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.
You can use this words to react positively on someone’s work or action, describe weather, person or occasion. These words you will hear often as Dutch people are very generous to give encouragement or appraisal.
Mooi - beautiful.
Wat een mooi weer! What a beautiful weather!
Lekker - tasty and in general pleasant.
Lekker ding - hottie, for an attractive woman.
Knap - smart.
Je spreek al zo goed Nederlands, zo knap van je! You speak Dutch so well already, smart!
Leuk - pleasant, fun.
Ik vind het leuk here. I like it here.
Keurig - neat.
Je hebt dat keurig gedaan. You did it well. Neat job!
Geweldig - awesome.
Geweldig resultaat! A great result!
Gezellig - cozy and socially pleasant.
Dat was een gezellig weekend. That was a nice weekend.
Gaaf - cool.
Ik heb zo'n gaaf cadeau gekregen! I got such a cool present!
Tof - cool.
Toffe gast - cool guy.
Prima - fine, great.
Prima, dan ruim ik het niet op.Great, then I won’t clean it up.
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.
I love WORDS the best shit inherited words cognates loanwords culturally specific words old forms still in use all of it slaps and words are just so good
your brain when you don’t need to be using your second language: i am a font of knowledge; no word or grammatical form can escape my grasp!
your brain when you do need to actually know shit: the ancient greek verb for “become full of worms” is ἐκζωόομαιand this is the only word you know now
(I cross mine from R to L, but Jake does his straight through)
I was watching a kdrama and they were tallying a vote and I was just like:
Cus I’d never considered the cultural implications of tally marks. Lol, I just thought lines to five are lines to 5, ya know? Then I read the whole wiki page and now I want to learn more!
Are there other ways? How do you make tallies? Tell me moooooooore lol ^-^
For everyone interested in languages. I just discovered a YouTube channel that gives some basic vocabulary and info (in the description) about a lot of languages. It also includes a lot of dialects and indigenous languages. So it’s a cool way to discover and learn more about less common languages.
米福尔德 mǐ fú ěr dé = Milford 峡湾 xiá wān = fjord 米佛mǐ fó = Milford 或称 huò chēng = also known as (HSK3) 位于wèi yú = to be located (位 mw for person HSK3) 新西兰xīn xī lán = New Zealand 南岛 nán dǎo = southern island 国家公园 guó jiā gōng yuán = national park 处 chǔ = measure word for location 冰河 bīng hé = glacier（河 HSK3) 地形 dì xíng = topography
Do kids today even understand why podcasts are called podcasts?
Well, you see, kids, almost twenty years ago Apple produced a portable audio player called – wait, I need to go back further.
Okay, so in the 20th century, the new inventions of radio and television were known as broadcast media – no, wait, that’s not really the start either –
Broadcasting originally refers to throwing, or casting, handfuls of seeds onto prepared ground, typically used with grain crops, which, uh –
– the Agrucultural Revoution, which begain circa 10,000 BC in the Levant, was when humans began preserving seeds for replanting –
протестное настроение - Mood to protest, Discontent
Акция - Any kind of event, act, action, or promotion, also stock
Акция протеста - protest, literally a protest action
Демонстрация - Demonstration, can also mean a show of something
Манифестация - Big public demonstration, in some contexts this also means ‘manifestation’
Скандировать - To chant
“Свободу политзаключенным” - “Free political prisoners”
Митинг - A rally
Митинговать - To rally
Митингующие - Protestors, participants
Ура! - Hurrah!
Долой! - Down with them
Протестный марш - Protest march
Шествие по городу - Procession around town
Пикет - picket
Пикетчик - A picketer
Пикетирование - Picketing
Пикетировать - To picket
Одиночный пикет - One person picket, Solo protest,
Задержание - being detained
Автозак - prison truck
Наручниках - handcuffs
Пластиковых хомутах - Zip ties, plastic clamps
“Я – против!” - “I’m against it!”
Example sentences:
В Москве прошли задержания после несанкционированной акции протеста против принятия поправок к Конституции - In Moscow participants were detained after an unsanctioned protest against the constitutional amendments
Участники акции выстроились в очередь, чтобы поставить подписи против поправок - Participants in the event stood in line to register their disapproval of the amendments.
Мы всегда ходили с друзьями на первомайские демонстрации - My friends and I always marched in the May Day demonstrations.
В Хабаровском крае прошли массовые демонстрации в поддержку арестованного губернатора - In the Khabarovsk region mass demonstrations were held in support of the governor, who had been arrested.
В день годовщины революции они пошли с красным флагом на манифестацию - On the anniversary of the Revolution they took a red flag and joined the demonstration.
Собравшиеся скандировали “Свободу политзаключенным” и “Позор Кремлю!” - The protesters chanted “Free political prisoners!” and “Kremlin, For Shame!”
Первого мая с утра мы всей школой должны были собраться на праздничный митинг - On May Day the whole school had to gather in the morning for a celebration.
Если ты поучаствовал в митинге, то как минимум тебя надо избить, а по возможности и посадить - If you went to the rally, they’d at least beat you up and then put you in jail if they could, too
Страна изменилась: алкаши стали наркоманами, жулики ушли в коммерцию, придурки возглавили партии и беспрерывно митинговали - The country had changed: drunks became drug addicts, crooks went into business, idiots headed up parties and rallied non-stop.
Учителя проводят регулярные пикетирования администрации области и грозят забастовкой - Teachers picket the regional center building regularly and threaten to go on strike
“Чем же недовольны пикетчики?” - “What are those picketers so unhappy about?”
Таганский суд оштрафовал муниципального депутата Юлию Галямину на 200 тысяч рублей за одиночный пикет в поддержку журналиста Ильи Азара - The Taganka Court fined city deputy Yulia Galyamina 200,000 rubles for her solo picketing to support journalist Ilya Azar.
