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Learn Dutch with short stories

Read Dutch books with English alongside, or English books with Dutch alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

Free Dutch–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in Dutch, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each one is also a free Dutch–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the Dutch–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

By level:

Free graded readers in Dutch

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of free Dutch graded readers: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own Dutch–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading Dutch with English alongside

Dutch is English’s close cousin: water, boek, huis and appel need no dictionary, and many sentences can be guessed word by word. That makes it one of the quickest languages to start reading, and a parallel text lets you read real stories from the first week.

What trips readers up is word order: the verb goes second in a main clause and to the very end in a subordinate one, and separable verbs split in two (ik bel je morgen op, I will call you tomorrow). With the English beside each paragraph, you see how a sentence ends before you lose the thread.

Reading English books with Dutch alongside

For Dutch speakers, who often read English well already, a parallel text makes long or literary English books easier: read the English and look across only when an idiom or an old-fashioned phrase doesn’t land.

It works for families too: one book, two languages on the same page, so children growing up abroad keep reading Dutch with their parents, and partners who speak different languages can read the same story.

192 English stories in the library have Dutch alongside: Engels leren met korte verhalen.

Where a parallel text helps most in Dutch

The verb at the end

In a subordinate clause the Dutch verb waits until the end (omdat hij morgen naar Amsterdam gaat, because he is going to Amsterdam tomorrow). The English beside it tells you where the sentence is heading.

Separable verbs

Opbellen, meenemen, aankomen: the prefix leaves its verb and lands at the end of the sentence. Seeing them next to their English again and again makes them easy to spot.

Familiar words, false friends

Most look-alikes mean what they seem, but not all: eventueel means possibly, not eventually, and brutaal means cheeky, not brutal. The translation settles it at a glance.

Dutch classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first Dutch–English parallel text:

  • Max Havelaar, Multatuli
  • Eline Vere, Louis Couperus
  • Camera Obscura, Hildebrand
  • De kleine Johannes, Frederik van Eeden

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about Dutch–English stories

Where can I read Dutch stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 192 Dutch–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to C2.

What is a Dutch–English parallel text?

A Dutch text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which Dutch story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read Dutch–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment.