Posts under "Dutch Language"

Photo Credit: Teunie

The number of days before we ring in the New Year is getting less and less.  So, now is the perfect time for you to get to work practising your Oliebollen making skills.  These round doughnut like food items are made with yeast and deep fried before being covered in powdered sugar and are an important part of New Year’s celebrations in the Netherlands.

As mentioned before, some people prefer their oliebollen without the currants and raisins, so feel free to leave those out if you are one of those people.

Oliebollen Recipe*

Voor 16 stuks – Serves 16

  • 0.5 sinaasappel – ½ orange, zest only
  • 30 g. verse gist, verkruimeld – 30g fresh yeast, crumbled
  • 0.5 liter lauwwarme melk – ½ litre lukewarm milk
  • 500g tarwebloem – 500g wheat flour
  • 2 theelepels suiker – 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 theelepel zout – 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 theelepel gemalen kaneel – 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 100g krenten en rozijnen, gewassen – 100g currants and raisins, washed
  • 25g sukade, gesnipperd – 25g candied peel, finely chopped
  • 1 appel, geschild en in kleine stukjes – 1 apple, peeled and in small pieces
  • olie om te frituren – oil for deep-frying
  • poedersuiker  - powdered sugar

Boen de sinaasappel onder stromend water schoon en rasp de oranje schil er dun af.  Roer de gist met 3 eetlepels van de melk los.  Roer de bloem met de suiker, het zout en de kaneel door elkaar.  Maak een kuiltje in het midden en schenk het gistmengsel erin.  Voeg al roerende met een mixer met deeghaken de rest van de melk toe en roer het tot een egaal beslag.  Schep de sinaasappelrasp, de krenten, de rozijnen, de sukade en de appel erdoor en laat het beslag afgedekt met een schone theedoek of met huishoudfolie op een warme plek 1 uur rijzen.  Bak van het beslag 4 porties van 4 flinke oliebollen in hete olie van 190C.  Laat ze op keukenpapier uitlekken en bestuif ze dik met poedersuiker.

Scrub the orange in cold water and grate off the zest.  Stir 3 tablespoons of mil into the yeast to loosen it up.  Mix the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.  Make a slight hollow in the middle and pour in the yeast paste.  Add the rest of the milk, continuously turning with a blender with dough hooks to produce an even dough.  Stir in the orange zest, currants, raisins, candied peel and apple, and allow the dough to rise under cling film or a clean tea towel in a warm spot.  Then fry four portions of the doughnuts in hot oil at 190 degrees Celsius.  Allow them to drain on paper towels and sprinkle them abundantly with powdered sugar.

*From Deliciously Dutch

Photo Credit: Svilen001

Welcome to the first day of December.  No doubt a busy month in many calendars, especially the calendar of Sinterklaas who has a lot of presents to deliver, many naughty children to round up and take back with him to Spain and no doubt quite a bit of unpacking and washing to do.

In honour of Sinterklaas and his departure back to sunny Spain, I’ve got one more Sinterklaas tradition to tell you about…the Sinterklaas poem.

If you aren’t receiving your Sinterklaas gifts on December 5th by a kindly neighbour knocking on the door, dropping off a bag of gifts and then running away before the door opens so as to not spoil the surprise, then you are probably exchanging gifts with fellow adults, in which case you may find two traditions mixed into one event.  By the way, if you are the kindly neighbour with sack delivering responsibilities, I wish you luck!

The first tradition you may experience on the night is that your gift may be hidden inside of a homemade “surprise.”  The surprise element seems to be a little bit vague but I have heard stories of surprises ranging from a paper mache Eiffel Tower with a ring inside to a slightly less impressive box filled with sticky syrup.

The second tradition is in the form of a poem.  The poem, usually written in Dutch, is supposed to be written for the gift receiver by Sinterklaas (or in some cases Zwarte Piet).  It “should” be kind in tone but with room to poke fun at the individual’s bad habits or character deficiencies.

Never having written a Sinterklaas poem, I decided to try my hand at it and here is my result.

Sinterklaas was deep in thought,

About a present that Marieke would like a lot.

Every day she had studied hard,

All her Dutch words written out on card.

Past tense, present tense, singular and plural,

All the rules went round her head in one gigantic whirl.

And then that was the moment,

That the Sint knew he had blown it.

Because instead of Dutch BYKI Express,

He had got her the NT2 Staatsexamen test.

Not likely to win a poetry award, I know, but fun all the same.  And now comes the two questions that you no doubt knew were coming…what surprise will you be making and what Sinterklaas gift are you hoping for?

folder (de) – leaflet; brochure

If you are going to live in the Netherlands, then the word “folder” is one you are going to get to know well.  On an almost daily basis, these folders – advertising the current items on sale and the special offers being made – will shoot through your mailbox.  There are loads.  Everyone from the supermarket to the do-it-yourself shop has one.

Typically, although not always, you won’t find any coupons to cut out or bring along.  You just need to visit the shop on the advertised dates to take advantage of the special offer.  What type of words and phrases do you find in these advertisements?  Below is a selection of some of the more common ones but no doubt some of you can think of many more.

