{"id":6222,"date":"2019-08-28T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T09:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=6222"},"modified":"2019-08-23T13:45:10","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T13:45:10","slug":"mothers-cookie-kids-head-and-other-silly-words-in-dutch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/mothers-cookie-kids-head-and-other-silly-words-in-dutch\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother’s cookie, children’s heads and other silly words in Dutch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those who speak Dutch have a funny habit of stacking words together, creating very long and sometimes confusing for learners. These be as simple as\u00a0kortingkaart<\/em> (discount card), hondenbelasting<\/em> (dog tax), and\u00a0verkeersboete\u00a0<\/em>(traffic fine). Unfortunately, there are other words that might seem are part of these compounding nouns and make you wonder what the heck could they possible mean. Below is a list of some of my most recent discoveries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo taken by Broderick found on Flickr.com with license CC BY-SA 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

Moederkoek<\/h3>\n

Not too long ago, I was at someone’s birthday celebration in the inevitable circle of conversation that ensues in these type of events. I cannot remember what the conversation was about, but I do remember the word moederkoek<\/em> came up, and I was dumbfounded. What could this possible mean? I asked the husband what this funny sounding word meant, and he proceeded to translate the word literally: mother’s cookie. Ugh? This conversation is clearly not about food; how could a mother’s cookie be relevant?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, another person overheard and explained that\u00a0moederkoek\u00a0<\/em>was all the blood and “stuff” that came when a baby was born: the placenta. We all laughed. While anyone could argue that there is some sort of symbolism behind calling the placenta a mother’s cookie because yes, it is integral in keeping the baby alive, it turned out to be one of those words that sounds like a compoundable noun but isn’t.<\/p>\n

It seems that I am not the only one confused by this word. In the following video, a few people are asked what is one of the ingredients of\u00a0moederkoek<\/em> and what is a\u00a0moederkoek<\/em> and the answers are very funny!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/fpmWfvF6Noo?t=336<\/p>\n

Moedervlekken<\/h3>\n

Another word related to mothers that did not make sense at first is moedervlekken<\/em>. Literally translated, moedervlekken<\/em> means mother stains, but what can that possibly be? Birthmarks.<\/p>\n

It seems that in the Netherlands, these spots most of us are born with are the responsibility of our mothers. While it would seem reasonable to blame our mothers for this since we come to form inside their womb,\u00a0moedervlekken<\/em> come from our DNA. The video below explains more.<\/p>\n