Zodiac Signs in Dutch: All 12 Names, and Why Cancer Is a Lobster
One of the zodiac signs in Dutch is a lobster. Not a crab, not a crayfish — a lobster. Cancer in Dutch is Kreeft, and while every neighbouring language reached for something small and clawed in fresh water, Dutch went to the sea and picked the biggest thing it could find.
That is the fun one. The genuinely difficult thing about the Dutch list is not vocabulary at all. Four of the twelve names contain the hardest sound in the language, and this guide is arranged around that fact: easy signs first, then the ones that will give you away.
All 12 Zodiac Signs in Dutch
| English | Dutch | Pronunciation | Literally | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Ram | RAHM | ram | 21 maart – 19 april |
| Taurus | Stier | STEER | bull | 20 april – 20 mei |
| Gemini | Tweelingen | TVAY-ling-en | twins | 21 mei – 20 juni |
| Cancer | Kreeft | KRAYFT | lobster | 21 juni – 22 juli |
| Leo | Leeuw | LAY-oo | lion | 23 juli – 22 augustus |
| Virgo | Maagd | MAAKHT | maiden | 23 augustus – 22 september |
| Libra | Weegschaal | VAYKH-skhaal | weighing-dish | 23 september – 22 oktober |
| Scorpio | Schorpioen | skhor-pee-OON | scorpion | 23 oktober – 21 november |
| Sagittarius | Boogschutter | BOHKH-skhut-ter | bow-shooter | 22 november – 21 december |
| Capricorn | Steenbok | STAYN-bok | ibex | 22 december – 19 januari |
| Aquarius | Waterman | VAH-ter-mahn | water man | 20 januari – 18 februari |
| Pisces | Vissen | VISS-en | fishes | 19 februari – 20 maart |
Two quick points of grammar before the signs themselves. Dutch has two definite articles, de and het, and every single one of the Dutch zodiac signs takes de. That is a genuine piece of luck: de Ram, de Weegschaal, de Vissen, all of them. And unlike German, Dutch does not capitalise ordinary nouns, so the sign names are capitalised as names but lowercase when you describe a person: ik ben ram.
The Six Easy Dutch Zodiac Signs
Start here. Nothing in this group will embarrass you.
Aries in Dutch: Ram
The shortest name in any language on this site. Just Ram — same spelling as English, same animal, and the vowel is a short flat “ah”. See the Aries profile.
Taurus in Dutch: Stier
A bull, and the same word as German Stier and English “steer”. Crucially, Dutch does not do the German thing of turning st- into “sht”. Stier is “STEER”. If you have learned any German, unlearn it here. More in the Taurus profile.
Gemini in Dutch: Tweelingen
From twee, “two”. The w is somewhere between an English v and w. One twin is een tweeling, so a person says ik ben tweeling. The Gemini profile has more.
Leo in Dutch: Leeuw
Four vowels and one consonant, which is very Dutch. The double ee is long, and the -uw trails off into something like “oo”. The lion is also the national symbol of the Netherlands — de Nederlandse Leeuw — so this word carries more weight in Dutch than a zoo animal normally would. See the Leo profile.
Capricorn in Dutch: Steenbok
Steen (stone) plus bok (buck): the ibex. Compare German Steinbock and Swedish Stenbocken — the same compound built three times over. Read the Capricorn profile.
Aquarius in Dutch: Waterman
“Water man”, and pleasingly close to English. Only the w gives you away. The Aquarius profile has the sign.
The Two Dutch Star Signs Worth Knowing About
Cancer in Dutch: Kreeft
The lobster. Dutch has krab for crab and rivierkreeft for crayfish, and it chose neither: the sign is a full sea lobster. Nobody is quite certain why. The most likely explanation is simply that kreeft was the broad word for a large clawed shellfish when the names settled, and the meaning narrowed later — leaving the zodiac holding an older, wider sense of the word.
The practical consequence is that a Dutch Cancer is symbolically armoured in a way the crayfish languages are not, and Dutch horoscope writers lean on it. Read the Cancer profile.
Pisces in Dutch: Vissen
Fishes, plural. Vis is one fish, vissen is more than one, and it is also the verb “to fish” — so vissen on a Dutch sign can mean the fishes or the act of fishing. Context sorts it. See the Pisces profile.
The Four Signs With the Hard Dutch G
Dutch has a sound that English does not: a scraping, throat-clearing consonant written g or ch. In the north of the Netherlands it is harsh enough to sound almost aggressive; in the south and in Flanders it softens considerably. Foreigners cannot fake it and Dutch speakers notice instantly.
