I bet you didn't know you could read the Dutch language! Polyglots pages!

Flag of the Netherlands 

I didn't know I could read Dutch. Until I logged onto a Dutch newspaper article from a link in Wikipedia. I was asked to sign up to read more and recognized these words:

Dutch - English

account - account

automatisch - automatically

digitale - digital

e-mailadres - e-mail address

gratis - free

hier - here

inloggen - login

registreer - register

stopt - stopped

vergeten - forgotten

English - Dutch

account - account

automatically - automatisch

digital - digitale

email address - e-mailadres

forgotten - vergeten

free - gratis

here - hier

login -inloggen

register - registreer

stopped - stopt

Should I check some more words, one by one in Google translate? It would be quicker to grab several off a wikipedia page.

I went to the wikipedia page and found these similar sounding words:

Dutch - English

bakken - to bake

breken - to break

geven - to give 

klimmen - to climb

niet - not

u - you

wegen - to weigh

werken - works

zenden - to send

zitten - to sit

It's like easy German, or English with simplified spelling. This year I am learning Spanish. Next year I could learn Dutch. Not a very common language. But probably a reinforcement for my beginner's German. 

Also it will impress other people to say that I can speak English, French, German, Spanish and Dutch. If I count English as one of my languages, in two years time I could speak six languages, and genuinely call myself a polyglot. 

How about you? Isn't Dutch easy! https://www.facebook.com/Hyperglots/olyglot page

I just logged into Facebook to find the link to my favourite polyglot page, where people ask questions, so handy for me and for you, dear readers. I found another polyglot page, geared to learning languages. 

Why would you want to learn Dutch? Where can you use it? In the Netherlands of course. But why would you go there? To see Anne Frank's house, and the Jewish museum, Rembrandt's house, and the Rijsmuseum with more Rembrandts. Delft pottery, windmills. Tulips. The Wikivoyage page has updates on the Covid situation.

Useful Websites

https://translate.google.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language

https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/twee-schepen-op-drift-in-windmolenparken/article-news-1836453.html?cookie_check=1645375421

https://www.facebook.com/polyglotclub.world/

https://www.facebook.com/Hyperglots/

German words in an English language message, plus learning English, and translating

Problem
I did a Duolingo course in German but sitting around a table with a group of Germans on holiday I would not follow their conversation. I did try, but it didn't come easily. It was such as effort. I shall be seeing them again next year.

Answers
I must try to learn a little German every day. Never miss an opportunity. Today I received an email from a German organiser of our hiking group. He speaks with a slightly clipped German accent but his written English is embarrassingly word perfect.

On second reading I find that a German sentence has been added at the end by the system. It reads:

Diese Nachricht wurde von meinem Android Mobiltelefon mit GMX Mail gesendet.

I can work out the gist of because I get the same message in English. The gist of the message is This (email?) was sent from my mobile phone. In detail and more exact word for word translation:

German- English
diese - this (dis and this - languages often change a d into a t or a th and a t into a D)
Nachricht?
wurde - was
von - with
menem - my
Android - Android
Mobiltelefon - mobile telephone
mit - with (the German and English words both contain the letters it, and the looks like an upside down w)
GMX Mail - GMX Mail
gesendet - sent

This message reminds us of three things to notice about German grammar. 
1 The verb comes at the end of the sentence.
2 Nouns are treated like proper names and start with capital letters. So Nachricht is a noun.
3 ge prefixes something done in the past, often passive ge-... means something was done. ge-send-et, was sent. Remove the ge and you recognize both the past and the verb to send.

I looked up Nachricht
nachtricht - message
nacht - night
richt - right

but I have mistakenly added the t to nach
nach richt - to judge
nach - after

Now let's see the English first for the words we have learned

after - nach
mail - Mail (capital for a noun or a proper name)
message - Nachricht (capital initial for a noun)
mobile - mobil
mobile phone - Mobiltelefon (capital initial for a noun)
my - menem
night - nacht
right - richt
sent - gesendet
telephone - telefon
to judge - nachtricht
this - diese
was - wurde 
with - von

Here are some more
English- German
email - die Email (the email, capital letter for a noun)
junk mail - Junk-Mail / die wufsendungen (looks like a combination of woof and dung; think those wolves or dogs sent me dung again un in junk and un in dungen)

German - English
Post - mail
die Post - mail, post, post office
die Reklame - advertising (like the word reclaim - they want to reclaim a customer)
versenden - forward, send, mail, despatch

Useful Websites For Learning German and Translating
duolingo.com 
learn German for English speakers.

If you have friends who speak other languages, tell them about Duolingo has or shortly will have:
 Learn English for speakers of German and other languages, currently for Spanish speakers, Portuguese speakers, Russian speakers, Arabic speakers, French speakers, Hindi speakers, Turkish speakers, Chinese speakers, Vietnamese speakers, Polish speakers, Indonesian speakers, Romanian speakers,Dutch speakers, Hungarian speakers, Czech speakers, Korean speakers, Ukrainian speakers, Thai speakers, Tagalog speakers (from the Philippines), Bengali speakers.

English for Tamil speakers (is Hatching - in progress 38% done in July 2018, estimated launch 11/6/18. That can't be June which has gone, so it is not the UK way of dating with the day first but American style. That means November 6th 2018).

Google translate, translates most languages including German, which is similar to languages spoken and understood by people speaking Austrian, Swiss-German and Yiddish

See
https://www.duolingo.com/courses/all

Translation
translategoogle.com

If you think you can do better, or you can help translate or correct mis-translations and wrong spellings, you can help various sites including Duolingo (if you are bilingual) or if you can check spelling, offer to help Wikihow.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.