The difference between dutch from Belgium (Flemish) and dutch from The Netherlands

Credit: Moonling

I thought it would be interesting to devote a topic on this matter as it seems to confuse people a lot.

Basically, most of it is in pronounciation and not in grammar. Kinda like US English and UK English, Portuguese in Portugal or Brasil, and so on.

BUT there is another big difference which often makes me smile.

In correct Dutch "je" means "you".
In Belgium we say "ge" or "gij" (but we don't write that way) instead of "je" or "jij".
"U" also means "you" but is a more polite and more formal way of addressing a person, it shows respect.
But in Belgium, we use "u" instead of "je" in every convo. We don't use "je" basically, unless we try to speak properly.
So, when a Belgian speaks to someone from the Netherlands, that person will feel awkward because we are so polite, and say it's ok to address them with "je", while really we are just speaking normally like we do to anyone.

So some differences:
(English, Flemish, Dutch)
You, ge/gij/u, je
Your, uw, jouw
Yours, uwe, jouw

But again, all speaking language, on paper it's the same and we do use "je".

I often think the real difficulty with learning Dutch is that we have many different words or ways of saying the same thing, and also, the same word can mean different things... But that's another topic I guess.