How to speak Dutch for real in 2026

Speaking Dutch for real… about anything you want. How does that sound to you? A great idea, right? 

But what if you already tried last year? Or the year before? Or the year before that? Don’t worry about it - it’s still an achievable goal in 2026. All you need are these practical tips to set you on the right track. 

Don’t beat yourself up for failing in the past

First of all, don’t think badly of yourself if you already tried in the past - perhaps even several times - and yet you still have not mastered Dutch. Nothing is wrong with you. If you look at it objectively, there are many possible reasons why your Dutch has not reached that desired level yet. 

Let’s start with some practical possibilities: What if you were simply too tired for that Dutch class you decided to attend after work? What if it was simply not the right moment to start learning Dutch? Perhaps you had other things on your mind, like starting a new job or moving house.

Think about how you want to learn Dutch

Here is another important factor that many people overlook: What if the course or courses you took did not match your preferred learning style? In my personal opinion (and I fully admit I might be biased) there are many language courses out there that are actually not designed to let you learn and get speaking the language for real. 

Granted, most language courses keep you busy - but that can often be the problem itself! They want you to study a lot. The problem is, when you study Dutch too much, you don’t have the time to actually learn very much at all! 

What happens, for example, if you spend ages looking at a list of numbers, the names of the months, and how to tell the time in Dutch? It will take all of your attention, right?

The problem is that, with most language courses, you will focus on very specific subjects that are often boring, with words and constructions you do not understand. No wonder if you start to believe that Dutch is very difficult, if not impossible… and then learning it might become a tedious chore that you don’t really feel like doing.

Get more playful with your Dutch learning

That’s why, if you want to speak Dutch for real in 2026, you first need to make a radical shift. What if, instead of trying to study Dutch while feeling bored, you could play with it and have fun? 

Contrary to what you may think, Dutch is not something that you need to study intensively. What you need to do instead is start to explore it. Instead of memorising grammar rules and boring dialogues on how to introduce yourself, you could simply start to play with the Dutch you do know, try to talk about many different things, including subjects that interest you, and see what happens. 

One thing that will happen if you play with Dutch for a couple of days in a row is that you become more receptive. You’ll start to see how close Dutch actually is to English - but also what is different about it. Step by step you can figure out for yourself how Dutch really works, without using a lot of intimidating grammatical jargon - and actually have tremendous fun with it! 

Practice thinking in Dutch

Thinking like this, you’ll quickly learn many different things without hardly any effort at all. You’ll discover that you actually already have the means to talk about a range of different subjects. 

By practising Dutch more freely, without having to regurgitate pre-learned sentences, you’ll start to put your own sentences together. From there, it’s just a small leap to start thinking directly in Dutch, so you do not have to translate anymore - the thing that really slows beginners down. 

Being able to think in Dutch is extremely important. It allows you to form sentences quickly on almost any topic. Life is always full of surprises and if unexpected things happen in real life, it is important that you can improvise on the spot, rather than trying to repeat something you memorised six months ago. 

What to start working on first

Instead of just studying, there are a couple of things that you need to develop. 

First of all is a new way of logical thinking, because Dutch people simply have a different perspective on the world. To speak like a Dutchie, you need to think like a Dutchie! 

The second skill is creativity, so that you can find a way to express yourself, even when your vocabulary is still limited. 

The third skill is to learn how to have fun while learning and speaking Dutch. 

Once you have figured out how to have a good time while speaking Dutch, it is easy to continue. Every time you speak, you will learn something new, and once you do this again and again, your Dutch will get better and better and your confidence will grow. Things that seemed difficult at first will melt away. You will also learn things about yourself. One important insight is that we often make things far more complex and difficult than they really are. 

Feeling more free with your Dutch

The good thing is that, if you really dive in, you will quickly have far more clarity. You’ll know exactly what to do to create sentences at high speed, and you’ll also learn what to do with every new Dutch word - how to pronounce it and guess the accurate meaning of it. 

Last but not least, just the idea that you can freely explore and experiment will give you a great sense of freedom. This is when you really start to own Dutch as your own language. All of a sudden, things around you will make much more sense, and you’ll start to feel a deeper connection with it all. 

Good luck!