How Different Are DUTCH Dutch and *Flemish*?

[@Langfocus]

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[@baskkev7459]

You are wrong about hard g and ch. Thats more north and south Holland. Most of the other provinces use soft g

[@cyberherbalist]

I have to chime in on the Pimsleur method! I love it. I bought a four-level set of CDs back in 2014 or so) in Spanish, and it cost me an arm and leg -- spread out over time, thank goodness. This monthly subscription they have now is so much better in terms of cost. How have I done in Spanish using Pimsleur? Pretty good, although being a very inconsistent person it's taken me some time to get very far into it -- life got in the way, and I've taken some big breaks. But it's easy to jump back in, and I would recommend Pimsleur highly.

[@allws9683]

@@baskkev7459 No In the North and East of NL they also use a hard g ( mostly) . Roughly , north of the river Rhine. But I even have used some Belgians use a 'hard g' as well.

[@Big-guy1981]

The video should have been Dutch vs Flemish vs Afrikaans.

[@alexhidell663]

Dutch people are really nice. Flemish are racist A-holes

[@MeatNinja]

When a Flemish person speaks tussentaal, I have absolutely no problem understanding them (as a Dutch person). But when they speak in their own dialect, my understanding drops to like 10-20%. Important thing to note is the same thing applies to some dialects spoken in The Netherlands!

[@ccatarinajm7114]

I was born in Central America and my standard joke to other latinos is that people from Mexico and Argentina understand each other better than people from Limburg and West-Vlaanderen. Seriously, I'm from Antwerp (so sort of in the middle) and I don't understand either when they speak their dialect. A question though, when you hear those people you don't understand, what age do they have? I have the impression that it's 40 and above or so and that the younger people don't really speak dialect anymore, rather tussentaal with the regional accent. What say you?

[@pvisit]

You will only see "real" Flemish dialect within casual (friends,family) context. Externally the 'tussentaal' has become a standard and even necessary when looking for a job.

[@LMB222]

So the situation across the Low Countries is pretty much like in Germany. Which is fun - not only did I have to learn German, but also the dialects (except Plafz, that's throat clearing not a language😜)

[@pvisit]

There is no language that hasn't 1 or more dialects. Current learning Thai. Thai has about 5 Dialects and 3 unknown dialects. @@LMB222

[@gunterification]

nobody can speak real dialect anymore. it's all tussentaal.

[@Zharath]

Dutch: "De deurbel is stuk" Flemish: "Amai 'k moest kloppen want de bel dee et nie!"

[@AlAtar360]

S- Mwoaaaah Gertje! 't Is meneer Spaghetti! G- Maar neen, Samson, da's Albert! A- 't Is Albertooooooooooooooooo!!!!

[@bramvs123]

​@@AlAtar360Mijn Miranda zegt dat ook altijd, pa, zegt ze, zo goe als da u kunt kloppen, zo klopt niemand nie

[@HN-kr1nf]

when i translate the comment it turns dutch into english 💀💀💀

[@quadroninja2708]

​@@HN-kr1nfsame with Russian

[@robbiestruys9127]

"Amai, 'k moest kloppe want de bel is kapot'

[@IvanStepaniuk]

I witnessed myself, a Flemish farmer and a Dutch one from the north of the Netherlands, speaking ENGLISH as it was easier for both.

[@mrrandom1265]

Flemish guy: "You dirty French speaking Belgian don't even speak Dutch properly." 🤬 Walloon guy: "That makes two of us, buddy." 😏

[@pvisit]

The same happens between a walloon and a flemish person in Belgium as the younger flemish generation is not learning French anymore.

[@LMB222]

With the exit of the UK, English is pretty neutral.

[@Ayazidas]

Those farmers knew how to speak English and they were not able to speak in Standard Dutch?

[@Hatzum]

Person from the east of The Netherlands here. I dont think it has to do with them not being able to speak Standard Dutch, but more with the accent. My local dialect (Vechtdals dialect) has given me such a thick accent that people in the west of The Netherlands have trouble understanding me. I could very well see that a Flemish person and Gronings person could not understand each other. @@Ayazidas

[@jasonboey9326]

I'm Flemish and we do have a word for walking, which is 'wandelen'. The word 'fuif' is used for informal parties for young teenagers. When we go to party we say: we gaan straks 'feeste' (we go to party later) 'Allez swat' is like 'but anyway' I'm very surprised about how much effort you put into this video. Very accurate information, and it probably took a while to complete.

[@SarahConnor618]

fuif is also used in the netherlands as a party for young teenagers. feesten is also used in the netherlands , and 'wandelen' also means walking in the netherlands... it's just the frequency or preferred words that are different, it's not that those words are not used/don't exist in standard Dutch. That's why we can understand eachother completely.

[@barvdw]

there is a difference between stappen and wandelen, the latter being closer to ramble or wander, to walk aimlessly, while stappen has mostly has a clear destination. If you'd have to translate walk, I'd use stappen, rather than wandelen.

[@kennytheamazing]

@@barvdw Where I'm from "Gaan stappen" could also mean "uitgaan", so "going out to party".

[@barvdw]

@@kennytheamazing yes, but I'd say that's more common in the Netherlands. In Flanders, you're more going to find 'uitgaan', 'een stapke (in de wereld) zetten', etc.

[@Niosus]

I find "zetel" and "bank" really funny differences. A zetel in Flemish or a bank in Dutch is a couch. But a bank in Flemish is a bank like you'd use it in English (a place where you store money). But then, when talking about the headquarters of that bank (or any other company), at least in Flanders, we'd call that the "hoofdzetel" ("head couch"). So you have these words that really shouldn't be related at all, somehow ended mixed up with each other.

[@rickfield710]

Sometimes, it's the little things that trip people up. A decade and a half or so ago, a new Dutch manager was hired in the Flemish-speaking office my mother worked at the time. Deciding on getting to know everyone, he decided to have one-on-one meetings with everyone in his office. So, he stepped out, walked up to the first person he saw, who happened to be a young lady, and invited her to his office. Unfortunately, he did so by asking 'Kom jij eens mee naar mijn kamer?' - the young lady in question turned bright red, and the entire office fell absolutely silent, staring at the new manager, who had absolutely no idea what he did wrong. In Flemish, a 'kamer' is a 'bedroom' - he basically, in Flemish, he invited her to his bedroom. In Dutch Dutch, 'kamer' means 'office'. In Flemish, an office is a 'bureau' - which, in Dutch Dutch, is the desk, not the room it is in. A small difference in words, but a huge difference in meaning. Thankfully, once the confusion was cleared up, everyone had a good laugh about it.

[@mffmoniz2948]

Oh, this must have been something. I find it confusing that "bureau" means desk, since I was more used to it meaning a department. The bureau of internal affairs.

[@rickfield710]

@@mffmoniz2948 I am just a junior language nerd, so the way I see it is that the office furniture came first - you can see how in Dutch Dutch, the bureau (French loanword)/bureel (fancy-schmancy Dutch-Dutch word) is the desk, but in Flemish, the bureau can be both the desk and the room it is kept in - I can see how, in the same way, the piece of office furniture could become the entire department. We do have various words for ministries - there's the 'Department', as in, 'Departement Omgeving' (Department Environment, responsible for the environment), or a ministry (Ministerie van Justice - Ministry of Justice). Of course, because Flanders is in Belgium, and Belgium loves making things complex, we also have 'Federale overheidsdiensten' - Federal Governmental Services. This to show they're federal (as in, Belgian) rather than regional (like Flanders). But that's just government bureaucracy. (Hah! see what I did there?)

[@jurisprudens2697]

Ja, het is een grappig vertaal!

[@MagereHein]

@@mffmoniz2948 To be fair, in Dutch Dutch bureau also means office. E.g. my dad was an architect working for Achitectenbureau Van den Broek en Bakema before starting his own firm.

[@BarisTitanX]

@@mffmoniz2948 We use both cause we also say politiebureau for police station.

[@Frahamen]

In Flemish fuif doesn't replace feest or feestje, it's a specific type of party. It's specifically a dance party organised by a school, a youth group, a sport club,... As the examples show, it's usually the kind of party school going people go to. Marriages, work parties, etc,... are usually just called feest. Feest is always a good general term, though weather it's a feest or a feestje does matter and it's quite a hard to explain which one you should use. New years or birthday parties can be called, feest, feestje or fuif, depending what exactly you're planning.

[@warb635]

Indeed, 'Waar is da feestje?' is also known in Flanders, for example.

[@MrAronymous]

To add to that, we also use fuif in the Netherlands. But usually more tongue in cheek as it sounds a tiny bit old fashioned.

[@Lakigigar]

I also had that idea, but i also feel like people would instead say "k'ga uitzetten / k'ga uitgaan" instead of "we gaan naar een feestje". I just don't think we use the word as often (and neither a replacement) as the dutch, as we have different expressions for it?

[@ronald3836]

@@MrAronymous yes, we understand the word "fuif" but nobody would seriously consider using it outside scrabble.

[@BrandonLeeBrown]

When I studied Dutch at a Summer course in Antwerp. at the end of course there was a "fuif" for the language students. It wasn't a dance party and the students brought their families, where we sat at tables.

[@joshuaboelsche7684]

Paul has gotten so wild these days, showing us his actual suitcase

[@krizalid2000]

Fr fr fr

[@maxrevell3830]

yeah he's bang on the comedy now

[@matthewbob_moostachepants5563]

You said it my man! 😂

[@angreagach]

@@maxrevell3830 I'm glad he's still got his day job!

[@mrhook1943]

Yeah

[@gidoca]

The "unnecessary dat" is very familiar to me as a Swiss German speaker. The same phrase "We don't know where he lives" is "Wir wissen nicht wo er wohnt" in Standard German, but would be "Mir wüsse nid wo dass er wohnt" in my dialect. We have the exact same sentence structure as Flemish.

[@Atlantjan]

I speak the German dialect pretty much exactly halfway between Belgium and Switzerland and we have it too. Pretty sure it extends all the way as a belt along the German-French language border

[@EvenRoyalsNeedToUrinate]

I was thinking the same :D do you both think this comes from French? I mean it kinda has to since it's all Germanic regions close to France but I'm not sure there is an equivalent sentence in French.. I guess it'd be something like 'On (ne) sait pas où il habite' without any 'que' in between...?

[@EvenRoyalsNeedToUrinate]

Oder hats nen andren Grund? Schweizer oder allemannische Dialekte allgemein tendieren ja dazu, öfter 'wo' statt 'der/welcher/dessen/etc' zu verwenden. Vlt wäre nur 'wo' allein daher manchmal zweideutig, kommt daher die 'wo dass' Konstruktion und hat weder was mit französisch noch mit holländisch zu tun..?

[@puellanivis]

@@EvenRoyalsNeedToUrinate Ich habe auch gehört dass es ein Teil von fränkische Dialekte auch ist. Ich bin selbst aber nicht sicher, denn ich spreche nur Hochdeutsch, und keine Dialekt.

[@atlantisia]

this "dass" sounds so incorrect to my swiss german ears. in my dialect we say "mier wüsse nid wo'n er wohnt".

[@Emilybb-nk3we]

as a West Flemish person, our dialect is so different that even belgian dutch doesn't come close to our dialect, heck, you'll probably get subtitles reading this

[@WolfGubbelmans]

en ik dachte 'k ik dad ons dialect moeilijk was om te verstoan! gaat nar antarepe en ge zult het nog verstoan ma gelle sprekt gieën vloms

[@Malegys]

Teeg'n wie zegjet !

