Archive for February, 2011
One of my favorite things: the Rietveld Schröderhuis Posted by Elena on Feb 27, 2011
The Rietveld-Schroder house is, in my humble opinion, maybe the Netherlands’ finest attraction. 20th century Dutch architecture is, of course, its own course of study, and its reputation precedes it. But you don’t need to be a design nerd to appreciate the Schröder house, which is open to the public Woensdag t/m Zondag, by reservation…
Dutch Commercials – Part One Posted by heather on Feb 24, 2011
With shows like World’s Funniest Commercials and Funniest Commercials of the Year, it is easy to get a glimpse into what commercials are airing in other countries and how humor differs from country to country. One thing I have noticed about Dutch commercials is that they tend to be pretty creative and funny. Of course…
Word Order in Indirect Speech Posted by heather on Feb 22, 2011
Phew, we made it! Four weeks of looking at word order in Dutch. We have stumbled through main clauses, sub-clauses and now lastly we are coming up to indirect speech. By no means have we covered it all but hopefully you have learned some tips and understood some of the rules that have helped in…
Word Order in Subordinated Clauses Posted by heather on Feb 15, 2011
Having covered word order in main clauses (here and here), it is time to move onto the word order in subordinated clauses. In a subordinated clause, known in Dutch as a bijzin, the conjugated verb moves to the end of the clause. Heather blijft thuis omdat ze ziek is. (Heather stays home because she is…
Red Bull Crashed Ice Valkenburg Posted by heather on Feb 10, 2011
Steep turns, high vertical drops and all whilst on ice; Red Bull Crashed Ice arrived for the first time in the Netherlands on Saturday, February 5th 2011. Crashed Ice is an extreme sporting event sponsored by the energy drink Red Bull and is made up of a mixture of hockey, downhill skating and boardercross. The…
Word Order in Main Clauses Continued Posted by heather on Feb 8, 2011
Last week I wrote about word order in main clauses. As a quick review, the key points I mentioned were: that the main verb goes in the second position except when the subject is not the first part of the sentence, when making a yes/no question or when the sentence is in the command form…
Good times, bad times, you know I’ve had my share Posted by Elena on Feb 6, 2011
This past week I finally sat down to watch an episode of the long(est)-running Dutch soap opera, “Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden,” which has been beloved by 1.3 million viewers once a week since October 1990. I wanted to watch because the show had been mentioned at my office: one of my coworkers proposed that drama…