Write a Dutch word starting with the last letter of the word from the person you reblogged this from. (I wanna see if this works lol). It can be any word and make sure to give the translation.
Regenen- To rain Sneeuwen- To snow Bevriezen- To freeze Smelten- To melt Uitglijden- To slip Vallen- To fall Beven- To shiver Opwarmen- To warm up Versieren- To decorate Gloeien- To glow Oplichten- To light up Glinsteren - To glisten Geven- To give Bedanken- To thank
This site is managed by the Dutch Language Union (De Taalunie), which is an international regulatory institution that provides resources for the Dutch language (amongst other things). Fill in any word in the search bar and you will find its plural forms, verb conjugations, the corresponding article, the word class, etc. IMPORTANT: the site is in Dutch, so you will need to have some basic knowledge of the language to navigate it. This word list is also available in book form and this version is most commonly referred to as The Green Booklet (Het Groene Boekje), because, well, guess what, it literally is a green booklet.
This site is also managed by the Dutch Language Union. Here, you will find solutions to any spelling problems or linguistic conventions in Dutch. IMPORTANT: Again, the site is in Dutch, so you will need to have some knowledge of the language already, There is a search bar, but you can also search the categories for the answer that you’re looking for, which will require some knowledge of linguistic terms in Dutch (word classes, etc.)
This is the most widespread and trustworthy explanatory dictionary in the Dutch-speaking world. The site also offers a translation service for several languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish) into Dutch and vice versa, and you will be able to find translations for general vocabulary in the free dictionary. It is a very useful resource for language learners!
Here, you will find the pronunciation of the letters and the sounds that are used in Dutch. TIP: It might be useful to keep http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/ open in another tab if you’re new to the pronunciation of Dutch sounds. Just click on a phonetic symbol to hear what it sounds like.
In Sylheti Bengali, there’s a sweet dish called “ফিদা (phida)” and it sounds like the word for “punch/hit” which is also “ফিদা (fida)”. So as a joke, cousins and siblings would ask “ফিদা খাইটা নি ? (Fidā khā'iṭā ni ?)” which means “Do you want ‘fida’ ?” and if you say yes they might punch you playfully because after all you agreed to a punch (fida), not a sweet dish (phida).
We had a similar joke in Brazil. The word “bolacha” can mean cookie or a hit/smack depending on what region of the country you’re in. So one kid would ask “quer uma bolacha?” which the other kid interpreted as “do you want a cookie?” and would answer yes, and then would be given a slap, because they did agree to taking a hit/“bolacha”
In Dutch we’ve got this thing where you say a fruit or vegetable and you tell the other kid to say ‘mij’ (me) after every fruit/vegetable, and then at a certain point you say ‘sla’ (lettuce, but also imperative of ‘slaan’, to hit) and the other kid says ‘mij’, so they say ‘sla mij’ (‘hit me’) and you can hit them.
There are moments in everyone’s life when you need to express bad emotions, such as anger, fear or discontent. One word of this list is enough to tell how you relate to a new girlfriend of your ex or to the fact that national football team is not participating in the World Cup. All these words you can use a reaction to someone telling a sad or scary story.
Let’s start with less emotional and proceed to the most heavy, avoiding obscene lexicon. (I just want to save it for later posts)
Slecht - simply bad.
Often used in moralizations or descriptions. Most common phrases: slecht nieuws, slechte idee, slechte foto.
Heftig - heavy, severe, fierce.
Everything that pushes you down to earth and makes life difficult. Examples: heftige conversatie, heftige gevoel.
Lastig - difficult, tricky.
Use it to show that a person is really troubled by a situation. Lastige vraag, lastige periode.
Vervelend - nasty, unpleasant, obnoxious.
A popular comforting reply to the person in a difficult situation, when you want to show understanding. O, wat vervelend voor je!
Erg - terribly.
The main meaning of this word is “very”, but it actually means that this is really too much. Like when someone is really offensive, or someone is deadly ill.
Vreselijk - awful, dreadful.
This is the highest degree of unpleasant bad things, however, it is often used as an exaggeration. Vreselijk smaak, vreselijke tragedie.
Verschrikkelijk- horrible.
As bad as it sounds, this word is a twin of the previous, however if someone says that your painting is “een vreselijk lelijk schilderij” vs. “een verschrikkelijk lelijk schilderij”, the last one seems more harsh.
There are many more - afschuwelijk, gruwelijk, walgelijk, tell me if you have a favourite?
When you learn a new language you pass all the phases that equal the stages of a baby acquiring a language. Most helpful in the earliest period is listening and imitating what you hear. Most difficult is trying to figure out where one word ends and a new word starts. However there are such words that are very easy to sign out in the speech. They are usually very brightly coloured with emotion, but independently from the context they do not express anything.
Hoera!