[@NickyBouwers]

I am from Drenthe and I can understand West-Vlaams (Belgium) and Zeeuws (The Netherlands , since by chance independently the West Flemish dialect group and the Neder Saksische dialect group developed the same features.

[@TikoVerhelst]

Couple of thoughts from a Dutch language nerd from North Brabant studying in Antwerp; 1 Flemish has a mediaeval vibe to it for me. A lot of things common in Flemish sound old-fashioned in Dutch. Gij is like Thee to Dutch Dutch ears, Nochthans sounds like a word from a Victorian novel to me and my favourite is "Moeten and Mogen" which in Flemish, and 'creative Dutch' can be used as if-clauses; "Mocht België morgen vergaan, waar zou jij dan naartoe gaan?" "Were Belgium to collapse tomorrow, where would you go?" In Dutch Dutch, you can't do that. You can't not say "were...." you have to say "If...." which sounds way less poetic. 2 I have no difficulty understanding Flemish as I come from North Brabant which has similar dialects. But don't put me in a town in West Flanders or Limburg, cause then I'll have a problem. However, the difference between dialects is fading in the Dutch region as a whole. People still speak it! And I noticed things stay more independent in Belgium than they do in the Netherlands. 3 Everyone, take these 'differences' with a grain of salt. I've heard other accents drop their t's and slur their words into dak, daje or even worse "dahajeniemoe'endoen" meaning "dat had je niet moeten doen" but being slurred into one word. (You shouldn't have done that). The gender thingy is true but isn't a reliable way for French people to find out the gender of words and the duplication of pronouns happens, but I think more often in the form "da'ik" instead of "dak ik" although I have heard both. Also, true people from Brabant and Flanders say 'kweenie' when they don't know something. Henry van Loon, comedian from Eindhoven, North Brabant made this great little funny video about it; Fun fact; even 'people from North Brabant who speak good Dutch' like me and Henry have a tendency to slur our words result in 'da's' instead of 'dat is' or 'beswel' instead 'best wel' lol kzbin.info/www/bejne/nojTlYBombaebas About that, there are some difference between North Brabantian and Flemish but also a lot of similarities. Jij is informal, u is formal and gij is dialect (seen as lower class, boorish, mostly used among the lower class and the elderly). I think New Kids shows quite well what Brabantian in the Netherlands is like. It is intelligible to Dutch speakers, but still distinctly different. 4 How DARE you forget about the Flemish a???? It's usually written as 'ao' and I know it really well as we have it in "BRAOBANT" (North Brabant) as well ;). I like it. There's probably some fancy IPA term for it, but I was never a fan of phonology. People from North Brabant and Flanders just have a certain way of pronouncing their a's. There are some people who adopt a Dutch a when speaking formal Belgian Dutch though. 5 The vocabulary thingy was fun, but no complete. As in. Proper vs schoon is not the problem. Being Dutch and knowing my French very well, I learned Flemish vocabulary quite quickly when I moved here. But Tussentaal is not the problem. It's the fact that it's two different countries. You have to deal with two different school systems that use different words or two different health insurance policies that use different words or two different ways of dividing the country with different words. That's the tricky part. It's different meanings but also, see 1, in Flanders they say 'Schepenen' which is a word that goes back to the Middle Ages. We don't use that word in Dutch anymore having replaced it with 'wetsambtenaar' (a gouvermant worker/official on a local level). So the words are different and often have a mediaeval vibe to them for me as a Dutch person. But the words are not the problem, that's doable, it's when the two countries use two different systems so you have to learn the words 'again' with their new meaning. (For example how a word like "sixth grade" translates....) When I go back to my family in the Netherlands, I sometimes get confused and use Flemish with Dutch people, or vice versa saying something Dutch among Flemish people. I still didn't know "Ik zie u graag" means I love you. And some others were also new for me. Although I knew most. Some fun ones to include are 'ça va' meaning 'it's fine/I'm good' both when someone asks if everything is going alright emotionally or physically (you're carrying a bunch of stuff). Another fun one is "mercikes" and "salukes" which are softer/more informal versions of "merci" and "salut" (meaning 'thank you' and 'good bye') 6 I could write full essays on Flemish vs Dutch Dutch because I LOVE the subject, but my last remark will be this. Flemish people have a stereotypical Dutch accent which I have noticed is just Hollandish. (The group of dialects spoken in Holland) Dutch people tend to just say "Allé" and "zotteke" a lot and for the rest they try to make a sentence out of some vague Flemish sounds they remember from Mega Mindy (which Dutch people watch in Flemish) when trying to imitate a Flemish person. Although "Allé" is by far the most important. Just say Allé a bunch and you're good with your Flemish stereotype as a Dutch person. North Brabantian grammar and Flemish grammar are also really similar so Dutch people can quite easily use one for the other. (North Brabantian being well known by most Dutch people because of New Kids.) 7 The Flemish also kept little habits from the French. Like counting backwards with grades (grade 1 is high than grade 4 instead of grad 4 being the grade for elder kids), in University at least giving points in rates of 20 (so you need a 10/20 to pass instead of 5/10 or 50%) or using AZERTY instead of QWERTY like the Netherlands and the English-speaking world. TL;DR Dutch and Flemish is more distinct than American English and British English, but less so than English and Scotts. Maybe it's a bit like Deep South English and General American English. But it is hard to say. I love the relationship between Flemish, Dutch, the Flemish dialects and the Dutch dialects as their own weird special mix of languages and dialects..... :) Also, sorry one last thing, I have noticed Flemish also have a tendency to say foreign words the Dutch ways saying words like "drugs en plannen" like you would in Dutch instead of using English pronunciation which is the Netherlandish way to do it. But Flemish people also often using a Dutch version of a French word instead of the Dutch word. For example assurantie and taxatie instead of verzekering and belasting (assurance and taxation as you may have guessed).

[@sauronthenecromancer2535]

Although I agree with many things you've said, I have to tell you that in Flanders grade 1 is for the younger kids and grade 4 is for kids who are older, so when you're 12, you're in 'het eerste middelbaar', and when you're 18, you're in 'het zesde middelbaar'.

[@TikoVerhelst]

@@sauronthenecromancer2535 Oh, that's an honest mistake on my part. Yes I could have looked it up, but after living here for half a year among Flemish friends, I still have not remotely a clue how the Belgian school system works! (One day.... one day I'll understand it!)

[@Rain-Dirt]

I like your thoughts

[@danielmeleaku1061]

Tldr

[@Rain-Dirt]

@@danielmeleaku1061 "Tldr" Who gives a sh*t that you didn't read it because it was too long for you. What is the purpose of commenting with something like that anyway? Is it so we know you're lazy and/or have a short attentionspan and/or you're not too smart? Is that it? Because that's how that comes across. The person did not type all that to just entertain someone like you. If anything it is clearly not meant for you. Are you starting to understand how dumb that "tdlr" comment looks now? To just say it in other words: the world does not evolve around you. *sigh* I sometimes hate people.

[@Joseph-ax999]

Some years ago (pre Euro) I traveled through several European countries. While in Belgium I was amazed at their linguistic fluency. They switched between French, English and Flemish almost as if it were one language. I had recently taken some French classes so I was very used to listening to how people spoke.

[@BrutalHonduras]

Generations of living on the border of several language zones will do that.

[@BertVerschuren]

And even more importantly, having no dubbed movies; all subtitles. That way you hear the foreign language all the time while being to read what it means.

[@ThermaL-ty7bw]

yep that's easy for us , our language is easier to speak then english , altough english is used around the world ... German language is the same too , i never had to learn any of these languages in school , they're just so easy because they all look alike and sound the same

[@Rhovanion85]

In Flanders I presume, lol. Try using English in Brussels lol. and it's the frickin' capital.

[@dimitrikasztanovics4959]

That's Flemish people for you. We always adapt to others! Greets from Vlaanderen, province of Antwerp

[@josegers5989]

20 years ago I (Flemish) spoke to a Dutch student in education. I mentioned that one of our main courses in school was Dutch (being our official and first language) Keep in mind we were talking to each other in Belgian Dutch and Dutch Dutch. She was very surprised I had to 5 hours of Dutch each week at school and said: " Oh, really, you learned to speak Dutch, can you do it, I am so curious?" (this was after half an hour of Dutch conversation)

[@PetraStaal]

That's shocking!

[@riazedn4728]

Speak with someone from Suriname. U will understand that person more than a Dutch person

[@obiwac]

a lot of dutch people seem to think flemish is an entirely different language for some reason.

[@pvisit]

As a Belgian (born in Brussels), I am not amazed at all. I grew up in a Dutch environment in Brussels and we used to have 5 hours Dutch, 5 hours French, 4 hours English and 3 hours German. I am sure that all this time is used differently in the Netherlands.

[@ccatarinajm7114]

That's hilarious! En dan noemen zij ons "domme Belgen" 🤣😂

[@zorc2000]

I'm a Dutch teacher from the Netherlands teaching Dutch in a Flemish school near Brussels to mainly French-speaking students. The richness of this linguistic diversity is beyond any comparison. Many of my students find the typically Dutch Dutch words I use hilarious.

[@petervanackeren5227]

Yep, totally get that ... I also have a theory that e.g. in the Antwerp dialect, many verbs are reflexive, which I very unscientifically attribute to the influence from Spanish rule centuries ago :)

[@zorc2000]

@@petervanackeren5227daar heb ik nog nooit over nagedacht… Interessant! Het zit in ieder geval in het lexicon (sinjoor, paljas,…), maar die reflexiviteit van werkwoorden zie ik minder. Heb je voorbeelden?

[@dutchreagan3676]

Hollands is leuk: stokbrood stick-bread. Tja.

[@klapsigaarenbasgitaar1931]

​@@dutchreagan3676pain du stock

[@cheesepatrol2376]

@@dutchreagan3676 frans brood

[@96karel]

As a kid I moved from the south of the Netherlands to Flanders (a distance of only 40km) and you’ve made a beautiful list of all the small language confusions I ran into, well done! Really love that you made this video, it’s rare to find an analysis of the tussentaal we actually speak, as opposed to the standard Dutch we pretend to speak and teach to foreigners. I’ve known people who got very discouraged learning Dutch in language courses once they realised it’s not what Flemish people actually speak. I’ll refer to this in the future, thx!

[@jupitermars1974]

I grew up in South Africa. I had Afrikaans friends, we did Afrikaans at school, we did our National Service and I did Afrikaans-Nederlands at university. I have no difficulty interacting with anyone Dutch or Flemish

[@lemastre]

When I went to South Africa years ago, I was amazed at how close Afrikaans was to West-Flemish when it comes to pronunciation. So much so that my friend, who was from Antwerp, had to give the phone to me as she couldn't understand the cab driver who was speaking English. I fully understood him. The way he spoke just clicked more for me. We still laugh about this to this day. We also tested this later on with somebody speaking Afrikaans and me West-Flemish and the vowels we used and how we pronounced them were so similar. Perhaps it's because Bruges used to be a major port back in the day and we still sound a bit more "medieval'ish".

[@OutOfTheBoxThinker]

As a Fleming, I can understand Afrikaans (for most part) but not speak it. Dutch & Afrikaans are uniquely similar... much more than eg. Dutch & Frisian... which is remarkable considering how long it's been since Dutch colonists founded Transvaal & Oranje-Vrijstaat...

[@mikepretorius6350]

Except that Afrikaans is all in the Present tense, there is no past and future tense like in English and Nederlands, this from an English speaking Afikaner 😁

[@PhansiKhongoloza]

I'm South African. My home language is English, although I do have a very good command of the Afrikaans language. I must say I understand Flaams slightly better than I do standard Dutch.

