This is a presentation, that compares the two closely related languages of German and Dutch. It highlights some of the major similarities and differences and shows, that despite two languages being closely related, they can also be very different. Since this presentation contains audio samples, it is strongly recommended that Powerpoint is used.

1. 1.Deutsch and 2.Nederlands
1. 2.
Today, we‘re going to be comparing

2. Dutch 1.Duits Deutsch
Middle Dutch: duutsch Old High German : duitisc
Proto-Germanic: theudisk
1.
• The English and Dutch words are descended from Middle Dutch, while the German word is
descended from Old High German, and they are all descended from the same Proto-Germanic
word.
• “Dutch” refers to the language of the Netherlands and the northern Flanders region of Belgium,
while “Duits” and “Deutsch” mean “German”, the language of Germany, Austria, the German-
speaking part of Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

3. How similar are they?
• Their lexical similarity is 84%, which means, that 84% of the words in both languages
are cognates.
• It does not mean, that 84% of the words are exactly the same; it means, that they
have a common origin. Some may look very different and some may look quite similar
but have completely different meanings, and these are called false friends.

4. False Friends
pijnlijk = painful peinlich = embarrassing
meer = lake Meer = sea
zee = see See (m) = lake
See (f) = sea
liegen = to tell a lie lügen = to tell a lie
liggen = to lie down liegen = to lie down

5. scherp
dat
dak
appel
tijd
dag
beter
plant
dijk
slapen
jaar
lijf
scharf
das
Dach
Apfel
Zeit
Tag
besser
Pflanze
Deich
schlafen
Jahr
Leib
Comparisons

6. High German Consonant Shift
Hochdeutsche Konsonantenverschiebung
• Between the fifth and eighth centuries, some West Germanic dialects had underwent
several sound changes, which ended up with two very distinct varieties of German:
Low German (Plattdeutsch) and High German (Hochdeutsch), which includes
Standard German, Central German und Upper German.
• Old Dutch (Old Low Franconian) was not affected by the changes. The affected
German dialects are collectively called Old High German (Althochdeutsch).
• All of the changes are found in Upper German dialects, and most of the changes are
found in Standard German and Central German, but not all of them.
• The changes took place mostly in three waves, but there are also additional changes,
that took place afterwards.

7. Mutual Intelligibility
Mutual intelligibility depends on the speaker. There are many dialects of Dutch, and
many of German. Low German speakers have a much easier time than those of
Central and Upper German in understanding Dutch, because Low German dialects, like
Dutch, remained unaffected by the High German Consonant Shift.

8. Low German
(Plattdeutsch)
Central German
(Mitteldeutsch)
Upper German
(Oberdeutsch)
Dutch
(Nederlands)
High German
(Hochdeutsch)

9. 1. p f schip Schiff
2. t s laten lassen
3. k ch ik ich
First Wave
voiceless stops
1. 2. 3.
fricatives

10. 1. p pf peper Pfeffer
2. t z (ts) tam zahm
* k kch kind Kind Kchind
Süd
Second Wave
* Nur in Oberdeutsch1. 2.
voicless stops double consonants

11. 1. d t goed gut
2. * b p berg Berg Perg
3. * g k God Gott Kott
Third Wave
1. 2. 3.
voiced stops voiceless stops

12. 1. /þ/ thorn doorn Dorn
/ð/ then dan dann
dental fricatives
2. /s/ /ʃ/ sleep slapen schlafen
3. /v/ /b/ half half halb
d
Other changes
1. 2. 3.

13. Capitalised nouns
All German nouns are written with capital letters, while Dutch doesn't even capitalise
the months of the year.

14. Noun endings
• German masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive case take the endings: -s or –es.
Das Ergebnis des Streits Der Stift des Mannes
• German plural nouns in the dative case take this ending; -n.
Ich bin mit meinen Freunden
• Note:
 If a German noun already has the plural ending -n, then no additional -n is added in the dative case.
 German feminine and plural nouns have no ending in the genitive case.
 Dutch has no noun endings whatsoever .

15. Spelling
• Some consonants are spelled the same but sound different.
• Some vowels are spelled differently but sound the same.
• Some consonants are spelled differently but sound the same.

16. g
geest Geist
/ χ / /g/
voiceless uvular fricative voiced velar plosive

17. w
1. Wat Was
/ʋ/ /v/
labiodental approximant voiced labiondental fricative
2. ruw rau
glide
1. 2.

