You read the word brutaal in a Dutch sentence and you're sure you know what it means. It looks like "brutal." So you picture something violent. But the sentence is about a kid who talked back to their teacher. Nobody got hurt. You just met one of the classic dutch false friends english speakers run into.
English speakers run into Dutch false friends all the time, because Dutch and English are close relatives. That closeness usually helps you. It also causes real mix-ups, and this article walks through the Dutch words that look like English but aren't, so you can learn to spot them.
Why Dutch and English share so many deceptive words
Dutch and English both come from the same Germanic language family. Centuries ago, they were much closer than they are now. A lot of words share the same root, the same shape, sometimes almost the same spelling.
But languages drift. Over hundreds of years, the same word can end up meaning something different in each language, even though it started in the same place. Sometimes the meaning narrows. Sometimes it shifts to something related but distinct. Sometimes it ends up meaning something with no clear connection to the original at all.
That's why dutch false friends trip up english learners so often. It's not bad luck. It's not that Dutch is trying to confuse you. It's just what happens when two languages share ancestors but grow apart for a thousand years.
The tricky part is that a familiar-looking word invites a shortcut. You see a shape you recognize and you grab the English meaning, because that's faster than checking. Usually that shortcut works fine. With false friends, it actively works against you.
Dutch words that look like English but aren't
Here are the ones worth learning first, because they show up often and the mix-up can be genuinely confusing in conversation.
Bellen
This one looks like it's all about bells, and it partly is: bellen also covers ringing a doorbell (er wordt gebeld means someone's at the door). But in everyday Dutch, it most often means "to phone someone" or "to call someone."
Ik bel je morgen.
I'll call you tomorrow.
If a Dutch colleague says ik bel je, they mean they're going to phone you, not come round and ring your doorbell.
Brutaal
Looks like "brutal." Actually means "cheeky" or "rude" or "impudent," in the sense of a kid talking back or someone being disrespectful. It's got nothing to do with violence.
Wat een brutaal kind!
What a cheeky kid!
Someone calling a child brutaal is complaining about bad manners, not describing an assault.
Raar
Looks like "rare," as in uncommon or hard to find. Actually means "strange" or "weird." The Dutch word for "rare" in the English sense is zeldzaam.
Dat is een raar verhaal.
That's a weird story.
If someone tells you a story is raar, they mean it's odd, not that stories like it don't come around very often.
Slim
Looks like "slim," as in thin or slender. Actually means "clever" or "smart." The Dutch word for thin in the body-type sense is slank.
Ze is heel slim.
She's very clever.
Calling someone slim in Dutch is a compliment about their brain, not a comment on their body.
Mening
Looks like "meaning," as in the sense of a word or a sentence. Actually means "opinion." The Dutch word for meaning, in the sense of what something signifies, is betekenis.
Wat is jouw mening?
What's your opinion?
If a Dutch friend asks for your mening on something, they want to know what you think about it, not what it means.
Stout
Looks like "stout," which in English can mean sturdy or heavyset, or is the name of a dark beer. Actually means "naughty" or "misbehaving," almost always used about kids or pets.
Die hond is stout.
That dog is naughty.
A Dutch parent calling their kid stout is not commenting on body type. They mean the kid's been misbehaving.
Eng
Looks like it should mean "English," since Engels (the actual Dutch word for "English") is right there and close in spelling. Actually, eng means "scary" or "creepy." Nothing to do with England or the English language at all.
Die film is eng.
That movie is scary.
If someone says a movie is eng, don't go looking for a British connection. They mean it scared them.
Where English speakers go wrong
The most common mistake is simple. You translate on the fly and trust the shape of the word instead of checking the meaning. You hear brutaal and your first instinct says "brutal," because that's faster than pausing to think. That's how you end up describing a mildly cheeky toddler as though they'd done something serious.
The second common mistake is more subtle. You learn the correct Dutch meaning, but you forget there's a different Dutch word for the English meaning you originally had in mind. You learn that slim means clever, which is great. But then you need to describe someone as thin, and you reach for slim again out of habit, because that's the word your memory associates with the shape "s-l-i-m." The fix is to learn these words in pairs: slim means clever, and slank is the word for thin. Store both, not just the correction.
Common mistake: treating a false friend as "close enough." Raar and "rare" aren't close enough to guess your way through. If you call someone's cooking "rare" in Dutch expecting a compliment about how uncommon it is, you'll actually be saying it's weird, which comes across as a complaint instead of praise.
Near-friends and other edge cases
Not every lookalike is a full false friend. Some Dutch words are close to their English cousins but shifted just enough to cause smaller mix-ups.
huren is a good example. It means "to rent," as in renting an apartment or a car from a landlord or a company. It's related to the English word "hire," and the meanings overlap, but the usage is narrower in Dutch. You'd use huren for renting a place to live or renting equipment. Unlike slim or raar, it doesn't point you at a completely different meaning. It's more of a near-friend: related, but not interchangeable. Worth knowing the difference exists, but it won't confuse you nearly as badly as the others on this list.
There are more false friends out there than fit in one article. This list covers the ones you'll actually run into early and often. Once you notice the pattern, you'll start spotting other lookalikes on your own, and you'll know to double check them instead of assuming.
Recap
- bellen = mostly to phone someone, though it also covers ringing a doorbell
- brutaal = cheeky or rude, not violent
- raar = strange or weird, not uncommon
- slim = clever, not thin (that's slank)
- mening = opinion, not meaning (that's betekenis)
- stout = naughty, not sturdy or a type of beer
- eng = scary, not related to English at all
- huren = to rent, a near-friend of "hire" rather than a true false friend
Go practice this
Make a small flashcard deck of just these eight words, with the false English meaning written on the back as a warning, not the correct definition. Spaced repetition works well here. Seeing a word a few times over a few days is a lot more effective than reading this list once and moving on.
When you're reading or listening to Dutch and one of these words comes up, say the correct meaning out loud, even quietly to yourself. Catching yourself in the act of translating wrong, on purpose, helps the correction stick faster than just reading it.
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