I am a ESL teacher. I just received this message from a student (he is dutch): 

""


Jef H.

19:20

Hi James,

I am feeling a bit uncertain about my pronunciation. I would like to receive some feedback on my pronunciation and focus on improving it during the lesson and with home exercises. Is this possible?

I value some honest feedback because I know that I can be too self critical at times :)

Kind regards,
Jef

""

So, i've been doing some research about how to teach and give feedback on his pronunciation.

I've found this article by the british council:

""

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English levels  Improve your English level  How can I improve my English pronunciation?
How can I improve my English pronunciation?
How can I improve my English pronunciation?
Try these simple and effective activities to improve your pronunciation.

Pronunciation is really important for communication and making sure people understand your message. 

Pronunciation is also helpful for your listening skills. When you know what words sound like in a sentence, you'll understand much more of what you hear.

So, how can you improve your pronunciation? Here are some ideas.

1. Listen and write
Take a short clip from a song, film, show or audio file. Write down the words that you hear and replay it until you have got them all. Play it at 0.75x or 0.5x speed if you need to.

Then compare your version with the lyrics, transcript or subtitles. Did you get it exactly? Note any differences. This really helps you to focus on particular pronunciation features.

Finally, say the words yourself, copying the same sounds that you heard. Repeat the practice until you can pronounce the sounds smoothly and comfortably.

2. Speak and check
This is the reverse of the previous tip. Now, you say the words and let a dictation app or website write down what you say.

If it writes down what you said correctly, you must have pronounced it well! But if it doesn't, check those misunderstood words because you might not have pronounced them clearly. (Note, however, that dictation programs do sometimes make mistakes.)

For this tip, you'll need a dictation app or website. Many phones have voice dictation functions. You can also use websites such as https://dictation.io/ (make sure you set the language to English).

3. Record yourself
Prepare a few sentences and record yourself saying them, using your phone. Then listen to the recording. Are you satisfied with your pronunciation? Were any sounds unclear? Was it too fast or slow? 

You can also try saying the sentences that you listened to for tip 1 and compare your recording with the original.

Many people dislike listening to their own voice! But if you can get past this reaction, it's a good way to identify things to improve in your pronunciation.

4. Learn pronunciation symbols
Did you know that English has 26 letters but over 40 different sounds?

We use special symbols to show pronunciation. For example, the word enough is /ɪ'nʌf/. This helps us see that the first sound of enough is actually an /ɪ/ sound, not an /e/ sound, even it's spelled with 'e'.

It's worth learning these symbols because then you can identify individual sounds more precisely. Learning the symbols takes a little work, but it's not too hard – in fact, many are obvious. You can probably guess what sounds /n/ and /f/ represent!

Most dictionaries use these symbols. You can also see and hear all of the symbols in the Sounds Right app.

5. Focus on confusing sounds
We suggest focusing on sounds that can cause confusion for listeners if they are pronounced incorrectly. Here are some examples.

Long and short vowels, e.g. I want to leave here (long /i:/ sound) vs I want to live here (short /ɪ/ sound)
/r/ and /l/, e.g. Can you correct the file? vs Can you collect the file?
Consonant clusters, e.g. clothes – some people say it like close or closes.
When you practise English, make a note of any confusions like these and practise pronouncing them clearly.

Now you've read our advice on improving your pronunciation, go and try out some of the ideas. Good luck!

Discussion
Which of the tips have you tried? Did they help you to improve your pronunciation?

Language level
B1 Intermediate
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Average: 4 (64 votes)
Submitted by asrdavid on Sat, 25/11/2023 - 13:53

Permalink
I'm always evaluated as upper intermediate B2, I feel so frustrated about this. I have been using English for 5 years as my communication language. I'm doing a PhD degree in pharmacy and still unconfident about my English :(. I knew that my pronunciation is the worst part of my story ( as I learned English only by reading and writing , no listening) and only living abroad made me realize how bad my pronunciation is. But now I'm not satisfied even with my level test :(

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Profile picture for user Kirk Moore
Submitted by Kirk Moore on Sun, 26/11/2023 - 12:30

In reply to I'm always evaluated as… by asrdavid
Permalink
Hello asrdavid,

That sounds really hard and I'm sorry to hear you are so frustrated. Without knowing you better, I can't say anything about your level, but I can say that it's quite normal for people to 'plateau' at certain levels. This simply means that continuing to improve takes more, or perhaps a different kind of, effort.