18. r
/r/ 1. Ridder 1. Ritter as a vowel
/ ɻ / /ʁ/
2. retroflex approximant 3. voiced uvular fricative
1. 2. 3. 4.
4. postalveolar trill

19. sch
schild Schild
/ʃ/
Voiceless postalveolar fricative

20. Vowels
1. jaar Jahr
2. moeder Mutter
3. droom Traum
4. bijten beißen
1. 2. 3. 4.

21. Orthography
• German uses these additional letters: ä ö ü
and this symbol: ß (ss).
• Dutch uses the basic letters of the Latin alphabet.
• Note: „ß“ is not used in Switzerland und Lichtenstein.

22. /z/
zonnig sonnig
voiced alveolar fricative

23. (m) (f) (n) (cm) (n)
(m) (f)
Grammar
Grammatical gender:
Three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter.
Two genders: common gender, neuter.
Three definite articles: Two definite articles:
der, die, das de, het
Two indefinite articles: One indefinite article:
ein, eine een

24. Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative der die das die
Accusative den die das die
Dative dem der dem den
Genitive des der des der
Noun cases
German has four noun cases

25. Dutch used to have grammatical cases and three genders, but they eventually fell out
from the spoken language and they were dropped entirely from the written language in
the 1940s.
Dutch has no noun cases

26. • German adjective endings depend on four things:
• Gender of the noun: masculine, feminine or neuter.
• Number: singular or plural.
• Grammatical case: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
• Type of declension: strong, weak or mixed. This depends on the article, that precedes the
noun. For example: definite and indefinite articles or no article.
• Dutch does have one ending: -e, but not in all cases.
Adjective endings

27. Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative
der junge Mann
ein junger Mann
junger Mann
die kleine Frau
eine kleine Frau
kleine Frau
das alte Auto
ein altes Auto
altes Auto
die langen Arme
keine langen Arme
lange Arme
Accusative
den jungen Mann
einen jungen Mann
jungen Mann
die kleine Frau
eine kleine Frau
kleine Frau
das alte Auto
ein altes Auto
altes Auto
die langen Arme
keine langen Arme
lange Arme
Dative
dem jungen Mann
einem jungen Mann
jungem Mann
der kleinen Frau
einer kleinen Frau
kleiner Frau
dem alten Auto
einem alten Auto
altem Auto
den langen Armen
keinen langen Armen
langen Armen
Genitive
des jungen Mannes
eines jungen Mannes
jungen Mannes
der kleinen Frau
einer kleinen Frau
kleiner Frau
des alten Autos
eines alten Autos
alten Autos
der langen Arme
keiner langen Arme
langer Arme
Adjective endings

28. Common gender Neuter Plural
de jonge man
een jonge man
jonge man
het oude huis
een oud huis
oud huis
de lange armen
geen lange armen
lange armen

29. Verb conjugation
komen kommen
1. ik kom 2. ich komme
jij/je/U komt du kommst
hij/zij/het komt er/sie/es kommt
wij/we komen wir kommen
jullie komen ihr kommt
zij komen sie/Sie kommen
1.
2.

30. Verb position
• In both languages:
 the verb always occupies second position after the subject in basic sentences.
 the second verb gets moved to the end of a sentence, provided the first verb is a
modal verb.
 the verb gets moved to the end in certain clauses.

31. Modal verbs
• A modal verb is a verb, that is used to indicate modality; likelihood, ability, permission, request,
capacity, suggestions, order, obligation, or advice.
mögen
können
wollen
müssen
dürfen
sollen
kunnen
willen
moeten
mogen
to like
to be able to
want
must
may
should

32. 1. Der große Mann ist großzügig
De grote man is vrijgevig
2. Ich sehe den großen Mann
Ik zie de grote man
1. 2.

33. 1. Er weiß, dass ich mein Ziel erreichen kann.
Hij weet, dat ik mijn doel kan bereiken.
2. Ich möchte eine Hochzeit haben können.
Ik will een bruiloft kunnen hebben.
1. 2.

34. Das Buch der schlauen Frau
Het boek van de sluwe vrouw
*Note: The genitive case in German is absent from the spoken dialects and casual speech
(Umgangssprache). In that case, von + dative is used instead.
der = of the
van de = of the
Possession

35. Als ik het geld had, zou ik een zwaard kopen.
Wenn ich das Geld hätte, würde ich mir ein Schwert kaufen.
Past tense form of the verb „hebben“
Subjunctive mood, from the verb „haben“.
(Konjunktiv 2)
Reflexive pronoun; not necessary but
more common to say it that way

36. Conclusion
German and Dutch have many similarities and are very closely related, but there are
also some major differences and their very different phonologies generally prevent
mutual intelligibility (depending on the speaker), despite many words looking similar.