Teach Yourself Complete Dutch - 384 page Book and 2 Audio CDs
This book is designed for beginners of Dutch who have little or no experience in learning languages, and is structured progressively – each unit builds on the previous units so that you gradually learn new language patterns and vocabulary. Each unit is also built around a particular theme. They contain dialogues, reading texts and a variety of exercises. Explanations are given for the main grammar points and word patterns. Wherever possible, the texts and exercises have been taken from real-life situations, to help you communicate more successfully. Additional cultural information will familiarize you with life in the Low Countries and make you even more confident when speaking Dutch. Veel succes!
Table of Contents:
introduction
pronunciation
Hello, come in!
What do you do?
Where do you live?
Groceries
Do you know the way?
Nice shoes!
Can I have a return to Wageningen?
Did you have a nice holiday?
I've brought flowers for you
In the past
Let's go to Antwerp
I'll send you a text message
I really don't know what I want
I know exactly how you feel
I'm on the computer just about the whole day
TV is becoming more and more banal
Key to the exercises
Strong and irregular verbs
Dutch-English vocabulary
Are you looking for a complete course in Dutch which takes you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Dutch will guarantee success! Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course and online.The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work. By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages: Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features:
About the Dutch Language
Dutch is the name of the official language spoken by more than 20 million people in the Netherlands and in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium – together they are sometimes called the Low Countries. Contrary to what many people would have you believe, particularly the Dutch, it is a relatively easy language to learn, particularly for speakers of English, because of the many similarities in vocabulary and the regularities of the language. It is closely related to other West Germanic languages (e.g., English, West Frisian and German) and somewhat more remotely to the North Germanic languages. Dutch is a descendant of Old Frankish and is the parent language of Afrikaans, one of the official languages of South Africa and the most widely understood in Namibia. Dutch and Afrikaans are to a large extent mutually intelligible, although they have separate spelling standards and dictionaries and have separate language regulators. Standard Dutch (Standaardnederlands) is the standard language of the major Dutch-speaking areas and is regulated by the Nederlandse Taalunie ("Dutch Language Union"). Dutch is also an official language of the European Union and the Union of South American Nations.
The consonant system of Dutch did not undergo the High German consonant shift and has more in common with English and the Scandinavian languages. Like most Germanic languages it has a syllable structure that allows fairly complex consonant clusters. Dutch is often noted for the prominent use of velar fricatives (ch and g, pronounced at the back of the mouth), often picked up on as a source of amusement or even satire.Dutch grammar also shares many traits with German, but has a less complicated morphology caused by deflexion, which puts it closer to English. Dutch has officially three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter, however, according to some interpretations these are reduced to only two, common and neuter, which is similar to the gender systems of most Continental Scandinavian languages.
Dutch vocabulary is predominantly Germanic in origin, considerably more so than English. This is to a large part due to the heavy influence of Norman French on English, and to Dutch patterns of word formation, such as the tendency to form long and sometimes very complicated compound nouns, being more similar to those of German and the Scandinavian languages. |
