Dutch Language Translation

World class Dutch language translation from qualified professional linguists

• Number of Dutch native speakers globally: 23 million
• Number of countries where Dutch is an official language: 6
• Approx. percentage of world trade conducted in Dutch: 2.3%

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language for the majority of those living in the Netherlands. It is also spoken in Belgium and Suriname, and also in the former Dutch colonies of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

Standard Dutch – also known as ABN (Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands) meaning Standard Civilised Dutch – is the standard language of the major Dutch-speaking areas and is regulated by the Dutch language Union. Afrikaans, a native language of South Africa and Namibia, was developed from the Dutch spoken by the settlers on the Cape and is considered a daughter language of Dutch. There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially when written.

Dutch is a language with strong German and English linguistic influences. Its vocabulary is mainly Germanic along with its grammatical structure, however it has more romance word loans than German, yet not quite as many as English.

There are significant differences between Dutch as used in The Netherlands and the Dutch spoken in Flanders in Belgium (referred to as Flemish). The differences can be compared to those between American and British English, with differences in pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary. Whether a text had been written in Flemish or Dutch would be instantly clear to a native so it is important to be clear about your target audience when considering translation.

We offer professional Dutch to English and English to Dutch translations – and other language combinations including Dutch.