tarvos wrote:They are different, vogeltje. It's just that the diphthong in English is something like /ai/ and it's more like /ei/ in Dutch. The two vowel sounds you run together are the "a" and "i" in English but an "e" and "i" in Dutch, although in some places it's a little raised, that's right. It's just that in some parts of NL, this sound has shifted closer to English. Not in Belgium, though. Like I said, the "like" sound is the closest you get in English - but it is definitely NOT equivalent.
Dat doesn't join anything. It just indicates a subclause (here), in which case the verbs go together at the end - and the separable verbs are in the full form, not with a loose preposition. In a main clause they would be separated.
I agree, that's exactly what I meant.
Except that I didn't know that in some parts of NL it's shifted closer to Eglish. English sounds nicer than Dutch, but the Dutch 'lijk' shifted closer to 'like' would be very ugly. But even with this shift it's a different sound. Normally it's completely different.
If you learn a langauge and think that one sound in the language is the same as one sound in your native language when it does NOT, then you will have a very, veyr strong accent in the language.
I had to work very hard to improve the vowels in the Germanic languages, they are all really difficult for example English 'or' and also the A in 'age' to make enough of the two sounds in each. But the consonants are different as well, and you can forget them but shouldn't, like "d" is different in the languages and of course 'H'. Then German and English have the more exploding sounds than French and Dutch, especially German!!!! Difficult to do or undo which depends on your own language.
I worked hard on my English pronunciation because I am fed up that in London they ask from where in France I am or assume that I'm french, and because I used to be a perfectionnist and sometimes I have that again. my boyfriend helped, although now he doesn't. I asked him why not and he said that he doesn't notice mistakes now, but I am sure it's not because I don't make mistakes, but becuase we have been together more than 2 years.
If an English speaker wants to pronounce Dutch correctly, then it's important to learn the different sounds, not match with English ones. In my opinion.