The step from B2 to C1 is a significant one. Again, it's hard for me to give you specific advice without knowing you, but one thing I always recommend my students do is read. It sounds as if you may do a fair amount of that already, but if not, I'd encourage you to try it. Try reading things that are different from what you normally read. If you read novels, they don't have to be classics of English literature -- choose books that you think you would enjoy. You could even get the English version of a book you've already enjoyed reading in your native language. In that way, you can pay more attention to the language as you revisit a story you like.

With pronunciation, the amount of work to do can feel overwhelming. I'd suggest choosing two or three very specific aspects of pronunciation to improve -- for example, the pronunciation of the '-ed' ending, or the intonation of questions -- and working on them until you've made some good progress. Ignore other aspects of pronunciation until those feel natural -- or at least more natural -- than before. Often people need to exercise their mouths quite a lot to make the sounds; this is normal and not necessarily a sign of a problem. Once you've improved in these two of three aspects you identified and are producing the sounds with much less effort, move on to a new set of two or three. Progress is slow in the beginning, but often people find that it increases much more quickly after a short time.

And of course always feel free to ask us about things here. We're happy to help as best we can.

Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

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Submitted by Alshaimaa on Tue, 23/01/2024 - 11:44

In reply to I'm always evaluated as… by asrdavid
Permalink
"You can improve your listening, and then your speaking will immediately improve. You cannot speak well unless you listen more and more, record for yourself, and compare it. So, I advise you to learn vowel and consonant sounds, then download the ELSA Speak app, which will help you realize if there is any mistake in your pronunciation. Finally, be proud to be an upper intermediate. I am an English teacher, but during my studies, I wasn't interested in improving my English. But now, I'll try and try. The more you fail and try, the more you succeed. By the way, my level is intermediate, so don't be frustrated. To reach an advanced level, it takes more time and effort, so don't hurry."

""

Also i've found some information about dutch speakers from a excerpt from Cambridge textbook:

""

Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 Guy A. J. Tops, Xavier Dekeyser, Betty Devriendt 
and Steven Geukens
 Distribution
 THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, Surinam, Dutch Antilles; about 20 
million people. (Its mutually intelligible descendant Afrikaans, spoken 
by about 6 million native speakers and used as a lingua franca by about 
15 million people in South Africa and Namibia, is now officially 
considered a separate language.)
 Introduction
 Dutch is a member of the (West) Germanic branch of Indo-European, 
and as such is closely related to Frisian, English, German and the 
Scandinavian languages. It is the standard language in the Netherlands 
and in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, where it is often but 
unofficially called ‘Flemish’. The use of the standard language as the 
first language is far more widespread in the Netherlands than in 
Flanders. There most people habitually use one of the many local 
dialects or an approximation of the standard language. The variation, 
though diminishing, is still very great. The standard language is under
 stood almost everywhere, but dialects tend to be mutually unintelligible, 
both in the Netherlands and in Flanders.
 Dutch and English being so closely related, they have many sim
 ilarities in all areas of their grammars, and Dutch speakers regard 
English as easy to learn, at least initially, when they make rapid 
progress.
 Phonology
 General
 The Dutch and English phonological systems are broadly similar, so 
that speakers of Dutch do not normally have serious difficulties in 
recognising or pronouncing most English sounds.
 Many learners may use strong regional accents in their Dutch, and
 © Cambridge University Press
 1
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 their problems with English tend to vary accordingly. Universal features 
of Dutch giving rise to a Dutch accent in English are:- Devoicing of final consonants and a corresponding shortening in the 
length of preceding vowels: dock for dog, leaf for leave, etc.- A much narrower intonation range, not reaching the same low pitch 
areas as English.- Pronunciation of r whenever it occurs in the spelling.
 Vowe/s
 ii
 I
 e
 æ ei ai oi
 ar D or u au 90 I9
 Ui A 3: 9 eo U9 aio
 auo
 Shaded phonemes have equivalents or near equivalents in Dutch, and 
should therefore be perceived and articulated without serious difficulty, 
although some confusions may still arise. Unshaded phonemes may 
cause problems. For detailed comments, see below.
 1. Depending on the learners’ region of origin, /i/ may be pronounced 
too close (leading to confusion between pairs like sit and seat), or 
too open (with confusion between pairs like sit and set).
 2. Standard Dutch /e/ is somewhere between English /e/ and /$/. This 
results in confusion of the latter two (in pairs like set and sat or then 
and than), especially since Dutch has no vowel corresponding to /$/.
 3. Many learners pronounce English /a:/ very far back; it may sound 
similar to /o:/ (which is often very open), leading to confusion 
between pairs like part and port.
 4. /n/ and /a/ may not be distinguished, leading to confusion in pairs 
like not and nut. Some learners may also pronounce /a/ rather like 
/a/.
 5. Dutch speakers find English /o:/ and /au/ difficult, and may confuse 
pairs like caught and coat.
 6. Dutch has no equivalent of /u/, as in book. It may be pronounced 
rather like /a/ (with confusion between look and luck, for example), 
or like /u:/ (making pool similar to pull).
 7. /a:/ (as in heard, turn) is usually pronounced with lip-rounding by 
Dutch learners.
 2
 © Cambridge University Press
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 Shaded phonemes have equivalents or near equivalents in Dutch, and 
should therefore be perceived and articulated without serious difficulty, 
although some confusions may still arise. Unshaded phonemes may 
cause problems. For detailed comments, see below.
 1. The lenis (‘voiced’) consonants /b/, /d/, /v/, /6/, /z/, /g/ and /ds/ do 
not occur at the ends of words in Dutch. Learners will replace them 
by their fortis (‘unvoiced’) counterparts: Bop for Bob; set for said; 
leaf for leave; cloth for clothe; rice for rise; ‘beish’ for beige; larch 
for large. (Most learners also fail to make the English distinction in 
the length of vowels before voiced and unvoiced consonants.)
 2. In other positions in words, too, many Northern Dutch learners 
pronounce /f/ instead of /v/, /s/ instead of /z/, and /J/ instead of /g/: 
file for vile; sue for zoo; ‘mesher’ for measure.
 3. Dutch lacks the phoneme /g/ as in get. Learners will use either /k/, 
the fricative /x/ (as in Scottish loch), or its voiced equivalent /y/.
 4. /p/, /t/ and /k/ are not aspirated at the beginning of a word in Dutch; 
this can make them sound rather like /b/, /d/ and /g/: bay for pay; 
den for ten; goat for coat.
 5. /tj/ is often reduced to /// and /dg/ to /g/ (or /{/): shop for chop; 
/gsm/ or sham for jam.