[@PhansiKhongoloza]

Any idea as to where the majority of Afrikaaners hail from? Being mostly sailors I wonder if most hailed from Amsterdam or Rotterdam? Comparing the three languages I almost want to say most are originally from the Dutch/Belgium border area?

[@LuckySeven79]

I like how you include more of your personality in recent videos/years. Keep up the professional work

[@douwemeijer1301]

Ik werk (als Nederlander) veel met Vlamingen en heb nooit problemen met standaard-Vlaams (wat Paul tussentaal noemt, nooit van gehoord). Wanneer je het filmpje bekijkt, lijken de verschillen veel groter dan ze in werkelijkheid zijn. Als het om dialecten gaat, zou je het gehele taalgebied moeten bekijken en dan is het verschil tussen Vlaams Brabants en Nederlands Brabants kleiner dan tussen Zuid-Hollands en Twents. Of zelfs West- en Oost-Vlaams. Limburgs vind ik aan beide kanten van de Maas zelfs erg op elkaar lijken, meer dan Limburgse dialecten onderling. Overigens is de situatie m.i. vergelijkbaar met standaard-Duits en Oostenrijks. Of standaard-Duits en standaard-Zwitserduits. Mooi filmpje, Paul!

[@arneperschel]

Of vergelijkbaar met Spaans Spaans en Spaans in Colombia, Mexico, Argentinië enz., of Portugees Portugees en Braziliaans Portugees, of Zweeds Zweeds en Fins Zweeds of Frans Frans en Québecois of Azebeidjaans Azerbeidjaans en Iraans Azeri, of... Ja, in welke taal heb je eigenlijk niet zulke verschillen?

[@klapsigaarenbasgitaar1931]

Exact

[@TheBayru]

Lol, most Dutch don't speak General Dutch, they speak simplified international Hollandish interjected with English. Also there is a difference in meaning between standard language, General Dutch and Standard Dutch. The first is the official language chosen by the Flemish ministry to be used in schools, the second is the language published by 'het genootschap Onze taal' (and that is currently chosen as standard language) and the third is the dutch spoken by supporters of the soccer team Standard, which would make it French actually ;o). Also, the abbreviated pronounciation you classify as 'tussentaal' (such as 'k for ik) is actually considered valid in General Dutch spoken language, because it would be ludicrous to pronounce every word like you would to teach a five year old. Furthermore, presenting 'tussentaal' as something all Flemish speak where Dutch use General Dutch is disingenious; there is in Flanders a gradient in formality where for official occasions you'll use General Dutch and the more informal the setting the more you'll use 'tussentaal'. Mind you that interactions with the government in Flanders will not be using formal language because the government wants to signal familiarity with the citizen. So where a Dutch mayor may use very formal language at a wedding, Flemisch mayors will speak informal dialect to accentuate the familiarity with the villagers.

[@JeroenJA]

Als je NL en BE Brabant naast elkaar legt, hou he denk ik wel heel sterk vooral de verschillende taalevolutie over? :-) Ik erger mij rnkel aan de zo Engelse uitspraken in NL Nederlands van de voorbije 20 jaar.. en als ik naar kinderen voor kinderen opzoek van jaren 80 of 90 is dat nog bijna niet zo.. dus NL is echt wel serieus verengelst in haar uitspraak van onze moedertaal hoor! :-). Vlaanderen ook wel wat natuurlijk, maar absoluut niet in die mate, is vooral dat vb kids kinderen vaak begint te vervangen enzo

[@Karen-ul9hd]

Ik heb ook nog nooit van 'tussentaal' gehoord

[@rightscooper9193]

Hi Paul! A native flemish speaker here: the pronoun “gelle” is really uncommon in tussentaal. I would consider it to be hard dialect whenever someone says that word (mainly from the antwerp or leuven regions)

[@Langfocus]

I found lots of variations of that word, so I went with the one the speaker in the video uses.

[@thewitheredstriker]

@@Langfocus Most certainly fair. I will second the rarity of the pronoun "gelle" though. Here in West Flanders, I've effectively never once heard it. Then again, Tussentaal has many variations anyway, so perhaps it's more common at the other side of the country. An excellent video all the same. Well done, Paul!

[@daandebacker3967]

​@@Langfocus There are many forms indeed. I live in East-Flanders and mostly use gulle, gulder of gullen and would say gulder is the most often used form (although that might just be because of where I live). To me personally it was immediately clear where the speaker came from and it was also obvious from some of the grammar examples. Like the 'repeated ik' thing was something I would never use, or at least not as explicitly as in this video. But then again, I think you'd get the same thing no matter where the speaker was from.

[@siyabongamviko8872]

I live in South Africa, have some knowledge of Afrikaans and learning Dutch Dutch, I must say thhat gelle sounds a lot like Afrikaans Julle (Pronounced "Yelle")... to mean plural "You".... I thought since Afrikaans is very close to Flemish, 'julle' (and even hulle which means they) could be common there as well.

[@thewitheredstriker]

@@siyabongamviko8872 Interesting! Thank you for your reply! I've always found Afrikaans an interesting language; definitely one I'll learn in the future. From what I've heard, similarities between Afrikaans and Flemish aren't uncommon.

[@edmond22037]

I'm Flemish and I did not realize until seeing this video that Dutch and Flemish were so different. Never really thought of it so detailed like this . I was a lot of fun watching the video.

[@ogranesson]

I am a student in Flanders, and I've been learning Dutch for about a year now. This video opened my eyes (and ears) as to why it was so difficult for me to figure out what was being said when I tried to decipher my friends talking; I've mostly been using 🇳🇱 Dutch learning materials to learn, so I would be completely dumbfounded when I heard my Flemish friends speak. Thank you for such a comprehensive video, very well put and explained! :)

[@Mx-Alba]

I'm a native Dutch speaker from the Netherlands. I have no trouble understanding Flemish people speaking Tussentaal, but when they speak in local dialects, it gets more difficult... But then there are also some dialects in the Netherlands that I find hard to understand, especially Limburgish. Dutch people often also have a hard time understanding people from the northern provinces of Groningen and Drenthe, but where I grew up in the Veluwe region, the local dialect had many similarities with the dialects spoken there so that's not a problem for me. Even though there are fewer and fewer people speaking local dialects in the Netherlands, people from different regions do definitely have different regional accents when speaking standard Dutch. By the way someone speaks, you can often broadly tell where they're from. As said, I grew up in the Veluwe region in the province of Gelderland, but now I live in Nijmegen, which is in the same province, but south of the rivers, whereas the Veluwe is north of the rivers... And those rivers generally mark the border between the "hard G" to the north and the "soft G" to the south. After several years of being surrounded by the "soft G", my Gs have also started to soften, and I've picked up quite a few southern colloquialisms. :)

[@target_667]

I think west-flemish is the hardest dialect to understand out the bunch. I am biased being from central-limburg i dont speak dialect i can understand some of it

[@tikket10]

nijmegen hebben ze toch de harge g of nie

[@Mx-Alba]

@@tikket10 vergeleken met boven de rivieren issie wel zacht hier.

[@marcvanartevelde5586]

Native Flemish speaker working mostly all over the Netherlands here. This is one of the best comparison vids I've seen about Dutch and Vlaams, but there's quite a few remarks to make. For instance, that the Dutch speaker in the video sounds like he's at an oral exam, hardly anyone in the Netherlands will speak that way (unless they think you're very hard of hearing). Also, the Flemish dude's "ich" is so Limburgish nobody from the western end of Brabant would believe he's ever been to the province before. Zoutleeuw ofwa? Reserve-Limburgers. ;) When communicating with the Dutch as a Flemming I rarely have trouble understanding them, unless they unleash their heaviest dialects like Drents. The same is true of most of our Flemish dialects, even inside Flanders itself. In fact, if people from the coast or Limburg come on tv, they get subtitled and it's not uncommon for people who live a mere 10km apart to speak a dialect so profoundly different they barely understand eachother. Often there's even class divides within the language so that cities like Gent have two distinctly different dialects. There are also many words used in specific dialects that are unintelligible to those from other dialects. Words like "boesjkammeree" (swing set) , "seule" (not the French word but meaning a bucket) or "blafeturen" (shutters). And on a much lighter note about the "poepen" issue; Easily solved by using the word "neuken", which even the most hermitic Achterhoeker or B'achtendekupenaar will understand. Add a questioning look to make friends quickly.

[@daandevos122]

B'achtendekupenaar as if the B doesn't belong in the word Bachten... Or was it an accident to place the apostrof there.

[@NoLoss-8000]

Neuken in de koeken

[@spikeweaver]

t'es giene van zoutleef! Ich paas da d'em van Gent es.

[@rikkertkoelewijn3452]

As a Dutch speaker from the Netherlands I think the Dutch dialect Drents is just as hard to understand for me as some of your dialects in Flanders 😂😂😂

[@marcvanartevelde5586]

Tès toens towch iene dau blaave plauken es zun.@@spikeweaver

[@lGalaxisl]

Please make a dedicated video on West Flemish! As you have pointed out, what we understand to be "Flemish" today is mainly cleaned up Brabantian. Historically Flemish is the dialect continuum spoken in French-Flanders, West-Flanders, Zeeuws-Flanders, and parts of East-Flanders. Flemish has a lot of different words that do not occur in Brabantian: English - West Flemish - Dutch: to fish - peurn - vissen immediately - bedain - onmiddelijk duck - kwêkhoann (lit. croaking rooster) - eend angry - dul - kwaad Even more interesting is that it has a lot of different pronunciations that are preserved historical links between English and Saxon. I'll give some examples: English - West Flemish - Dutch: Fisher - Visscher - Visser I brought - 'k brochtn - ik bracht soft - zochte - zacht Thin - dinne - dun sun - zunne - zon Thunder - dunder - donder little - letter - weinig Spider - kobbe (from cobweb) - spin it rains - 't rint - het regent courtyard - koer - plein Some words also have a plural -s in flemish that doesn't occur in dutch: trains - trings - treinen swines - zwiens - zwijnen clothes - kleers - kleren For verb conjugations West Flemish and especially French-Flemish are a bridge between dutch and english. the 'ge-' prefix slowly reappears when moving english to french flemish to dutch: English - French Flemish - West Flemish - Dutch Done - edoan - hedoan - gedaan

[@shadowcrj6402]

Boereeeennnn

[@louisgie004Games]

Please make a dedicated video on West Flemish!

[@dennisdecoene]

​@@shadowcrj6402Mo. Wuk wit je gie doavan. 😂

[@shadowcrj6402]

@@dennisdecoene moatje wuk weete gie van duiven melken, get nog nooit ni meegevlogen

[@shadowcrj6402]

@@JFJ12 🤣

[@matthias04]

As a German native speaker I was an "Erasmus"-student in Flanders in the early 90s. To prepare for my exchange year I had a dutch language course before starting but nothing really prepared me for all the different dialects of my fellow students in the student home. However after a few months I immersed in the language which at that time wasn't already labelled "tussentaal' maar "ABN" (Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands - Belgian/Flemish Style). I succesfully did a language exam at the end of my one-years studies but being in a pub and understanding local people in Antwerp always remained a challenge. After all these years I still try to make use of my dutch language knowledge as much as possible in Belgium as well as in the Netherlands but you will always recognize me as someone who learned the language in Flanders.

