This tool estimates how long a Dutch passage takes to read silently. It counts the words in your text and divides by a reading rate, defaulting to the Dutch silent-reading average so the figure reflects real Dutch reading speed rather than an English number.
How it works
The estimate is a transparent division:
reading time (minutes) = word count / words-per-minuteThe word count matches runs of letters including Dutch accented characters, and
keeps apostrophes and hyphens that sit inside a word, so 't, auto-ongeluk,
and 's-Gravenhage are each counted as one word. The default rate is 202 WPM,
the measured Dutch silent-reading average; the slow preset (160) models careful
reading and the fast preset (280) models skimming.
Tips and notes
Dutch reads at a pace close to other Germanic languages, a little below the
roughly 238 WPM often cited for English. Use the slow preset for technical or
legal Dutch and for non-native audiences. For spoken delivery switch your mental
model entirely, since spoken Dutch runs nearer 150 WPM. Pair this with the
Dutch syllable counter when you want a fuller sense of how demanding a text is.