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How are English and Dutch related?

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Thematic map of Europe displaying the distribution of Germanic languages, with different colors indicating regions where English, German, Netherlandic (Dutch), Frisian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese are spoken. Striped areas mark regions where bilingualism is common, and language regions cover countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and parts of surrounding countries. — Germanic languages Distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe.

English and Dutch are related as members of the West Germanic languages family. Both languages share a common ancestry rooted in the Northwest Germanic dialect continuum, which fragmented between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE.12

While they share this linguistic heritage, they evolved through different historical paths:

English emerged from the dialects of Germanic peoples—specifically the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—who migrated to Britain in the 5th century CE. It is closely associated with the North Sea Germanic group.32
Dutch (or Netherlandic) developed later, around 700 CE, as a result of language contact between North Sea Germanic speakers and speakers of Frankish (a South Germanic variety) in the coastal areas of the Low Countries.41

Because of their shared West Germanic origins, the two languages exhibit various historical affinities, such as the loss of certain final consonants in polysyllabic words and specific developments in verb morphology. However, they are distinct branches that have undergone unique structural changes over the centuries.24