[@flitsertheo]

In those days standard Dutch was still "beschaafd" (civilised) and dialects were considered uncivilised. Worse was that the Dutch considered anything typical "Zuid-Nederlands" (Flemish) also uncivilised, which was supported by some Belgian teachers. I still remember the "correct" pronunciation of "tram" was "trèm". Meanwhile the "beschaafd" has been dropped and we don't give an F*** what the Dutch think about our Flemish anymore.

[@knotwilg3596]

You got 99% right which is really impressive. A few minor corrections - the indefinite article "een" in SD is pronounced with a scwha, unlike the number 1 or the stressed één - the Flemish also use "studeren" in general, but use "blokken" for the intense study towards the exam, emphasizing rote memorizations; this periode is referred to as "den blok". - etage is not so common anymore as a loan word A few additions - like we, Flemish, use many French loan words, the Dutch will use German loan words which we'd find far fetched, though the influence is not as strong is French on us - there's actually some kind of "West Flemish tussentaal" as well. West Flemish dialects in general are stronger and more remote from the Flemish tussentaal than Brabantian (as you pointed out correctly). Therefore those dialects tend to be better preserved and when West Flemish people from different parts of the province meet, they will often resort to a common way which you could identify as "west flemish tussentaal". This might be true for the eastern part, Limburg, as well, but I'm less familiar with that area. A general observation - there used to be a time when Flemish watched Dutch television, resulting in a stronger influence on our language. Given the disproportionate population, the influence has always been one directional. Around the nineties, the rise of commercial television in Flanders disrupted that influence and "tussentaal" took over as a standard. Recently thought, the rise of social media has again bridged the Flemish and DUtch youngsters and their popular culture, so that at least the "youth language" now bears more similarity and we see a revival of the Dutch influence on our language, since the elders take over fashionable terms from their kids.

[@henlofrens]

Ironically in NL we still use etage

[@flitsertheo]

In Belgium we call the type of house with a garage as ground floor and everything else on the higher floors a "bel-étage".

[@xThefoRS]

As a Dutch Dutch Native speaker, the Dutch speaker in the video sounds really off. He's trying to pronounce standard textbook Dutch, but no one I've ever heard speaks like this. There are also some mistakes in pronounciation. For example: the singular indefinite article in Dutch Dutch is the same word as the word for "one", both are "een", but are pronounced differently. The indefinite article is pronounced more closely to unstressed "an" in English. Also, Dutch native speakers, just like Flemish speakers, drop a lot of final Ts. All of this makes the difference seem a lot bigger than it actually is.

[@kilianhekhuis]

The t-dropping is mainly in the South (esp. Brabant and Limburg).

[@Jothamvvw]

I personally live on the border between the "Northern" and "Southern" dialects in The Netherlands. Depending on whether I'm speaking with a southerner (e.g. at work and with some parts of my family) my accent is much more southern and I use some southern dialectical words, but with friends, most other family members and people I don't know it's as close to Standard Dutch as one could reasonably expect, even reinserting consonants I wouldn't even pronounce in my own city (for example final t or n)

[@pierreabbat6157]

I don't speak Dutch (except for some tonguetwisters and words), but I noticed "een". I've seen it written "één" for the number to distinguish it from the article.

[@kilianhekhuis]

@@pierreabbat6157 yes, "één" is common, though not used everywhere.

[@Alex_Gordon]

AI voice?

[@DavidEnker]

I am from Haarlem, the place where the most standardized, "proper" form of Dutch is spoken, but I prefer Flemish literature, movies, TV and comedy over Dutch ones any day, as it is not so stiff, dry and badly acted. That said, I sometimes describe Haarlem as the "northernmost city of Belgium", as it has a nice old open square in the centre with lots of good restaurants, with Vlaamse Friet and locally brewed beer 😋

[@DavidEnker]

BTW, highly recommended comes the Netflix show 'High Tides' (or 'Knokke Off' in Dutch), a Dutch-Flemish co-production.

[@RealSteve2907]

I recently saw the open square on NPO's 80 Jaren Oorlog and I was pleasantly surprised, it looked Belgian indeed

[@BertVerschuren]

Always welcome in the deep south my friend!

[@hansmemling2311]

Wow, Ik ben het niet gewoon dat men mijn cultuur zo een groot compliment geven. Bedankt :)

[@NeichoKijimura]

There's a few things I'd like to add about the history of Tussentaal. It really began in the 50's, when the governemnt tried to force the use of Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (General Civilised Dutch). It declared that Flemish Dutch was actually just improper and encouraged people to stop speaking it. It replaced common words with weird, unual neologisms. Like instead of garage, it wanted you to use Autobergplaats (Car storage place). People really didn't like this and their dialects being called uncivilised. At this time, tussentaal was already forming so people backed it, and it kepts spreading. So the governemnt largely stopped forcing this Hollandic dialect. The sentiment is noticeable in songs like "'t Is Vlaams, 't trekt op geen kloten" by Wannes Van De Velde. And now, it's the language of everyday life here. And correct Dutch is now AN, without the civilised bit.

[@Neophlegm]

This is a really cool fact. So it was almost a reaction to avoid a more unnatural 'forced' version?

[@NeichoKijimura]

@@Neophlegm It was not because of that that it emerged, but it gained massive amounts of popularity because of it.

[@ccatarinajm7114]

@@NeichoKijimura da' was interessant. Da' wist ik niet eens. Hebben ze ons nooit op school verteld. Ik kan me wel herinneren dat in de jaren '80 programma's op de BRT soms echt nep klonken (ik denk aan Merlina en zo) en ook toen VTM kwam was dat nog geforceerd, maar nu is dat er toch uit.

[@PainterVierax]

@@NeichoKijimura doesn't the VRT and most federal institutions still use ABN?

[@FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog]

Hier in Nederland had ge 't zelfde beleid, men moest ABN praten mè kinderen want dà was goed voor hun hersenen, door 't praten in dialect werden ze dom. Dì het op verschillende plekken gewerkt en op andere totaal nie. Nederlands Limburg is 'n goei voorbeeld van waar 't totaal nie aansloeg.

[@EasyDutch]

Heel interessant te zien hoe het Vlaams soms gewoon oude taalverschijnselen van het Nederlands heeft behouden, zoals nen/een/en voor het onbepaald lidwoord, of bepaalde woorden die men in Nederland niet meer gebruikt. Wederom grappig te zien voor hoeveel woorden Vlamingen een Frans leenwoorden gebruiken in plaats van het oorspronkelijke Nederlandse woord. Héél interessant onderwerp! 😄

[@soplv605]

Interesting video! As a Flemish person, “ik ga ik” is something I’ve never heard in my life and “kik” as in “denk da kik ga” is only used to make the pronunciation easier as “da ik” is slower to pronounce. People will say “da kik” or “da’k” but I wouldn’t consider this intentional doubling of pronouns. I also would add that, as you said, the different dialects vary a lot. In reality there’s way more overlap between Flemish tussentaal and Dutch and most of the “Flemish” words you showed are from dialect. The tussentaal word would probably be the Dutch one pronounced in a Flemish way. When I’m in Amsterdam people often respond to me in English 😅

[@WolfGubbelmans]

Da de 'kik is really common in the province antwerpen. The only teacher who never has said that is our teacher dutch who speaks at like 0.5 words a second.

[@fedoralexandersteeman6672]

Great video! In Dutch you can also use "blokken" for studying, but it's more specifically meaning "cramming" ...

[@ccatarinajm7114]

Right, I didn't really agree with the use of blokken either. In general we'll use studeren too, unless you're under stress or you have to learn it by heart in a short timespan. That's when I use "blokken" or "van buiten blokken" (to memorize). Paul, in case you're still reading all the comments, for students from college and university the two (three?) weeks before the exam periods are called "den blok" because you have jam everything into your brains for the exams and that's when we will use the word "blokken" instead of studeren. At least here in Antwerp. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. I honestly loved this video.

[@ronald3836]

@@ccatarinajm7114 So it seems we use "blokken" in the same way. In that case I propose replacing this exampe with "op kot" en "op kamers"!

[@SpeedBird6780]

Studying in a crunch would be my definition.

[@ccatarinajm7114]

@@ronald3836 niet perse, mijn oudste woont gewoon thuis, maar die heeft ook moeten blokken, de afgelopen maand. Als je toch al in Antwerpen woont, waarom zou je nog op kot gaat als je hier studeert? 't Eén heeft niet perse iets met 't ander te maken, toch?

[@DavidJames-q1l]

Blokken is usually used in Flemish for "cramming" for final exams. I suspect this may be true in Dutch Dutch as well. Flemish definitely uses studeren for normal studying.

[@PeperazziTube]

Dutch person from Dutch Limburg, lived in Gent (Oost-Vlaanderen) for 5 years: for normal work communication which was in "tussentaal", no real problems. For talking to contractors and people in stores, it requires learning to understand the Gent dialect. Note that understanding the Oost-Vlaanders Gent dialect does not give you any help with understanding people from West-Vlaanderen, which is only 30 km away. Even worse, understanding the West-Vlaanders Brugs dialect does not help you understand the West-Vlaander Kortrijks dialect :).

[@klapsigaarenbasgitaar1931]

Sounds exactly like my experience coming from Amsterdam to study in Maastricht. Kerkrade dialect is completely different from Maastricht dialect. It's just that noone will speak these dialects to you once they realise that you're not from there.

[@lemastre]

As a West-Flemish person from Waregem who lived in Ghent. I feel for you. :)

[@freakyfishy1]

Wow, as a German speaker I need to say that the Flemish dialect is way more comprehensible to me than Standard Dutch "ich haa oech pertang geire ne leste kee gezien" "ich hätte euch jedoch gerne ein letztes Mal gesehen" - (note that "Kehr" is also used in my German Mosel Frankish dialect for time instead of "Mal" - it comes from the Latin word Curvus for "round")

[@lucaslourenco8918]

I'm not a native, but as far as I remember, maal could also be used in standard Dutch instead of keer, although sounding more formal. No idea if it's used in Flemish dialects, though.

[@mayastic9570]

@@lucaslourenco8918 Not that I know of, it might be in some far flung dialect that I don't know but I've never heard it in everyday use. I've only ever seen it used like that on TV or in books.

[@TheRotterdam1979]

That's because this particular example is from Limburg dialect in the east. I have lived in Maastricht and they use similar words. In fact a friend of mine from Maastricht can speak his dialect in Berlin and people simply understand him just fine. Try something from West Vlaanderen and you'll probably find it a bit harder to understand.

[@Auralegends]

Flemish speaker here, the Grammar parts on doubling pronouns or the "gellie" part are really specific to a regional dialect and are not considered "tussentaal" as far as I know For the French loanwords: in Flanders we also use the same words as in NL, the loanwords are more often considered "tussentaal"

[@dimitrikasztanovics4959]

Comprehensive research! Congratulations, one of the first vids that actually explains how difficult Vlaams actually is! Goe gedaan, menneke!

[@WolfGubbelmans]

ff zegge sommige echt blokken in plaats van leren of studere? 'k hem nog nooit iemand da blokke hore noeme.

[@pimdegroot9656]

Informative video! Side note Dutch “Krant” for newspaper is also a French loan word derived from courant. It would be interesting to see you do a follow up with a comparison between Dutch and Afrikaans, which is a sister language of Dutch.

[@violjohn]

In Afrikaans it is “koerant “ closer to the French

[@Delzaan]

​@@violjohn Afrikaans speaker myself here, the Dutch Krant is a contraction of Koerant

[@violjohn]

@@Delzaan Ja seker, I was wondering if the French Huguenot influence helped to keep it as koerant here in SA

[@JeroenJA]

Huh? French say gazette! Witch is also common in several Flemish dialect.. i thougth Krant was the Germanic based word???

