A Fascinating Demonstration of the Differences Between English, German, Dutch, and Afrikaans

Language of Earth shared a fascinating demonstration showing the differences and similarities between English, German, Dutch, and Afrikaans.

Is Afrikaans similar to Dutch? How similar are German and English? Let’s compare four of the most spoken Germanic languages – English vs. German vs. Dutch vs. Afrikaans.

The English speaker spoke the initial phrase, the German speaker, the Dutch speaker, and the Afrikaans speaker all followed in suit. The four used numbers, colors, food, animals, vehicles, and simple phrases to emphasize how each word is pronounced.

This Germanic language comparison will help you understand the difference in spelling, pronunciation, and grammar between English, German, Dutch, and Afrikaans.

English German Dutch Afrikaans

The phrases also helped to reveal verb persons and tenses used in each language.

In the conversation section of this video, German, Dutch, and Afrikaans all use the casual forms of “you”: du, je, and jy, respectively. English does not have casual and formal forms of “you”.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

Recent Posts