I don’t have to tell you that social media has impacted our lives in a huge way. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t be here reading this right now if it weren’t for social media.

It’s infiltrated the way we speak and the way we interact. We spend an alarming amount of time on social media, “tweeting,” “google-plussing,”  “facebooking.” Our social media contacts are some of our closest friends, despite the fact that we’ve never met them in person.

So it should come as no surprise that social media speak has crept into the Dutch language as well. Het woord van het jaar (word of the year) in 2008 was twitteren, inspired by the popular social media site, Twitter. We have Facebook to thank for the 2009 winner, ontvrienden. And there are others too.

Take a look at the words below to brush up on your Dutch sociale media vocabulary

Crossposten – to crosspost (meaning to post the same message across multiple social media networks)

as in…
Ik crosspost niet heel vaak
(I don’t crosspost a lot)

Bij crossposten, plaats je hetzelfde bericht op meerdere sociale media fora’s
(Crossposting is placing the same message on multiple social media forums)

 

Ontvrienden – unfriend

as in…

Ik vind haar gewoon niet leuk. Ik ga haar ontvrienden.
(I just don’t like her. I’m going to unfriend her)

Wil je weten wie heeft jou ontvriend?
(Do you want to know who unfriended you)

Ik ben door mijn moeder ontvriend op Facebook.
(My mother unfriended me on Facebook)

 

Tweeten – to send messages on Twitter (interchangeable with twitteren)

as in…

Ik tweet alleen ‘s ochtends terwijl ik mijn koffie drink.
(I only tweet in the mornings while I’m drinking my coffee)

Hij moet vaker in het Nederlands tweeten.
(He needs to tweet in Dutch more often)

 

Twitteraar -Someone who tweets

as in…

De gemiddelde twitteraar is een vrouw van ongeveer dertig jaar.
(The average Twitter user is a woman in her thirties)

 

Twitteren – Communicating via Twitter (interchangeable with tweeten)

as in…

Ik vindt het erg leuk om te twitteren
(I love tweeting)

Zij twittert elke dag
(She tweets every day)

 

Now that you’re all caught up on Dutch social media lingo, it’s time to go out there and get social… in het Nederlands, natuurlijk!

Be sure to follow Transparent Dutch on Twitter or Facebook for more tips on learning Dutch. While you’re at it, check out these other great Dutch language resources on Twitter.

Got any other social media vocab to add? We’d love to hear them in the comments!