt<\/em>) But when do you use which tense? Keep the following rule of thumb in mind: do you want to give a short answer to a question? Use the perfect tense (Q: Wat heb je vandaag gedaan?<\/em> A: Ik heb gewerkt.<\/em>). Use the imperfect tense if you want to describe an occurrence in detail.<\/p>\n

Translating is (sometimes) treacherous<\/h2>\n

The temptation to translate every word is huge when learning a new language. However, watch out for this because translating literally can sometimes cause extra confusion. This is often because a word doesn\u2019t \u2018cover\u2019 exactly the same thing in two different languages. For example one of my students recently said that his book was ‘<\/em>geregeld‘<\/em><\/a>\u00a0into a number of chapters. He was probably thinking of the English word \u2018arranged\u2019, which can indeed be translated as \u2018geregeld\u2019, but it isn\u2019t the correct word in this context.<\/p>\n

Also, each language has fixed word combinations<\/strong>, e.g. \u2018in het weekend\u2019 and \u2018huiswerk maken\u2019. These combinations are not the same in every language though. For example the English \u2018more or less\u2019 is \u2018min of meer\u2019 in Dutch, and not \u2018meer of minder\u2019 (the literal translation).<\/p>\n

Learning which word to use when is a question of lots of practice and experimentation, and paying close attention to what you hear and see.<\/p>\n

Ready-made language<\/h2>\n

Translating a single word or phrase can cause confusion, but translating idioms and expressions<\/strong> is really tricky. A question such as \u2018Wat is er?\u2019 sounds really philosophical if you translate it literally into English [\u2018What is there?\u2019], when in fact you want to know why someone looks sad. And what about expressions like \u2018dat valt wel mee\u2019, \u2018dat geeft niet\u2019 and \u2018ik heb zin in…\u2019? It\u2019s not easy to find a good translation for these.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I always advise my students to keep a list of expressions\/idioms they often use and practise using them actively. When a phrase like \u2018dat geeft niet\u2019 flows out of your mouth without a moment\u2019s hesitation, it sounds as if you only ever speak Dutch.<\/p>\n

In addition, I teach my students standard phrases, ready-made chunks of language for all occasions. Examples of these include \u2018Ik ben bezig met…\u2019, \u2018Ik vind \u2026 leuk\u2019, \u2018Ik wil graag…\u2019, but also phrases for specific situations such as \u2018Mag ik de rekening?\u2019 or \u2018Werk ze!\u2019.<\/p>\n

Want to know when you use which phrase? We\u2019d love to help with your Dutch<\/a>, or any other<\/a>, language needs!<\/p>\n

This blog post is written by our trainer Vika Lukina and translated by Jo Arrowsmith.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does mastering a language actually involve? Chances are that on reading that question you\u2019re thinking about correct use of grammar and an extensive vocabulary. That\u2019s certainly true, words and grammar rules are the building blocks of language, but to master a language you also need to be able to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[671,332,652,275,672],"class_list":["post-6640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dutch-as-a-second-language","tag-cursus","tag-dutch","tag-language-course","tag-language-training","tag-taal-cursus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNatural Dutch | Speaking like a native - Language Partners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/languagepartners.nl\/en\/blog\/dutch-as-a-second-language\/natural-dutch-speaking-like-a-native\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Natural Dutch | Speaking like a native - Language Partners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What does mastering a language actually involve? 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