 6. /0/ is usually pronounced /s/ or /t/: sank or tank for thank. /6/ is 
usually pronounced /z/ or /d/: zen or den for then.
 7. Northern Dutch speakers may make /s/ rather like /J/: sheet for 
seat.
 8. Learners may make /w/ with teeth and lip, leading to confusion 
with /v/: vile for while.
 9. Dutch /r/ exhibits a lot of variety; none of the versions are like 
English /r/.
 10. Dutch postvocalic ‘dark’ /I/ is very ‘dark’, with the tongue further 
back in the mouth than in English, especially after /i:/, /i/ and /e/. 
Some Dutch accents have ‘dark’ /I/ before vowels, where English 
has ‘clear’ /I/.
 3
 © Cambridge University Press
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 11. /h/ can be a problem for learners with a dialect background from 
the coastal provinces of Belgium: they produce a /x/-like fricative.
 Consonant clusters
 English clusters are not in general difficult for Dutch speakers. Students 
may insert /a/ between /I/ and certain other consonants: ‘fillum’ for film; 
‘millock’ for milk.
 Influence of spelling on pronunciation
 1. The Dutch system for spelling vowels and diphthongs is fairly simple 
and consistent. Learners have great difficulty therefore in disso
 ciating a word’s spelling from its pronunciation.
 2. Learners tend to pronounce the letter r wherever it occurs, leading to 
mistakes if they are aiming at standard British English.
 3. Dutch lacking a /g/, the combination ng is always pronounced /p/ in 
Dutch. This leads to problems with words like finger, hunger, etc.
 4. Even very advanced learners will pronounce the letter o in words like 
front and mother as /n/ instead of /a/.
 5. The letters u and w in words like caught and saw lead many speakers 
to use an /au/-like sound instead of /a:/.
 6. Final -w is often pronounced as /w/: how pronounced /hauw/; saw 
pronounced /sa:w/; draw pronounced /dra:w/, etc.
 7. Learners will tend to pronounce the silent letters in words like knot, 
gnaw, comb, bomb, half, sword, psychiatrist, etc.
 Stress
 Dutch and English stress patterns in words and sentences are quite 
similar. There are some problems, though.
 1. Dutch compounds regularly have stress on the first element, leading 
to problems where an English compound does not. Hence *'appletart 
for apple 't:art (Dutch 'appeltaart).
 2. Dutch stress patterns are not susceptible to variation depending on 
grammatical category, as in convict (verb) vs 'convict (noun). This 
leaves learners very uncertain about the stress patterns of many 
words.
 3. Dutch does not have as many weak forms as English, nor does it use 
them so consistently. Many speakers will overstress words like and, 
but, than, etc., using strong forms throughout.
 4
 © Cambridge University Press
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Intonation
 Dutch speakers
 Dutch intonation moves within a much narrower range than English. 
The Dutch intonation range is on the whole relatively high and does not 
reach the same low pitches as English. Learners trying to widen their 
voice range tend to move it upwards rather than downwards.
 Juncture and assimilation
 1. Dutch does not have final voiced stop or fricative consonants. 
Learners who have acquired final /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /6/, /z/, /g/ and /dg/ 
will still tend to make them unvoiced if the next word begins with an 
unvoiced sound. Conversely, Dutch word-final unvoiced sounds will 
often become voiced before a word beginning with a voiced stop or a 
vowel. This leads to problems in English. For example:
 Dad comes pronounced ‘Dat comess’
 if it is Tom pronounced ‘iv id iss Tom’ 
this is Kate pronounced ‘thiz iss Kate’ 
back door pronounced ‘bag door’
 2. In Dutch, a sequence of two identical or similar stop consonants is 
usually reduced to one:
 sharp pins pronounced ‘sharpins’ 
hard times pronounced ‘hartimes’
 Punctuation
 Dutch puts a comma after restrictive relative clauses; hence mistakes 
like:
 * The concern they show, is by no means exaggerated.
 Commas may be used between unlinked clauses:
 *This is somewhat surprising, as they are forbidden in Dutch 
too, they nevertheless occur regularly.
 Quotation marks are written like this:
 * „I am thirsty,’’ he said.
 Abbreviations entirely in lower case or ending in lower case are 
normally followed by periods: hence Mr. and Mrs., even in texts that try 
to write British English. And ie for traditional i.e. may be found 
confusing.
 With some exceptions, Dutch compounds are written as one word, 
no matter how long they are, even when they are borrowed from or 
inspired by English (e.g. marketinginformatiesysteem). This leads to 
spellings like ^marathonrunner, ^satellitechannel.
 5
 © Cambridge University Press
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 Grammar
 Genera!
 Typologically speaking, the Dutch language occupies a position midway 
between English and German. Word order is virtually the same as in 
German; Dutch still has grammatical gender, and a high percentage of 
its vocabulary betrays its Germanic origin.
