Dutch (Netherlands) style guide¶
Use this page for Dutch written for readers in the Netherlands. Dutch for Belgium may need different vocabulary and keyboard checks. Follow the shared voice, mechanics and localization review guidance. The examples here explain local choices, not product features.
Address and register¶
Use u and uw in product help and ordinary support. A campaign or community surface may use je when its brief calls for that relationship. Keep the choice consistent; do not mix u and je within one flow or infer the appropriate address from the reader's nationality alone.
An imperative often needs no pronoun: Open het bestand. Use an infinitive for a compact action label such as Opslaan and an imperative in a direct instruction such as Sla het bestand op. Keep a procedure's instructions consistent. A technical term does not require a stiff sentence around it.
Use we for a real action by the company or support team. An application can be the subject of an operation without being treated as a person: FontLab opent het bestand. Retain a component name when it distinguishes the cause or location of a failure. Do not add reassurance or a promise that the source does not support.
Meaning and word choice¶
Prefer familiar words such as ook, vanaf and proberen when they preserve the relation. Zowel … als … can emphasize both parts; replacing it with en is an editorial choice, not a correction in every context. Phrases about a subject, a cause and a combination do not all mean the same thing.
Keep uncertainty, timing and degree. Er is een risico dat oudere inhoud niet goed wordt weergegeven describes a risk; it does not establish that old content is often displayed incorrectly. De updates zijn geïnstalleerd reports completion, while De updates worden geïnstalleerd reports an operation in progress. Bijna geen geheugen beschikbaar and onvoldoende geheugen need not describe the same threshold.
Keep the actual operation. Kiezen can describe choosing an option; selecteren can describe selecting an object. Follow interface actions when a mouse click or another specific input matters. Watching gestures does not necessarily reproduce them. Cancelling a dialog does not necessarily save unfinished work.
Use approved terminology for app, toepassing, programma and computer. Application size alone does not determine its name. Write the ordinary abbreviation pc in lowercase, while retaining official names and identifiers. Do not rename a real file, person or product to make an example sound more Dutch. A supplier's activation or protection claim is not evidence for another product.
People and ownership¶
Use a precise role, a plural or a natural rephrasing when a generic person would otherwise be assigned an unsupported gender. Keep the permission condition in Een gebruiker met de juiste rechten kan wachtwoorden wijzigen. Personeel is a collective; it cannot always replace one medewerker. A chairperson and the activity of chairing a meeting are not interchangeable.
Use the name and pronouns a real person uses. Deze is a demonstrative form, not simply a plural pronoun to substitute for every singular person. Repeat a name or role where a pronoun would be ambiguous. Follow the person's preferred description and the shared accessible-content guidance.
Remove a possessive only when ownership is already clear. Uw bestand, het bestand van Noor and het bestand are not equivalent if several owners' files are present. A generic reference must not erase a relevant relationship, turn one person into a group or give a restricted action to every reader.
Articles, adjectives and variables¶
Keep the noun's article and agreement. Bestand takes het and map takes de:
| Construction | Example |
|---|---|
| Indefinite: file | een nieuw bestand |
| Indefinite: folder | een nieuwe map |
| Definite: file | het nieuwe bestand |
| Definite: folder | de nieuwe map |
| Selected file | het geselecteerde bestand |
| Selected folder | de geselecteerde map |
| Relative clause: file | het bestand dat … |
| Relative clause: folder | de map die … |
Removing the article does not make every adjective work with every substituted noun. Geselecteerde bestand is not a safe generic pattern. A filename pattern such as Het bestand {name} kan niet worden geopend. supplies a known noun and leaves the filename unchanged. A variable containing an object type, a person's name or a list needs a different check.
Use a category noun when it clarifies a name: in het programma FontLab, in het menu Bestand. An article is a grammatical choice, not a universal exception for every borrowed word or feature name. Use accepted plurals and preserve number: 1 bestand, 2 bestanden, 1 map, 2 mappen. A page's preferred variant does not make another established form ungrammatical.
Keep parser tokens, format specifiers, escapes and markup exact. Reorder only when the format supports it. Check the whole message before placing punctuation or a line break around a variable. A forced break belongs at a meaningful position in the translated text, not automatically at the same character count as in English. Use messages and variables.
Compounds and abbreviations¶
Write ordinary Dutch noun compounds together: bestandsnaam, tekstobject, rechtermarge. If a long compound becomes difficult to parse, use a phrase that preserves the relationship: database met stuurprogrammagegevens. Do not replace every compound with a string of prepositions or every phrase with one very long word.
Use a hyphen where the spelling requires it, including compounds with initialisms: pc-gebruiker, API-sleutel, USB-poort. Established lowercase acronyms pronounced as words can form joined compounds, as in pincode. A vowel clash can require a hyphen in a compound, as in auto-ongeluk; a diaeresis can separate vowels within a word, as in kopieën. These are different spelling mechanisms.
Keep meaningful hyphens in forms such as back-upbestand and e-mail. An optional readability hyphen must preserve how the components belong together. For product names, a phrase such as een bestand van FontLab can be clearer than forcing a new compound. Check unfamiliar compounds against accepted spelling rather than a fixed component-count formula.
