Which country speaks dutch

There are around 23 million native speakers of Dutch worldwide. Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium Flanders and Suriname. The Dutch Language Union was established by a treaty between the Netherlands and Belgium, as a platform for cooperation on issues concerning the Dutch language.

Suriname is an associate member. In the latter case, there is a greater chance that you will be successful and continue. The most important factor for a successful learning process is the degree of exposure to the language. Do you dive into the study books for an hour every weekend or do you learn every day?

Do you occasionally go to the Netherlands for a week or do you live there? Do you speak English with your Dutch colleagues or do you speak in their native language? You guessed it: the more exposure to the Dutch language the better! And also: a little better every day than a lot at a time. Learn Dutch via email Join free. Boost your progress with a weekly compilation of video lessons, podcast episodes, dutch grammar, stories, exercise pdfs and much more.

Join now Free, cancel anytime. Combined Shape Copy Created with Sketch. What countries speak Dutch and how many people speak it Thinking about learning the Dutch language? Then you might wonder what countries speak Dutch! Dutch speaking countries: where do people speak Dutch? Do they speak Dutch in the Netherlands? Is Flemish Dutch? What language do they speak in Belgium? Did you know that they also speak French and German in Belgium?

So, where else is Dutch spoken? Most of the people who speak Dutch about 17 million live in the Netherlands. The Dutch language is a West Germanic language that is spoken by around 23 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as their second language. Many of the 23 million people who speak Dutch live in Belgium. Dutch is the official language of Flanders and Brussels and is, along with French, an official language in Belgium.

The biggest differences are the phonetics, the informal Dutch and expressions. You will hear different sounds in Belgium compared to the Netherlands, especially the further north in the Netherlands you go. The Dutch are notorious for their harde G. The Dutch are also known for being more informal than the Belgian population. Expressions differ in both countries, for example: vast en zeker definitely in Dutch is zeker en vast in Belgium.

The Dutch language came to Suriname when the capitol Paramaribo became a Dutch colony in the 17 th century. To this day Dutch is the official language of the government, business, media and education in Suriname. Like the colonial history in Suriname, in these countries, also known as the Dutch Antilles, Dutch is the official language along with English or Papiamentu.

But there are more. What about South-Africa? If I talk with someone from South Africa, and he is speaking in his own language, I can fully understand him. The Dutch language of the settlers who came to Southern Africa has evolved into Afrikaans. Nowadays an estimated 90 to 95 percent of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin. The biggest differences between the 2 languages is that Afrikaans has no grammatical gender and a simpler grammar. You might be surprised to learn there are more countries where they speak Dutch.