Chat in English with someone who speaks Dutch

Piou lets you write in English while your contact writes in Dutch: each message is translated on the reader's own device, and the original stays one tap away. It helps exactly where English runs out: older relatives, neighbors, the school or the sports club. Translation is part of Piou Premium (€4.90 a month in the Netherlands, after a 7-day free trial) and works offline once both languages are downloaded.

How it works between English and Dutch

Plenty of Dutch people switch to English the moment they hear an accent, but many would rather write in Dutch, and with Piou they can. Piou detects the language of each message on the sender's phone and stores it as typed; the reader's device translates it. A “Translated” label appears under translated messages, and “Show original” shows the exact Dutch, which is handy if you're learning.

The translation always runs on the device:

• iPhone (iOS 18 or later): Apple's built-in translation.
• Android (8.0 or later): Google's ML Kit, with the language models downloaded to the phone.
• Web app (app.piou.chat): the open-source Bergamot engine with Firefox Translations models in the browser, or Chrome's built-in translation on desktop when available. English–Dutch is translated directly, with no third language in between.

Translations never leave your device. The messages themselves are stored on Piou's servers, in their original language, so they can be delivered and synced.

Translation is personal. With Premium, you read messages, polls, status text and voice messages in English; voice messages are transcribed and translated, and the recording stays playable. On the free plan, Dutch messages stay in Dutch, with a banner once a day per conversation offering “Message in Dutch — Tap to read it in English”. To read you in Dutch, your contact needs Premium too, or a gift from you.

An example exchange

Hannah, an American living in Utrecht, gets a message from her partner's grandmother, Oma Truus. The translations are illustrative; the exact wording depends on each device's engine.

• Oma Truus writes: “Gefeliciteerd met Joris! Komen jullie zaterdag koffie drinken? Gezellig!”
  • Hannah reads: “Congratulations on Joris! Are you coming for coffee on Saturday? How nice!”
• Hannah writes: “Thank you, Oma! We'd love to. Is 2 p.m. okay?”
  • Oma Truus reads: “Dank je wel, oma! Heel graag. Is 14.00 uur goed?”
• Oma Truus writes: “Prima, tot zaterdag! Neem de kleine maar mee.”
  • Hannah reads: “Fine, see you Saturday! Feel free to bring the little one.”

Two Dutch habits show up here. On someone's birthday, Dutch people often congratulate the whole family, so “Gefeliciteerd met Joris” is addressed to Hannah, on her partner's birthday. And gezellig, the cozy, sociable feeling many Dutch people prize, has no exact English word: “How nice!” is the engine's best guess.

Tips for writing to Dutch speakers

• Short and direct is normal. Many Dutch speakers write brief, to-the-point messages: “Kan je morgen om 8 uur?” (“Can you do tomorrow at 8?”) isn't rude. You don't need long polite wind-ups either; they can come out wordy in Dutch.
• Je or u. Dutch has a familiar je/jij and a formal u. Many people use je widely, but u is still common with older people and in formal settings. The engine picks one for your “you” (in the example above, it chose “Dank je wel” rather than “Dank u wel”), so keep a respectful tone with your partner's grandparents.
• Plan ahead. Many Dutch people keep a full agenda and like to fix visits in advance, so asking “Are you free next Saturday?” often works better than a same-day invitation.
• Times and dates. “Half acht” is 7:30, not 8:30 as “half eight” would be in British English. Dates run day-month (03-04 is April 3), and the 24-hour clock is standard in writing. Write times in figures.
• Money. Dutch uses a decimal comma: € 1.250,50 means twelve hundred fifty euros and fifty cents.

Translation limits to know

• Little words with big jobs. Dutch softeners like even, maar, toch and eens shade a sentence's tone (“Kun je even bellen?” is roughly “Could you give me a quick call?”) and can come out oddly or vanish. Chat shortcuts like ff (even), idd (inderdaad, indeed) or wss (waarschijnlijk, probably) may stay untranslated.
• Diminutives. Koffietje, momentje or biertje can come out as “a little coffee” or “a small moment”.
• Flemish and dialects. Colloquial Belgian forms such as gij and ge, or strong regional dialects, may be translated less well than standard Dutch.
• English inside Dutch. Dutch speakers often sprinkle English words into Dutch (“Dat is echt next level”). Since Piou detects one language per message, such mixes may be partly translated.
• Voice features depend on what your device's speech recognition supports, and accents or background noise lower accuracy.
• High stakes. Piou translates messages, not documents. For health, money, rental contracts or legal matters, use a professional interpreter or a human translation. In an emergency, call 112 in the Netherlands or Belgium.

Getting started

1. Install Piou on an iPhone (iOS 18 or later) or an Android phone (8.0 or later), or open app.piou.chat and add it to your home screen (Safari → Share → “Add to Home Screen” on iPhone; Chrome → ⋮ → “Install app” on Android).
2. Create your account with Apple, Google or an email address, choose English and verify your phone number once: it helps contacts find you and is never used to sign in.
3. Download English and Dutch on Wi-Fi so translation also works offline.
4. Find your contact under “Already on Piou”, or send an invite link or QR code.
5. Start the 7-day free trial (card required, no charge for 7 days; the subscription then starts automatically unless you cancel first). To let your contact read you in Dutch, use “Gift Piou to someone”.