Dutch tech is famously English-friendly. As DutchReview’s list of internationally hiring companies shows, places like Booking.com, Adyen, and the Brainport Eindhoven scene run in English, and the country tops the EF English Proficiency Index. The IT job market here is full of English-language roles, so you can absolutely ship code here without a word of Dutch. But anyone who has sat in a “we will do this in English” standup that slowly slid back into Dutch knows the gap is real. A little vocabulary closes it.
Where Dutch sneaks into an English team
The official language is English; the unofficial one leaks through in predictable places:
- The standup, when two colleagues clarify something quickly between themselves.
- The hallway, the coffee corner, and lunch, where the real bonding happens.
- Slack channels and casual messages, where people default to their mother tongue.
- HR, contracts, payslips, and the occasional all-hands.
You do not need to work in Dutch. You need enough to follow the drift, catch your name, and join the social glue that turns colleagues into a team. The same logic applies as in how to learn Dutch when everyone speaks English.
The agile-meeting words you will actually hear
Most agile terms stay in English (sprint, scrum, standup, backlog, deploy), but they get wrapped in Dutch connective tissue:
| Dutch | English | In context |
|---|---|---|
| Even kort | Just briefly | ”Even kort over de bug…” |
| Klopt | Correct / that’s right | Agreeing in standup |
| Afgerond | Finished / wrapped up | A ticket is done |
| Blokkeert | Is blocking | ”Dit blokkeert mij” |
| Oppakken | To pick up (a task) | “Ik pak dit op” |
| Doorpakken | To push on | Keep momentum |
| Overleggen | To confer / discuss | ”Even overleggen” |
Knowing these means that when the standup slips into Dutch for ten seconds, you do not lose the thread.
The social glue matters more than the jargon
Here is the part that actually changes your experience. The technical drift you can usually infer; the social Dutch is what makes you a colleague rather than the international who needs everything repeated. A few lines go a long way:
- “Goedemorgen, alles goed?” (morning, all good?) to open the day.
- “Zullen we koffie halen?” (shall we grab coffee?), the real team-building meeting.
- “Fijn weekend!” (have a good weekend!) on Friday.
- “Lekker bezig” (nicely done / on a roll), warm informal praise.
These are the same everyday phrases from Dutch for daily life, pointed at the office. And on Friday afternoon they shade straight into the borrel, where colleagues become friends.
Written Dutch is a separate skill
Speaking up in a standup and writing in a channel are different challenges. If your team’s Slack and email carry Dutch, that is its own thing worth getting right, which is why we cover it separately in how to stop sounding like Google Translate in work Slack.
The bottom line
You can build a whole career in Dutch tech in English, and many do. But the developers who pick up a few dozen Dutch meeting words and social lines stop being on the outside of their own team. It costs a few minutes a day, and it is the difference between attending the standup and belonging to it.
Learn it in five minutes a day
Learn Dutch For Expats is an app, available on the App Store, that teaches the workplace Dutch you actually hear, the standup fillers, the coffee-corner small talk, the Friday borrel, as short five-minute lessons, so you stay in the loop when your English team drifts into Dutch.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need to speak Dutch to work in tech in the Netherlands?
No. Most Dutch tech companies work in English, and the country has world-leading English proficiency, so you can do the job without Dutch. But standups, Slack, and coffee-corner chats drift into Dutch, and a little vocabulary keeps you in the loop and part of the team. Learn Dutch For Expats (an app on the App Store) is the best way to pick up those workplace situations as short lessons.
What Dutch words come up in a Dutch standup?
The agile terms (sprint, scrum, backlog) usually stay English, but you will hear Dutch connectors like “klopt” (correct), “afgerond” (finished), “ik pak dit op” (I’ll pick this up), “dit blokkeert mij” (this is blocking me), and “even overleggen” (let’s quickly discuss). These help you follow when the meeting slips into Dutch.
Is English really enough for a tech job in the Netherlands?
For the work itself, usually yes: codebases, documentation, and most meetings are in English, especially at international companies. Dutch becomes valuable for the social and informal side, building rapport with colleagues, following hallway chats, and joining the team’s culture rather than just its tickets.
How can I bond with Dutch colleagues if meetings are in English?
Learn the social glue, not the jargon: greetings like “alles goed?”, “zullen we koffie halen?”, and “fijn weekend!”, plus joining the Friday borrel. A few warm Dutch lines signal effort and turn colleagues into friends far faster than perfect technical vocabulary ever will.
