Our law system is different from the law system in English speaking countries, so there might be words missing/different and I did not include every single word related to law, because that would be a bit enthusiastic lol
Advocaat (de) = lawyer
Arbeidsrecht (het) = Labor Law
Bestuursrecht (het) = Administrative Law
(Geld)boete (de) = fine
Civiel/Burgelijk recht (het) = Civil Rights Law
Gerechtshof (het) = Court of Appeal
Gevangenisstraf (de) = imprisonment
Griffier (de) = registrar
Hoge Raad (de) = Supreme Court
Jurisprudentie (de) = case law
Slachtoffer (het) = victim
Strafrecht (het) = Criminal Law
Taakstraf (de) = community service
tbs (terbeschikkingstelling) = a type of sentence for criminals with a psychiatric disorder
Ondernemingsrecht (het) = Business Law
OM (het) = Public Prosecution Service
Personen -en familierecht (het) = Family Law
Pleidooi (het) = plea
Raadsheer (de) = judge at higher courts
Raadsman (de) = lawyer
Rechter (de) = judge
Rechtbank (de) = court
Schuldig bevinden = to find guilty
Spreekrecht = Victim Impact Statement (it’s mainly for the victim to be heard in the Netherlands, but it doesn’t really count for the final verdict)
To thank you all for following my blog I’ve decided to host a giveaway.
What can you win?
The winner can choose oneof the three Dutch magnets above. I will buy it once the giveaway ends, so if the magnet of your choice is not available anymore you can pick a substitute from the website.
How can you win?
Send me an ask (make sure you’re not anon) stating what you like about Dutch/The Netherlands and why you would like to win the giveaway. I won’t publish the ask, so you will still remain anonymous.
The winner will be picked at random, but with the rule above I want to make sure that people don’t only enter for the sake of winning something, but truly have some type of connection to the language/country.
Rules:
Anyone younger than 18 needs parental permission to enter, since I have to send the magnet to your address.
Your entry is only valid when you have sent it in ask form. Any replies to this post will not count as an entry.
Respond before the closing date.
Closing date is 1st of January 2021.
Good luck!
Don’t forget to enter the competition if you want to participate!
To thank you all for following my blog I’ve decided to host a giveaway.
What can you win?
The winner can choose oneof the three Dutch magnets above. I will buy it once the giveaway ends, so if the magnet of your choice is not available anymore you can pick a substitute from the website.
How can you win?
Send me an ask (make sure you’re not anon) stating what you like about Dutch/The Netherlands and why you would like to win the giveaway. I won’t publish the ask, so you will still remain anonymous.
The winner will be picked at random, but with the rule above I want to make sure that people don’t only enter for the sake of winning something, but truly have some type of connection to the language/country.
Rules:
Anyone younger than 18 needs parental permission to enter, since I have to send the magnet to your address.
Your entry is only valid when you have sent it in ask form. Any replies to this post will not count as an entry.
- Person 2: Ik heb moeite met poepen. Mijn keutels zijn groot en hard en ik moet hard persen om ze er uit te krijgen. Daarnaast is mijn poep een vreemde kleur.
(I have difficulty pooping. My poop is big and hard and I have to push hard to get it out. Furthermore, my poop is a strange colour.)
- Person 1: Welke kleur is uw poep?
(What colour is your poop?)
- Person 2: Mijn poep is soms rood en soms zwart.
(Sometimes my poop is red and sometimes black.)
- Person 1: Ik denk dat u last heeft van een verstopping. Ik vraag een inwendig onderzoek voor u aan.
(I think you suffer from constipation. I will request an internal examination.)
Some people: Dutch is one of the easiest languages to learn beside English.
Dutch:
______________________________________________
Translation: Do you remember your old school?
“Je herinnert je” or “ik herinner me” are fixed expressions meaning “you remember/I remember”. And the third “je” is a short form of “jouw”, which is often used in everyday speech.
who the heck is saying English is easy to learn???? what kind of weirdo are they???
(unless this is meant to say that Dutch is easy *for English speakers* in which case I’d say despite the above, it’s sure easier than japanese or french)
Trust me, I’ve heard people say it lol
Huh? as a Dutch person i’ve never seen three times je before.
“Herinner jij jouw oude school nog?” oftwel, “Herinner je je oude school nog?”
