This cheat sheet covers the Dutch basics students need for first conversations, classroom practice, and travel-style speaking tasks. It focuses on greetings, polite expressions, numbers, and simple sentence patterns that appear often in beginner Dutch. Students can use it as a quick binder reference when speaking, listening, or writing short dialogues.
The goal is to make common phrases easy to find and easy to pronounce.
Key Facts
- Use Hallo or Hoi for informal hello, and Goedemorgen, Goedemiddag, or Goedenavond for more formal greetings.
- To ask how someone is, say Hoe gaat het?, and to answer, say Het gaat goed, Het gaat wel, or Niet zo goed.
- To introduce yourself, say Ik heet Ana or Mijn naam is Ana, which both mean My name is Ana.
- Dutch numbers 0-10 are nul, een, twee, drie, vier, vijf, zes, zeven, acht, negen, tien.
- Dutch numbers 11-20 are elf, twaalf, dertien, veertien, vijftien, zestien, zeventien, achttien, negentien, twintig.
- For 21-99, Dutch usually says ones + en + tens, so 24 is vierentwintig and 57 is zevenenvijftig.
- To say your age, use Ik ben 13 jaar or Ik ben 13, not Ik heb 13 jaar.
- Use alstublieft in formal situations and alsjeblieft in informal situations to mean please or here you are.
Vocabulary
- Goedemorgen
- Goedemorgen means good morning and is used earlier in the day as a polite greeting.
- Dank je
- Dank je means thank you and is used in informal or friendly situations.
- Alstublieft
- Alstublieft means please or here you are and is used in formal or polite situations.
- Hoe gaat het?
- Hoe gaat het? means how are you and is a common way to start a short conversation.
- Ik heet
- Ik heet means I am called and is used before your name when introducing yourself.
- Tot ziens
- Tot ziens means goodbye or see you and is appropriate in most situations.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Saying Ik heb 12 jaar for age is wrong because Dutch uses zijn for age. Say Ik ben 12 jaar or Ik ben 12.
- Putting tens before ones in numbers like 24 is wrong in standard Dutch. Say vierentwintig, which is four and twenty.
- Using jij with every adult is too informal in many situations. Use u when speaking politely to an adult, teacher, or stranger.
- Confusing dank je and alsjeblieft changes the meaning of a sentence. Dank je means thank you, while alsjeblieft means please or here you are.
- Pronouncing goede in greetings as if every letter is English can make the phrase hard to understand. Practice Goedemorgen and Goedenavond as whole phrases.
Practice Questions
- 1 Write the Dutch number for 38.
- 2 Translate into Dutch: I am 15 years old.
- 3 Choose the better polite phrase for speaking to a teacher: alsjeblieft or alstublieft.
- 4 Explain when you would use Hoi instead of Goedemiddag in a conversation.
Understanding Greetings, Numbers & Basics
Dutch conversation depends heavily on social distance. A student speaking to a friend normally uses jij for you, while u is the respectful form for an adult, teacher, shop worker, or stranger. This choice changes the verb in some sentences, so it is worth learning early.
Dutch speakers often move between informal and formal speech based on the setting. Listening for names, titles, and the age of the speaker can help you choose the right tone.
Politeness is not only about one word. A calm greeting, a clear thank you, and a suitable farewell show respect.
Pronunciation can feel unfamiliar because Dutch spelling does not always match English sound habits. The letter g is made farther back in the throat than an English g. The sound written ij or ei often sounds similar to the sound in English my.
Long vowel pairs matter too. In words such as naam, the double a tells you to hold the vowel longer. Do not aim for a perfect accent straight away.
Aim to make each word clear enough that another person can understand it. Repeating short audio clips and copying the rhythm is more useful than reading a word silently many times.
Simple Dutch sentences often place the verb early. In a basic statement, the person usually comes first, followed by the verb. When another part comes first, such as a time word or place word, the verb still usually stays in the second position.
This pattern is called verb second word order. For example, a sentence beginning with vandaag still puts the action word next. Students often translate English word by word, which can produce sentences that sound understandable but unnatural.
Build short sentence frames first, then swap one piece at a time. This helps word order become automatic.
Numbers appear in more situations than counting objects. You need them for times, prices, dates, phone numbers, bus platforms, scores, addresses, and ages. Dutch number words can be difficult to catch in fast speech because the smaller number is often said before the larger tens word.
Practice hearing groups of numbers, not just reciting a list. Phone numbers are commonly spoken in small chunks, so pause between groups when you say one. For prices, listen carefully for euro and cent.
In a classroom role play, accuracy matters more than speed. Say each number clearly, then check that the listener understood the important detail.
Useful conversations are built from predictable turns. One person opens the exchange, the other responds, names are shared, a small detail is added, then the speakers close politely. Learning these turns makes speaking less stressful because you do not need to invent every sentence.
Pay attention to fixed expressions that do not translate neatly into English. Memorize them as complete pieces.
It is normal to make errors with verb forms or pronunciation at first. Keep the message simple, listen closely, and use a polite repair phrase when you need someone to repeat or slow down.