Yep. English, Dutch, and German are the biggest surviving representatives of the West Germanic languages which probably diverged from each other in earnest in the early Middle Ages. So they’re all quite similar.

April 05, 2026 - 00:47 UTC

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I speak native level English and C1 Level german, while there are many similarities between the two and they come from same linguistic family, there are also many many profound differences. You don’t automatically understand most German as an English speaker.
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Correct. Scots is even more closely related to standard English than German but most English speakers will struggle to understand a native Scots speaker broguing it up. I wasn’t suggesting that German and English are mutually intelligible, just that they have a common ancestor within historic times
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Dutch wins for this stuff.
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Even knowing what dood means it’s still a funny headline, like, I dunno, celebrate? The worst guy ever is gone guys
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English: the Republicans have a Nazi problem

Dutch: de Republikanen hebben een naziprobleem

German: die Republikaner haben ein Naziproblem
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It’s like how if you can read Spanish you can largely understand written Portuguese but if you hear someone speak Portuguese it sounds like they’re speaking Spanish with a mouthful of marshmallows
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Although the living language closest to English is Frisian, so that was probably closer to the point of diversion. It's still miles from English.

Suzy Izzard did a program a long time ago about English and part of it had to do with the relation to Frisian.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeC1yAaWG34
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Then the French invaded England and messed everything up.
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My wife and I visited a Dutch friend this summer. The friend has a 3 year old, and I said "Good night" as he was headed to bed. As he headed upstairs we clearly heard him asking his dad "Wat is <<Good Night>>?".

It was both adorable and showed how closely the languages are related.
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