[@mariusvtube]

He did one about 7 years ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3qXanyneaianZo

[@schaumi396]

The "poepen" example is cute! We Germans use cognates for both: pupsen = to defacate, poppen = to have sex.

[@javicruz9754]

this had me guessing how it could lead to some gross misunderstandings lol

[@KenStreetman]

We also have the synonym "vogelen" like you use "vögeln" in German.

[@SarahConnor618]

Let's go to the toilet. "Poepen?" Exactly!

[@jolotschka]

Pupsen is more farting than pooing 😊

[@Vugoseq]

I've heard "poepen" used to mean farting/passing gas in some regions, I'm sticking to synonyms for all 3 and avoid the confusion.

[@arneperschel]

Native Dutch speaker from Flanders here. Your channel is a trusted source of very accurate information about languages and this video is no exception. I have only minor quibbles that aren't even worth mentioning. I have lived abroad for about 15 years and the most stubborn myth I always encounter, is that people think Dutch and Flemish are two different languages. They are most certainly not. We share the same dictionary, the same grammar rules, the same language academy, common language and spelling competitions, etc., despite minor differences. I usually make people understand by comparing to British English and American English (or Australian, Irish, etc.). The difference is roughly the same. The funny thing is, that even when I'm done explaining, people usually respond with: "Ah! So, it's kind of like Swedish and Norwegian or like Spanish and Italian!" That just shows how convinced people are that they are different languages. So, please my fellow Dutch speakers, can we please all make an effort to not misinform our friends abroad? Yes, there are minor differences, but we clearly speak the same language, regardless of your political views. ----- On mutual intelligibility: Flemish people usually understand everything Dutch people say because we have been exposed to their accent since childhood. The other way round much less so, because the Dutch tend to forget that we also exist (18m vs. 6m), so many of them have barely ever heard our accent. This can be compared to New Zealand English. You don't necessarily encounter it very often and the first encounter might be surprisingly hard to understand. But the mutual intelligibility of written standard Dutch is virtually 100%. I would go as far as to say that they are in many cases indistinguishable, meaning you wouldn't be able to guess which country the author is from.

[@AmedeeVanGasse]

The difference is even smaller than UK and US English. It's more like Australian English versus New Zealand English.

[@apveening]

Even in written Dutch there are distinguishing characteristics, mostly in choice of words, sometimes also in the sequence of them. But according to the best definition of a language, Flemish is a different language than Dutch. (A language is a dialect with a fleet and an army.)

[@Ruudos]

"Tien voor Taal" (mostly won by the Flemish) wouldn't have been a show if Dutch and Flemish weren't the same language.

[@jandevisser2385]

@@AmedeeVanGasse I disagree. I'm native Dutch but consider myself an almost-native English speaker now (Canadian) and I have to listen pretty hard to figure out if people are Aussie or Kiwi, while I'm pretty sure that everybody with a passing knowledge of spoken Dutch can hear the difference between Dutch Dutch and tussentaal (A term I didn't know existed lol). I'd put the difference between Dutch Dutch (Double Dutch?) and tussentaal somewhere along the same lines as New England US English and Southern or Appalachian US English.

[@B0K1T0]

"They are most certainly not.".. As with many things, this depends on what aspects you are comparing in in what context / from what point of view. Even if they're strictly not different languages (but such claims are not at all trivial to decide for languages, by their nature), in practice they can still behave like they are in certain ways. For example, subtitles for tv / films are often specifically created in an NL or BE variant (or both) because it would get very difficult to quickly read and understand for a large part of the audience otherwise).

[@matthewpentecost9604]

Non-native (but otherwise highly fluent) Standard Dutch speaker here. I was surprised how much I learned from this video about our neighbours to the south, so many thanks for diving into the differences! One interesting sidenote is that many (but certainly not all) of the "Flemish" vocabulary words you mentioned can also be used in Dutch, especially depending on one's region. There's very famously a patat/friet border, where people in the south of the Netherlands use the latter when describing fries, and northerners use the former. In general, I can understand people from around Antwerp, but any other Flemish dialects are a lost cause. I would also agree with your assessment that standard Dutch is taking over the Netherlands; even in areas well outside the Randstad (where standard Dutch is most spoken), many kids are growing up speaking it, although many of them have adopted the Dutch equivalent of a "Valley girl" accent, which can be grating at times. Finally, a fun little bit of trivia: I think they recently retired the term, but for the longest time, what you refer to as standard Dutch was called "algemeen beschaafd Nederlands" , or literally "general civilized Dutch". As you can imagine, that ruffled some feathers 😂

[@lucalavrauw1897]

Really nice work on the video! I'm from West Flanders myself and we have different grades of dialect. Older people usually have a very thick dialect, whilst younger people have a lighter dialect mixed with standard language, English and French. But when talking to people from other regions and people from the Netherlands we tend to switch to the more universally understandable tussentaal. Although a lot of the same words have a different meaning, we are aware of this when speaking to these other people so we adapt our thinking, so most of the time there is no real issue.

[@i.k.8868]

Less than 5% different in vocabulary I would wager. But I had family near the border, went to Flanders nearly every year, watched Flemish TV almost as much as Dutch TV, read Flemish comics, etc. When you watch Flemish comedy shows, you get exposed to all different kinds of dialects, so it becomes really easy to understand. I use some Flemish vocabulary and structures, so sometimes people that only know me from online communication ask if I am Flemish. lol

[@tinfoilhomer909]

As somebody who studied in South Holland I have no problem communicating in Dutch, but older people talking Vlaams is like gibberish.

[@junk__account7610]

Can you recommend some Flemish comedy?

[@ccatarinajm7114]

@@tinfoilhomer909 why thanks! 🤣😂

[@JohnnyYounitas]

What would you say is more similar Flemish/Dutch or AmericanEnglish/BritishEnglish??

[@ccatarinajm7114]

@@junk__account7610 I will check in on the answer to this too because apart from Geert Hoste, there isn't somebody I would compare. I think most Flemish comedians are too over the top with their dialect, accent or dirty talk. Phillippe Geubels maybe? I watch Arjen Lubach now. Funny accent but he's into politics too, like Geert Hoste was. I hope other people can give more ideas.

[@robthetraveler1099]

I speak some Dutch (not fluently), but I was quite surprised at how different the Flemish accent was. I could understand most of what the Netherlands Dutch speaker was saying, but I struggled to understand anything the Belgian said.

[@pvisit]

A bit too much dialect examples compared to the 'tussentaal'

[@Lakigigar]

I sometimes have struggle understanding dutch people because of their accent too, but it differs from person to person. Like on dutch television, some people their accent are easier to understand than others. And i recall having trouble watching some dutch films without dutch subtitles.

[@verrezen]

A lot of ‘flemish’ you dug up there is local dialect and spoken dialect to boot. No one but a ninkapoop writes it down like that.

[@jfrancobelge]

I'm in a similar but reverse situation. As a French speaker living in Belgium, I also speak some Dutch though not fluently. But being exposed to our Flemish neighbors it's easier for me to understand Tussentaal" thant Dutch Dutch.

[@jfrowiess]

the Dutch speaker in the examples speaks a lot clearer and slower than your typical Dutch neighbour, thats for sure haha

[@provocase]

I'm Dutch and I've been born and raised near the city of Tilburg at less then 20 km from the border with Belgium in the province of North-Brabant. Our local dialect is the 1st language I learned, it's my mother tongue. My whole family on both sides speak dialect, as did basically my whole social environment in my younger years in the 70s. Standard Dutch is my 2nd language, in a sense. First it was the language from tv and the radio, and from some people originally not from my province. By the time I went to school standard Dutch entered my personal life. Long story short: my dialect is about 95% the same as the Flemish/Tussentaal that's being explained here. And I love it! It's so soft and pleasent! And in a way it's an older form of Dutch. or rahter still close to older Dutch. We still have cases in our grammar for instance. Something that has long disappeared in Standard Dutch - bar from some very few fossilised constructions like: 's avonds (des avonds) [in the evening]. Sadly dialects are disappearing fast now,,,

[@gstads]

Thank you for this comment. Exactly my feeling when watching this. Differences between Standard Dutch and Flemish aren't as black and white as presented in this video. It is basically a language continuum. The closer you grow up to the Belgian border, the more "Flemish" your dialect. Almost every single example presented as Flemish in this video applies to the Dutch province of North Brabant as well. Great video though, but very Leuven centric. Flemish dialects from Antwerp, Ghent, the coast or Limburg sound completely diffeeenr.

[@wibbol]

I grew up near Tilburg and still live there; and the beauty I think of this video is that, despite how much of the Tussentaal being described also applying to my local dialect, I could still pick out any Belgian who crosses the border hearing them speak just one sentence! Something about the Flemish tone of speaking, or the difference in how certain phonemes are treated makes it instantly stand out… I’m not sure how to quantify that little “Flemish” sauce, the same kind you hear when someone from (Dutch) Limburg, or east of Eindhoven is talking to you, even if they’re speaking regular language and not dialect at all; you instantly catch them out.

[@BAn-hy3ts]

Waarom leert een ouder een boerendialect aan als 1e taal. Blijft lachwekkend 😂

[@andreash3906]

I don't know what your sources were, but you nailed most things spot on! (Native flemish speaker here)

[@alexmeire1245]

I am Flemish and I have never heard of the word tussentaal, thank you for explaining it to me. 😊

[@sheppardWG]

Another great video, thanks for covering this! I am a native Flemish speaker and have no trouble understanding our neighbours to the north. It's worth noting that the difference in Flemish dialects is astounding for a rather tiny region. The accents can change rapidly as well, you can get an audible difference with a mere 15min. drive. Adding to that, I grew up on the border with the Netherlands and the accent is different on both sides of the (barely visible) border. I personally love the variety, though it does pose difficulties for new learners, like my English partner 😅

[@leonardowynnwidodo9704]

As an Indonesian, especially since I’m studying in the Netherlands, learning Dutch is as if it’s a combination of English, German and a touch of Indonesian in it, considering the language has a lot of Dutch loanwords (e.g. “kamar” from “kamer”, “handuk” from “handdoek” and “koper” from “Koffer”). I never talked to a Flemish person before, since I rarely travel outside the Netherlands, so this video gives me a bit of insight as to how Tussentaal is spoken. Also, I believe French fries is also spoken as “friet” in DUTCH Dutch, together with “patat”; I learned that playing Duolingo. Finally, could you, if possible, also do a comparison video of Dutch and Indonesian some time in the future? Just for fun. Thanks in advance. Groeten uit Indonesië 🇳🇱 Salam dari Indonesia 🇮🇩

[@r.a.h7682]

This is what British colonization has done to the brains of people. English is actually the mix between Dutch/French/Greek/German.

[@ferretyluv]

I mean, they’re two completely unrelated languages. That’s like asking to compare Chinese and Hindi.

