WikiWoordenboek:Welcome to our foreign guests

Even though this wiktionary is in Dutch, that certainly doesn't mean that English-speakers with little to no knowledge of Dutch are any less welcome here! In fact, we, the users (gebruikers), hope that you'll impart your knowledge through edits, and in exchange we will gladly correct your Dutch grammar or spelling mistakes (though we hope you don't keep making them over and over of course!).

Dutch

Dutch (ISO 639-3: nld) is a West Germanic language closely related to Low German and German. It's spoken by some 25 million people and is the official language of the Netherlands and Suriname. It is also one of the official languages of Belgium (spoken in northern Belgium and the Brussels metropolitan area). It has been an official language of the European Union and its predecessors since the Treaty of Rome went into effect in 1956.

Dutch spelling is regulated by the Taalunie, an intergovernmental body set up by the Dutch, Belgian, and Suriname governments.

How best to contribute

Our foreign language guests regularly contribute many useful edits here like translations, conjugations, declensions and examples in their native language or any other they may master or be conversant in. One type of contribution we're particularly keen on having is the pronunciation of words in your native language, either transcribed in IPA or recorded as a sound file (e.g. in .ogg format). Because such files can be used on many wikis, it would be more efficient to upload them to WikiCommons rather than here.

What format do you use?

The Dutch Wiktionary (WikiWoordenboek) uses quite a few standardized templates, including ISO 639 templates for languages. We have standardized to ISO 639-3 templates (three-letter codes).

Most of our templates use English words, like -noun- for noun, rather than -z.nw- for zelfstandig naamwoord. This is deliberate to make it easier for people who speak (or write) little or no Dutch to nonetheless contribute. The most frequent header templates (sjablonen) appear in blue below the edit window (bewerkingsvenster) for easy insertion.

I need more information

We hope you'll enjoy your time here. If you have any questions, please ask us in the kroeg (pub). If you have any requests, try the request pages.