Fabiola is a wonderful lady and I don't know if you ever have heard about a dutch huge fairytale park called The Efteling and the Belgium Queen Fabiola wrote a fairytale for it called De Indische Waterlelies. Translation:The Indian Water-Lily. Yeah, I think it is just the accent, because the difference between the dutch spoken in the Netherlands and in the dutch spoken in Vlaanderen Belgium, is only the accent and some words are different.
Alright, Alex je mag me helpen als je wilt
Alex may help me, but here is the first lesson. About the Verb Are. In dutch : Zijn.
I= ik
you = Jij
He= Hij
She= Zij
It = Het
We = Wij
You = Jullie
They = Zij
About how to pronounce it:
The first word Ik is pronounced like the ig in big, or ick in thick.
The dutch ij is pronounced like the y in why, shy or bye and the J is the same sound as the Y in You or J in June.
The H is the same as the english H.
The Z is pronounced like the Z in Zsa Zsa Gabor
Et in Het sounds like the ET in met or bet.
The W sounds the same like the english W.
The dutch pronouncing of Jullie is like the name Julie, but with the U spoken as the ue in the french word que.
Alright, now a bit of a sentence:
I am = Ik ben (ben pronounced like the name Ben)
You are = Jij bent (exactly the same as the englsh word BENT)
He is = Hij is (Is = pronounced the same)
She is = Zij is
It is = Het is
We are = Wij Zijn (Same pronouncing as ZIJ but with the N behind)
You are = Jullie zijn
They are = Zij zijn
You can say I am Jack (ik ben Jack) I am late ( ik ben laat) I am old (ik ben oud) the verb ZIJN (Are) is used for almost everywhere.
First lesson is over. If you want to learn more, let me know