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Be normal! and other reasons why the Dutch are plain as appeltaart Posted by tiffany on May 22, 2013
The Dutch are all about blending in. Funny since, as some of the world’s tallest people, they tend to stick out like sore thumbs when they travel outside the Netherlands. The goal is to downplay achievements and possessions so as not to appear “better” than anyone else. For all that they love to leave their…
14 English words you probably didn’t know have Dutch origins Posted by tiffany on May 17, 2013
When you take on the challenge of learning Dutch, native speakers will commend you for trying your hand at their “really difficult” language. Their eyes will widen in admiration as they tell you “Dutch is such a hard language to learn.” They’ve got a point… it sure ain’t easy. But the good news for us…
29 Ways to say Goodbye in Dutch Posted by tiffany on May 7, 2013
Though there are relatively few ways of saying “Hello,” the Dutch certainly make up for it when saying goodbye. Hmmm… wonder if that says more about the Dutch or the company they keep š Either way, saying hello and goodbye are the two most important things to know when learning a new language. And we…
17 Ways to say Hello in Dutch Posted by tiffany on May 3, 2013
Hello there! How are ya? Howdeedo! Howdy. Hey. Hiya. Hi. What’s up? How’s it going? How are ya? It seems there are thousands of ways greet someone. That plus the fact that a greeting proceeds every encounter, it’s no wonder the first thing people want to know when learning a new language is how to…
Tens of thousands of Dutchies threaten to leave the country Posted by tiffany on Apr 28, 2013
Tens of thousands of Dutch citizens are in an uproar over something so heinous that they’re threatening to leave the country if something is not done about it. What could be so utterly terrible, so unfathomably unjust, so unpatriotic that it would evoke such a strong reaction among the Dutch people? It’s tyranny! No, it’s…
More on why some words get a double consonant in the plural form while others don’t Posted by tiffany on Apr 19, 2013
Earlier this week, we tackled the question of why some words get a double consonant in the plural form while others don’t. We talked about Dutch words that have the short vowel sound like bot (bone) and man (man) that need that double consonant in the plural form (bottenĀ and mannen) to maintain their short vowel…
Why do some words get a double consonant in the plural form and not others? Posted by tiffany on Apr 15, 2013
So here’s a question we were asked last week by a reader: “Random question. Woman = vrouw; women = vrouwen. Why not vrouwwen (ie man -> mannen, etc)?” Excellent question! Here’s the deal… As in English, vowels in Dutch can have both the long sound (been, maan) and short sound (ben, kat). In Dutch, the…