  • deze week – this week
  • vanaf – from (typically you will see something like “vanaf donderdag” – from Thursday), indicating you won’t be able to get the special price or sometimes even the item until that day
  • de (prijs) acties in deze folder zijn geldig van maandag t/m zondag of zolang de voorraad strekt – the price actions in this brochure are valid from Monday until Sunday (including) or for as long as they are in stock – be sure to look for this, usually at the bottom of the folder, and note that not all shops run their actions from Monday until Sunday
  • voordelig – beneficial/lucrative
  • per stuk – per piece/item
  • hoge kwaliteit – high quality
  • op is op – gone is gone/finished is finished/out is out
  • korting – discount
  • mega voordeel – mega discount
  • alle combinaties mogelijk – all combinations possible
  • 2e halve prijs – 2nd half price
  • gratis – free
  • nieuw – new
  • spaar voor gratis producten – save for free products
  • 2 voor €7 – 2 for €7
  • waardebon – gift certificate
  • nu of nooit – now or never
  • niet geldig – not valid
  • m.u.v. (met uitzondering van) – with exception of

Another way to view the actions and special offers that a shop has each week is to visit their website.  On the website you will typically find an online version of the printed folder that comes through the door.  Or, alternatively, you can head to www.folders.nl where you can view all the folders available via category, location and/or store name.

Keep your eye out for the folders that are delivered this week or if you don’t live in the Netherlands browse through folders.nl and see what discounts you see.  What’s the favourite deal that you see?

 

Photo Credit: lusi

Have you been looking for a way to improve your Dutch?  Maybe you were looking for a way to increase your vocabulary, or to improve your comprehension skills or you just wanted some real-world examples of Dutch in use.  Well, perhaps online newspapers/news sites are something for you.

Not only do online newspapers/new sites provide you with an almost endless supply of material to practise your Dutch on, they also keep you up-to-date on what is going on in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Here’s a selection of four online newspapers/news sites to help get you started.

  • Nu.nl – Founded in 1999, Nu.nl (nu = now) is one of the most visited news sites in the Netherlands.  You’ll find a regular dose of current news, economy (economie), sport, health (gezondheid), culture and media (cultuur en media).  You can also get the weather (weer) and traffic (verkeer).  Nu.nl is really good at isolating current events on their homepage, for example there is currently a section for news relating to the situation in Greece (Griekenland).  Don’t miss the NUfoto and NUtvgids either.
  • AD.nl – AD.nl is the web component of the popular newspaper, the Algemeen Dagblad.  Here you’ll find a daily dose of news as well as puzzles, videos and even your horoscope (horoscoop).
  • De Telegraaf – Based in Amsterdam, this online element of the national newspaper contains many sensational and sports related stories.   Don’t miss the comics (strips) and travel (reizen) sections.
  • De Standard Online – De Standard Online is a combination of an online news portal for the Belgium newspaper, De Standaard and a news portal where you can view domestic, foreign, culture, media, economy, sports, fashion, food and drink, film and travel stories.  You will need a paid subscription to access the portal but there is plenty available in the free portion to keep you busy for quite some time.

Where Else to Look

If you are interested in finding more newspapers in Dutch, why not check out the website, Paperboy.  Filling in a few search boxes and clicking search will bring up a whole list of newspapers from Belgium and the Netherlands that are available online.  You’ll even be provided with click through links and information on which language the newspaper is written in.

What Dutch language online newspapers and news sites do you follow?  Have you recently read an interesting news story online?  Tell us about it in the comments or over on the Transparent Language Facebook page.

Ik hou van Holland (I love Holland) – whenever I hear or see that phrase it makes me think of the Dutch game show with the same name.  The show, hosted by Linda de Mol, is on the tv channel RTL4 and tests “famous” Dutch people on their knowledge of the Netherlands.

Two teams, lead by two captains (currently Jeroen van Koningsbrugge and Guus Meeuwis) try to win as many points as possible by, amongst other things, answering questions about Dutch culture…

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…and guessing well known Dutchmen and Dutchwomen…

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…and trying to figure out who is telling the truth about the definition of unusual Dutch words…

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You don’t see it in the above clips but when the show begins a version of the song “Ik hou van Holland” by Heintje is used, which sounds like this:

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In case you have a great desire to sing along with the intense passion, I have included the words for you below.  If, on the other hand,  you are looking for different ways to profess your love or just a crush on someone, then have a look at this previous post on Transparent Language – Words of Love: How to Say I Love You in Dutch.

Ik Hou van Holland

Ik hou van Holland, landje aan de Zuiderzee
Een stukje Holland draag ik in m’n hart steeds mee
Daar waar die molens draaien in hun forse kracht
En waar de bollen bloeien in hun schoonste pracht
Ik hou van Holland, met je bossen en je hei
Jouw blonde duinen in een bonte rij
Op heel dees grote aard, al ben ‘k van huis en haard
Is het kleine Holland mij ‘t meeste waard

Holland, met je koetjes en je weiden
Ik mag jou zo gaarne leiden
Met je molens aan de vliet
Holland, al trek ik naar vreemde stranden
En doorkruis ik alle landen
Jou vergeten doe ik niet

Ik hou van Holland, landje aan de Zuiderzee
Een stukje Holland draag ik in m’n hart steeds mee
Daar waar die molens draaien in hun forse kracht
En waar de bollen bloeien in hun schoonste pracht
Ik hou van Holland, met je bossen en je hei
Jouw blonde duinen in een bonte rij
Op heel dees grote aard, al ben ‘k van huis en haard
Is het kleine Holland mij ‘t meeste waard

*Lyrics from www.nomorelyrics.net

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