Dutch technical translations
EHLION's Dutch translations get your company’s message across in everything from marketing materials to annual reports and contracts – perfectly tailored to the Dutch market. Our specialized translators for the Dutch language can translate your content from English into Dutch and vice versa. In line with EHLION’s professional quality assurance policy, they work exclusively into their native language.
Dutch | Nederlands | [ˈneː.dər.lɑnts]
Did you know...?
Did you know that nearly a quarter of the land surface of the Netherlands lies below sea level? And almost half of the country consists of land lying barely above sea level. An elaborate system of dikes has been constructed to protect the Dutch coastline, and the country’s highly reputed engineers are much in demand elsewhere. This reputation dates back a very long time – for instance, when the wetlands of the Somerset Levels in southern England were drained in the 17th century, engineers were called in from the Netherlands to deal with the low-lying areas.
As you might expect, children in the Netherlands learn to swim at a relatively young age – in fact most of them obtain their first swimming certificate before their fifth birthday. The Dutch have a special system of swimming tests, divided into three stages, each rewarded with a certificate. The requirements are far more demanding than equivalent certificates in other countries. For example, one of the tests requires the children to jump into the water fully clothed, and another requires them to tread water for at least 15 seconds, swim for 12.5 meters using breaststroke, and then swim for 12.5 meters using backstroke – and that’s just for the beginners’ certificate!
FACT FILE Dutch
Dutch is spoken by approximately 25 million people throughout the world as their native language. The majority of these native speakers live in the Netherlands. Dutch is also one of the official languages of other countries such as Belgium and Surinam. It is also spoken in the region known colloquially as the “ABC islands”: the letters stand for Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, which geographically form part of South America but are governed by the Netherlands, either as autonomous territories with their own government (Aruba and Curacao) or as special municipalities of the Netherlands (Bonaire). These islands formed part of the Netherlands Antilles until 2010, when the country was dissolved. Dutch is, of course, one of the European Union’s official languages.
Linguistically, modern Dutch belongs to the Germanic group of Indo-European languages and represents one of its western branches. It has much in common with English as well as with certain German dialects and Friesian. The Afrikaans language spoken in South Africa and Namibia and other former Cape colonies is also a derivative of Dutch.
The standard Dutch dictionary is the comprehensive “Van Dale” dictionary of the Dutch language, published by the Van Dale publishing house. This authoritative reference work is so voluminous that it is commonly known as “Fat Van Dale” (in Dutch: “Dikke van Dale”).