A1 is the level where Dutch stops being a stream of unfamiliar sounds and becomes something you can actually use: introducing yourself, asking the way, ordering at a café, giving your address at the gemeente desk. It is not about grammar rules for their own sake — it is roughly 100 guided hours (a public estimate; your own pace will vary) of the words and sentence patterns that come up constantly in daily life. Asagno's A1 path opens with the Latin alphabet and pronunciation, taught from zero, then moves into greetings and personal information, then everyday situations — shopping, public transport, the weather, simple plans with friends — always with the Arabic translation and a native-speed audio clip next to the Dutch, and short comprehension checks so you notice what you actually retained rather than what you only recognised on the page.
What you'll learn
- The Latin alphabet and Dutch pronunciation from zero, including sounds Arabic does not have: p, v, and the vowel sounds ui, eu and ij/ei
- A head start worth using: the Dutch g and ch are close to Arabic خ, and Dutch, like Arabic, separates short and long vowels (man "man" vs maan "moon")
- Introducing yourself: name, origin, family, job — the questions you get asked constantly
- Present tense of common verbs and basic word order (the verb in second position)
- Numbers, time, days of the week, and simple shopping and café dialogue
- de and het: Dutch has two words for "the", not three as in German — learned with every noun from the start
A real A1 sentence pattern
"Ik heet Layla en ik kom uit Syrië." — "My name is Layla and I come from Syria." The pattern (name + heet, origin + kom uit) is one you will reuse dozens of times in the first week.
"Pardon, waar is het toilet?" — "Excuse me, where is the toilet?" — one of the first questions worth memorising exactly, word for word.
huis (house), leuk (nice), mijn (my) — three of the most common words you will hear, and three vowel sounds (ui, eu, ij) with no Arabic equivalent. Worth practising with audio from day one.
Frequently asked questions
How is A1 different from just memorising phrases?
Phrasebooks get you through one exact situation; A1 teaches the underlying patterns (verb position, question words, de vs het) so you can build new sentences the phrasebook never covered.
Is the Dutch g really like the Arabic خ?
Close, especially in the north and west of the Netherlands, where the g in goed (good) and the ch in lachen (to laugh) are pronounced in the throat much like خ. In the south and in Belgium it is softer. Either way, most Arabic speakers find it one of the easier Dutch sounds — the harder ones are usually ui, eu, and keeping p and b apart.
What's next after A1?
A2, which builds on the same patterns with the past tense and longer sentences — see the Dutch B1 page for what comes after that.