Dutch Vocabulary for the Inburgering Exam

A practical vocabulary guide for the Dutch civic integration exam: who takes it and at what level, word lists for official letters, the doctor, housing, work, post, banking and school, and a study plan built on spaced repetition.

Published: October 22, 2026

A first letter from DUO, an invitation from the gemeente, a form from the huisarts, a rental contract: for newcomers, Dutch arrives through the letterbox long before it shows up in a textbook. That is the Dutch the inburgeringsexamen, the civic integration exam, tests. On the main integration route in place since 2022, the target is level B1 in reading, listening, writing and speaking, along with an exam on knowledge of Dutch society (KNM).

Delft blue tiles with Dutch words for the integration exam: de gemeente, de huisarts, de huur

This guide covers who takes the exam and at what level under the current rules, which vocabulary topics come up most in the exam and in daily life, and how to build your own Dutch vocabulary list for inburgering from real letters and news. It ends with a review plan so the words are still there on exam day.

Who takes the inburgeringsexamen, and at what level

Inburgering is the mandatory integration programme for some newcomers to the Netherlands: learning the language and learning how people live and work in the country. The Wet inburgering 2021 has applied since 1 January 2022 to everyone whose integration obligation started on or after that date. Not every newcomer has that obligation. Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, for example, do not.

Inburgeren.nl, the official DUO site, describes how it works in practice:

Once you have a BSN, a residence permit and a registration with the gemeente, DUO sends you a letter saying you must integrate. It can take up to 8 weeks to arrive.
The gemeente invites you to a brede intake: an interview plus a learnability test (Leerbaarheidstoets).
Together with you, the gemeente draws up a PIP (persoonlijk plan inburgering en participatie). It sets out your route and the exams you need to take.
You have 3 years for all of it: the inburgeringstermijn.

Three routes and their levels

The three integration routes in the Netherlands: B1-route, Onderwijsroute and Z-route, with language levels and exams

Route	Who it's for	Language level	What you take
B1-route	the main route; aimed at paid or volunteer work	B1	4 B1 language exams (staatsexamen Nt2, Programma I), KNM, MAP, the PVT
Onderwijsroute	mostly young people heading to mbo, hbo or university	B1 or B2	staatsexamen Nt2 language exams, KNM, the PVT
Zelfredzaamheidsroute (Z-route)	people for whom the other two routes are too demanding	lessons up to A1, A2 exams optional	MAP and the PVT, a final interview at the gemeente

A few details that are easy to miss:

The B1 language exam is the staatsexamen Nederlands als tweede taal (Nt2), Programma I.
If you have taken at least 600 hours of language lessons and B1 is still out of reach, you can discuss switching to A2 with your gemeente. In Dutch the advice reads "Overleg met uw gemeente", and overleg (consultation, talking it through) is a word worth knowing early.
People who integrate under the older 2013 law take exams at level A2. Naturalisation requires the integration exam at A2 or the Nt2 at B1 or B2.

How the exams are set up

According to inburgeren.nl:

Part	B1 (Nt2 Programma I)	A2
Spreken (speaking)	about 30 min	35 min, on a computer, with video clips
Luisteren (listening)	90 min	45 min, on a computer
Lezen (reading)	110 min	65 min, on a computer
Schrijven (writing)	100 min	40 min, pen and paper, 4 tasks
KNM (Kennis van de Nederlandse Maatschappij)	45 min, on a computer	the same exam

KNM is split into themes such as wonen (housing) and werk en inkomen (work and income), with questions for each theme. Under the 2021 law each exam costs €50, or €250 in total. Asylum permit holders get their first two attempts at each exam free (inburgeren.nl).

Belgium (Flanders). Flanders and Brussels run their own inburgeringstraject through the Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering: social orientation, a Dutch course, a path to work and participation in community life. The language target is A2. Lessons and the test together cost €180, and the whole programme is free in Brussels. The vocabulary topics below work for Flanders too, but some words differ, so there are separate collections for Belgian Dutch.

What vocabulary the integration exam needs

There is no official "inburgering word list". The exams check whether you can handle real situations: read a letter, book an appointment, understand a notice, fill in a form. So the most useful vocabulary is built around those same situations.

The tables below are our own selection. Nouns come with their article, de or het, because in Dutch you learn the article together with the word.

The gemeente and official letters

Official letters address you with the polite u, and the same words come up again and again.

Dutch	English
de gemeente	municipality
de brief	letter
de afspraak	appointment
het burgerservicenummer (BSN)	citizen service number
de verblijfsvergunning	residence permit
zich inschrijven	to register
de aanvraag, aanvragen	application; to apply for
het formulier invullen	to fill in the form
de handtekening, ondertekenen	signature; to sign
de termijn	deadline, period
de boete	fine
bezwaar maken	to object to a decision
de toeslag	government allowance
DigiD	digital login for government services

A typical line from a letter: "U bent geselecteerd voor…" ("You have been selected for…"). When you see geselecteerd, uiterlijk (no later than) or verplicht (mandatory), read the letter carefully to the end.

Example letter from a gemeente with key words labelled: afspraak, uiterlijk, verplicht, meenemen

Health: the huisarts and the apotheek

In the Netherlands almost everything starts with the huisarts, your family doctor (GP), who refers you to a specialist when needed.

Dutch	English
de huisarts	family doctor, GP
de huisartsenpost	out-of-hours GP service (evenings, nights, weekends)
de apotheek	pharmacy
het recept	prescription
de zorgverzekering	health insurance
het eigen risico	insurance deductible
de tandarts	dentist
de klacht	complaint, symptom
zich ziek melden	to call in sick (at work or school)

Note that at the doctor's, de klacht means "symptom" or "health problem", not just "complaint".

