The Focus of this Lesson is Pronunciation.
Goed dank je, hoe gaat het met jou?
"Good thanks, how is it going with you?"

Dutch is quite easy in that the language is pronounced exactly as it is written. There are a few sounds you should pay attention to though.

One is certainly the throaty CH sound, which can be spelled either ch or g, as in goed, gaat or the city name Utrecht. This sound will take some practice, but once you master it, it's very fun to say!

The Dutch R is also quite different from the American R. It also comes from the throat. Practice saying names like Bert and Marijke, or even the word verassing.

Finally, pay attention to the vowels. The pronunciation of the vowels is a typical give-away for American tourists. The base vowels in Dutch are A (gaat), E (heel), I (biet), O (ook), U (duur) and OE (hoe). Additionally, each of these vowels can be long or short, and there are also several diphthongs, or vowel combinations.

If you keep this in mind as you imitate the native speakers, you will easily acquire a good accent in Dutch.

Hallo is a standard Dutch greeting. You can use this with anyone. When greeting friends, you could also say hoi, which is more informal.

After you greet someone in Dutch, you would usually ask how he/she is. The standard question is Hoe gaat het?, literally "How goes it?" To ask about other people, just add met plus a name (met Michael, met Sandra) to the end of this question.

The standard answer is Goed dank je ("good," "thank you"). You could also say heel goed ("very good").

Dutch Greetings

Dutch people use different greetings according to the time of day.

• In the morning, before noon, people say goedemorgen ("good morning").
• In the afternoon, even it's just one minute past noon, people say goedemiddag ("good afternoon").
• Starting from 5 P.M., it's time to start saying goedenavond ("good evening").
• There is also goedenacht ("good night"), but this is not a greeting. Goedenacht is only used to wish someone to "sleep tight," when they're going to sleep. If you want to say goodbye when leaving late at night, just say dag ("bye").