Is Dutch a hard language to learn?

Answer 1

Dutch is a very hard language to learn. Most people think it's like German but it's not. I'm a native speaker and I know many English people and I try to learn them a little bit Dutch but it's too hard for them. It's grammatically very hard and very hard to pronounce. Spanish, German, French are easier to learn.

I am a native speaker and I also speak English, German, French and a little Spanish. French is grammatically speaking not too hard and the language makes a fair bit of sense. If I compare Dutch to German then I'll conclude that grammatically speaking German is harder because it has lots of cases and such, BUT the language makes sense. The phrases are actually never very complex (well, you CAN make them hard but that goes for any language). So it takes a bit of time to learn. But the language makes sense. Dutch on the other hand doesn't.. grammatically speaking it's harder than English, Spanish and French and easier than German.

But the language doesn't make sense at all. So many exceptions (the pronunciation for an English speaker is harder to learn than German) and weird phrases. Probably because Dutch is a germanic language influenced by both Spanish and French. And nowadays English. For example: the Dutch word for again is 'opnieuw'. Literally translated that means on new.. makes no sense in English. But compare it to the Spanish translation 'de nuevo' literally that means on new as well. So odd.

Conclusion: yes Dutch is hard and so is German, Spanish or French is much easier.

Answer

^That is one perspective, but it is impossible for any native speaker to give a reliable critique on the difficulty of their language. Most Dutch speakers find their language to be terribly difficult, while most English speakers who attempt to learn Dutch don't find it to be overly challenging. As stated previously, all languages are challenging to some degree, but the actual challenge of learning Dutch is not as great as native speakers believe it to be.

Before learning Dutch, decide whether or not it is worth it. It is not uncommon for native Dutch speakers to refuse to speak their native language with Anglophones - this may be one of the biggest challenges in improving on your Dutch language skills.

Also, most places where Dutch is spoken you will find a large number of people with strong English speaking ability. I think if you are outside of a large metropolitan area, it is worth it to learn, but you will likely be discouraged from speaking by native speakers if they can speak English. Perhaps if you're planning on living in a Dutch speaking country you will get the chance to perfect upon your Dutch. However, the most difficult aspect of the language is the pronunciation for English speakers.

On a scale from 1-5, in difficulty, I would give Dutch a 2.5 or a 3.

Answer 2

It's a common misconception that Dutch is a hard language to learn, but the facts show otherwise. The Foreign Service Institute ranks languages based on their level of difficulty for native speakers of English. It places languages into 5 categories, from easiest to most difficult.

Dutch is a Category I language (the easiest category), along with Spanish, French, and Italian.

Just for reference:

Category I includes many of the languages of western Europe (Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, Dutch, etc.)

Category II includes German

Category III includes Swahili and Malaysian

Category IV includes Hebrew and Turkish

Category V includes Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic.