Dutch is to German like Danish is to Swedish, in the sense that it's easier to understand more from reading Dutch if you're a German-speaker, or Danish if you'r

Dutch is to German like Danish is to Swedish, in the sense that it's easier to understand more from reading Dutch if you're a German-speaker, or Danish if you're a Swedish-speaker, than hearing them spoken. The pronunciation of Dutch and Danish feels like "almost intelligible, except it sounds so guttural, as if they have their mouths full of gravel and porridge". The written text is the same thing as the spoken, except much clearer, because you can see the letters where you can't hear the sounds.