{"id":7187,"date":"2021-03-10T13:21:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T13:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=7187"},"modified":"2021-03-11T12:39:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T12:39:51","slug":"dutch-language-fillers-part-1-why-do-we-use-stopwoorden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/dutch-language-fillers-part-1-why-do-we-use-stopwoorden\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch Fillers Part 1 &#8211; Why do We Use Stopwoorden?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So, you&#8217;ve tried to learn Dutch, right? Well, you know, there are words that make sentences unnecessarily long, right? Like, without them, you could, like, still say the same thing, you know, with fewer words. You can probably tell by now, I am talking about\u00a0<em>stopwoorden\u00a0<\/em>(&#8220;fill words&#8221;, fillers). We have them in Dutch, too! Here&#8217;s why we even use these <em>stopwoorden\u00a0<\/em>and the ones we use a lot in Dutch. So, eh&#8230; Read on, I guess.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Dutch Fillers Part 2 \u2013 8 Very Common Dutch Stopwoorden\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/dutch-language-fillers-part-2-8-very-common-dutch-stopwoorden\/\"><strong>Click here to read Dutch Fillers Part 2.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Why do we use\u00a0<em>stopwoorden<\/em> (fillers)?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_7198\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/48lEHdLa-nQ\" aria-label=\"Filler Stopwoorden Cars 1024x577\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7198\" class=\"wp-image-7198 size-large\"  alt=\"fillers stopwoorden filler\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-1024x577.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-1536x866.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-2048x1155.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7198\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by alevision.co at Unsplash.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Stopwoorden\u00a0<\/em>fulfil (pun intended) different purposes. They help us <strong>indicate that our turn in a conversation is not over yet<\/strong> &#8211; we still have more to say. So the often-critiqued &#8220;uhm&#8221; that plagues many can actually also have a useful function! But that&#8217;s in conversations &#8211; in a presentation you already have the floor, so there&#8217;s no need for a filler to retain it. <em>Uhm\u00a0<\/em>in both its short and longer versions is as prevalent in Dutch as it is in English, pronounced the same. Although the <em>u<\/em><em>h\u00a0<\/em>sounds more like the\u00a0<em>u\u00a0<\/em>than in English, where it often becomes an\u00a0<em>Ah<\/em>. Here&#8217;s a comparison:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-playlist wp-audio-playlist wp-playlist-light\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-current-item\"><\/div>\n\t\t<audio controls=\"controls\" preload=\"none\" width=\"640\"\n\t\t\t><\/audio>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-next\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-prev\"><\/div>\n\t<noscript>\n\t<ol>\n\t\t<li><a href='https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/English-Uhm.mp3'>English Uhm<\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Dutch-Uhm.mp3'>Dutch Uhm<\/a><\/li>\t<\/ol>\n\t<\/noscript>\n\t<script type=\"application\/json\" class=\"wp-playlist-script\">{\"type\":\"audio\",\"tracklist\":true,\"tracknumbers\":true,\"images\":false,\"artists\":false,\"tracks\":[{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/English-Uhm.mp3\",\"type\":\"audio\/mpeg\",\"title\":\"English Uhm\",\"caption\":\"\",\"description\":\"\\\"English Uhm\\\". Released: 2021.\",\"meta\":{\"year\":\"2021\",\"length_formatted\":\"0:01\"},\"image\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64},\"thumb\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64}},{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Dutch-Uhm.mp3\",\"type\":\"audio\/mpeg\",\"title\":\"Dutch Uhm\",\"caption\":\"\",\"description\":\"\\\"Dutch Uhm\\\". Released: 2021.\",\"meta\":{\"year\":\"2021\",\"length_formatted\":\"0:01\"},\"image\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64},\"thumb\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64}}]}<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\t\n<p>But yeah, other than that, identical. There are other\u00a0<em>stopwoorden\u00a0<\/em>that fulfill this purpose, but\u00a0<em>uhm\u00a0<\/em>is the one that fits the bill best.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<em>stopwoord\u00a0<\/em>can also help\u00a0<strong>anchor the speaker<\/strong>. <strong>You know<\/strong>, to get feedback from listeners that we&#8217;re making sense.