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Lost & Found: A meteorite? Posted by Sten on Aug 23, 2014
What happened? Last Monday night, some burglars seemed to be quite confused. They stole a very important meteoriet (meteorite) from the Dutch sterrenwacht (observatory) and museum Sonnenborgh, which was found in 1925. However, they did not seem to know that the brandkast (safe) they stole contained the 2-inch stone. The museum director Bas Nugteren said they were looking for money…
Inversie – Inversion in Dutch Posted by Sten on Aug 20, 2014
Inversie is used frequently in the Dutch language, and in many situations. What is inversie? Inversie, or inversion in English, means that you switch the verb and the subject in a sentence. For example: hij geeft hem een appel becomes hem geeft hij een appel, or hij kan heel goed praten met mij becomes praten kan hij heel goed met mij. Even though this may be tough, it…
Campaigns in NL 1 – De scholen zijn weer begonnen! Posted by Sten on Aug 19, 2014
This new series of posts, called “Campaigns Made in NL” is about campaigns and advertisements in the Netherlands that are so ingeburgerd (integrated in society) that everybody knows them. Some led to new verbs and other idioms. This week: schools started again! The campaign From now on, street corners are filled with signs, banners are spanned across…
Spreekwoorden en Uitdrukkingen (Sayings and Expressions) 2 – The Rooster and the Alphabet Posted by Sten on Aug 9, 2014
Dear blog readers! Here is number two of the series Sayings and Expressions. This week we combine a rooster with the alphabet. How? Through saying and expression. Just read on, you will find out. Let’s start with the saying! For other sayings and expressions in this series, click here. Wie A zegt, moet ook B…
Record-High Rainfalls in the Netherlands Posted by Sten on Jul 29, 2014
Yesterday, the Netherlands was hit by a huge storm with severe rainfall. A weeralarm (weather alert) in the stage code oranje (code orange) was announced in the provinces Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Noord-Brabant and Utrecht. This means that there is a chance of extraordinary weather coming with a greater chance of schade en ongevallen (damage and accidents). This turned out to be more than…
Spreekwoorden en Uitdrukkingen (Sayings and Expressions) 1 – The Calf and The Stone Posted by Sten on Jul 24, 2014
Spreekwoorden (sayings) and uitdrukkingen (expressions) are very useful in everyday language and knowing them makes things easier to understand when you hear them. In this series, I will try to explain the origin of the sayings and expressions, explain its use and give examples of possible ways of using them. This week we will start off with a…
The Worst Disaster Since 1953 – The King’s Reaction Posted by Sten on Jul 22, 2014
In 1953, the Netherlands was hit by a terrible flooding, which gave way to great improvement of the Dutch water defense. After the flooding, the sad result were 1836 deaths and tens of thousands of people that lost their home and all their belongings. Families ripped apart, friends lost and colleagues gone forever. Last Thursday…