Diphthongs, Double Vowels, and Triple Vowels Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 23, 2009
Just like the post just before this, I’ll give the vowel, give a close English approximation of how it’s pronounced and give two examples of Dutch words that have the vowel. The Dutch words will be highlighted in black and in parentheses. The English meaning will follow afterwards. ie – kind of like the ee…
Ultspraak Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 22, 2009
We’re going to work on Dutch ultspraak, or Dutch pronunciation. I’ll give you tips on how to pronounce Dutch sounds and compare them with sounds that are close to what you may hear in English. Just a reminder though, the sounds may not be exactly what you hear in English and the only way you can…
Beschuit met muisjes Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 21, 2009
Hallo (hello)! My name is Yohann and I’ll be your new Dutch blogger from now on. Moving on to some business, I have a story for you that’ll bring a tear to your eyes. Wait, those are happy, mushy, gushy tears. Just a month ago my nephew was born. He’s a healthy, happy bouncing seven…
A new schoolsystem in Waterrijk Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 15, 2009
Someone made a comment about a new school system in the Netherlands… since I had never heard of it before, I looked it up on the internet and for those interested, here is the information about a new school in Waterrijk. Their child vision is the base of the new school system. Their beliefs are…
diminutives Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 15, 2009
In the Netherlands everything is small! At least that’s what you might think when you hear us using so many diminutives. Even though most diminutives in Dutch end with –je, there are still different ways to ‘make a word smaller’. Some words get extra letters besides –je. Also, most diminutives are used for nouns. Many…
Omdat and doordat, revisited Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 12, 2009
In response to a few comments and questions on my ‘Omdat and doordat’ post, I would like to shortly revisit the topic again. The reason why this topic seems so difficult, is because the topic itself is difficult, even for native Dutch people. That’s the reason why the word ‘omdat’ is also more and more…
Peter R. de Vries, misdaadverslaggever Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 9, 2009
Already a celebrity in the Netherlands, because of his crime-reporting skills, a man became world famous for ‘solving’ the Natalee Holloway case. Of course, I’m now talking about Peter R. de Vries, misdaadverslaggever (the crime reporter). For some people, he seemed to appear on tv out of the blue… a wannabe celebrity taking undercover cases…