In the last few years I have seen more and more foreigners coming to the Netherlands, not only to visit the country on holiday, but to move here to work.

There are a couple things that are helpful to know before coming here, like the fact that you might need a valid permit. Or it’s good to know how much salaries are over here.

Not only are these things are important, there are things you need to know about what it is actually like to work in the Netherlands.

Well, you can expect a lot of ‘vergaderingen’, short lunch breaks, flexible work time and punctuality.

If you are already working in the Netherlands, there might be a chance that you have to give a presentation. You probably can (or it’s even obligatory to do this in English) but …

you might find yourself in a situation where you need to do this…. in DUTCH!

I am here to help you.                          

Introduction 

Of course, you need to start somewhere. And a really useful thing you can do is to learn these few sentences by heart.

Welkom bij mijn presentatie (Welcome to my presentation)

Mijn naam is …  (My name is…)

Ik ben ..  (I am …)

Ik werk als …  (I work as ..)

Ik zal spreken over … (I’ll talk about)

Ik ga spreken over…  (I’m going to talk about)

Het doel van mijn presentatie is om …. te ….  (The goal of my presentation is to ..)

If you know these, the start of your presentation will go flawlessly.

The structure

It’s important in a presentation to say what you are going to do. This is not only helpful for the listener, it can help you as a speaker to organize your presentation.

So what Dutch sentences can you use?

Wat is de opbouw / structuur van mijn presentatie? (What’s the structure of my presentation?)

Wat ga ik doen vandaag? (What am I going to do today?)

Talking about the structure in your presentation

These words can be useful in this part of your presentation.

Firstly              Ten eerste      Allereerst

Secondly         Ten tweede

After that         Daarna           Vervolgens

Thirdly            Ten derde

Finally             Ten slotte       Uiteindelijk

Questions?

Asking for questions is an essential part of the presentation. How can you do this?

Heeft u een vraag? Dan hoor ik dat graag. (Do you have a question? I am happy to hear it.)

Als u vragen heeft, kunt u die stellen. (If you have any question, you can ask them.)

Referring to the presentation

You may do a presentation in which you use powerpoint. You can refer to this with a couple of sentences.

Hier ziet u … (Here you can see…)

Hier is te zien dat …. (Here you can see that…)

Op de presentatie kunt u zien dat …. (On the presentation you can see that …)

End of a presentation

Just as you need an opening, you also need an ending.  You can keep it simple and use one of the following sentences.

Dit was het. (That’s it)

Bedankt voor jullie aandacht. (Thank you for your attention)

Bedankt voor jullie komst. (Thank you for coming)

Ik geef het woord aan mijn collega. (I give the floor to my colleague.)

Good luck with your Dutch presentation!

Bart de Pau
online Dutch teacher & founder of the Dutch Summer School & Dutch Winter School