Four of the twelve Dutch zodiac signs contain it, and three of those contain it twice.
Virgo in Dutch: Maagd
“MAAKHT” — the g before the final d is the scraping sound, and the d at the end of a Dutch word hardens to a t. Maagd means maiden or virgin. It also gives maagdenpalm, periwinkle, and Maagdenburg, the Dutch name for the German city of Magdeburg. More in the Virgo profile.
Libra in Dutch: Weegschaal
Two hard sounds and a long compound. Weeg- is from wegen, “to weigh”, and schaal is a dish or a bowl — so a Dutch Libra is not carrying scales in the abstract but a specific object: the pan you put the weights in. Say it in two halves, “VAYKH” then “skhaal”. The Libra profile covers the sign.
Scorpio in Dutch: Schorpioen
A loanword that Dutch has thoroughly naturalised, mostly by respelling the Latin sc- as sch- and making it a scrape. Stress on the final syllable: “skhor-pee-OON”. See the Scorpio profile.
Sagittarius in Dutch: Boogschutter
The most complete name in the whole cluster. Boog is a bow, schutter is a shooter, so Dutch Sagittarius is a bow-shooter — both halves of the archer, where German and Scandinavian kept only the shooter and dropped the weapon. Only Finnish Jousimies is comparably thorough. It also has two hard-G moments in one word, which makes it the single hardest Dutch sign to pronounce. See the Sagittarius profile.
Words You Need Beyond the Zodiac Signs in Dutch
| English | Dutch |
|---|---|
| star sign | het sterrenbeeld |
| zodiac | de dierenkring / de zodiak |
| horoscope | de horoscoop |
| astrology | de astrologie |
| sun sign | het zonneteken |
| moon sign | het maanteken |
| rising sign / ascendant | de ascendant |
| birth chart | de geboortehoroscoop |
| fire / earth / air / water sign | vuurteken / aardeteken / luchtteken / waterteken |
Note sterrenbeeld: literally “stars-picture”. Dutch uses one word for both the constellation in the sky and the astrological sign, where German separates Sternzeichen from Sternbild. And dierenkring, “animal circle”, is the native calque of “zodiac” — the same idea as German Tierkreis.
The phrases:
- Wat is jouw sterrenbeeld? — What’s your star sign?
- Ik ben kreeft. — I’m a Cancer.
- Mijn sterrenbeeld is Weegschaal. — My star sign is Libra.
- Ik ben geboren onder het teken van de Leeuw. — I was born under the sign of Leo.
- Typisch schorpioen! — Typical Scorpio!
The Netherlands and Flanders
All twelve names are identical in the Netherlands and in Dutch-speaking Belgium. This is worth stating because so much else about the two varieties differs — vocabulary, register, the softness of that G — and yet the zodiac list does not vary at all. If you are producing Dutch content for both markets, the sign names need no adaptation.
Horoscoop columns run in the free dailies, in Libelle and Flair, and across the commercial television listings. Dutch directness applies here as everywhere: the copy is short, unsentimental and slightly sceptical of itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you say “zodiac sign” in Dutch?
Sterrenbeeld, literally “star picture”. It covers both the astrological sign and the constellation.
What are the 12 zodiac signs in Dutch?
Ram, Stier, Tweelingen, Kreeft, Leeuw, Maagd, Weegschaal, Schorpioen, Boogschutter, Steenbok, Waterman and Vissen.
Why is Cancer a lobster in Dutch?
Kreeft means lobster in modern Dutch, though it once covered large clawed shellfish more broadly. The zodiac name preserves the older, wider sense. Dutch has separate words for crab (krab) and crayfish (rivierkreeft), and uses neither for the sign.
Do Dutch zodiac signs use “de” or “het”?
All twelve take de. The word sterrenbeeld itself takes het.
Are the Dutch and Flemish zodiac signs the same?
Yes, identical in both. Only the pronunciation of the G shifts — harder in the northern Netherlands, softer in Flanders and the southern provinces.
Zodiac Signs in Dutch and Its Closest Relatives
Dutch sits between German and English, and the sign list shows both pulls: Steenbok and Waterman track the zodiac signs in German almost exactly, while Ram could pass for English. For the language that beat Dutch to the most complete archer, see Finnish; for the languages that turned Cancer into a crayfish instead of a lobster, Swedish and Danish.
All ten languages: zodiac signs in different languages.
