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Curious Words in Dutch: Opdat Posted by Sten on Nov 20, 2017
There are many strange words in a language. Words that are just not used much, words that are pronounced in a weird way… Just words that have something curious about them! And those are the ones we look at in this series. Starting today with opdat. Voegwoorden Opdat is a voegwoord (conjunction). This means that its purpose is…
De Speld – The Dutch Onion Posted by Sten on Nov 7, 2017
Well-known for its satirical take on reality, The Onion has established itself all as a source of highly unreliable but very funny “news”. It is not the only outlet of its kind, however. There are numerous others, including in the Netherlands. Here, we have De Speld (The Pin). In 2007, just before the kredietcrisis (credit crisis), the satirical…
A Russian Revolution… Designed by a Dutchman! Posted by Sten on Oct 26, 2017
100 years ago, the Oktoberrevolutie (October revolution) of 1917 had just broken out in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was still the hoofdstad (capital) of Russia at the time. Communisten (communists) took the Winterpaleis (Winter Palace) in the city, which led to an important turn of events for the entire country. Nowadays, this Winterpaleis is the world-famous Hermitage. This state museum displays national history and…
What’s up with all the Peters de Vries? Posted by Sten on Aug 28, 2017
In 2007, the Dutch radiozender (radio station) 3FM had an idea: Let’s gather as many people with the name “Peter de Vries” as possible and have a little party! Here is what happened. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wi-Ko7csfU Het idee In December, presentator (presenter) Sander de Heer and nieuwslezer (news reader) Peter de Vries of 3FM heard about a record attempt in Wales, where 1220…
Tweeklanken 4: oe, oei, oi, ooi Posted by Sten on Aug 23, 2017
In the past weeks, we talked about tweeklanken. Today is our last instalment with one of the least common combinations: those with an o. Let’s start! The past posts in this series: Tweeklanken 1: ae, ai, aai, au/ou Tweeklanken 2: ie, ieu(w), ij/ei Tweeklanken 3: eeu(w), ei, eu, ui oe Oe is actually super common. It…
Tweeklanken 3: eeu(w), ei, eu, ui Posted by Sten on Aug 14, 2017
Hi again. Welcome to the third instalment on the series on tweeklanken. Today, we discuss those that start with an e. Last week, we discussed ei already, as it is very much related to the ij. The other two tweeklanken with e are pretty straightforward, I think. Furthermore, because the ui and eu are kind of related in what they sound like, I will also discuss ui today. They are…
Tweeklanken 2: ie, ieu(w), ij/ei Posted by Sten on Aug 8, 2017
Hi there! Welcome to the second post on tweeklanken, or vowel combinations. Here’s last week’s post on ae, ai, aai, and au/ou. Today we have an exciting one, because we will discuss the ij, one very special letter in the Dutch alphabet and in the realm of tweeklanken. Apart from the ij, we will discuss the ie and ieu(w) today, because they also start with an i…