Dutch and English - Similarities and Differences

Cognates and Change
On my old Cognates page you can see and hear how English, Dutch and German words from the same root developed. Do note the comments to the right of the words.

'Recognizable' Words and Pronunciation
My 'Easy Dutch' pages have Dutch words that are 'recognizable' from English. The first page is organized around pronunciation, how the words changed in Dutch and in English, and the second page is organized by subject (numbers, colors, body parts, animals etc.)
These 'Easy Dutch' words also show differences between Dutch and English pronunciation. As a native speaker of English or if you know English well, you will tend to pronounce words that look familiar in the English way, but that is often not the right way for Dutch. Listen closely to how I say the words and compare with the English pronunciation - it will quickly show the differences and can help you quickly understand the pronunciation of Dutch.
Dutch spelling is fairly phonetic and has clear rules: learn the rules or find out the rules by yourself
Someday you might want to look at Exceptions to Phonetic Spelling - 2

Dutch Sounds not Found in English
The one-page Dutch summary has a chapter Dutch Sounds not Found in English

Sounds Represented by Different Letters
and next a chapter Dutch Sounds Represented by Different Letters in English

B and D at the End of Words
B at the end of words is pronounced as P
(de) krab 2 3 ('crab') / krabben ('crabs' // 'to scratch')
and D at the end of word is pronounced as T
(het) bed 2 ('bed') / bedden ('beds')

The F/V and S/Z shift
English has 'wife/wives' and 'loaf/loaves,' Dutch has raaf / raven 'raven' (a bird) / 'ravens' and golf / golven 'wave' / 'waves' - but Dutch also has huis / huizen 'house' / 'houses' and vaas / vazen 'vase' / 'vases.' Most Dutch 'root' words ending in a long vowel and F or S shift to V or Z in the plural or conjugated and declined forms - more

False Friends
Sometimes not only the pronunciation but also the meaning of words changed. For instance, Dutch smal 2 means 'narrow' and does not have te wider meaning of English small and there are many other words from different sources that look similar or identical but have a different meaning: False Friends
There is a short version of 'False Friends' without extras, and there is an even shorter version of identical or similar words with about the same meaning and the False Friends.

The Article: 'The,' De  and Het
Dutch has two definite articles 'the:' de 2 and het 2 3 - often abbreviated to 't (note the vowel change.) Plurals always take de and diminutives (words ending in -JE) are het-words, but there are few useful rules - more
The indefinite article 'a' is een - phonetically more correctly written as " 'n "  - and 'one' is één 2 3 more numbers

Most Adjectives in Most Positions Get an -E Ending
Only adjectives for singular het-words after een, geen  or no article don't get an -E ending.
Adjectives already ending in single E or -EN don't get -E endings - more
Numbers don't get -E endings (maybe numbers are not adjectives)

No Special Ending for Adverbs
Adverbs use the root form of the word, in Dutch there is not something like the English -LY ending for adverbs

Comparative and Superlative degree
Dutch and English both have -ER and -ST endings for the comparative and superlative degrees, and next to that the in Dutch less common meer ('more') and meest ('most') ‑>> - more

Plurals are Different
Many Dutch nouns have a plural in -S, but there are also many Dutch nouns with a plural in -EN. I can only think of two English words with a plural in -EN, though one of those, 'children' - Dutch kinderen 2 3 shows the common roots of the languages and there are a few more similarities - plurals

Placeholders 'it,' 'that' and 'what' ‑>>
'It,' 'that' and 'what' as placeholders are usually translated as 'het,' 2 3 (or 't ) - 'dat' and 'wat' - but when there's a preposition in play, Dutch says 'er,' 'it,' - 'daar' 'that' and 'waar' 'what'
Ik zie het I see it ('it' - the thing mentioned before) Ik denk er vaak aan 2 3 I often think of it

Verbs
zoeken to search, seek	-	zocht sought	-	gezocht  sought	2

The Perfect Tenses and the Passive Voice
For the perfect tenses, a small number of Dutch verbs use zijn (otherwise translated as 'to be') as the auxiliary verb instead of hebben ('to have') ...
... while for the passive voice Dutch uses the auxiliary verb worden 2 - where English uses 'to be' - this can be complicated and confusing, especially for native speakers of English

Word Order
Differences in Word Order
In general, the word order in Dutch and English is similar, but there are some differences, like: Secondary Verbs at the End of the Sentence, many Complications in the 'Subordinate Clause' and Splitting Verbs
Writing for Dutch Characters - Dutch people speaking English

Advanced
Pragmatic Markers, Modal Particles - seemingly unnecessary, superfluous words
Modal Verbs - short version
Prepositions - words often have more than one meaning, which may not be shared by its translations

Frederick Roberts of Lincoln, England suggested the page

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Gij zult niet stelen 'Thou shalt not steal'