[@leonardowynnwidodo9704]

@@ferretyluv true, but like I said, Indonesian has a lot of loanwords borrowed from Dutch, so it’s not *that* unrelated

[@riazedn4728]

Well Suriname Dutch from Suriname will suite you because there are MANY javanese people here . Salamat from Surnaam

[@leonardowynnwidodo9704]

@@riazedn4728 so, a comparison between Indonesian Javanese and Surinamese Javanese? Not a bad idea

[@Punklusky]

I’m a native French speaker from Belgium now living in Canada. I learnt Dutch at school from 12 to 18 and mastered enough my Dutch to be able to enter the Belgian Army as a student officer (for which Dutch is mandatory). That’s funny how my Dutch prononciation is 100% the Belgian one but my grammar, my vocabulary and nearly anything else is the standardized Dutch from The Netherlands :-D The only exception would be some flamish words borrowed from French like frieten, blokken (we say « bloquer » instead of « étudier » (to study) in Belgian French and that French verb is not understood in France or Quebec at all). I understand « poepen » as « to fuck » since in Vlaams we would say « schijten » to say « to shit ». Anyway, that was an interesting video! Thank you for that!

[@janeygenraam7923]

Schijten of kakken😂

[@jessehayford1991]

What an amazing rundown of the difference between Dutch and Flemish. Some examples I thought were a bit to far towards the actual dialect rather then being tussentaal. Specifically the example of stappen seems a bit off from my point of view. Flemish people also use stappen to go out, "een stappke doen", "een stappke in de wereld zetten". "wandelen" is more commonly used in tussentaal to say you are going for a walk. Yet another example, allthough very nuanced. in tussentaal we use "waarom" rather than "voorwa". We also use "voorwa" but it has a more aggressive feel to it. So in a conversation with someone where you ask them to do something and they respond with "voorwa", you kind of feel like he is disrespecting you. As someone from Flanders who grew up in both Flanders (Antwerp) as the Netherlands (Rotterdam) I always noticed that people from the Netherlands find our Flemish weird and funny. Dutch people also tend to have difficulties getting used to the Flemish accent. It is also peculiar that Flemish people tend to "clean-up" their speaking when talking to dutch people. I used to do it myself but have since stopped doing that. Again amazing rundown or our language.

[@WolfGubbelmans]

'K weet ni ma hier in antwerpen, zelfs in tussetaal zeggen we nooit "een stapke doen" ma soit

[@SwissPGO]

I grew up in Flanders (Antwerp region) - studied in Brussels, then PhD in Mol and Paris and them moved to Amsterdam for several years. I now have almost forgotten my native language after 25+ years living in Switzerland. I saved the video because sometimes people ask me about these differences, and I think you're spot on.

[@Eazyrun]

I'm from west Germany, close to the dutch and belgian border (Aachen, Eifel, Düren, Stolberg, that region), so I grew up close to these countries, and with our regional dialect, rhineland platt (rheinisches Plattdeutsch). To me, both tussentaal and standard dutch are inaudible to me. I've always been most familiar with regional dialects close to the dutch and belgian borders. And I love how we all say that damn G differently lmao

[@flokkert5513]

Hello, native dutch dutch speaker here. Usually there is no problem communicating with any Flemish speakers. But when the regional dialect is too heavy, there will be less you pick up in conversation. Important side note to the statement above is however. That because of all the regional dialects in the Netherlands as well, the same problem arises with regional dialects in my own country. In conclusion a dutch dutch speaker might understand a tussentaal flemish speaker better than a regional dialect speaker in their own country.

[@ifer1280]

As a Dutchman from below the rivers, I speak with a softer G, drop t's, and use friet instead of patat. I never learned Brabantian dialect (though I can hear the difference between Brabantian dialects in the Netherlands), and it's dying in the Netherlands. It may be in decline in Belgium, but nowhere near as much as it is in the Netherlands.

[@epv033]

I am a Flemish speaker from Antwerp and I think this video is an excellent summary of the difference between Dutch and Flemish

[@Electricity0]

Very fun video to watch. In Mechelen (Flanders) we would've said that example sentence as follows: "Ik had aa geire nog ne leste kee gezien."

[@erikvandervelden7274]

I'm a Dutch native from Noord-Brabant. The funny thing is that a lot of what you told about Flemish is true for my local dialect (Midden Brabants, Tilburg/Waalwijk region). I recognized a lot of your examples for Flemish from my own dialect. Like dropping the 't' at the end of a word, pronounciation and the use of genders. Most people in the Netherlands will definantly hear that I'm from Brabant. Usually I dont have any problems understanding Tussentaal or Flemish dialects close to Antwerp and the Dutch border. It becomes more difficult the further west you go (e.g. West Vlaams). PS: In Brabant we also say friet.

[@tresenie]

If you look at the dialect map, you'l see that Noord-Brabant , Antwerpen and Zuid/Vlaams-Brabant are the same dialect group.

[@sooox_cc]

I've been living in Belgian Limburg my whole life and dont understand a word of West Vlaams either often even when they are trying to speak Algemeen Nederlands I still have a lot of trouble understanding everything

[@amosamwig8394]

@@treseniebrain enlightenment moment.

[@willemvandebeek]

Dutch citizen here and I had no idea of those differences in Vlaanderen. I didn't expect to learn so much from this video. o_O

[@DanielvanderScheun]

I'm a Brazilian living for almost two decades in the Netherlands, my partner is Dutch and we go often to Belgium for visit as his brother lives there and is married to a Belgian lady. At first sight, you would say: it's all Dutch but it gets complicated the longer a conversation goes and the longer you stay. Different words and the accent blocks you from understanding what has been said. But I pretty much love the differences.

[@berttroubleyn3475]

I (from East Flanders, so belgian Dutch speaker) am profoundly impressed by the feat you've pulled off here. This is a pretty broad and yet encompassing view on the differences between Dutch Dutch and Flemish. Also: I'm not going to speak for all Flemish people, but usually Flemish people have less trouble understanding other dialects or accents than their own. My guess is because we have to 'switch' between Dutch, tussentaal and our local dialect on a daily basis, whereas many Dutch people stay within 'their' standard Dutch. But that's just a theory of mine.

[@elouan.onirio]

Thank you. I'm from a family that turned French-speaking like a lot of families in Brussels. I loved your video. You made me so happy and proud of my beloved roots and I even understand better some of the things my "Boma" (grandmother) used to say. You made my day!! Huge thumb up!! ❤👍

[@mennovanpoecke6026]

This video is awesome. I (or my family) have lived for my entire life around the border here. People from both countries are easy to understand for me. When I left here for study in Rotterdam there where far more issues with understanding :-). For example: the word for rake is hark there, here it is reif. Actually it is an ongoing thing. I can hear almost from what city people are comming from! Every City has got their own dialect in The Netherlands (not Holland). The only time when I did not got it was when a Flemmish person talked about een verrijker. thought he meant een verrekijker. Verrijker is hoogwerker in Dutch :-)

[@BartPietercil]

I think the Flemish person was talking about a ‘ver - reiker’ as in far-reacher (hoogwerker) and you mixed up with ‘verrekijker’ (‘farlooker’ if you want). Perfectly understandable mistake ….😅

[@nielshaentjens5758]

I would like to remark that at 15:15 nobody would spell it like 'swat'. It should be 'soit', as it originates from the French for 'so be it'. But otherwise, such a great video! As a native speaker of Flemish, I think that modern spoken Dutch is diverging rapidly from Flemish because of some sound changes, while the Flemish dialects (and the tussentaal) are a bit more conservative. If you watch the news in Flemish, I think it kinda sounds like the Dutch news from 50 years ago. Another strange fun fact: as you can see in this video, Flemish has a lot of French influence, but this is not always the case. I find it rather amusing that Dutch people pronounce 'dossier' (a file, case study) with a French pronunciation /dɔˈʃeː/, while in Flanders it has been 'dutchified' to /dɔˈsiːr/

[@ronald3836]

Indeed, Flemish is not rarely "more Dutch" than Dutch. And I wonder if the video has "etage" backwards. In Dutch we use etage and verdieping equally often. Google tells me that verdieping is more common in Flemish than etage. Another example is "regenscherm" which no Dutch person will ever use. (De vandale website beweert zelfs dat regenscherm geen woord is.)

[@Frilouz79]

and "schoonbroer" sounds like a calque of the French "beau-frère".

[@irakyl]

ik dacht altijd dat het van het engelse 'so what' kwam... het leek logisch in mijn hoofd want ik begon het meer en meer te horen in het middelbaar circa 2016 en ik ging er gewoon van uit dat het internet slang was

[@ronald3836]

@@irakyl Woon je in België of Nederland?

[@BartPietercil]

@@irakyl: honi soit qui mal y pense. Dat had je al in je lagere school kunnen horen… als je een tweetalige meester of juffrouw had 😅😊

[@ShonnMorris]

Great video Paul! I like how you added some humor in there too. As an American, for whatever reason I have always been interested in the Dutch language and knew there were differences between Netherlands Dutch and Flemish. I didn't know that Flemish still uses three genders. Some of the differences in vocabulary seem to be on par with the differences between British and American English. Some of the grammar differences seem to be a bit more significant. Please keep making more videos about Dutch. There just isn't enough information out there about it.

[@FarangNick]

I always explain the difference between Flemish and Netherlands Dutch like the difference between British and American English. It's an easy comparison which works.

[@benwil6048]

Very nice video, as a flemish person I want to add I’ve never ever heard “ik ga ik” lol. It could be in a longer sentence though, but that would be with the “kik” form. Like “ik ga kik naar de winkel” (I’m going to the store). I would say “ik ben weg” (“I am gone”), more tussentaal-ey would be “ik zen weg”. Also possible is “ik ben door”but not sure how that translates literally

[@dennisengelen2517]

I grew up in East-Limburg (BE) in the town of Maasmechelen whereI spoke dialect with family and some people I knew (this is a town where over half is migrant or of migrant ancestry due to the coal mines in the past, two biggest subhmunicipalities are very cosmopilitan while the 6 other villages are still overall more homogenous) and now I live in the West of Limburg (BE) in Tessenderlo, where they have the 'Kempische' dialect instead of Limburgish dialect. Soime confusions in the beginning were just different words like wortelen (carrots) being called 'péékes' or 'poewten' but also words that sound the same but mean something different like Kersen (cherries) and kaarsen (candles) are both pronounced 'Kesse' (or that's how it sounds to me lol). Tussentaal is just another kind of 'Brabants' (Antwerp especially) mixed with some Flemish to me though, which is why I feel like people from Limburg are more likely to speak proper standard Dutch with Flemish loan words from French like 'chauffage' and 'ge'/'gij' in a singing tone but apart from that I feel like we speak the most 'clean' and are able to switch between that and our dialect (many other regions can't speak no dialect even if they want to) because there's very few Limburgish elements in 'Tussentaal'.

[@ralphcallebert]

And, don't forget to put pretty much everything in the diminutive! Everything has to be tiny! I never really noticed it until my English-speaking husband pointed it out. Now I cannot stop hearing it. On a flight to Brussels, they told us before landing that 'in een klein kwartiertje gaan we een klein ontbijtje serveren'. Not just diminutive, but you had to say 'klein' as well! We wondered whether we were going to be served two bread crumbs!

[@noneofyourbusiness4496]

Very interesting episode! I'm from North-Brabant in The Netherlands, my mother tongue (dialect) is indeed halfway between Standard Dutch and Flemish. Interesting example: newspaper is "gazet" in Flemish (from the French "gazette") and "krant" in Dutch (from the French "courant"!).

