Dutch translation services accredited to BS EN ISO 17100
Dutch interpreter services accredited to BS EN ISO 18841
Professional, trusted mother-tongue Dutch-English and English-Dutch translation
Dutch typesetting services, Dutch multimedia
Professional Dutch translation and Dutch interpreter services providers since 1990, our Dutch translation services and Dutch typesetting support a wide range of UK clients across the technical, website, and insurance sectors and many more. We’re also preferred Dutch to English translation partners to leading Netherlands language companies.
“I’m really pleased (again) with the accuracy of the Dutch translation.”
– global sportswear client’s Netherlands manager
The Dutch language actually has a lot of history, and this great page holds a fascinating amount of information.
“Can I get certified Dutch translation then?”
Official business? You need certified translation in the UK, or sworn in The Netherlands. Both validate your stuff for official use (we also notarize for legal purposes).
Not business at all? Don’t worry, we’ve helped hundreds of private individuals and families with certified and sworn documents – more info here.
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All our Dutch language provision is underpinned by our accreditation to BS EN 17100 for Translation Services, and BS EN 18841 for Interpreting Services.
So you can be confident that – like these fine Gouda cheese-carrying gentlemen – we won’t put a foot wrong in your assignment.
And that’s gouda to know… sorry, couldn’t resist…!
“Do we need Dutch translation at all? Thought the Dutch could all speak English?”
That’s a common misconception – most professionals speak good English, but if – for example – you’re marketing a consumer product then you can be sure customers will expect it in Dutch, and buy a competitor’s product if it isn’t.
That’s true of anything aimed at the general population – one very successful and very large Dutch project we handled for a global manufacturer was Health-&-Safety training for their in-country teams, where provision in their own language resulted in far greater buy-in (particularly from factory workers, who often had little or no English) than previous (untranslated) courses had attained.
Our over 1500 Dutch translation projects include 200,000 words for that client, as well as websites, manuals and lots of marketing. HERE’s a few case studies.
“So is Dutch just used in The Netherlands then?”
No – as well as being the mother-tongue in The Netherlands, northern Belgium uses the Dutch dialect of Flemish, while South Africa’s Afrikaans derives from the early Dutch settlers. You’ll also find Dutch in Surinam, as well as parts of the Caribbean.
Dutch interpreter services
Many Dutch professionals speak good English, but most others don’t. For that reason we’d recommend that you use a good Dutch interpreter, particularly if delivering training. Our Dutch interpreter services also include conference interpreting and medical interpreting.
Dutch transcription services
Dutch transcription supports research, conferences and more and can be mono- or bilingual (Dutch transcription and English translation). Certified Dutch transcription is also available. Be aware however that heavy local dialects complicate Dutch transcription – one of our Dutch partners tells us she has trouble being understood even in the next town!
Dutch typesetting: Quark, InDesign, Illustrator…
Dutch translation can grow 10-20%, with compound words built-up from their constituent parts – like preparation activities for a children’s carnival procession which becomes Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamheden.
Knowing where and how to hyphenate is – as you see! – critical in Dutch typesetting!
Dutch also has enough accented characters to further complicate Dutch typesetting so it’s a good thing our own in-house multilingual typesetting is 100% proofread. The uniquely Dutch “één” and inseparable “digraph” IJ – both letters capitalised, as in IJsselmeer – frequently give away unskilled Dutch typesetting.
Dutch voiceover and subtitling
Unusually among Dutch voiceover providers we’re a translation company, so ALL our Dutch subtitling and voiceover scripts are mother-tongue professionally translated and 100% reviewed. That’s surprisingly rare in UK-produced voiceover!
USEFUL HINT: Beware compound words in Dutch voiceover. Translated scripts often have many fewer words than the source English but the long compound words – as the above example – take much longer to read, so don’t rely simply on wordcount to assess whether a Dutch voiceover translation will work. Our Really Useful Voiceover guide has guidance on this and other aspects and may be helpful if you need Dutch voiceover projects.
Fully proofread perfectly-synced Dutch subtitling is also available.