{"id":7446,"date":"2021-08-10T12:45:46","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T12:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2021-08-10T12:45:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T12:45:46","slug":"whats-some-in-dutch-een-paar-sommige-enkele-sommig-soms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/whats-some-in-dutch-een-paar-sommige-enkele-sommig-soms\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s “some” in Dutch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, a friend of mine who’s learning Dutch right now told me about how\u00a0een paar<\/em>, enkele, <\/em>sommige, wat, een beetje <\/em><\/strong>and soms<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>are confusing, because they all mean\u00a0some<\/strong>! I was taken aback – is that true? I had never thought about how confusing that can be. She gave me some examples, and I knew: this deserves a proper explanation. So here’s my take on that. I hope it helps disentangle this stuff for you too!<\/p>\n

So, what do each of these mean?<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it’s all some…<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

This page<\/a> was also quite helpful for some visualisations!<\/p>\n

Een paar, enkele<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>– “a pair, a few”. This means a small number of something, or a few. Een paar, enkele <\/em>always comes with a meervoud <\/em>(plural). So let’s say, ik heb een paar\/enkele boeken gelezen<\/em> would translate to “I’ve read some books”. Frustrating. A more accurate translation is “I’ve read a small number of books” or “I’ve read a few books”.<\/p>\n

sommige\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>– “some”. This really translates to “some”! Sommige <\/em>always comes with a meervoud<\/em>. It also looks like it, so that might have to do with it.\u00a0Sommige\u00a0<\/em>relates more to a small fraction of a total. If you say, ik heb sommige boeken gelezen<\/em>, it implies that there are books you haven’t read, that you read a selection only. So it’s like:\u00a0Van die 10 boeken heb ik sommige gelezen\u00a0<\/em>(of those 10 books, I’ve read some). The listener would think that you mean a small fraction of those 10 – maybe 3, 4, something like that.<\/p>\n

wat, een beetje<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>– again, “some\/a few”. However,\u00a0wat\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0een beetje\u00a0<\/em>come with an\u00a0ontelbaar woord\u00a0<\/em>(uncountable nouns), not a\u00a0meervoud<\/em>! So it’s akin to\u00a0I drink some tea: ik drink wat\/een beetje thee<\/em>. So\u00a0wat\/een beetje\u00a0<\/em>is quite easy in that sense, and less confusing.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0sommig\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>also exists!\u00a0Sommig\u00a0<\/em>also means “some”, but is for the\u00a0enkelvoud\u00a0<\/em>(singular) and also only\u00a0ontelbare woorden<\/em>. This makes super much sense, by the way. A countable noun couldn’t be some, after all:\u00a0Sommig eend\u00a0<\/em>(a number of duck… you see, that can’t work). So, here,\u00a0sommig\u00a0<\/em>can signal the occurrence of something:\u00a0Sommig vlees is gevaarlijk <\/em>(Some\/certain meat is dangerous).<\/p>\n

But guess what, the English “some” has another job: you can use it even for singular countable nouns! “some man”, “some duck”, “some lady”. The meaning here is more akin to “a certain man”, or, even wordier “there is\/was a man\/duck\/lady”. In Dutch, we can also say\u00a0er is\u00a0<\/em>(there is):\u00a0er is\/was een man\/eend\/mevrouw<\/em>. Or simply\u00a0een\u00a0<\/em>(a):\u00a0Een man zei dat dit mocht <\/em>(Some man said this was allowed).<\/p>\n

I start to feel that English is the problem here, not Dutch!<\/p>\n

What about\u00a0soms?<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Photo by Slava<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

So, sure,\u00a0een paar, enkele, sommige <\/em>and wat, een beetje<\/em>, even sommig <\/em>make sense. They literally mean some\u00a0<\/strong>in one way or the other with some’s 1000 meanings. But soms<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Soms\u00a0<\/em>means sometimes or perhaps\/by any chance:<\/p>\n

Ik maak soms mijn bed op <\/em>(I sometimes make my bed)<\/p>\n

Heb jij soms Mark gezien <\/em>(Have you seen Mark by any chance?)<\/p>\n

Because of the ubiquitous occurrence of “some”\u00a0<\/em>in English, it’s possible that it may look like\u00a0soms\u00a0<\/em>is the translation, but it isn’t!\u00a0Soms\u00a0means sometimes or perhaps\/by any chance. That’s it!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope this explanation helped unwind some of these confusing words for you. Are there more terms like this that confuse you in Dutch? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

A few days ago, a friend of mine who’s learning Dutch right now told me about how\u00a0een paar, enkele, sommige, wat, een beetje and soms\u00a0are confusing, because they all mean\u00a0some! I was taken aback – is that true? I had never thought about how confusing that can be. She gave me some examples, and I…<\/p>\n

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