English and Hindi/ Contrastive Grammar

ENGLISH AND DUTCH - Study in similar languages

This page covers difference between English and Dutch.

English an Dutch both belong to the Indo-European language family.They both are really similar as they both fall under Scandinavian languages. English is one of the most spoken languages in the world, with 360 to 400 million speakers for whom it is their mother tongue, 400 million speakers for whom it is their second language and 600 to 700 speakers for whom it is a foreign language. Whereas dutch is one of the most studied languages and one of the richest languages in the world as enlisted by the UN. There are total (including language 1 and language 2 speakers) 28 million speakers in the whole world.

As they both have originated from the same language family, they follow the same alphabet i.e. latin alphabets.

Differences

Here are a few differences between two of the richest languages in the world enlisted below

Phonology

The sound systems of English and Dutch are somewhat similar, therefore the speakers of both languages seem to have no problem in pronouncing or speaking each other's language. However there are few words with mispronunciation in the vowels. Like for example:-

Pronunciation in - (ENGLISH / DUTCH)

• (eng) Sit/Seat → {{{3}}}
• (eng) Not/Nut → {{{3}}}
• (eng) Caught/Coat → {{{3}}}

and et cetera

More examples of differences between the languages with respect to voiced consonents are also enlisted below:

• (eng) Rub/rup → {{{3}}} (difficulty in spelling the letter "b" in dutch)
• (eng) Bird/birt → {{{3}}} (difficulty in spelling the letter "d" in dutch)
• (eng) Wine/Vine → {{{3}}} (difficulty in spelling the letter "w" in dutch)
• (eng) Think/Sink or tink → {{{3}}} (due lisp)

However both Dutch and English speakers can easily adopt each other's accent easily after practice as the stress and intonation patterns in Dutch and English are similar.

Grammar

At first let us look at the differences of Verbs and Tenses.

As mentioned above about a million times now, English and Dutch are very similar languages, even in terms of verbs and tenses. However usages of some words which are limited in a language may result in some changes in the translations. For example:-

• In dutch - (du) waar kom je vandaan → {{{3}}}

 In English - (eng) where you come from → {{{3}}}  (in this the auxillary DO is missing)

• In dutch- (du) Ik drink geen bier → {{{3}}}

 In English - (eng) I drink not beer → {{{3}}} (the auxillary DO is missing)

• In Dutch- (du) Ik heb een bad gehad toen hij belde → {{{3}}}

 In English - (eng) I had a bath when he phoned → {{{3}}} (grammatical error)

Small errors also are found in the transitioning of the tenses.

Vocabulary

Dutch and English share a lot- a great number of cognates, basic Germanic vocabulary and shared Romance vocabulary. Though still there are many words in both the languages that are use in same type of sentences but have a different meaning or varied meaning with same meaning. Here are few such examples of these type of words. These words are also referred to as "False Friends" :-

• arm in english (body part)- in dutch, this word has two meanings- Arm as in body part or Wapen which is weapon or coat of arms
• Actual in english (original)- in dutch, this word Actueel means current (present)
• Big in english (huge, tall)- in dutch, this word groot [guess now we know where MCU got the name for our favourite walking talking tree] means tall or large

Word Order

Both Dutch and English sentences are built around the SVO pattern. The only difference is when a sentence doesn’t start with the subject, for example:

(eng) On Friday we went to the cinema. → {{{3}}}

In Dutch the subject we and the verb went swap places:

(du) Op vrijdag gingen we naar de bioscoop. → {{{3}}}

(And if you read that sentence in Dutch carefully you should be able to decipher it easily which shows just how closely Dutch and English are related.)

More examples: (eng) Ren likes playing basketball → {{{3}}} (du) Ren speelt graag basketbal → {{{3}}}

(eng) The cat ate the fish → {{{3}}} (du) De kat heeft de vis opgegeten → {{{3}}}

Other word order issues include infinitives and past participles being placed at the end of a sentence in Dutch, much like in German.

Verb, Tenses and Forms

Like English, Dutch has these four basic verb forms:

present simple past simple present perfect past perfect However their use in Dutch does not always correspond with their use in English.

One of the most common mistakes Dutch mt learners of English make is using the present perfect where a past simple is required. Whereas in English we would say:

She left for London yesterday.

Quite a number of Dutch students will say:

• She has left for London yesterday.

• an asterisk denotes an ungrammatical sentence.

Similarly the present tense is sometimes used instead of present perfect in sentences like this:

• I live in Amsterdam since 2000.

Instead of:

I have lived in Amsterdam since 2000.

Also, the present simple is sometimes used instead of the future simple:

• I tell you about it tomorrow.

Instead of:

I will tell you about it tomorrow.

The use of timelines when explaining English tenses can help a lot with correcting this problem.

CONCLUSION

Our world have over a thousand languages, and over a million dialects. We should learn more about our varied languages, cultures and lives. These two languages and considered to be one of the most richest languages in the world and there are more. Let us explore the sweetness of our varied heritage even more by stepping forward to embrace our lingual differences and start adopting them.