# What People In Europe Speak The Best English?



## Slodi (Feb 25, 2006)

From my experience: Dutch and Germans. Scandinavians as well but Norwegians


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

Scandinavians have the BEST English. You would meet the most english non-mothertongue speakers in Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands, but in quality it's for sure the nordic countries.


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## Æsahættr (Jul 9, 2004)

Dutch


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## Bitxofo (Feb 3, 2005)

Scottish and Welsh.


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## CborG (Dec 2, 2003)

jes, wie spiek verrie goed inlisj heer in de netterlents, its ouwer sekont lenggwitsj. aai ken spiek it floewentlie!


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## Sidel (Jul 25, 2005)

I think portuguese speaks god english in Europe, compared with italians, french and spanish...


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## Sidel (Jul 25, 2005)

good, I mean


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## Juan Kerr (Apr 23, 2006)

Paddington said:


> Outside the obvious ones of the Brits and Irish. :cheers:


They speak GREAT English in Norway....better than the English themselves!!!


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

From my experiences, the Swedes and the Finns are probably the best


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## steveowevo (Jan 27, 2006)

My cousins live in Norway, and they speak almost perfect english when they come to visit here.


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

Juan Kerr said:


> They speak GREAT English in Norway....better than the English themselves!!!


Absolutly true!


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## JustHorace (Dec 17, 2005)

people from Sweden speak good English too


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## OtAkAw (Aug 5, 2004)

The British??? After all, the language is _theirs_


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## hkth (Sep 15, 2005)

I would say the people who live in the Scandanavian countries speak good English in the whole Europe outside UK and Ireland. For the Dutch? Well, their accent is still quite noticable at all. :|


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## Dr. Dubai (Mar 22, 2004)

Defenitly the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands.



Tubeman said:


> That should be _Which_ people... :|
> 
> The Dutch. They speak better English than half the English people I know


:lol: I'm proud of this incredible achievement

We are brought up with Dutch, as well with English, German, French, and sometimes Spanish. I think we've a great advantage, because Dutch is quite similar to English. But I gotta say that the lowerclass doesn't speak English very well, they only know the words they learn at school (that's not much, believe me), and some filthy words they learn themselves by watching movies. But maybe compared to other countries it's still quite good, I don' know.

What I know, is that in the Netherlands you get most of the stuff you learn when you're practising for your master at the university, in English. I guess in other countries it's totally the same?


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## DiggerD21 (Apr 22, 2004)

Dr. Dubai said:


> I think we've a great advantage, because Dutch is quite similar to English.


For me Dutch is like English and German put together in a mixer.


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## shayan (Oct 9, 2005)

we dutch and scandinavians >P


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## Lostboy (Sep 14, 2002)

Germanic Nations.


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## ronald (Dec 10, 2005)

Dr. Dubai said:


> What I know, is that in the Netherlands you get most of the stuff you learn when you're practising for your master at the university, in English. I guess in other countries it's totally the same?


True, I'm a first year student at the University of Utrecht, I'm studying Human Geography and ALL my books are in English!


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## centreoftheuniverse (Nov 16, 2005)

OtAkAw said:


> The British??? After all, the language is _theirs_


Not quite. Doesn't English borrow heavily from Latin? English is also an off-shoot of the old Germanic languages.


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## centreoftheuniverse (Nov 16, 2005)

Also, aren't the Nordic and Germanic languages resemble English more in that they don't conjigate their verbs like the Latin languages do? 

For example, "to go" in Spanish is "ir", but I go is "voy", you go is "vas", they go is "van" and we go is "vamos".


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## Audiomuse (Dec 20, 2005)

Tubeman said:


> That should be _Which_ people... :|
> 
> The Dutch. They speak better English than half the English people I know


LOL


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## rembau1958 (Oct 10, 2005)

Tubeman said:


> That should be _Which_ people... :|
> 
> The Dutch. They speak better English than half the English people I know


True :hahaha: 

But the way some of the English speak are real crackers. Just have to love the way Geordies speak.


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## Zaqattaq (Nov 17, 2004)

Dutch


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## streetscapeer (Apr 30, 2004)

ronald said:


> True, I'm a first year student at the University of Utrecht, I'm studying Human Geography and ALL my books are in English!



wow..is this common, are many universites in the Netherlands conducted in English?


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## Novak (May 9, 2006)

I met some Dutch women today. They spoke fantastic English.. so I think, that with people of Nordic countries, Dutch people speak best English in the Europe.


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## Novak (May 9, 2006)

Oops, double-post.. :sleepy:


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## ronald (Dec 10, 2005)

streetscapeer said:


> wow..is this common, are many universites in the Netherlands conducted in English?


I don't know for sure, but I think so. My uni is bilangual, everything (announcements, websites (like WebCT), emails etc.) is usually both in English and in Dutch. It's convienent for exchange students.
But classes are still tought in Dutch, and Dutch is still the language in which people communicate (even though English is widely spoken).


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## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

In my experience from tourists who come here, I would say the Dutch and Scandinavians like Danish and Swedish. I have met some Dutch who were so 
completely, utterly fluent that I assumed they lived in Canada or the USA. 
After that, Germans.


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## Dr. Dubai (Mar 22, 2004)

ronald said:


> *tought* in Dutch,


Taught

I'm sorry, I'm Dutch you know, I can't bear that


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## Khanabadosh (Nov 16, 2004)

I think education system in Netherlands is one of the best in the europe. English is compulsory as a second language and then there are optional languages. Moreover English and Dutch have so many common words.


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## Ringil (Jul 28, 2004)

Dutch and Scandinavians


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## Momo1435 (Oct 3, 2005)

The Dutch

credits to the ruler of SSC, Jan


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## ronald (Dec 10, 2005)

Obviously both the Dutch and Scandinavians speak English fluently.
But this doesn't just apply to English.
The Dutch and Scandinavians also are the best German-spreaking peoples in Europe outside of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
And they also are the best French-speaking peoples outside of France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland.
The're just realy good at speaking other languages!


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## Forza Raalte (Sep 18, 2004)

Skandinafian countrys, Eisland end de Nederlanths!


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## ØlandDK (May 29, 2005)

I agree with the most in here... the dutch and scandinavians... In Denmark we learn english from the 4'th grade and in the 7'th grade you have to choose either french og german...I personally speak fluent german and english - or at least I think so


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## BenL (Apr 24, 2006)

Whilst watching Match of the Day, I noticed the Icelandic Eidur Gudjohnsen has a far better grasp of the English language than John Terry.


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## DiggerD21 (Apr 22, 2004)

Oelanddk said:


> I agree with the most in here... the dutch and scandinavians... In Denmark we learn english from the 4'th grade and in the 7'th grade you have to choose either french og german...I personally speak fluent german and english - or at least I think so


Back when I was in school, learning english was compulsury from 5th grade on and in the 7th grade we had to choose a third language (the options varied from school to school. I had the choice between french, latin and italian).
Meanwhile some states have changed their laws so that pupils start learning english in the 3rd grade, sometimes even in 1st grade.


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## Tubeman (Sep 12, 2002)

BenL said:


> Whilst watching Match of the Day, I noticed the Icelandic Eidur Gudjohnsen has a far better grasp of the English language than John Terry.


:rofl: I could well believe it!

Plus I reckon the average Dutch 5 year old has a better grasp of English than David Beckham!


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## LoveCPH (Sep 11, 2002)

Well scandinavians for sure.. But Danish English sounds soo booring..

But my English is not boring, but perfect.. Indstead of German I chosed French 

Let's se If I can learn russian next year..


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