Let’s start positive, it is a cry of happiness, following a positive or very happy and successful occasion. Used in a birthday song for example, multiplied by onomatopoeic reiteration, such as “hieperdepiep hoera!”
Tjongejongejonge…
This one is the funniest for me, even though it actually expresses discontent or disappointment in someone’s stupid actions. Like when you clumsily spill a glass of wine on the table. It is basically a negative wow, also often used to support sarcasm.
Bah!
Another of basic emotions, disgust, you say it when you encounter something dirty, unpleasant, stinky or just inattractive. Like dog poop on the grass in the park.
Jeetje!
This one is used as a compassionate reply to a very unpleasant, scary or difficult situation. If something is irritating and annoying like a noisy party in the garden of your neighbors: “Jeetje, wat een lawaai!” = Jesus, such a noise! “Jeetje” is indeed a diminutive derived from the word Jesus, which is also a popular interjection here. Older people often say “Jeetje mina”, a morbid version for those people who do not want to offend religion, equals saying “potverdori” instead of using “Gotverdomme”.
Huplakee, Huppetee.
An encouraging exclamation, as if you are helping a kid to tie up laces and then show with pride, look how easy it is, look how successful you are. A group of kid artists has made a song even for one of the las king’s birthdays with this title.
Helaas
This one is not so jolly, it is very recognizable through English language (Alas). It expresses pity. I used it always to distinguish a negative answer on my cover letter from a positive one. If you see Helaas when you scan a letter through, it means you are not invited for a job interview:) Though this word has a funny story to add. Kids have a simple rhyming teaser-addition to it, closing all the questions and explanations: Helaas Pindakaas.
Hatsikidee
Finishing this row of an unplanned H-letter benefice will be this funny wording, famous for the fox from a tv-programme called “fabeltjeskrant”. This is usually a remark following some unexpected or fast action, though it seems that now you can use it just anywhere you like. Such an absurdly cute exclamation it is.
These were my favourites, and which do you find special?
If you’re looking to practice a bit and remember your target language better… here are tons of free worksheets/workbooks for 34 languages (Japanese, Spanish, Korean, French, German, etc, etc.)
upfront & obvious disclaimer: account required
It’s the same type of “fill in the blank” workbook across all of their languages but the magic in actually rewriting things over and over is that the words end up sticking. Plus, there are English sections where you’ll have to force yourself to remember and write the word/phrase in the target language - which is even better for your memory (called active recall - forcing yourself to remember). I’m personally a big fan of this approach and I’d do similar to pass vocab quizzes in my HS & uni language classes.
Dutch is a very gendered language, we don’t have many neutral options. So this video inspired me to go digging for a genderneutral option for “meneer” (mister) and “mevrouw” (misses, miss).
I used the website etymologiebank.nl to look up the etymology for the words “meneer” and “mevrouw”, hoping to find a third option like in the video, but alas. It is as straightforward as it seems. “Meneer” comes from “mijn heer” (my lord, distinguished man), and “mevrouw” comes simply from “mijn vrouw” (my woman, distinguished woman). There is no third gramatical gender in Dutch.
So I looked up “neutraal” (neutral), it comes from the latin neutrālis, so it would give us the option of “metralis”, however, compared to our other two it is a syllable too many. “Mealis” would be an option, but is also a name/nickname connected to names like Melissa.
But this did bring me to the word “neutrum” (neuter, gramatically neuter) an old word which has since been replaced with “onzijdig”. “Metrum” would be a cool option, and close to the one used in the video. However, it is also a term in poetry (link in Dutch, metre in English).
This page also said that “generlei” was a gramatically genderneutral term meaning “onzijdig”, and I must say, I love this one. “Generlei” has the suffix -lei, which comes from -leie, meaning “soort” (kind or sort). Gener- comes from “geen” (none). So “generlei” in this context means “of neither sort”. The fun part is that the suffix -lei is used in many other words, like “allerlei” (of all kinds/sorts).
Which brought me to the title “merlei”. It still fits the structure of “meneer” and “mevrouw” and doesn’t seem out of place. And the best part, next to “generlei” (neither sort), we also used to have “enigerlei” (van een of andere soort. Of one or a different kind/sort), “velerlei” (van vele soorten. Of many kinds/sorts), tweeërlei, drieeërlei, etc (van twee, drie soorten etc. Of two, three kinds, etc.)
Which makes “merlei” way more inclusive, because bigender people can use “merlei” as meaning “tweeërlei”, agender people as meaning “generlei”, genderfluid people (such as myself) as meaning “velerlei”, etc.
So, TL;DR: Some Dutch genderneutral options for titles, such as “meneer” and “mevrouw” are “metralis” (from neutral), “maelis” (from neutraal), “metrum” (from neutrum), and “merlei” (from generlei, gramaticaal onzijdig).
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