Two times je, not three times.
Almost inclined to say it is fake, but we have a shipload of weird ass dialects in Dutch so who knows….
I’m a native Dutch speaker too and it’s really used and officially correct, tho people often tend to drop one of them.
It might be clearer with a different personal pronoun or a different phrasing:
Herinnerikmemijn oude school nog?
- three personal pronouns are used behind each other, just like with the three je’s.
Jeherinnertjeje oude school nog.
- Again the three pronouns are used, just different word order.
Some people: Dutch is one of the easiest languages to learn beside English.
Dutch:
______________________________________________
Translation: Do you remember your old school?
“Je herinnert je” or “ik herinner me” are fixed expressions meaning “you remember/I remember”. And the third “je” is a short form of “jouw”, which is often used in everyday speech.
Post requested by anon. We don’t have an awful lot of Indonesian loan words, but I hope you like it! We have many many more French loan words, so I just made a small selection.
Amok maken - run amok
Cadeau (het) - gift
Citroen (de) - lemon
Douche (de) - shower
Enquête (de) - survey
Etui (de) - pencil case
Humeur (het) - mood
Journaal (het) - the news
Jus d'orange (de) - orange juice
Klamboe (de) - mosquito net
Dat is niet mijn pakkie-an - that’s not my business/responsibility
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?
This is a usual answer to someone’s excuses, you will often hear it if you stepped on someone’s foot or spilled coffee on someone’s table. Not to be confused with “Geeft niets”, as in “doesn’t care”.
Maakt niet uit. = Doesn’t matter.
When you are offered an alternative, but you don’t care which option to use, just casually say it. Very casual and simple say of saying “nevermind”.
Zullen we vandaag of morgen afspreken? - Maakt niet uit.
Should we agree to meet today or tomorrow? - Doesn’t matter.
Dat scheelt. = It saves, it makes a difference.
There is a common belief that Dutch adore economizing on things and actions, this is also manifested in the language. You will hear this phrase often in everyday use.
Dat scheelt me een hoop tijd. It saves me a lot of time.
Dat scheelt me een ritje naar supermarkt. It saves me a trip to supermarket.
What I find unusual is that it is often used as a reaction. Imagine you boast about a good route home that saves you a lot of time, or a good deal for your kid’s swimming lessons, in reply as an approval you will just hear “Dat scheelt.” without saying what it saves.
Wat is er gebeurd? = What happened?
Simple question to ask when you see the consequences and want to know what led to it. It can be rhetorical and very emotional, like if you see a broken window and a company of kids with a ball nearby, or a cat near trashed flower pots. One popular Dutch rap formation group has a single with a slang version of this phrase, that equals to a question “what’s up?”. Really not a good advise to watch it, because even native speakers don’t fully understand the lyrics.
Dit slaat nergens op. = This makes no sense.
After you’ve heard the answer to the previous question, you think that the story is not convincing enough, all the excuses (smoesjes) are just ridiculous (belachelijk), so you can use this phrase, to conclude all your feelings. “Dit” can be substituted by “dat, het”.
Dat is niet de bedoeling.. = That is not meant to..
This one is certainly a way that Dutch people express criticism. It almost equals to just saying “You shouldn’t”. If someone is being too clever to use his position in his profit, nobody in the Netherlands will be too shy to point it out.
Dat is niet de bedoeling dat je auto van je werk gebruikt om naar je vakantiebestemming te gaan. You are not supposed to use company’s car to go to vacation place.
One of the greatest steps in learning a language is not only mastering its grammar and learning a big amount of words, but making these two work together in common everyday speech. You start learning new language from books, but real life is as far from them as the story of your parents marriage is far away from typical story of “happily ever after”. In Dutch, there is a cute shortcut to making your sentences sounding more alive, small almost senseless words, called particles.
1. Hoor.
This one you will most likely spot the earliest. This word hangs from the end of most short remarks that you will hear daily in the shop, at the dentist or in a cafe. As if there was an unspoken rule of Dutch politeness: “Never reply with just one word”. So when you simply want to just say “Yes”, you’d better say “Ja, hoor”. This “hoor” doesn’t really mean anything but saying it makes you sound a bit more friendly.
Wilt u de kassabon? Nee, hoor. Hoeft niet.
Do you want a receipt? No, thank you.