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, with a <em>stopwoord <\/em>we can also indicate\u00a0<strong><i>twijfel <\/i>(doubt)<\/strong>. When you are not sure about what you are saying, you might introduce these words. For example:<\/p>\n<p><em>Ik denk dat hij een slecht cijfer heeft <strong>of zo<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(I think that he has a bad grade <strong>or so<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p><em>Dat kan ik me <strong>eigenlijk<\/strong> niet <strong>echt<\/strong> voorstellen\u00a0<\/em>(I can&#8217;t <strong>actually<\/strong> not <strong>really<\/strong> imagine that).<\/p>\n<p>And when you read these sentences, the use of <em>stopwoorden <\/em>comes across as excessive &#8211; because it is. In a fancy way, you could say that\u00a0<em>stopwoorden\u00a0<\/em>reduce the\u00a0<em>betekenisdichtheid\u00a0<\/em>(meaning density) of what&#8217;s being said. After removing the\u00a0<em>stopwoorden<\/em>, the sentence will say the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Finally,\u00a0<em>stopwoorden\u00a0<\/em>can also <strong>help <\/strong><strong>emphasize what you want to say<\/strong>. The logic of a language is not always enough to convey the true gravity of what we are trying to say, and so we\u00a0<strong>literally\u00a0<\/strong>add words sometimes to make sure people understand.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, all <em>stopwoorden<\/em> share a common rule &#8211; don&#8217;t overuse them! It&#8217;s completely normal to use them. I often end up using loads of them in my blog posts to keep a conversational tone myself. But when the entire article reads or somebody sounds like the introduction to this post, it actually makes reading or listening a lot harder.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>What does\u00a0<em>stopwoord\u00a0<\/em>mean?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_7197\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/ZaGcU6BxJEc\" aria-label=\"Stop Sign Fillers Stopwoorden Dutch 1024x683\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7197\" class=\"wp-image-7197 size-large\"  alt=\"stop sign filler stopwoorden fillers\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Stop_Sign_Fillers_Stopwoorden_Dutch-1024x683.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Stop_Sign_Fillers_Stopwoorden_Dutch-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Stop_Sign_Fillers_Stopwoorden_Dutch-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Stop_Sign_Fillers_Stopwoorden_Dutch-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Stop_Sign_Fillers_Stopwoorden_Dutch-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Stop_Sign_Fillers_Stopwoorden_Dutch-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7197\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You might think that <em>stopwoord<\/em> is related to stopping &#8211; not true! (Image by Will Porada at Unsplash.com)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So we talked about what\u00a0<em>stopwoorden <\/em>are for. But what does the Dutch word mean, actually?<\/p>\n<p>When you hear\u00a0<em>stopwoord<\/em>, you might think it means &#8220;stop word&#8221;, like the traffic sign. But that doesn&#8217;t really make sense with its meaning.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, like the synonym <em>stoplap<\/em>, <em>stoppen <\/em>actually has its other meaning of \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vandale.nl\/gratis-woordenboek\/nederlands\/betekenis\/stoppen#.YEiplmhKibg\"><em>vullen, dichtmaken<\/em> (to fill up, close off)<\/a>. So like the English word &#8220;filler&#8221;, the Dutch word means the exact same thing. And that&#8217;s what these words do &#8211; they pad our sentences.<\/p>\n<h4><strong><a title=\"Dutch Fillers Part 2 \u2013 8 Very Common Dutch Stopwoorden\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/dutch-language-fillers-part-2-8-very-common-dutch-stopwoorden\/\">Click here to read part 2<\/a> for a list of some of the most common Dutch <em>stopwoorden <\/em>and their English equivalents!<\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-350x197.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-1536x866.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/03\/Filler_stopwoorden_Cars-2048x1155.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>So, you&#8217;ve tried to learn Dutch, right? Well, you know, there are words that make sentences unnecessarily long, right? Like, without them, you could, like, still say the same thing, you know, with fewer words. You can probably tell by now, I am talking about\u00a0stopwoorden\u00a0(&#8220;fill words&#8221;, fillers). We have them in Dutch, too! Here&#8217;s why&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/dutch-language-fillers-part-1-why-do-we-use-stopwoorden\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":7198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[27710,3590,27711],"tags":[117769,3628],"class_list":["post-7187","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dutch-grammar","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","tag-dutch-grammar-2","tag-dutch-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7187"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7206,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions\/7206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}