Tag Archives: vocabulary
The Super Scary Dutch G Posted by Sten on Oct 17, 2015
If you are learning Dutch at the moment, you are undoubtedly trying to pronounce the words too – and one thing I found many people find very difficult is the pronounciation of the letter G in most cases. Now, I am referring to the Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (ABN), in which the G is not soft…
Finding Muscles You Never Knew You Had! Posted by Karoly Molina on Apr 22, 2015
After a couple of months of hardly any exercise, I finally went back to the gym. I decided to try the “Body Combat” class, and oh my! What an experience! I had heard this class was hard, but no one prepared me for the agony my body would go through afterwards. Although I am having…
Why We Do What We Do Posted by Karoly Molina on Mar 24, 2015
Part of communicating is explaining why we do something. This “why” could refer to our motivation, to explain more or be more specific, or even something as simple as to the function of things. In Dutch, this can be explained with the words om + te + _______ (infinitief). If I want to explain why I…
And the Winner is… Scrooge McDuck? Posted by Karoly Molina on Dec 17, 2014
Last month I wrote about the Van Dale “Word of the Year” contest. The winners have been announced and we can proceed to start using these nifty new words. Word of 2014: dagobertducktaks This was my number 1 choice and I am glad it won. Dagobertducktaks makes reference to Scrooge McDuck and it means a…
Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover Posted by Karoly Molina on Nov 21, 2014
We have all heard the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but regardless of how common the saying is, we tend to judge books, people, cars, restaurants, hotels, etc., by their cover. This is especially true for people. Attractive people catch our attention. Unattractive people have a harder time In 2013, there were…
Better than Yes or No Posted by Karoly Molina on Aug 13, 2014
When we speak in our native language, we tend to have a better variety of ways to answer simple yes or no questions. In English, you can use sure, of course, I’d love to, etc. to express yes and absolutely no, no way, I’d rather die, etc. to say no. These varieties help us get…
Cough! Cough! Time to go to the Huisarts Posted by Karoly Molina on Aug 6, 2014
Every time I have moved, I have fallen into the traps of new germs and viruses, and after four months, the Dutch germs finally got to me! For the past eight days, I have been living a true Dutch common verkoudheid (cold), and it has not been fun at all. I do not meant to…