German. Do you understand the Dutch language?Are there many similarities between the Dutch and German langauge?

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frackledJJ

Yeah, if it is written out, you usually understand what they mean. Usually, not all the time. And I would not say you can understand what the Dutch person is saying when they are talking. But there are strong similarities.

Bernd

I live about 4 miles from the dutch border and work in the Netherlands since 20 years.
1. Dutch is a german language based on geran that was spoken in the 14th and 15th century
2. poeple that live close to the Netherlands usually speak a dialect that is close to Dutch so understanding is no problem for them
3.germans from Bavaria or other places like saxconia would not understand one word
3. similarities are a lot but again, from the 14th century spoken german.
4.a normal german person can not understand Dutch, most people talk fast and also in the Netherlands are a lot of dialects.
5.example:
the German word Doof means stupid the dutch word doof means deaf
german Meer means Ocean, dutch meer is a lake.
German word Nazi means Nazi (you know waht I mean) but in dutch a natie (same pronouncation) means Nation.
We germans say Krankenhaus for a hospital, dutch word is Ziekenhuis. This is a good example for the old german word:
ziechenhaus is the old german word for the same thing.
and so on..
6.when I speak fluid german, no dutch understand me..
I hope this will answer your question

Kczweraczâ€”

People from the northern part of Germany who are able to speak plattdÃ¼tsch will have no problem to make themselves understood in the Netherlands. People from the South of Germany will have problems.

Chris

I have never studied Dutch but I have been learning German for almost 2 years, and I can understand some written Dutch, so I'm sure a fluent German speaker would be able to understand some also.

I was on a flight from Stuttgart to America and they gave us forms to fill out before we could reenter the U.S. and ironically, the forms were all in Dutch! It was a flight from GERMANY to the UNITED STATES, so why would the hand out the forms in DUTCH?

but I managed to fill it out with little trouble due to my knowledge of German and English.

Based on my experience, Dutch seems to be much like a mixture of German and English.

Of course, understanding spoken Dutch would prove much more difficult.

rio-blanco

Well I have never been in the Netherlands. But I am from Hamburg and we have 3 Dutch Provinces "Altes Land", "Finkenwerder", and "Vier Lande" ok they came about a thousand years ago but they stayed there own ... do I understand them ? It`s difficult ... yes the most I do understand. There are a lot Dutch vendors on the famous hamburgian fishmarket --- they all speak "high German" --- of course the Dutch version. Problems no we speak a German dialect and we all had English at school and our hollydays we spend in spain and then we switch from one eurpopean problem German - Dutch version or German to the next Spanish --- Castillano --- Catalan or Andaluz --- no real problem no one is starving --- we all pay in Euros.

mactheanimal

I understand a bit Dutch cause my grandparents come from there. The most Germans donÂ´t understand Dutch except people who live near the Netherland border. They speak a Dialect witch is similar to Dutch.
But many people from Holland can understand German.
In School we had to take one foreign language. In most case itÂ´s English. People who are raised in the former GDR had to learn Russian.

thesilencebeforethestorm

There are some similarities, I think. There is not much point in learning dutch if you want to speak it to the dutch people, because they all speak english - I have been to holland and know this to be true. However, I did notice similarities between german and dutch, so you could probably understand some of it - but not all of it.

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