English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. According to Statista, between one and two billion people speak English worldwide. Here at COMUNICA, we receive lots of English projects that our Dutch translators then translate into their native tongue. English and Dutch share the same family tree – they’re both West Germanic languages, but they developed in different ways.
Let’s have a look at five of the challenges translators face when translating from English into Dutch.
1. English words are often short
Sometimes clients give translators specific instructions: ‘Please make sure not to exceed the maximum number of characters.’ In many cases, the length of a word or phrase needs to remain the same, so that it will fit on a particular button on a website or app. But some short phrases in English like ‘click here’, ’view’ or ‘add’ can quickly make the life of a translator somewhat difficult. You see, many English words are shorter than Dutch words. For instance, the English word ‘add’ (three characters) translates to the Dutch word toevoegen (nine characters).
When translating from English to Dutch, the text can become 10%–35% longer. Sometimes clients have worked hard to create an attractive layout for their webpage. It’s therefore understandable that they want to keep the length of the text more or less the same, so the layout on the screen will remain intact. That can cause interesting challenges for our translators.
A relatively short text in English could potentially turn into very long phrases in Dutch. For instance, take a look at this example phrase which you might find in the travel industry. The English text appears above and its translation into Dutch can be seen below:
- ‘Contact the owner of this property’
- Neem contact op met de eigenaar van deze accommodatie
The length of the English sentence is five words, while the Dutch sentence is 10 words – that’s twice as long. So in this case, the translator may have to try and come up with a different, shorter and more creative solution.
2. English things have human characteristics
A typical aspect of the English language is the use of personification. In English, it’s quite acceptable for non-human things to have human characteristics. In Dutch, that’s not so common. Here’s an example:
- ‘The instructions say that we should send the translated text by the end the day.’
In Dutch, it sounds at bit strange for instructions to say something – they’re words on a page, they haven’t got a voice! For this reason, the Dutch prefer to introduce another subject, like ‘we’ or ‘the client’. So the sentence could be changed into something like:
- ‘In the instructions, the client writes that we should send the translated text by the end of the day…’
Personifications pop up quite frequently in English, so our translators have to remain focused to spot them. And while it’s not an unforgivable faux pas to use personifications in Dutch every once in a while, the Dutch generally prefer not to use them too often.
3. Look left, look right – the imperative
To Dutch listeners and readers, English speakers always seem to sound so friendly, even when using the imperative form, which gives instructions or orders. What’s more, in English, it’s not at all problematic to use very short imperative words like ‘view’, ‘book now’ or ‘sign in’. In Dutch, the use of the imperative depends on the context. For an example of what we mean, let’s go back to the travel sector.
In the context of travel, the Dutch are quite used to the imperative when seeing instructions in an app, for example. They don’t mind being told: boek nu (book now) or wijzig (change). When using travel apps, the Dutch come across these ‘calls to action’ quite frequently, and so they don’t mind them. But in a different context, the imperative could easily come off as a little harsh. Be careful about telling the Dutch what to do. They don’t always like it!
4. English has a large vocabulary
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the English language has roughly one million words. In Dutch, there are about a quarter of a million words. It’s difficult to give an exact amount, because Dutch is a compound language, meaning you can cobble words together in order to create new ones. In this way, it is possible to create an endless number of words, but most of them are words that wouldn’t be used very often.
With so many words in the English language, it is easy to pick out a specific word that expresses exactly what you want to communicate. Translators can’t always find an exact Dutch synonym, and sometimes they have to describe or explain things. That’s one of the reasons why Dutch translations can take up quite a bit of space. As we mentioned already, English words are generally shorter than Dutch words, so when translators have to describe or explain these short words, they often end up running out of space.
5. Dutch may have a different word order
When a sentence begins with a subject, the word order will often be the same in both Dutch and English. For instance, the sentence ‘I take the train’ would have the same word order in both languages. But if the Dutch speaker is going to take the train tomorrow, then everything changes! ‘I will take the train tomorrow’ becomes ‘tomorrow take I the train’ (Morgen neem ik de trein).
Another example of a different word order is the English -ing form which is sometimes used to describe things that are happening right now or to stress something. The Dutch have a different way of describing things or using emphasis and this sometimes involves changing the word order. In Dutch, ‘eating an ice cream’ would change to ‘an ice cream eat’ (een ijsje eten).
For our experienced translators here at Comunica, addressing these challenges is like solving a puzzle. It can be challenging, yes, but it is also a fun and enjoyable process – and something we really excel at, too!
Changing English into Dutch
Here at Comunica, we offer translations from English into Dutch and vice versa, as well as many other language combinations.
Get in touch to learn more – we’ll be more than happy to help!