[@klapsigaarenbasgitaar1931]

Great vid! As a dutchman living in Belgium I would remark that I had never heard of this double pronoun thing. Never noticed it until now but I should pay more attention maybe. Another thing is that I don’t think that I have ever heard a Flemish person refer to his bike as a ‘velo’. You are right when you talk about our respective words for ‘fries’ but I would like to add that when in Flanders they refer to ‘patatten’ they refer to potatoes, so that’s even more confusing for Dutch people. For instance at a daycare where they told me that kids get ‘patatjes’ almost every day. Another greeting that is used quite a lot in Flanders derived from French is ‘hé là-bas or hélaba’, which sounds unfamiliar to most Dutch. One thing I think you should have mentioned is the ‘Taalunie’. As I understand it, The Netherlands and Flanders have formed a taalunie where they agree on the language rules for standard Dutch. This means that officially and legally there is only one version of Dutch in both countries whose rules are governed by the Taalunie which consists of Dutch and Flemish representatives, fifty fifty I believe. I believe this has been especially important in Belgium to ensure equal rights for Dutch next to French. Keep up the good work!

[@Matthigast]

It's somewhat common in Oost & West Vlaanderen, but it's also used in Zeeuws dialect. Though "ik ga ik" is not a thing I've ever heard someone say, that'd be "'kga'kik" Though in tussentaal I'd say 90% of people drop those. We do call bicycles "velo" or "vlo" (Antwerpen) or "villo" (West Vlaanderen), but we also automatically talk more A(B)N when talking with Dutch people since we know they'd not understand some words.

[@smoshbooz]

Fun video, but quite a few things were off. For example, the tussentaal examples were often presented as counting for the whole of "tussentaal" when they were very specific region exclusive dialect words. Also, tussentaal isn't a standardized sort of language that's in between, it's merely the zone were most speakers find themselves in 99% of the time but everyone still uses their own dialect and words that are distinct. So an example was the "gelle" form, plural of "ge/gij". Gelle is really only used in dialects from certain areas, and definitely not by most people. "Jullie", the standard form, is far more often used by most people even informally. Only ge/gij/u differs from formal Dutch. (Also also, gelle isn't the only variation of jullie, eg. ulle, gellie, gie... But only in dialects) Another error is the double negation thing. Same thing again, only in some dialects do peope say "dakik" or "hebbekik" instead of "dat ik" and "heb ik". Also, the tripling of "ik" is just the same thing, only very regional dialect. Most people don't say "ik ganekik" but just say "ik ga/kga". I think you based your info a bit too much on one source that happened to be using his own dialect. Like, "klappen" is only used by people from one region and not the others when speaking "tussentaal"

[@anubisu1024]

The relation between “walk” and “run” is really like to what in Chinese and Japanese. walk: 走(C) / 歩(J) run: 跑(C) / 走(J)

[@ColoredIceberg]

As a Dutch speaker I actually learned a lot from this video. I need to learn more about Flemish, as I think it's quite charming. I have to say, the Dutch pronunciation in this video is highly... pronounced. In reality it will be faster and less harsh.

[@HetAlbertkanaal]

The different nouns always lead to funny conversations between me and my friends from The Netherlands

[@puellanivis]

The limited Dutch I have always learned and heard is mostly from Limburg in NL, and so when I see Dutch people saying patatas, I’m like, WTF? No, they’re frieten! I’m also weirded out by calling the Maas anything other than the Maas. I also live in Germany, and speak German fluently, so Maas is 👍there as well. Then I see the English name: Meuse, and I’m just like… no. 😭no!

[@TomGeller]

Non-native NL Dutch speaker here. Nicely done, but I was surprised you didn't point out the feature between Dutch and Flemish that's most obvious to me: The diminuitives. (Dutch: huisje; Flemish: huiske). Also, a funny thing about the dropped "t" -- in Rotterdam, NL (where I live), they sometimes *add* a "t" at the end after an "r". E.g. "Ik ben een Rotterdamert" (I am a Rotterdamer). :D

[@jeroenmeuleman8110]

Based on anecdotal observation but I have the impression T-dropping seems to be occurring more often in the Netherlands than it used to. Also Tom, the Flemish diminutive of "huis" would be "huizeke".

[@TheRotterdam1979]

Rotterdammert here. 😄You are absolutely right and I have no idea where that T came from. We also tend to put it in the first person singular where it obviously doesn't belong according to Dutch grammer rules. So we can say "ik doet er niks aan" / "ik gaat naar huis" / "ik ziet de haven al." The latter being the title of an actual local TV program (not sure if it's still running though). What also happens is an ending T causing the prior consonant to be dropped. The best example is "markt". Local speakers often drop te k making it sounds like "mart". This is also sometimes used as a verb: we gaan marten. I always wondered if this is where names like Walmart come from. It could very well have been introduced by Dutch speakers via New Amsterdam / early New York.

[@ronald3836]

Manneke Pis :)

[@ronald3836]

@@TheRotterdam1979 Haha, my father (from a small village south of Rotterdam) can also say "ik gaat naar huis" en "ik ziet hem". And some of his verbs are stronger than usual, e.g. "ik roch hem" = "ik raakte hem". In some instances I insert a "t" myself before "ie". Als-t-ie haast maakt, dan redt hij het nog. (Apparently not everybody inserts that t, as I once learned to my surprise.)

[@TheRotterdam1979]

@@ronald3836 Alstie with a T depends on the context. Alstie means "als hij" but you could also say azzie and then it's "als je". It's weird to write this stuff down though. 😅

[@pikilic4481]

As a French learning English and German, this video was especially informative, helpful, reassuring and confusing at the same time :D

[@GeoDetective]

I'm Dutch and learned a lot from this video. Even though I heared most of it, I didn't quite "know" the rules of Flemish. There is sometimes a little confusion between Dutch and Flemish, but usually that's solved quickly by just repeating the sentence in slightly different wording or just a little slower. I remember that Belgians don't use "pinnen" but "bankcontact". And we had a good laugh about "iemand achter de broek aanzitten" (Dutch) and "iemand achter de veren zitten" (Flemish). Both mean something like "making someone speed up". Litterally: "being behind someones pants" (Dutch) and "being behind someones feathers" (Flemish)

[@BramVanhooydonck]

I want to point out that 'u/uw' is just a conjugation of second person singular 'ge'. It's a separate form called the familiar tense, rather than being a variable of the informal tense. The familiar tense lost favor in the Netherlands and has been forgotten due to standardisation.

[@Fleming375]

Quick addition: only Antwerp and Flemish-Brabant (probaply a chunk of Limburg too) use "gelle" as plural 'you' pronoun, in east and West-Flanders, the words "gunder" and "gulder" are used, they'll be able to get it out of the context but especially the youth will have no idea what the word "gelle" is, there also are some minor diffrences in the rest of this video, like "voorwat" also is mostly only used in Brabantian regions, as a Fleming I can see that this video is mostly based on the Brabantian tussentaal, which as you can see in this comment has some diffrences from classical Flemish tussentaal (East and West Flanders), the person speaking Flemish also has a very neutral Flemish accent, which mostly are people from Flemish-Brabant or the kempen (part of Antwerp province).

[@hvhvgitaar]

Fun to watch as a Flemish person. The explanation uses "tussentaal" as a language, whereas it really is an amalgamation/merger of dialects as consecutive generations are more and more exposed to other dialects and above all to standard Dutch in media and school. Dutch wasn't accepted in Belgium as a language for education beyond primary school until about 90 years ago and universities were mostly teaching exclusively in French until after the second world war. That's why my grandparents never spoke standard Dutch, although they of course understood it. Even today, children are mostly raised in dialect by their parents, hearing standard Dutch only from media and in school. But as people move around more, are increasingly highly educated and are constantly exposed to spoken media, dialects are fading. There are a few mistakes : "blokken" is not "to study". "Blokken" is what you do for hours/days to prepare for an exam by studying/revising. "To study" is simply the standard Dutch "studeren" in Flanders. Flemish people don't really use the word "etage" for floor. They use "verdiep". Ironically, it's mostly Dutch people who sometimes say "etage".

[@ruralsquirrel5158]

It sounds like "blokken" is what we call "to cram" in English.

[@rodjones117]

@@ruralsquirrel5158 Another colloquial word is "swat", as in I"'m swatting for my A levels".

[@hvhvgitaar]

@@ruralsquirrel5158 exactly .

[@ymmv99]

Flemish: verdiep Dutch: verdieping or etage

[@fannetastique9699]

This was so interesting to watch. I'm sure this is true for anyone speaking any language, but you never really consciously notice these different uses when it's your mother tongue, you just automatically switch between the different registers as needed without being able to clearly verbalise the rules. These are minor points, but as other people have said, I do think some examples of tussentaal were very region-specific (though they were all examples that we'd at least all understand, even if very different from our own version of tussentaal). I also think some words are more interchangeable than suggested, like I would commonly use verwarming, verdieping and fiets as much if not more than the tussentaal examples - I think this mainly depends on what part of Flanders you are from. Though I also wouldn't blink if anyone used the suggested "tussentaal" words. A really good and interesting vid overall, though, you definitely taught me some things about my own language! :)

[@YoshYoshrik444]

Well i’m from Belgium and i want to tell you that not everything is right. But for learning the basics, this is a very good video

[@jonathanleroy4381]

In Dutch you say 'je spreekt goed Nederlands' in tussentaal you say 'Ge spreekt goed Nederlands' in West Flemish you say 'Gie sprikt goe Vlams' or even 'Gie klapt goe Vlams'! West Flemish, I love it!

[@WolfGubbelmans]

The random e+ee --> ie is really weird for me in the province antwerp. we do both. We would say "Gij sprieëkt/klapt goe nieëderlands/vloms

[@RoGo259]

I am a Dutch person from the south of the Netherland and I have absolutely no trouble understanding almost every Flemish speaker. Some Flemish accents are a little harder to understand but all (that I've heard at least) are very intelligible to me. I speak standard Dutch but I live and grew up in a pretty rural area and some people, like my father and grandpa, have very thick accents that are a little similar to Flemish accents. I also grew up with a lot of Flemish television (KetNet and studio 100 are my childhood lol) so that may have helped too. I often have a harder time understanding northern accents like the accents spoken in Groningen or Friesland than Flemish, but that may be because of the influence of Frisian and lower Saxon, which aren't even Dutch to begin with

[@svenv9034]

The Flemish "tussentaal" depends on the region. The one used in the video is basically the one spoken in Leuven.

[@GillesBomon]

As a Belgian, I could instantly tell where the flemish speaker in this video was from the first time he spoke in the video. Tussentaal is regional also, where we basically all use the same words, but there is still a pretty strong difference in pronunciation. If you go from Oostende to Brussels on the motoroway, this is less than an hour's drive, you'll find a significant difference in the sound to the speech on every exit you take, and they're far from subtle.

[@wpenris]

Nice video! I've been going to Flanders the last months - I missed the word "camion" - meaning "vrachtwagen" where I heard a person from BE once saying "Ik reed achter ne camion remorque" - I had no idea what that meant. For me, the fun of really meeting and getting to know each other is part of why I try to work in international contexts. However, the social office values (which are quite different in Flanders) are the ones that have been most puzzling to me; these are cultural differences. Dutchies are known for their stubbornness and attitude of knowing it all; People from Flanders are known in NL for their obscured language/indirectness. This is much harder to get the hang of then the language differences overall. The sense of hierarchy is also much stronger in BE; this will have an effect in two ways: if you're high up, you'll be given respect automatically; if you're not higher up than a colleague, they may say in a meeting that they will listen, and meanwhile do something else entirely. This obscurity is critical to learn to figure out. Contrastingly, in NL, speaking up is a base value that will be appreciated especially by people higher up - this directness is what helps them take the best decisions, from an NE cultural stand point.