 However, Dutch is not a variety of German. Apart from a fair 
number of language-specific differences, its morphology comes close to 
the English system. The inflectional system is relatively simple; neither 
verbs nor prepositions govern ‘cases’; there are only a few relics of the 
old subjunctive.
 Interrogative and negative structures
 1. Dutch has no do-support. Interrogatives are formed by simple 
inversion; negatives by placing niet (= not) after the verb or before 
the first non-finite verbal element:
 * What mean you?
 * Thank you, I smoke not.
 *I have her yesterday not seen.
 2. Preposition-stranding in questions is unknown in Dutch (see 
however section 3 and ‘Relative pronouns’, section 5), and has to be 
taught explicitly. It takes a while before Dutch speakers will nat
 urally produce Who are you talking to? instead of To whom are you 
talking?, a stilted construction that is liable to persist in their speech.
 3. Dutch uses interrogative adverbials beginning with the equivalent of 
where to ask questions about things (see also ‘Relative pronouns’). 
They are separable and thus might inspire preposition-stranding, but 
the substitution of where for the pronoun is a real danger:
 * Where are you thinking of? (for What are you thinking of?)
 * Where do you need that for?
 4. Questions with inversion can have falling intonation in Dutch. This 
is sometimes transferred to English, which can make a simple, 
innocuous enquiry like Are there no theatres open in London? sound 
almost belligerent.
 Tags, short answers and reply questions
 Dutch has no construction comparable with the English question tag; 
instead it uses particles and adverbs:
 6
 © Cambridge University Press
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 *She is your best friend, eh? / or not? (for She is your best friend, 
isn’t she?)
 Unlike Dutch, English has quite a number of fixed subject-plus-auxiliary 
patterns which are frequent in conversational exchange. The over-short 
answers of a Dutch speaker may sometimes give an impression of 
abruptness, aggressiveness or rudeness.
 ‘Are you coming with us?’ ‘Yes.’ (for ‘Yes, I am.’)
 ‘Your glass is empty.’ ‘Oh, yes.’ (for ‘So it is.’)
 ‘They never listen to good advice.’ ‘No.’ (for ‘No, they don’t.’ or 
‘No, they don’t, do they?’)
 ‘You can’t speak without a regional accent.’ ‘Yes!’ (for ‘Yes, I 
can.’ or ‘But I can.’)
 Auxiliaries
 The general perfective aspect-marker, in Dutch as in English, is hebben 
(= have). However, zijn (= be) is used to form the perfect tenses of zijn, of 
blijven (= remain, stay) and of common intransitive change-of-state 
verbs:
 ^He is been here, but he isn’t stayed long.
 ^He is left ten minutes ago.
 The Dutch marker of the passive voice is worden (= become) in the 
simple tenses; however, in the perfect tenses Dutch uses the simple 
forms of zijn (= be). Speakers of Dutch tend to translate this zijn as a 
present tense, all the while thinking that the English verb in, e.g., the 
report is published, is a perfect tense and that they will be understood as 
having said the report has been published. Their problem is com
 pounded by the existence, in English, of constructions like the article is 
written in a racy style, which seems to provide a model for ^the article 
is translated by John. This type of mistake is very persistent, even in the 
English of fairly advanced learners.
 Time, tense and aspect
 A. Past time
 To refer to a past event Dutch can use both a past tense and a perfect 
tense, without much difference in meaning. The latter is the more usual 
form. Conversely, Dutch can use a past tense where English would use a 
present perfect:
 *I have seen him yesterday.
 ^All my nineteenth-century ancestors have lived here.
 © Cambridge University Press
 7
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 * Since I made my report last year, there was a steady improve
 ment in the company’s trading position.
 B. Present time
 To express how long a present state of affairs has been going on, Dutch 
normally uses a present tense, not a present perfect:
 *I know him for five years.
 *I live in Amsterdam since I was a child.
 C. Future time
 1. Even though Dutch has a future tense formed with an auxiliary 
(roughly equivalent to the shall/will future of English), it often uses 
the present tense to refer to the future:
 *I promise I give it to him tomorrow.
 2. To express how long a future state of affairs will have lasted, Dutch 
often uses a simple future or even a simple present:
 *In 20151 will work here for 17 years.
 * Tomorrow I work here for five years already.
 3. Dutch can freely use the future in a subclause of time:
 * He’ll be an old man when he’ll get out of jail.
 D. Aspect
 Dutch does not have progressive verb forms:
 *I lived in London at that point in my life.
 *I have a lot of trouble with John at the moment.
 ‘Progressive’ meanings can however be expressed, if necessary, by the 
use of certain adjectives and adverbs:
 * What were you busy with yesterday? (for What were you doing 
yesterday?)
