ABSTRACT

Colloquial Dutch: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Dutch as it is written and spoken today.

Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Dutch in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Colloquial Dutch is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary lists throughout.

Key features include:

  • A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
  • Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar
  • An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises
  • Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations
  • Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in The Netherlands
  •  An overview of the sounds of  Dutch.

Balanced, comrehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Dutch is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Dutch.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

1. Piet en Pauline en hun kinderen   Piet and Pauline and their children  2. Nederland en België   The Netherlands and Belgium  3. Bij de groenteboer  At the greengrocer’s  4. Telefoneren  Telephoning  5. Bij Piet en Pauline  At Piet and Pauline’s  6. Fietsen  Cycling  7. Pannekoeken  Pancakes  8. Piets ouders zijn op visite  Piet’s parents are visiting  9. Na het ontbijt  After breakfast  10. Pauline is haar horloge kwijt  Pauline can’t find her watch  11. Een retourtje Maastricht, alstublieft  A return ticket to Maastricht, please  12. Pauline’s ouders komen naar Nederland  Pauline’s parents come to the Netherlands  13. Pauline doet de was  Pauline is doing the washing  14. Er zijn eekhoorns in de tuin  There are squirrels in the garden  15. Wat heb je met de kerstkaarten gedaan?  What have you done with the Christmas cards?  16. Piet is op school  Piet is at school  17. Marius wil gaan spelen  Marius wants to go and play  Key to the exercises  Alphabetical list of irregular verbs  Glossary of grammatical terms  English-Dutch glossary  Dutch-English glossary  Index