2. Maar
The puzzle with this one is that it sounds like the conjunction, which translates as “but” to English. However, maar as a particle has nothing to do with a contradiction. Rather than that, it is a means to make you sound more cheering up, encouraging, warm, when you ask someone to do something. Or just otherwise, it can show that you do not care about the outcome or diminish the effect of your words.
Trek je dikke jas maar aan, het is koud vandaag.
Wear the thicker jacket, it is cold today.
Lekker eten dan maar.
A very informal version of “bon appetite” with a bit of a diminishing, sarcastic tone.
3. Toch.
You need to be especially careful because you may seem too rude if you use it without control over dosage, because the main emotions that this particle is broadcasting are anger, irritation. However with family and close friends you can use it in questions and that will show that you expect confirmation.
Het is toch niet normaal, hoor.
This is just not normal, really.
4. Eens
An interesting one, it expresses urge. Saying, you need to do it once and the moment is now. I actually learned it from a popular nursery song about a cat who is asked to come to eat soon. (Poesje mauw)
Kijk eens, wat een rare vogel zit er op die tak.
Look now, what a weird bird is sitting on that branch.
5. Even
The last, but not the least. This one is used to make your words sound more friendly, a bit of understating the meaning of what you say or sometimes to show the shortage of time for an action. It is so popular, that it has its own acronym: ff.As you remember, plural in Dutch is made with the ending “en”, so two letters “ef” sound like even.
Ging je niet ff naar de markt?
Didn’t you go to the market?
There are surely much more interesting particles: positive “wel”, “zeker” irritated “nou”, simple “gewoon” or doubtful “misschien”, another filler-like word “zeg”. Or more understandable time-depicting words as “nog”, “al”, “pas” with their English counterparts still, yet, just. Those five above-mentioned are the words that I chose to describe are just my favourites, that I find really particularly amazing.
When you start learning a new language, motivation is at the highest peak, it is easy to learn when everything is new. Later you notice that some things are so different from your own language that getting used to it is as impossible as getting used to walking backwards. Here are some of my observations over difficulties in Dutch language.
1. Numbers.
In a moment you will understand all the pain from which the metaphor of walking backwards is born. Somehow all the dutch people decided to mess with our brains and name all the numbers starting with 21 beginning with the smaller part of the number. For them it is not twenty one, but one and twenty. It wouldn’t be such a surprise for me if I had learned German before.
✏️Example:86zesentachtig,43drieenviertig
2. Spaces
Dutch are the best in economizing everything, also spaces in between words. Their ability to merge words together is a nightmare of a beginner. It doesn’t add much to the motivation of your learning process when you see such words for the first time. Of course it looks as if a toddler was just trying his fingers on the keyboard for the first time, they can’t be real this words. But they are. There are even people who use them every day.
✏️Example: Arbeidsvoorwaardengesprek -
a talk about conditions of work.
Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering -
liability insurance
3. Word order.
It seems that word order in Dutch is pretty much the same as in English before you start to make somewhat more difficult sentences. You will notice then that in complex sentences the verb actually starts to show some crazy acrobatics and tends to fall somewhere by the end of the sentence.
✏️Example: Ik heb honger omdat ik geen ontbijt had.
I am hungry because I no breakfast had .
4. Separable verbs.
By the time you will fully master these weird syntax tricks of Dutch language, a new enemy will appear. Verbs with a prefix that is behaving like a rebellious teen, trying to find its own place under the sun. In the moments of greatest linguistic despair I reminded myself clumsy juggler, who gives out words in random order, dropping out the needed parts all the time. And in the form of past participle you follow the order of “meaningful prefix+past participle prefix+root of the verb”.
✏️Example: meegaan - join
Ga je morgen met me mee?
Will you join me tomorrow?
Jij mag meegaan.
You can join.
Ben je met hem meegegaan?
Did you join him?
5. Articles
There are not only indefinite and definite articles in Dutch, but also within the definite there is an obscure dividion of words within two categories of gender. Masculine and Feminine words use “de” and Neuter words use “Het”. There is no way to be absolutely sure which word to use, unless you learn it by heart or have the language feeling. One rule that has no exceptions is that all the words with diminutive suffix use the article “het”. Knowing that there are more words with “de”, people are also making lists of most popular “het”-words. Reading them every day will absolutely help.