 * You’ve worked on this non-stop this last week, eh?
 Some beginners overgeneralise the English progressive:
 * The house is belonging to my father.
 Conditionals
 1. There are no such sharp distinctions between the use of verbal forms 
in the Dutch subclause and main clause as there are in English; apart 
from the equivalents of the normal English forms, Dutch allows 
those of shall/should/would in the subclause, and past tenses of full 
lexical verbs in the main clause. Hence mistakes like:
 8
 © Cambridge University Press
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 *IfI shall see him, I shall tell him.
 Dutch speakers
 * If you would know him, you wouldn’t (or even didn’t) say such 
things.
 *Ifhe would have worked harder, he had succeeded.
 2. It is common in Dutch to use the adverb dan (= then) in the main 
clause of a conditional construction:
 '
 * If you see him tomorrow, will you then tell him I won’t be at 
home next week?
 ?
 * Had I known in time, then I would have come along.
 Modal verbs
 On the whole, the Dutch and English systems of modal verbs are 
similar. But:
 1. English must is deceptively like Dutch moefen (= must, have to, be 
to); hence the frequent use of must when this is not the appropriate 
modal:
 * When must you take up your new appointment? (for When are 
you to . . .?)
 * In Venice people must go everywhere by boat. (for . . . have to 
. . .)
 The negative moesf nief means should not, ought not to:
 * You mustn’t smoke too much, if I may say so.
 2. More specifically, learners may take must to be the equivalent of the 
Dutch past tense moesf (= had to or was to).
 *I must go to London yesterday.
 *The wedding must have taken place yesterday, but it was 
postponed.
 3. In Southern Dutch moef nief means don’t have to, needn’t, and is 
therefore completely different from must not:
 * Parking here is free today so you mustn’t pay.
 4. Dutch kan (infinitive kunnen) denotes all types of possibility; there is 
no equivalent of English may/might used in this sense:
 *It can rain tonight: don’t forget your umbrella.
 *I can have told you already.
 5. The past tense of Dutch kunnen, kon (sg) / konden (pl), when 
denoting ability, usually implies more than mere ability: it almost 
invariably suggests that the action expressed by the main verb was 
actually carried out. Even advanced Dutch speakers may be misled 
by this:
 * Yesterday he could just catch the 7 o’clock train. (for . . . was 
able to catch . . .)
 6. Permission is mostly sought and granted in Dutch by means of the
 © Cambridge University Press
 9
 www.cambridge.org
Cambridge
 Cambridge University Press
 978-0-521-77939-5 - Learner English, Second Edition: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
 and other Problems
 Michael Swan and Bernard Smith
 Excerpt
 More information
 Dutch speakers
 modal mag (infinitive mogen), even in informal registers, leading 
students to overuse may and avoid can. English might looks like the 
past tense of mag, which is mochf ( = could, was allowed to):
 *She might go out every night when she was sixteen.
 7. Dutch zou has several different meanings, only a few of which can be 
expressed by 2nd or 3rd person should:
 ^They did not know they should never see each other again. (for 
. . . would never see . . . or . . . were never to see . . .: destiny)
 *He should leave on Sunday, but there was a problem with his 
visa. (for . . . was going to leave . . .: unfulfilled intention)
 ^Andrew should be ill. (for Andrew is said to be ill.: rumour)
 Non-finite forms
 Dutch uses considerably fewer non-finite forms than English. This 
causes various problems, especially in the area of verbal complementa
 tion. This varies from word to word, both in English and in Dutch, and 
a Dutch speaker must pay special attention to learn the English 
complementation of a word if it differs from its Dutch equivalent.
 1. Dutch speakers will substitute that-clauses or adjectival or adverbial 
constructions for infinitives and gerunds after verbs:
 * He wants that I go.
 * I’ve always gladly gone there or *I have always been glad to go 
there (for I’ve always loved going there.)
 * This entails that the whole configuration changes.
 2. Dutch has no equivalent of the English gerund, and will often 
substitute a to-infinitive for one. A few very typical examples:
 * I don’t mind to do it.
 * If you can’t avoid to go, you risk to upset your dad.
 * I suggest to go to the pictures instead.
 * It’s no use to ask her.
 * I am used to do this.
 * I look forward to hear from you.
 Incidentally, the absence of a gerund equivalent will also lead to the 
occurrence of to-infinitives after prepositions: * Instead of to fight, 
they laughed.
 3. There is no equivalent of the structure ‘verb + object + past 
participle’, whose meanings are expressed in a number of different 
structures:
 * I hear my name call.
 * I like that it is done quickly.
 * Try to make yourself understandable.
 10
 © Cambridge University Press
 www.cambridge.org

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