Translate Video to Dutch

What to expect when translating into Dutch

Dutch builds long compound words and usually runs a little longer than English. Check whether you want informal je or formal u for your audience, since the translation can mix them.

The Dutch voice track

Because Dutch audiences are used to subtitles, a dubbed Dutch track is most useful for children's content, training and explainer videos.

Voice, MP4, subtitles and transcripts: 300 credits (30¢). Subtitles and transcripts only: 6 credits (0.6¢).

Dutch subtitles

The Netherlands and Flanders subtitle rather than dub most foreign TV, so Dutch viewers are used to reading — a Dutch SRT is often the most natural choice.

Dutch (Nederlands) is written in the Latin alphabet.

Switch Full translation output off for subtitles only: 22 credits (2.2¢). If the video is already in Dutch, select Dutch as the language instead and the subtitles come back untranslated — see Dutch transcription.

Translating audio files into Dutch

Podcasts and recordings go through the audio translator, which returns a Dutch M4A and transcripts: 2,000 credits ($2.00) with voice, 40 credits (4¢) as text only.

Who translates into Dutch

Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders) and Suriname. It's used by companies in the Netherlands and Belgium, Dutch universities, and creators targeting viewers in the Netherlands and Flanders.

Settle je or u before anyone reviews

Dutch forces a choice that English hides: the viewer is either je/jij (informal) or u (formal). Consumer apps, retailers and most Dutch YouTube channels say je; banks, insurers, government bodies and many Belgian organisations lean towards u. Machine translation decides sentence by sentence from context, so a ten-minute explainer can drift between the two, and a voice that says "u" in one line and "je" in the next sounds careless to a Dutch listener.

Decide the register before translating, write it down, and make it the first thing your reviewer checks. In the downloaded SRT, search for the pronouns u, uw, je, jij and jouw, count which form dominates, and fix the minority. Possessives have to move with the pronoun: "uw account" belongs with u, "je account" with je.

If you keep a short translation style guide, put the register at the top, followed by the English terms you want left alone.

One Dutch option, two audiences

The language picker has a single Dutch option with no separate Belgian variant, so the output follows general standard Dutch. The written standard is shared between the Netherlands and Flanders, but everyday vocabulary and tone are not. Flemish viewers notice Netherlands-only words such as "pinnen" for paying by card, and Dutch viewers notice Belgian ones such as "gsm" for a mobile phone. Directness that reads as friendly in Amsterdam can come across as blunt in Antwerp.

For a Belgian audience, you rarely need a new translation. Ask a Flemish reader to go through the subtitle file and mark the words that sound Hollands; swapping a dozen words and softening a few imperatives is usually enough. For a mixed audience, prefer neutral vocabulary over either regional form.

Compound words and the Engelse ziekte

Dutch writes compounds as one word: veiligheidsinstructie, klantenservicemedewerker, wachtwoordherstel. Splitting them under English influence ("veiligheids instructie") is an error common enough to have a name, the Engelse ziekte, and it turns up in machine output and in hasty hand edits alike. Proofread the translated subtitles for compounds that should be joined, and for the linking letters that hold them together, as in stadsbus and klantenservice.

Compounds also make lines wide. A single word like arbeidsongeschiktheidsverzekering fills most of a subtitle line on its own. When you edit the SRT, break lines between phrases rather than hyphenating a compound across two lines; subtitle segmentation covers where breaks read best.

Dutch business speech keeps many English words: meeting, deadline, feedback, dashboard. The translation may replace them with Dutch equivalents such as vergadering or terugkoppeling, which can sound stiff in a tech video and exactly right in a public-sector one. Decide per term instead of accepting whichever the output picked.

Costing a short onboarding series

Dub mode also gives you SRT and VTT files, but they follow what the Dutch voice actually says, including lines tightened to fit the original timing. Because Dutch tends to run longer than English, some of those lines lose a clause (see text expansion in translation). For a subtitle-first audience that wants the complete wording, run the same file in transcript mode with Dutch as the target as well; at one credit per minute it barely changes the budget.

Last pass before a Dutch upload

• One register throughout, including possessives and imperatives.
• Compounds joined; no Engelse ziekte splits in titles or subtitles.
• Prices with a decimal comma (€ 12,50), dates as 1 oktober 2026 or 01-10-2026, times on the 24-hour clock (14.30 uur).
• Weekdays and months in lower case: maandag, oktober.
• Kept English terms spelled the same way every time.
• Characters such as ë and é intact in ideeën and café when the subtitle file opens in your player.
• A Flemish read-through when the video is meant for Belgium.

Using the tool on this page

• The spoken language is detected automatically; you select the output language — the spoken language itself for an untranslated transcript, or another language for a translation. Files can be up to 2 hours long.
• Only the audio is sent for processing — the video stays on your device — and audio and text are deleted within 30 minutes of delivery (how files are protected).
• You can download a translated video that keeps your music and effects, the translated audio as M4A, a transcript and subtitles (SRT and VTT). Every output, step and limit is explained on the video translator page.