Although the Dutch and English languages are closely related, there are a number of important differences. Don’t Speak Double Dutch by Emile Curfs and Ronald Forrest, published by Meulenhoff Educatief, covers the main areas of difference and includes exercises.
General guidelines
Here are some general guidelines to bear in mind when revising drafts:
- Be aware of differences in verb tenses, in particular:
* The use of present simple and present continuous (with the verb ending -ing) – the difference between “I work hard” and “I am working hard”.
* The use of present perfect (I have worked for PWC for 10 years), the simple past (I visited our Detroit branch last week) and the past perfect (We did not know whether a letter of acceptance had been issued). - Watch out for ‘false friends’.
These are words that resemble each other, but are used differently in English and Dutch. For example:
* ‘eventueel’ refers to an event that may occur, while ‘eventually’ implies that it will inevitably occur, the only question being when.
‘The eventual consequences of the merger’ is not the same as ‘De eventuele gevolgen van de fusie’. Download a list of False Friends here. - Note the use of prepositions in English compared to that in to Dutch.
* Naar mijn mening → In my opinion (not ‘to’)
* Some verbs have a preposition in Dutch, but not in English:
We discussiëren er over → We discuss it ( not ‘about it’)
Ik verzoek om een afspraak → I request a meeting ( not ‘ I request for a meeting’)
However: Note that when request is used as a noun it often takes a preposition → I have put in a request for a meeting. - Watch out for using ‘of’ structures, where you would use ‘van’ in Dutch.
* ‘A letter of the supplier’ should be ‘… from the supplier’. In the context of a letter, ‘of’ would refer to the purpose or type of letter, e.g. ‘a letter of intent/credit/application’;
* Wherever possible, use apostrophe (‘)s. ‘The question of Peter’ and ‘the husband of my boss’ are better expressed as ‘Peter’s question’ and ‘my boss’s husband’. - Change the word order if it helps you to produce crisp sentences in a good English style.
* ‘de ideologie van de Conservative Partij’ should be ‘Conservative Party ideology’;
* ‘the described examples’ should be ‘the examples described’. - Read your text out loud.
If it does not sound right, revise it. Your instinct for good English is probably more reliable than your memory of grammatical rules!
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