Tag Archives: Dutch grammar
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…
Curious Words In Dutch 2: Voorkomen Posted by Sten on Dec 11, 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. Today, we look at voorkomen. Previous posts in this series: Curious Words in Dutch…
The Pain of Separable Verbs Posted by Karoly Molina on Jan 27, 2016
This morning I had a very “girly” problem related to Dutch. I was getting a manicure and I wanted to explain to the manicurist that I wasn’t able to completely remove the gel nail polish and needed her to help me. The problem was….which verb do you use for removing nail polish. In my head…
Do I use “de” or do I use “het”? Posted by Karoly Molina on Jan 13, 2015
Something I’ve struggled with in Dutch is distinguishing when a noun (person, place thing) uses de or het. I remember going over that while I was still living in Mexico, and although I know some of the rules, I cannot say I really KNOW them. Perhaps some of you already have this de or het dilemma out of the way, but…
5W Questions Posted by Karoly Molina on Aug 25, 2014
Asking a question is an important part of communicating. Questions are the means to how we get more information and help us understand our surroundings. This is why learning how to phrase questions in our target language is very important. We can ask for directions, for clarification, for explanation and for reasons. In the U.S…
Nederlands Leren on a Budget Posted by tiffany on Feb 23, 2014
I got an email today from a brand-spanking new expat in Gelderland. She’s been in the Netherlands about two months. She’s a bit isolated, no job prospects as of yet, few people to pal around with, and zilch in the way of funds to put towards her Dutch language education. She wanted to know what…
The Best of Transparent Dutch: Grammar Posted by tiffany on Jun 29, 2013
Dutch grammar can be difficult to master, but over the years, the Transparent Language Dutch blog has collected a number of excellent posts that make the task of learning Dutch grammar not only a snap, but a heck of a lot of fun too. Here’s a master list of our top grammar posts that’ll have…