Dutch TV series for learners, by level

Dutch series on Netflix and NPO: how hard they are to follow

A series is harder than a text at the same level. A text waits for you and explains its hard words; a series runs at the speed of speech, with music under it and words half swallowed. Dutch viewers notice it too: a petition in 2016 asking the broadcasters for speech that is easier to understand collected about 14,000 signatures.

So the levels on this page are this site's estimate, from who each program is made for and how fast, accented and full of slang its Dutch is: nobody grades TV by level the way graded texts are. The Dutch levels explained says what you can follow at each level.

A2: short programs in clear Dutch

At A2 no drama is easy. What comes closest are short programs for children or for adults who find Dutch hard: one topic at a time, clear standard Dutch, and pictures that show what the words mean. At A2 you follow the pictures and the topic more than every sentence; by B1 they are easy. All four are free on NPO Start, the app of the Dutch public broadcasters.

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The NOS Journaal in Makkelijke Taal has its own page here, in easy Dutch: Nieuws in makkelijke taal. Between A2 and B1, try drama for young teens: SpangaS (2007 to 2022) is on NPO Start.

B1: comedy and everyday drama

At B1 a series for Dutch adults works if it is about daily life: school, family, work, the football club. You know the words from reading, and the story carries you past a line you missed.

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One episode a week fits well in a learning week. How to learn Dutch has the whole week at five hours, with an episode of the Jeugdjournaal on Sunday.

B2: crime drama, fast speech and slang

Many of the Dutch series on Netflix are crime dramas, with the violence that goes with them, and they are B2: fast, informal dialogue, accents, and the slang of the street. Watch them with Dutch subtitles once the B1 series feel easy.

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Flemish series: the same language, a different sound

Flemish is the Dutch of Belgium: the same grammar and spelling, and Dutch and Flemish speakers understand each other, but it sounds different, with a softer g and other vowels. In everyday speech Flemish characters say ge and gij for je and jij, and use words of their own. If you learn the Dutch of the Netherlands, a Flemish series feels like B2 even when the story is simple; in Flanders, it is the Dutch you hear every day. Undercover and Blind Sherlock, in the B2 table, put both in the same scenes.

Where Dutch series stream, and why it changes

Streaming rights are sold country by country and for a few years at a time, so a series can move from Netflix to NPO Plus or back. Before you pay for a month, look it up on JustWatch, set to the Netherlands.

• NPO Start: the free app of the Dutch public broadcasters, with ads: the live channels, and most programs for at least a week.
• NPO Plus: the paid layer of the same app, a few euros a month: no ads, and the whole archive. For an older series, part is often free on NPO Start and the rest needs NPO Plus, which is what a row with both means.
• Netflix: the series it made or co-produced, such as Undercover, and some series from Dutch TV for a time, such as Klem.
• Videoland: the streaming service of RTL Nederland; Mocro Maffia is its best-known series.
• NLZIET: a paid service of the NPO and the commercial broadcasters, with their channels on demand.

Outside the Netherlands, NPO Start blocks most programs because of broadcast rights. The series Netflix made itself are the ones you are most likely to find abroad; check the app where you live.

How to watch with Dutch subtitles

Aim for Dutch audio with Dutch subtitles. You read the words as you hear them, and you catch the end of a sentence that went by too fast. It is reading while listening at the speed of TV; Reading while listening explains it with the texts on this site.

On Netflix

1. While the episode plays, select Audio & Subtitles at the top or bottom of the screen (Audio en ondertiteling in the Dutch menus).
2. Choose Dutch for the audio (on a Dutch series, the original track) and Dutch for the subtitles. To keep the choice, set it in your profile: in the app, Manage Profiles, your profile, Audio & Subtitles; on the website, Account, your profile, Languages.

The audio and subtitle languages differ by title and by country.

On NPO Start and live TV

• In the NPO app, switch on the subtitles in the player (on a smart TV, usually under the settings wheel) and choose Nederlands. The app may not remember it, so check it for every program.
• On live TV, press the teletext button on the remote and then 888: the Dutch subtitles made for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. Some decoders have a subtitle option in their own menu instead.

The NPO has subtitled programs on teletext since 1980, and today 99 percent of its Dutch-language programs have subtitles on 888.

A routine for one episode

1. Watch the episode through without pausing for words. If you often lose the thread, take a series from the level below.
2. Watch one scene again, two or three minutes. Pause on the lines you missed, read them aloud, and write down two or three words in their sentence.
3. Expect the subtitles to be shorter than the speech. They are cut to fit the screen, so they do not always match what is said word for word.

See it in a text

Three sentences from the free texts on this site: one explains a series title, two use the words for watching.

• A2, Luizen, a mother who finds head lice and tells nobody: Woensdag komt de luizenmoeder, en die kijkt in het haar van alle kinderen. On Wednesday the lice mom comes, and she looks in the hair of all the children. This is the school job that gives De Luizenmoeder its name.
• A2, the same story: Maandagavond en dinsdagavond kammen ze, met een film aan: Emma kijkt, Sofia kamt. On Monday and Tuesday evening they comb, with a film on: Emma watches, Sofia combs.
• B1, De wolf is terug, a sheep farmer and an ecologist on the wolf: Op haar telefoon staat een filmpje van een wildcamera: vier welpen spelen ’s nachts op een bospad. On her phone there is a short video from a trail camera: four cubs play at night on a forest path. Een filmpje is any short video, on a phone or online.

Read next

A free text at your level, then a book:

• A2: Luizen, the story quoted above, free with audio, a glossary and questions. The book at this level is Dracula: Bram Stoker's novel retold in easy Dutch, eight chapters with a glossary and audio, in paperback and for Kindle.
• B1: De wolf is terug, quoted above, free with audio, a glossary and questions. The B1 books of the series are coming soon.
• At another level: the free level test takes about ten minutes, and the free texts are sorted by level.