Dutch belongs to the Germanic group (West Germanic sub-group) of the Indo-European language family. Dutch is often called Nederlands or Flemish. As a matter of fact, those names are attributable to their own groups of dialects (Holland is a region in the Netherlands, Flanders is a region and an administrative community in Belgium).

Dutch is an official language in the Netherlands, Flanders and one of two official languages in Brussels. In Belgium, roughly 60% of the population speak the language. Also, Dutch-speaking communities are scattered in Northern France, in the adjoining areas of Germany as well as in the US, South Africa and many other countries. The total number of speakers is around 22 million. A relatively recent spring-off from Dutch is Afrikaans.

Dutch arose from Old Frankish and is an immediate successor to the Proto-Germanic language of the Indo-European language family.

Traditionally, Dutch has a vast number of dialects. For instance, Flanders has around 2.5 thousand. The educational area and media use an official version of the language adopted as the state language by the Dutch Language Union. However, even standarized Dutch may vary essentially in the Netherlands and Flanders. That is why translators from/into Dutch should take account of the target audience since the same word in Holland and Belgium may have a different meaning and, using a standard meaning in translation, may twist the sense dramatically. By the way, Dutch vocabulary has many words with the same pronunciation but with a different spelling and meaning which may be troublesome for an interpreter.

A major phonetic challenge is consonant «g» which resembles Russian «h», Ukrainian «g» and French «r» and is rather difficult to pronounce. The Tallinn-based ATCG Translation Agency will offer you the best simultaneous and consecutive interpretation which will be a token of your successful co-operation with Dutch, Belgian partners and from other countries.

Compound words may also be a trouble in Dutch translations. Dutch shows a rife word formation such as stem composition. Long and unpronounceable words when translated may often bring about two or three words. Business texts are frequently challenging as they teem in mutiple borrowings from the US version of English.

The Tallinn-based ATCG translators will do a high-calibre and fast translation related to any area whatsoever from/into Dutch.