You know that moment when a Dutch word stops being a puzzle and just becomes a sound your mouth already knows?
That is the goal of Dutch Flow: practice until words feel easy. Not until you can recite a grammar table, not until you can pass a test by guessing, but until huisarts or gemeente or borrel arrives in your head without a translation stop in between. This week we shipped a pile of changes across the dashboard, the games, the exam trainer and the website, and most of them exist for the same reason: to remove friction between you and the next repetition.
If you are preparing for the inburgering exam, the practical answer is simple. Practise speaking out loud every day, even for five minutes. Use the exam trainer to see the real format, then use the games to repeat the same words until they are boring. Boring is good. Boring means the word has moved from your conscious brain into your mouth. You can start with the A2 track at nt2.dutchfluency.com/inburgering-a2, then add KNM and spreken once the basics stop wobbling.
Below is what changed, why it matters for your practice, and how to use it without turning your evening into a project management session.
Speech practice no longer punishes silence
We dropped the Scribe sound tags from the speech tool. In plain terms: silence is no longer treated as an answer. Before, if you paused, breathed, or thought for a second, the system could log that as your response and score you on nothing. That is a terrible way to learn a language, because real conversation is full of pauses. Dutch people pause. You will pause. A pause is not a wrong answer.
Now the speech tool waits for actual speech. That means your speaking score reflects what you said, not how long you hesitated. If you have been avoiding the speaking practice because it felt unfair, try it again. Say the sentence, let it be imperfect, and let the tool respond to the words rather than the gap.
For exam candidates, this matters most for spreken. The exam rewards clear, complete answers, not speed. Practise saying a full sentence even when you are unsure. A wobbly sentence with a verb in it beats a perfect silence every time.
Your dashboard is cleaner, and your old data is gone
We cleared every learner-keyed table in the erasure tool. If you asked us to delete your data, it is deleted, including the awkward cases: dotted Gmail accounts, aliases, and the accounts people forget they made. If you have ever signed up twice with [email protected] and [email protected], those look-alike duplicates are now handled properly.
Google signups also changed. You get a free preview, and you can pick your own level instead of being dropped into a default. On day three you get a small test nudge, which is exactly the right moment: you have seen the app, you have tried a lesson, and now we ask one question about where you actually are. No placement theatre, no forty-minute diagnostic. Just a nudge.
If you are starting fresh, pick the level you honestly are, not the level you wish you were. Starting one level lower is faster than starting one level too high and quietly quitting.
Dutch Town and the games: small fixes, real practice
Dutch Town had a handoff on S5 M1. The Kenney kits are checked and the next step is planned. The S5 plan is about real shops and polish, which means the town will feel less like a demo and more like a place where you actually do things in Dutch: order, ask, complain, thank, leave.
We also tidied the HUD on the classic room pages and fixed a bootcamp render loop that could make the screen stutter. If you noticed the town feeling heavy, that should be better now.
In the Verb Conjugation Game and the RushWords speed game, we moved the model ids to the current generation and switched image generation to gpt-image-2.5-flare instead of gpt-image-2. Lesson images now go through the host image bridge rather than the paid xAI API, which keeps things faster and cheaper. For you, that means fewer broken images and quicker rounds. For us, it means we can keep the free tier free.
RushWords also handles default thinking on the 5-series Claude models, and we moved Claude to Sonnet 5 and Opus 5.5 while stopping the rejected sampling parameters. Translation: the game stops making decisions you did not ask for and just plays.
"I used to freeze when the timer started. Now I just say the verb and keep going. My huisarts appointment last week was the first one where I did not switch to English."
NT2 Exam Trainer: everyone sees the exams
The exam trainer is now visible to everyone. You can see the exams, understand the format, and decide what you need. One exam is free per week. On a plan you get twenty a month, and you can buy packs on top if you are in a sprint before your exam date.
When you submit, the message now says AI-examencommissie, and you get a report and a PDF. That wording is deliberate. It is an AI examiner, not a human one, and we would rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise. The report tells you where you lost points and what to practise next. The PDF is for you, your teacher, or your own fridge door.
We do not publish exact exam duration, question counts, prices or pass scores here, because those change and the only source that matters is DUO, Mijn Inburgering and CvTE. Check them before you book anything. Use our trainer to practise the format, not to replace the official information.
If you want to see the shape of the exam before you spend a free attempt, start with the mock exam. It is the fastest way to find out which part is actually hard for you.
Photo Description Tool and the website cleanup
The Photo Description Tool got the same model cleanup: current generation ids, Qwen dropped from the default chain in the ai-gateway, and default thinking handled on the 5-series Claude models. Describing a photo is one of the most useful exercises for spreken, because you cannot hide behind a script. You have to look, choose words, and say them.
On the website, the home page now shows live stats, a Windmill hero, a Pro welcome email, and an article card that reads from one place: lib/claims. That one place now says 150+ countries, 5,800+ episodes, 21,000+ learners and 35+ shows. The old numbers (121, 4,900+, 17,500+, 5,700+, 2,700) are gone. We also fixed stale 4,900 / 17,500 / 5,500 figures in every language.
One small but important wording change: 21,000+ learners, not expats. Plenty of people learning Dutch are not expats. They are partners, students, refugees, people who married into a Dutch family, people who simply live here. The word matters.
The Pro page and Pro FAQ are now in German, Spanish and Arabic, with right-to-left layout for Arabic. If your first language is one of those, the sales page should not be the hardest page on the site.
How to practise so words actually feel easy
Easy is not a talent. It is a side effect of repetition in context. Here is the routine that works, and it fits in twenty minutes.
- Five minutes of speaking. Use the speech tool or just talk to your kitchen. Name five objects, then say what you did yesterday. Do not stop to look up words mid-sentence. Finish the sentence badly, then check.
- Five minutes of speed. Play RushWords or the Verb Conjugation Game. Speed forces recall. Recall is what makes a word feel easy later.
- Five minutes of listening. One episode, one segment, no subtitles on the first pass. Then again with subtitles. Notice which words you missed twice.
- Five minutes of writing. Three sentences about your day. Use one new word from the episode. Send them to the exam trainer or keep them in a notebook.
Do this five days a week and the words stop feeling like vocabulary and start feeling like language. The gemeente letter stops being scary. The borrel stops being a listening test. The huisarts receptionist stops switching to English the moment you hesitate.
Two rules. First, always finish the sentence. Second, never practise a word you have not heard in a real sentence. Isolated words fade. Words with a context stick.
Your practical checklist for this week
- Log in and check your level. If it feels too hard, drop one level. If it feels too easy, move up and let the day-three test nudge confirm it.
- Do one free exam this week in the NT2 Exam Trainer. Read the report properly, do not just look at the score.
- Try the speech tool once with a deliberate pause in the middle. Confirm that the pause is not scored as an answer.
- Play one round of RushWords and one round of the Verb Conjugation Game. Note the three verbs you fumbled.
- Describe one photo out loud for sixty seconds. Then do it again and try to be more specific.
- Check DUO, Mijn Inburgering and CvTE for the official exam details before you book.
- If you signed up with Google, finish the level picker so your dashboard is not guessing.
FAQ
How long does it take before Dutch words feel easy?
It depends on how often you recall them, not how long you study. Most learners notice a shift after a few weeks of daily speaking and speed practice. The words you use out loud become easy first. The words you only read stay slippery for much longer.
Is the AI-examencommissie the same as the real exam?
No. It is an AI examiner that practises the format and gives you a report and a PDF. The real exam is run by DUO and CvTE. Use the trainer to prepare, and check the official sources for duration, question counts, prices and pass scores.
How many exams do I get?
Everyone sees the exams. You get one free per week. On a plan you get twenty a month, and you can add packs on top. Check your account page for the current details, since plans change.
Can I practise speaking if I am a beginner?
Yes, and you should. Start with short sentences about your day. The speech tool now waits for actual speech, so a pause will not count against you. Beginners who speak early overtake beginners who only read.
What is the best order: KNM, spreken, or reading first?
Start with the skill you will use tomorrow. If you have a gemeente appointment, do KNM and speaking. If you have a letter to read, do reading. The A2 track at nt2.dutchfluency.com/inburgering-a2 lets you move between them without losing progress.
Why did the learner numbers change on the website?
Because the old numbers were stale. We now keep claims in one place, lib/claims, so every language shows the same figures: 150+ countries, 5,800+ episodes, 21,000+ learners, 35+ shows. If you see an old number somewhere, tell us and we will fix it.
Do I need a paid plan to improve?
No. The free preview, the level picker, the day-three nudge, one free exam a week and the games are enough to build a real habit. A plan helps if you are in an exam sprint or you want more exam attempts per month. Start free, and upgrade only when the free tier is genuinely the thing slowing you down.
Practise until words feel easy. That is the whole method. Everything we shipped this week, from the speech fix to the cleaner dashboard to the exam trainer report, exists to make the next repetition slightly easier than the last one. Go and say a sentence out loud. Then say it again.
