Archive for 'Dutch Vocabulary'
Trema’s: ë, ï, ü, ö, ä Posted by Sten on Dec 14, 2017
Dutch is a pretty straightforward language when it comes to letters available. There’s just the simple 26, no special letters such as å or æ. Easy from A to Z! But… There are instances where a trema (diaeresis, the famous Umlaut in German) appears in Dutch. Where and why, though? eu, oe, ui, au, ou First, there are the tweeklanken that you should know…
Chocoladeletters – Letters of Chocolate for Sinterklaas! Posted by Sten on Dec 5, 2017
‘T heerlijk avondje is gekomen (The wonderful evening has come)! It is December 5, the day on which Sinterklaas and his helpers, the Pieten distribute the presents they wrapped for all the Dutch. But there is more than just gifts: A lot of snoepgoed (sweets)! Today, we will look at a particular one: Chocoladeletters (Chocolate letters). Bread Letters Nowadays, these yummy…
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…
Controversial Insults in Dutch Posted by Karoly Molina on Nov 15, 2017
Some time back, I wrote about insulting words in Dutch. The first and second version of the post was somewhat PG rated, so I decided to make a more insulting follow up. The following are some controversial insults in Dutch which are quite offensive in more ways than one. Tokkie The term tokkie actually comes…
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…
Visiting the Dentist in the Netherlands Posted by Karoly Molina on Oct 11, 2017
For many of us, visiting the dentist or tandarts in any language or country might seem like an unbearable task. However, daunting this task might seem, it is important to schedule regular visits to avoid serious complications. Basic words Before you make your appointment, it is important to know what the words are in Dutch and…
Reading About Natural Disasters in Dutch Posted by Karoly Molina on Sep 24, 2017
It seems that lately, North and South America have been suffering terrible tragedies from hurricanes and earthquakes. There has been plenty of coverage in the Netherlands about this with a lot of new vocabulary that might make it confusing to understand. This is why I have come up with this quick summary of some of…