Business & Professional Dutch
Business & Professional Dutch
Dutch workplace language is famously direct — meetings run on plain statements rather than hedged suggestions — but its vocabulary is dense with separable verbs like afstemmen, terugkoppelen and aanleveren that split across every sentence.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Meeting vocabulary is built from separable verbs
Ik stem het even met hem af. Kun je dat morgen aanleveren?
I'll coordinate it with him. Can you deliver that tomorrow?
afstemmen (to coordinate), terugkoppelen (to report back), aanleveren (to deliver), doorspelen (to pass on), inplannen (to schedule) are all separable, so each one leaves its prefix at the end of the clause. Because these verbs carry the specific meaning, a Dutch business sentence often does not become clear until its final syllable — a real listening challenge in fast meetings.
Directness is the register, not rudeness
Dat lijkt me geen goed idee. Ik ben het er niet mee eens.
I don't think that's a good idea. I disagree with it.
Dutch professional culture states disagreement plainly, and the softening devices English relies on — 'I wonder whether we might', 'perhaps we could consider' — can read as evasive. The Dutch equivalents are the particles: even, misschien, eigenlijk and toch soften a statement without hiding it. Translating English hedging literally tends to produce sentences that sound uncertain rather than polite.
Formal requests still stack modals
Zou je dat voor vrijdag kunnen afronden?
Could you finish that by Friday?
Even in a direct culture, requests to colleagues use the zou ... kunnen frame, with both verbs joining the final cluster and the main infinitive last: kunnen afronden. Note voor for a deadline meaning 'by, no later than' — English 'before Friday' and 'by Friday' are both voor vrijdag, so Dutch is less precise here than English.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- the meeting
- English
- the minutes
- English
- to coordinate
- English
- to report back
- English
- to deliver / submit
- English
- to schedule
- English
- to finish off
- English
- the deadline
- English
- the consultation
- English
- the budget
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