Dutch/Lesson 1: Difference between revisions

'''No!''' There is much more. Audio files are inserted into the main lessons as much as possible, even though they aim at gradually introducing grammar and syntax. The parallel series of practice lessons (1A, 2A etc.) provide additional practice and, vocabulary building, sound material and quizzes. The example pages (Vb. 1 etc.) follow the contextual path of learning like children do and involve nursery rhymes, poems, stories, songs and the like. More of the latter two series is still being added as of May 2015. And there are [[Dutch/Vocabulary|audio-visual vocabulary pages]] to help you learn more words.

So, what is the best way to learn a language? The best way is to '''''do something everyday'''''. What exactly you do is often less important than ''that''simply you dodoing it. Children are champions in language acquisition and they never worry about what they do. Oh, and what you do, may very well be doing that same exercise again. Children love doing things "again". Ever watched the Teletubbies? ''Repeating'' is an important key to language acquisition. Being "efficient" and saying: "oh, I have done that before, let me skip that!" is a bad adult habit that children would never stoop to, until they get really bored with something. (Which is when they already know it). So, push that button below the toothbrush again! And tomorrow come back here and do the same.

If you are really lost use the interwiki link to the English version (or any other language you know) as back up, but don't give in to it too easily! Use toit to figure out what you did not quite get on the Dutch version.

There are plenty other sites that allow you to expand your growing knowledge of Dutch. They all have their pros and cons. For example [http://www.memrise.com/home/ Memrise]] and [https://quizlet.com/ Quizlet] have an interesting way to boost vocabulary, but teach zero syntax or grammar and usually little other context. But if you want a vocabulary boost it's great and we are in the process of creating practice sets dedicated to the material of the lessons here. Some already have a quizlet link on the bottom of the page. It is therefore recommended to register for '''Quizlet'''. (It is for free).

#Then use the ''Vocabulary'' box on the right to concentrate on single words anand start memorizing.

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[[File:Dutch people speaking on the street.jpg|thumb|200px|{{knop|vrienden}} Vrienden]]

Dutch pronunciation varies with region and speaker, and you may have been shocked at some of the sounds of the language. You can visit [[Dutch/Alfabet]] if that is the case. Dutch spelling is not really phonetic, but pretty systematic (much more so than English) and once you learn the system you should be able to pronounce an unknown word on sight pretty well.

It is not easy to render the sounds in writing, but the following rendition in IPA gives a reasonable idea. Try running the sound file again while reading the IPA version.

In the South of the area where Dutch is spoken (Flanders mostly), people do not distinguish, betweenthe familiar andform politewhen forms,speaking insteadin they stillfamiliar usefashion an older pronounis ''gij'' (clitic: ''ge'', object: ''u''). ''Gij'' is mostly used when speaking dialect, although it gets used more and more in polite situations and on tv. In the north it has become obsolete since about 1800. It is used much like ''you'' in English for both singular and plural. In the North ''gij'' is now only encountered there in archaic phrases like: ''gij zult niet stelen'' - ''thou shalt not steal''. Like ''thou'' the pronoun ''gij'' takes its own verb forms. This course is mostly based on northern usage as this is the most widely accepted, including in Suriname and the Antilles, but some important differences will be pointed out and we will see ''gij'' occasionally when we look at some older poetry.

Both English and Dutch have had a system of case endings in the past, as languages like German and Russian still do today. In English most of the system fell into disuse starting with the Viking invasions of the 9th and 10th Centuries, and especially after the Norman invasion in 1066. The collapse of the system in spoken Dutch dates mostly from the 16th century and in the written language it was scrapped as recently as 1947. That means that Dutch has more remnants of the case system left than English and we will even devote [[Dutch/Lesson 15|lesson 15]] to those remnants. The personal pronouns actually still show some case differences in both languages.

::<fontspan colorstyle="color:blue;">I</fontspan> see you.

::You see <fontspan colorstyle="color:blue;">me</fontspan>.

::<fontspan colorstyle="color:blue;">Ik</fontspan> zie je.

::Je ziet <fontspan colorstyle="color:blue;">mij</fontspan>.

# Regional differences: (jij/jullie - u) (North) versus (gij/gullie - u) (South)

# *In prescriptive grammar ''hun'' is dative and hen is ''accusative''. But in speaking, Dutch speakers generally do not make this distinction. This is because the ''hen'' form was artificially created by the grammarians of the past <ref> "Dutch" by Jan G. Kooij in ''The world's major languages'' edt. Bernard Comrie {{ISBN |0-19-520521-9}} Oxford University Press 1987</ref> and in the whole rest of the language there are no other words that make a distinction between dative and accusative. In the spoken language ''hen'' and ''hun'' are often used interchangeably (as synonyms) or people avoid the issue by opting for the clitic ''ze''.

There is a [https://quizlet.com/85109848/dutch-personal-pronouns-wikibook-lesson-1-flash-cards/ '''Quizlet practice set'''] (27 terms) to help you with thatmemorizing the pronouns. But it is recommended to ''first'' use the above tables. Unfortunately, the pronunciation of some of the clitics with apostrophes is wrong at Quizlet. Do makeSo sure you can hear sound at Quizlet.<ref>Sometimes you need to restart your browser to make it work.</ref> Clickclick the arrow buttons here to listen to the pronunciation and speak it out loud yourself until you feel confident that you know them, then go to Quizlet. Do make sure you can hear sound at Quizlet.<ref>Sometimes you need to restart your browser to make it work.</ref>First scan through the cue cards, then do some of the other methods available. It should take you an hour or so and you will know some of the most frequently used words in the language.

{{Dutch/Exercise|pronouns 2: indentificationidentification exercise|

Identify all personal pronouns in the two above conversations (in the colored boxes) by person, case, number polite/familliarfamiliar form and weak/strong form.

::''Mevrouw De Vries'': Goedendag, meneer Jansen!

The vocabulary of this lesson can be trained at [https://quizlet.com/85125945/dutch-wikibook-vocabulary-lesson-1-flash-cards/ Quizlet]. (33 terms)