Writing/ spelling/ pronounciation

So far I have mostly listened to the tapes. Now I opened my grammar book for the first time. It's time to find out, how Dutch is written.


The book (Dutch Essential Grammar).  seems quite good, it has all the basic stuff, couple of exercises + answer key. It uses the correct grammatical tems, but doesn't go too deep into the linquistics. Some study books tend to avoid grammar, claiming that they teach grammar "naturally", but for anyone who knows what "a verb" or "definite article" is, it's always faster to learn using the proper terminology. Essential grammar deliver what it promises, so if you are studying Dutch, I can warmly recommend this book.

At glance, Dutch grammar doesn't look difficult. It has more declinations and conjugations than English, but less than French.


I like Dutch spelling, since it seems to be quite regular. Only some vowels trick me, for example "e" seems to be sometimes very frontal, like [ø]. For example the word "het" (it) sounded like [øt] to me.

I also like the long vowels, "word" in Dutch is spelled "woord", because the vowel is long. This is very characteristic of Dutch, and I noticed before I was able to read anything in Dutch. It's very familiar to me, because Finnish has the same system (and of course, this system is the most logical).

This was also a great help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObPq9xu6srs

I've been lazy

My enthusiastic start calmed down a bit, since I have been busy with other things (such as translating my website Venla.info into Russian). I wished I could have reached a notable level in couple of months, but I haven't really studied anything for a month.

I have now listened trough the first 6 lessons if Pimsleur and first 2 cd's of Michel Thomas. I must say, that there's a big difference between those 2, and I strongly prefer Michel Thomas over Pimsleur. Pimsleur has lot's of basic vocabulary and phrases, but it's very mechanical. MT explains things more and gives you simple rules to understand things. For example, that the infinitive and plural are similar (for example "helpen" -> "Wij helpen"). I also had problems in the beginning, because Pimsleur used the formal "you" (u) and Michel Thomas the informal (je). I think the informal "je" here is more justified, since it's more widely used ( I think Dutch people are quite informal, just like Finn and Swede, and unlike French and German).

Pimsleur has this one formula developed by the inventor Paul Pimsleur. It was first used to teach French, and now it has been replicated to create identical study material for ~50 other languages. The method itself is quite ok, but like I said, it's very mechanical and it doesn't pay attention to the differences between languages (also, it haven't been culturally adjusted; I haven't listened the Arabic tapes, but suppose it doesn't have phrases like how to ask an Arabic woman if she want's to have beer or wine). I think Pimsleur is at it's best, when you use it as a drill. You can listen to the tapes when you wash the dishes.

I also tried Livemochas material. It's even more mechanical, and has many problems, since it's mostly user generated content. But's it's free and still a good way to practice vocabulary.