Work, income and KNM

KNM topics and the MAP module are largely about work: how to look for a job, what goes in a contract, how to get support.

Dutch	English
de baan, het werk	job; work
de werkgever, de werknemer	employer; employee
het contract	contract
het salaris, bruto, netto	salary; before and after tax
solliciteren, de sollicitatie	to apply for a job; job application
het cv	CV, résumé
de vaardigheden	skills
de uitkering	benefit payment
het UWV	employee insurance and benefits agency
de Belastingdienst	tax authority
het vrijwilligerswerk	volunteer work

Vaardigheden is one of those words you should be able to both read and say: it appears in job ads, CVs and writing tasks.

Housing and rent

Dutch	English
de huur, huren	rent; to rent
de huurder, de verhuurder	tenant; landlord
het huurcontract	rental contract
de borg	deposit
de woningcorporatie	housing association (social housing)
de huurtoeslag	rent allowance
de energierekening	energy bill
de buren	neighbours
het afval, het grofvuil	waste; bulky waste
verhuizen	to move house

Grofvuil is furniture, mattresses and appliances that you can't just put in a bin. The gemeente usually collects it by appointment, which is one more place where you'll need afspraak.

Post and banking

The classic postkantoor has all but disappeared in the Netherlands. You send and collect parcels at a PostNL-punt, a counter inside a shop or supermarket.

Dutch	English
het PostNL-punt	PostNL service point
het pakket, versturen, ophalen	parcel; to send; to collect
de brievenbus	letterbox, postbox
de postzegel	stamp
aangetekend	by registered post
de bankrekening	bank account
het rekeningnummer (IBAN)	account number
pinnen	to pay by card; to withdraw cash
overmaken	to transfer money
automatische incasso	direct debit
de rekening	bill; bank account

De rekening has two meanings, and context tells you which: "de rekening betalen" means paying the bill, while "een rekening openen" means opening a bank account.

School and children

Dutch	English
de basisschool	primary school (ages 4–12)
de leerkracht, de juf, de meester	teacher; female, male teacher (informal)
de leerplicht	compulsory education
de ouderavond	parents' evening
het rapport	school report
de kinderopvang	childcare
het consultatiebureau	child health clinic (vaccinations, growth)

How to build your own inburgeringsexamen word list

A ready-made list gives you a base, but the words from your own letterbox stick better. They are tied to a real situation, and you can see why you need them.

Start with core vocabulary. Polidict has ready-made Dutch word collections, from core words 1–100 to topics like At Home, Body and Health, Work and Jobs, Shopping and Money, At School, Emergency and Safety and Law and Government. A few more everyday topics are on the Everyday page. For Flanders, there are separate Belgian Dutch collections.
Add words from real texts. Reading your gemeente's website, the NOS news or a job ad? Select an unfamiliar word and the Chrome extension or the Safari extension for Mac or iPhone shows its meaning and translation and saves it to your vocabulary. If a word isn't in the Polidict dictionary yet, you can ask for an AI suggestion.
Transfer words from paper letters. You can add the words from a letter or form as a list with batch import.
Save an example sentence. Don't just save afspraak; save "Ik wil een afspraak maken". That way you learn the phrase you'll actually use in the Spreken exam.
Group words by situation. Groups such as "Letter from the gemeente" or "At the huisarts" help you review words in the context where you'll need them.

How to learn and review: a plan for the exam

Finding a word is only half the job. To keep it until exam day you need spaced repetition: a method that brings a word back just before you would forget it. Our article on spaced repetition explains the method in more detail.

Polidict schedules reviews with the Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler (FSRS) and keeps separate training tracks for meanings, writing, listening and speaking. That matters for this exam, because its four language parts test different skills: you can recognise verhuurder in a text and still be unable to spell it in a letter. Our post on FSRS v6 explains how it works.

How this maps to the exam parts:

Lezen: read real texts on gemeente and DUO websites and in the news, and save the new words.
Luisteren: train the listening track and watch the videos on Net in Nederland, which inburgeren.nl recommends for practice.
Schrijven: the writing track has you type the word yourself, which is the best preparation for letters and forms where spelling mistakes cost points.
Spreken: for Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands, Polidict scores your pronunciation, so you can see which words you say unclearly.

A daily routine that actually works: 10–15 new words plus all scheduled reviews. In three months that adds up to more than a thousand new words in your vocabulary.

Finally, use the official practice material. Inburgeren.nl has practice exams for A2, and there are Nt2 practice exams and exercises for B1 and B2. Take one practice exam at the start to see where you stand, and another a few weeks before the real thing.

Frequently asked questions

What level of Dutch do you need for the inburgeringsexamen?

Under the 2021 law, the main route is the B1-route, with language exams at B1. The Onderwijsroute is B1 or B2. On the Z-route, lessons go up to A1 and the A2 exams are optional. Under the 2013 law the level is A2.

Is there an official word list for the exam?

No. There is no official woordenlijst for the inburgeringsexamen: DUO does not publish a word list. The exams are built around everyday situations, so a vocabulary organised by topic works best: official letters, health, work, housing, money and school.

How long does it take to prepare for B1?

It depends on your starting level and how many hours a week you study. The gemeente sets your route and pace with you during the brede intake, and the law gives you 3 years for the whole route.

Key takeaways

On the main route under the Wet inburgering 2021, you take the B1 language exams and KNM. Your route and exam list are in your PIP and on Mijn Inburgering.
Learn vocabulary by situation: gemeente letters, the huisarts, housing, work, post and banking, school.
Collect words from real texts and review them daily with FSRS, training writing, listening and speaking separately.

Start with the Dutch collections in Polidict, add the words from the next letter you receive, and review them every day.