Maximumprijs and minimumprijs are compounds. Het maximum aantal deelnemers and het maximumaantal deelnemers are both accepted; do not turn a preference into a universal ban. De maximale bestandsgrootte uses an adjective. Choose a natural construction and retain the quantity it qualifies.
Distinguish a word pronounced as an acronym from an abbreviation pronounced letter by letter. Keep accepted case: pc, btw, API, RAM. Explain an unfamiliar abbreviation when needed, without appending its full expansion to every message. Unit symbols such as mm, s and kB take no abbreviation period; their case carries meaning. Keep an approved name or technical identifier literal.
Verbs and sentence structure¶
Keep separable verbs grammatical: Sla het bestand op and U kunt het bestand opslaan use different constructions. Do not move every verb next to its subject at the cost of Dutch clause structure. In a two-verb group, both nadat u het bestand hebt opgeslagen and nadat u het bestand opgeslagen hebt are valid; choose the order that reads naturally in context.
An om … te clause can state a purpose: Om het bestand te openen, kiest u Openen. There is no blanket ban on starting a sentence this way. Keep the procedure's instruction style consistent, and choose the simplest structure that preserves the condition or purpose.
Use the preposition required by the relationship: in het menu, op de werkbalk, uit de lijst, in de lijst. Retain the difference between removing and adding. A conjunction may begin a sentence when it connects the ideas naturally. Dan is not forbidden; vervolgens can make a sequence explicit. Do not turn a hypothetical past condition into a present fact to simplify the tense.
Messages and warnings¶
Choose wording for the actual state:
| Function | Example |
|---|---|
| Action label | Opslaan |
| Instruction | Sla het bestand op. |
| In progress | Het bestand wordt opgeslagen. |
| Completed | Het bestand is opgeslagen. |
| Failed attempt | Het opslaan van het bestand is mislukt. |
| Current impossibility | Het bestand kan niet worden opgeslagen. |
A compact label such as Bestand opslaan… can indicate progress in a clear progress context, but its shape alone does not distinguish a command from a running operation. Do not add ellipses or remove verbs merely to make every message as short as its English source. Check the actual available space.
Keep cause and severity exact. Beschadigd does not imply that recovery is impossible. Niet gevonden does not prove that an object is absent or deleted. Use onherstelbaar only when the failure really cannot be recovered from. A fragment such as Onvoldoende geheugen works when the surrounding interface supplies the failed operation.
Keep everyone affected in a warning: Als u de computer nu opnieuw opstart, kunnen u en de andere gebruikers van deze computer niet-opgeslagen werk verliezen. A question remains a question: Wilt u doorgaan? Use toch when proceeding despite the stated condition is part of the meaning. Weet u zeker dat …? adds a request for certainty and should not be collapsed into every generic continuation question. Follow interface feedback.
Capitalization, punctuation and numbers¶
Use sentence case for new headings and labels: Geavanceerd zoeken. Keep weekday and month names lowercase: maandag, januari. Preserve accents and diaereses on capitals: KOPIEËN, GEÏNSTALLEERD. Capitalize both letters of an initial ij when needed: IJsland, not Ijsland. Keep a real name's spelling.
Use punctuation for the sentence's structure. A comma can clarify the boundary between clauses; it cannot repair every long sentence. Introduce a list with a grammatically complete lead-in where possible. A colon normally has no space before it. Following capitalization depends on what follows, including a proper name or a direct quotation, not just on counting the following sentences.
Use typographic quotation marks and apostrophes in prose, and preserve literal punctuation in code. Do not remove quotation marks from a filename blindly when they distinguish its boundaries. Keep parentheses close to their contents. Reproduce an existing control exactly, including an ellipsis when it is part of the label.
Use a decimal comma in ordinary prose and locale formatting for dynamic values: 1.526,75, 12,5 mm, € 12,50. The spaces between number and unit, and between euro sign and amount, are nonbreaking. Grouping does not belong in every digit string: years, postal codes, phone numbers and identifiers follow their own formats.
Distinguish a range from a negative value: pagina’s 3–6, −18 °C. Use the mathematical minus, not a hyphen. Keep exact filename and version punctuation, including 1.2.0 where required. A localized display format must not change a stored value, quantity or input contract.
Keyboard wording and speech¶
Name the key used on the intended keyboard: Enter, pijl-omhoog, spatiebalk. Verify access keys, shortcuts and focus behavior in the product. Keep platform differences such as Command versus Ctrl. Explain a numeric-keypad distinction when the task requires it.
For Dutch content intended for Belgian keyboards, check the required AZERTY layout as well as the documented QWERTY layout. Interface language alone does not establish the keyboard layout. Do not import an old shortcut catalog or a ban on particular letters as proof of current behavior.
Use natural Dutch pronunciation and an approved reading of names. Spell an unfamiliar initialism when it helps. Read every character needed to reproduce a URL, version or command, including a meaningful punt or slash. Follow the shared audiovisual guidance for captions, timing and essential visual information.