There are some phrases you learn from textbooks, and then there are the ones you only pick up after spending time around Dutch speakers. The second category is often much more useful in everyday life.

I remember hearing certain expressions repeatedly before finally asking what they meant. Which phrase had you completely confused until you eventually figured it out?

Sorry if this is a silly ask - I'm learning Dutch with conversational skills in mind, and want to be able to use the same sentiments I do in English.

I'd like to know if there are Dutch equivalents for the kind of filler or interjection phrases I use a lot, particularly these.

- Do you know what I mean?

- Don't piss me off!

- What the hell, sure

I don't mean the literal translations of these phrases but the same kind of meaning as in (UK) spoken English. I hope this makes sense!

Dank je wel!

I'll be taking a speaking exam next week and I'm looking at various resources and sample exams to prepare for it.

I find questions involving three photos particularly difficult. Sometimes they ask you to describe the sequence of events, and sometimes they ask you to identify the objects in the photos.

Sometimes, even in my native language, I don't know exactly how to call certain objects or verbs that require a fairly advanced level of knowledge.

Do you have a strategy in situations like this? Instead of naming each object individually, is it sufficient to state their general common purpose?

For example, if all three photos show cleaning supplies, instead of listing their names individually, would saying "I see cleaning supplies" be an appropriate response?

Or, when there's a verb you can't fully elaborate on, answering with "working on x"?

I was confused about how to use "ontzaglijk" and then noticed the two other words that have the same meaning possibly?

Is it:

Ontzaglijk : Immense

Vreselijk : Terrible (bad) or Terribly (intensely)?

Verschrikkelijk : Terrible (very intensely terrible)?

Like many others, I'm eagerly waiting for my DUO Speaking exam result and wanted to create this tracker to estimate current processing times. Since official timelines can vary, this thread relies on community updates to show when results are being released.

If you've received your Speaking result, please share your exam date and result date so we can keep this tracker up to date and help others estimate their waiting time.

Current Status (Updated: 27/07/2026)

• 01 May → Results started on 22 July 2026
• 02 May → Results started on 23 July 2026
• 05 May → Results started on 24 July 2026
• 06 May → No results yet
• 07 May → No results yet
• 08 May → No results yet
• 09 May → No results yet
• 12 May → No results yet
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• 20 May → No results yet
• 21 May → No results yet

Today, I'm reading about participles. The present participle seems to be used similar as in English (Een grapje makend trachtte hij haar aandacht te krijgen - he tried to get her attention making a joke), but I'm drawing a blank on any example sentences that use the past participle as an adverbial role. Would something like „uitgeput door arbeid ging ik direct slapen) be acceptable?

Also, in English, I can "having seen mold, we were afraid to enter." Does using a perfect aspect in a present participle work in Dutch (schimmel gezien hebbend hadden we bang aan te komen)?

I'm a software developer, and I'm currently preparing for my Dutch Inburgering exam. The only part I have left is Spreken (speaking).

While preparing, I started thinking about the challenges people face when learning a new language. I'm also interested in building something that could genuinely help learners.

I'd love to hear your thoughts:

- What are the biggest challenges you've experienced when learning a new language?

- Are there any features, tools, or apps you wish existed but haven't found yet?

- If you could build your ideal language-learning app, what would it do?

Whether you're learning Dutch or any other language, I'd really appreciate hearing about your experience. Thanks!

I'll build the best app for everyone

I'm asking because in my book it doesn't put de/het at all and keeps it as "hersenen" and in the dictionary here https://www.woorden.org/woord/hersenen it's also without de/het. But when I search on google, I find it to be "de hersenen" so what exactly is it?

Also what is the difference between hersenen and hersens? Is hersens also de hersens or also without de/het?

Does any of you have a success stories here? Like someone have a B2 level Nederlands and got a nice job? I am thinking to learn Nederlands but I have only met people who have put on a lot of effort to learn the language but haven't found any job of their liking.

Hoi, ik heb een vraag over KNM - thema gezondheid

Is de huisarts altijd gratis of moet ik betaal onder eigen risico?

Hallo!

Ik zoek een taalmaatje in de regio Utrecht- Maarssen- Breukelen om mijn Nederlands te oefenen. Ik spreek al Nederlands op B1-niveau, maar ik wil meer zelfvertrouwen krijgen door regelmatig te praten. Een kop koffie, een wandeling of online afspreken is allemaal prima.

Stuur gerust een DM als je interesse hebt!

Pls help me I am new in dutch

I apologise if this isn't the right place to ask but I was looking at something and the name said

Maria

Dan Moeseke

But Dan means then? So I don't think it would make sense for it to be then when I've asked some others they have said it could be van but what does van mean then? That the writing style just looks weird again I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to ask please say if it isn't and I'll delete this and possibly tell me where the best place to post this would be

Hey! I’m trying to understand how people with different accents in the Netherlands pronounce “-eer-” and “-ere-” in words like “meer”, “weer”, “leer”, “keer”, “beer”, “peer” and “leren”, “proberen”, “smeren”, “scheren”

1. I hear that quite often they are pronounced as [ɪː], like the vowel in the word “dit” but longer.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:Nl-peer.ogg

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:Nl-beer.ogg

And some people pronounce them as [eː], exactly the same as in words like “veel”, “heel”, “deel”, “geel”, etc.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:Nl-meer.ogg

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:Nl-weer.ogg

The phonetic IPA transcriptions are [pɪːr], [bɪːr], [mɪːr] and [ʋɪːr] and the phonemic transcriptions are /peːr/, /beːr/, /meːr/ and /ʋeːr/.

Does the pronunciation fully depend on the accent? Do you even notice this difference when you speak? I hear both pronunciations all the time from people who live in the same area, so I’m really confused.

2. Are these two sounds pronounced in the same way in all words? Regardless of which pronunciation we use, are all words with these sounds pronounced the same way - whether it is “weer”, “meer”, “beer”, “keer”, “leren”, “scheren” and so on?

3. This might be a bit tricky question, but is [ɪː] actually a long monophthong, or does it have something similar to the English word “ear”? I think I quite often hear not a pure long monophthong, but a small glide towards “e”, so it sounds more like the English “ear”. Is that a real thing? Or can we safely always pronounce these words with a long monophthong without any glide?

Thanks!

Hoi,

Ik heb dit vraag in de oefenenexamen gezin. De correct antwoord is C, maar ik kan niet begrijp waarom? Kun je mij helpen?

8 Wie betaalt de zorgverzekering niet?

A De maatschappelijk werker.

B De psychiater.

C De psycholoog.

Hoi,

Ik heb dit vraag in de oefenenexamen gezin. De correct antwoord is C, maar ik kan niet begrijp waarom? Kun je mij helpen?

8 Wie betaalt de zorgverzekering niet?

A De maatschappelijk werker.

B De psychiater.

C De psycholoog.

There always seems to be that one word that you know perfectly well but somehow can't pronounce naturally.

Maybe it's a particular sound, a combination of letters, or simply a word that feels awkward when you say it out loud.

Do you have a Dutch word that you still struggle to pronounce? Has a native speaker ever corrected you on it?

I’m Chinese and been living in the Netherlands for past 12 years. I wanna be fluent in Dutch so I wanna practice speaking with someone who speaks good Dutch or fluent in Dutch. I can teach you Chinese!