Dutch is more or less situated between (Germanic) English and German. There are striking similarities between English and Dutch vocabulary on the one hand and between German and Dutch vocabulary on the other hand. Of course, there are also words that exist in all three languages. Whereas German has four cases Dutch in theory has none left. Although the old rules are no longer taught at school, you can still find them in everyday language and not only in fixed expressions. You will come across the old cases when you hear Dutch, but apart from the fixed expressions you do not really need to use the cases any more. Difference between 'Flemish' and 'Dutch': the Dutch used in Flanders nowadays was the standard dialect in the Netherlands some 50 years ago. In the mean time the dialect in the Netherlands has evolved whereas the standard dialect in Flanders remained. Of course, there are regional dialects as well. Identical letters will be pronounced more or less the same in German and Dutch. However, some letters are pronounced differently in German: - K gets aspiration in German but not in Dutch - Z is [ts] - S is between S and Z - G is the Greek Gamma in German but [kh]-like in Dutch However, the 'Dutch' pronunciation is also used in some regional German dialects.