[@tomvandongen8075]

I'm half English half Belgian and I asked my dad what the equivalent would be in terms of how different he sounds to "standard" Dutch; he said the closest analogy would be a Geordie compared to southern English

[@DaHitch]

Nice seeing a video talking about the differences between the two! Here's a few notes from someone who's not from the South-East Brabant area. ;-) 7:48 This is a nice example of how tussentaal still varies from region to region. To my East Flemish ears "Gelle" sounds completely wrong, in my area we're more likely to use "gulle" or "gunder". 12:08 Another alternative for "stappen" would be "wandelen" (to walk), "stappen" would not be preferred in East Flanders. 13:20 Santé! 14:05 It's not so much that the Dutch words are replaced by the Flemish (French loanword) alternatives, both variants are known and used but it often depends on context. Generally speaking the Flemish variant (gazet) is for an informal context, the Dutch variant (krant) is for a more formal setting. 16:48 'k ha ui nochtans geire ne loaste kir gezien (spelling dialect is hard). I have rarely experienced issues communicating with someone from The Netherlands, in Zeeland the Dutch speak Dutch, but with a Flemish twang to it so it almost sounds like a strange offshoot of Flemish. I have friends in the Maastricht area and I've never had any issue understanding them, although the reverse has not always been true. Some years ago I found myself in Lelystad regularly with people from all over the Netherlands and whenever they spoke Standard Dutch there were no problems, but when some of them spoke in their regional dialect (certainly those from the far North) they were almost unintelligible to me.

[@Edodod]

Great video. Always fun and well researched! Let's add a few things. 1. With the G sounds you forgot one additional variant: The "Flemish Flemish", in the historical Flanders region, West Flanders and East Flanders provinces of Belgium and Zeeuws Vlaanderen of the Netherlands, they often use an "h"-like sound for the g. 2. with the use of "dat" in Flemish Dutch where Dutch Dutch doesnt use it, one is reminded of West-Romance languages. They would use "que" there. 3. The border between "the soft G and the hard G" as well as the "border" between "Friet and Patat" can be said to be not the border between Flanders and the Netherlands, but the Ancient border between Noord-Brabant and "De rivieren", "the rivers", separating also Catholicism and Protestantism after the 80 yrs war in the 16th century. 4. There is some healthy bantering between people "from various parts of the country" both in Flanders, Belgium and the Netherlands, but at the end of the day, I really hope we can preserve our rich cultural diversity, such a small country, and still with so many unique cultures and dialects and languages! 🍻

[@kingyoyo4726]

Flemish speaking Applied Linguistics student here, very good video! A few notes though: - I think "swat" would probably be used more often in the context of "anyway" as to switch subjects - The influence of French is indeed a great one, however I think not nearly everyone would use loanwords derived from French when in a formal situation. Same goes for the doubling of the pronouns and the use of an extra "dat" - About dialects: I have the feeling they are slowly but certainly disappearing, however in my opinion, this goes mostly into the direction of Brabantian. This feeling is mainly based on my own experience, and that of my friends: we have always lived in the region of Halle-Vilvoorde, but we have never had a clue what the "old" people were saying when they used dialect. - To answer your question at the end of the video, I used to go on winter holiday to ski in Swiss yearly, and was usually put in groups with mainly Dutch people in there. They all always claimed not being able to understand me, even though I was perfectly able to understand them. To make for an easier communication, I decided to use their way of speaking, mostly paying attention to the speach and not so much the vocabulary, and then they could suddenly understand me. My best friend was in the same situation, and there way of speaking has honestly become a running joke for the both of us. For example if we're playing a game and our opponent makes an unexpected move we call out "alsjemenou", a Dutch expression we find hilarious, and then we continue making each other laugh with a heavily exaggerated accented speach.

[@reinoutvangeel]

A well informed and very well put together video. As a native speaker (Antwerpen), I beg to differ on two things that aren’t tussentaal. The doubling of subject nouns and the use of ‘e(n)’ as the indefinite article for neuter sg belong firmly to the dialect realm. Also, for a lot of the vocabulary examples, the Dutch (Netherlands) counterparts are also commonly used (e.g. we use both ‘fiets’ and ‘velo’.)

[@Ceelbc]

I went to Amsterdam as a Belgian (Flemish). I asked on the tram if a specific stop was serviced. The person on the tram did not understand me. Then someone from the Netherlands dit repeat me wordt for wordt (I didn't use tussentaal). Then the tram assistant literally said: ooh, and repeated everything what I said word for word. On these moments I think: sorry but you just don't want to understand me.

[@hollaxow3331]

exposure to accents is just a really big factor im sure the guy didnt mean anything by it 😭 I couldn't understand some british accent for the longest time because im never exposed to them

[@ooievaar6756]

In Amsterdam mag je al blij zijn als iemand nog NL spreekt. Daarboven op zijn er sowieso veel snobs. Waarschijnlijk wilde diegene het niet eens proberen

[@Ceelbc]

@@ooievaar6756 Dat was geen snob. Ik bedoel: ik heb het over de trambediende.

[@dutchman7623]

@@Ceelbc Als ze daar ook maar een klein accentje horen, anders dan Jordanees, dan willen ze je niet verstaan... Zelfs iemand van de chrachechorrel verstaan ze niet.

[@BarisTitanX]

It could also be that sometimes people aren't just used to hearing certain accents, and they just don't make the necessary connections to get to the right understanding..

[@ronald3836]

I enjoyed every second of this video! As a native Dutch speaker I can immediately tell when someone speaks Flemish, but actually pinning down the differences is another thing. I was not aware of the term "tussentaal". I also had no idea about the doubling/tripling of "ik" in a sentence. I never consciously noticed that. French words in Flemish and Dutch are funny. Although Flemish probably does have more French loanwords, Flemish people have a far more delicate relationship to French than Dutch people and this has caused them to sometimes prefer the Dutch version over the more standard French loanword. For example, Dutch people use "verdieping" and "etage" about equally often, but Flemish people prefer "verdieping" (contrary to what the video claims). Umbrella in Dutch is always paraplu, but in Flemish it can be both paraplu and regenscherm. In the pre-CD days, record player in Dutch was pick-up from the French(!) pars pro toto "le pick-up". I believe in Flemish it was always platenspeler. (Now that vinyl has made a come back, the Dutch word for record player is also platenspeler.)

[@nero3700]

You probably never noticed the doubling/tripling of "ik" because it isn't widely used, neither is it tussentaal. It's a specific dialect they use in the west-most part of Vlaanderen (OVL & WVL).

[@amOhad131]

Finally another Dutch video

[@TrazynTheKleptomanichad]

a small note I might add is some differences in vocabulary we (Flemish) have not only have root in our secondary language French, but also our tetriary one German. e.g "geire" (gladly) having less in common with the Dutch "graag" and more with the German "gerne"

[@franciscardon223]

Een duidelijk overzicht hoe beide Nederlands gesproken in België en Nederland wordt uitgelegd.👍👌

[@ddiirrkkiiee]

When you study differences between Dutch and Flemish, it is really interesting to look at the dialects. Once you do that, you will see that they’re all the same language (even though some here still think they’re different languages). I’m a native speaker of the Peelland Brabantian dialect of the very eastern part of the Dutch province of North Brabant. Currently I live in South Holland. When I speak in my dialect here with locals, they’ll understand maybe half of what I say if I’m lucky. However, when I am in the Brabantian speaking Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant I can easily hold a conversation in our dialects. Some words are different, but gramatically they’re still practically the same. Limburgish and especially East- and West Flanders Flemish remain largely ininteligible. The way I grew up saying things has also mostly been the same as Flemish Dutch was described in this video (as was also acknowledged early on that this was a possibility).

[@amosamwig8394]

that explains why I can still communicate with the flemish while not understanding a single word.

[@exhxv]

Hi! First of all; compliments on a very well done video. When you zoom in on such a (relatively) 'small' language area it's extremely helpful that you also take into account the many dialects. So, good job on those elements in this video. You don't see that very often and it's very thorough to include that here. Awesome. However, I have to correct you on a certain matter. French Fries -> friet/patat. Why? Because especially in The Netherlands the discussion about whether it is Friet or Patat turned into an actual internet meme with a lot of humor but, in recent years the discussion sometimes gets more serious. More and more sentiment is getting included into the discussion, and sometimes it's taken way too serious. So let's stick to the facts, and de-escalate this 'meme/conflict'. Everybody knows that both FRIET and PATAT are used for French Fries. Period. It's the same dish/food. It's both correct and included in the dictionaries. But, when we're going to elaborate on what is said where - and because you do in the video - we need the information to be correct. And this is the moment where you have made a mistake. In 11:36 of this video you claim that the dutch word for French Fries is patat, and the Belgian word for French Fries is frieten. This is factually incorrect. Let me explain this. It's often said that in in the Netherlands everybody says patat in the north, and friet in the south and your claim in the video may be based on that. However, this is incorrect. The truth is that the word FRIET is used all over The Netherlands and thus is the word that is most used. You will also see and hear it being used in Amsterdam, Haarlem, Utrecht, Groningen, The Hague etc. However, in the west and north a majority of people say patat. The word PATAT in it's turn isn't used all over The Netherlands like Friet is. It's only used in the West (north and south holland provinces) and the north of the country. You will not or very, very seldom see it being used in the east and south of The Netherlands. This is because the word Patat means potato (aardappel) in the south, and the Flemish even use it for 'a smack in the face'. Origin: The origin of the dish is Belgium. The inventors called it patates-frites (potatos, fried). The short name for it quickly became Friet/frieten (dutch) and Frit/Frites (french), naming it after the way the dish is prepared. When the dish spread towards other countries it got different names in different counties (french fries, fries etc) and in the northern parts of The Netherlands they choose to call it (predominantly but not exclusively) patat, because that word was vacant in the dialects spoken there. Friet/Frieten/Frit/Patat. It's all correct, but if you're going to be thorough, and you are in your video, I feel this information is important to mention. Thanks for reading. Keep up the good work. Cheers, Peter.

[@heerser1680]

good info, this is right. i see a lot of friet in the north of Holland but never patat in the south

[@Timmie1995]

Just wrote a whole comment about this and looked down to see if anyone else mentioned it. Yours is much better, so I'll just salute you here :)

[@gideonsmit9910]

Hey Peter, een kleine addendum voor regio's. Ik kom zelf uit Zwolle, Overijssel en ik gebruik normaliter patat of patatje. Friet is meer in gebruik voor de grotere vlaamse frieten of ambachtelijke friet (de lekkerste met schil er nog aan 😊) ook al ligt Zwolle net boven de IJssel en niet zo heel erg noordelijk dus ik kan zowel patat als friet door ellaar gebruiken en niemand zal daar gek van op kijken 😅

[@exhxv]

​@@gideonsmit9910 Hey Gideon, thanks! Hoe is het met de friet/patat tenten bij jullie dan? Wat wordt daar voornamelijk gebruikt op de menukaarten?

[@gideonsmit9910]

@@exhxv heb even met mijn buurvrouw overlegd, in de snackbar haal je patatje oorlog. In een restaurant bestel je friet. We waren beide verward over wat het meest gebruikelijk is 😅 We hebben wel weer het Swolsche Friethuys. Misschien ligt het gewoon aan hoe de maan staat en of jupiter in retrograde staat 😋

[@tobiascornille]

As a Flemish person, many of the "tussentaal" words sounded more like dialect (e.g. velo), although I might just be speaking in a more "standard Dutch" way than other Flemish speakers.

[@AerinK97]

I always find it hard to explain my language to others (I'm Flemish), this is a great explanation.