Vocabulary | Dutch Language Blog

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Body Parts in Dutch

Jan 23 2012

Photo Credit: CORPUS

Recently I went to the city of Leiden to visit a museum that had been on my “to visit” list for quite some time. The museum’s name is CORPUS and the tagline is “journey through the human body.”

At the museum you move through a large replica body learning how everything inside works via what you are seeing in front of you (imagine large teeth and a beating heart) and the audio guide you are given before the start of your tour (you can choose from Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish Italian, Russian or Chinese).

As you move throughout the museum in small groups, the majority of the information you experience is through the visual bits you are moving around and the information you are listening to but every so often there is a 3D film, comfy chairs or relevant smells (pleasant ones only!). My favourite section was when we were in the nose. The whole room smelt like roses growing outside in spring.

Photo Credit: CORPUS

The whole tour through the body takes about 55 minutes, after which you make your way back down to reception via floors of interactive exhibits, activities and information.

Was it the best museum I had been to? No. Was it interesting? Yes.

The tours run on a time-slot system so if you do book tickets online, you will have to specify a time in advance. For further information visit: http://www.corpusexperience.nl/en/corpus-experience

And in case thinking about the CORPUS museum has you thinking about body words in Dutch, here is a handy list for you.

Body Words in Dutch

de achterwerk/de billen/de kont (butt/behind)
de arm (arm)
de borst (breast/chest)
de buik (stomach)
de duim (thumb)
de hand (hand)
de kin (chin)
de lip (lip)
de middelvinger (middle finger)
de mond (mouth)
de nagel (nail)
de nek/de hals (neck)
de neus (nose)
de pink (pinkie)
de ringvinger (ring finger)
de rug (back)
de schouder (shoulder)
de teen (toe)
de tong (tongue)
de vinger (finger)
de voet (foot)
de wang (cheek)
de wijsvinger (pointer finger)
de wimper (eyelash)
het been (leg)
het haar (hair)
het hoofd (head)
~~het knee (knee)~~ de knie (knee) – thanks Hanneke for spotting the error
het lichaam (body)
het oog (eye)
het ooglid (eyelid)

How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths

Posted by heather 1 Comment

Jan 10 2012

Bikes. They are everywhere in the Netherlands. In 2006, there were more than 17 million bikes in the Netherlands, with 750,000 of those in Amsterdam alone and no doubt that number has significantly increased. With around 91% of households owning at least one bike (and often more than one), it is not hard to see that the Dutch love their bikes.

And why not? Cycling is healthy, easy and cheap. And with over 10,000 kilometres of dedicated bike paths, cycling is also pretty safe. So well thought out are the cycle paths that it would be easy to assume they had almost always been around but that wasn’t the case. The following video gives a really complete and interesting history of how the cycle paths and lanes came about.

Inspired by all the cycling, here is some cycle related vocabulary for you to utilise:

fiets – bike (plural is fietsen)
fietsen – to cycle
fietspad – bike path
snel – fast
langzaam – slow
fietsbel – bike bell
fietstas – bike bag
mand – basket
fietslampen – bike lights
fietslampenset – bike lights set
fietser – someone who rides a bike
bromfiets – motorized bike
bakfiets – sturdy bike modified to incorporate a large wooden box or platform on the front
ligfiets – a bike modified to be ridden in a laying position

And if cycling vocabulary was a little easy for you, then why not check out these bike related idioms. I’ve included both the literal translation and the idiom meaning.

aah op die fiets (literal: oh, on that bike) – Now I get it! Now I see what you mean.
doorfietsen (literal: cycle through) – flip or thumb through
voor elkaar fietsen (literal: cycle for each other) – wrangle, manage
ga fietsen stelen (literal: go steal bikes) – get lost/drop dead
wat heb ik nu aan mijn fiets hangen? (literal: now what’s hanging on my bike) – what kind of mess am I in now? What’s all this?
fietsvriendelijk (literal: bicycle friendly) – pro-bicycle, pro-cycling

Do you know of any other bike related idioms?

My Favourite Word in Dutch

Posted by heather 3 Comments

Oct 15 2011

Everyone has a favourite word in the foreign language that they are learning. For some people it is the first word that they learned. For others it is that one word that makes you laugh each and every time you hear it or it is the word that you struggled over and over to learn. For me, my favourite word in Dutch is one that I often miss when speaking in English.

Dutch has quite a few words that have no exact equivalent in English. Gezellig and lekker spring to mind. While we can roughly translate these to cosy and tasty respectively, those words just don’t do the Dutch word justice. My word doesn’t quite fall into this category though as a direct translation does exist in English, it just doesn’t work as well.

So what is my favourite Dutch word? It’s jullie, which means you (plural).

The word you in Dutch can be a bit tricky as there are so many versions for it. For example:

Jij – you (singular, stressed)
Je – you (singular, unstressed)
U – you (singular, formal)
Jullie – you (plural)

But having a specific word for the plural form makes so much sense rather than just lumping everything together under the word you. Think of the differences you can make, imply and understand:

You are writing an email to two colleagues who are working on a project. One is quite efficient and gets things done. The other is…well…a little less so. Colleague B might think that your “can you make sure the project is finished by November 3^rd,” statement was directed to colleague A but with jullie, his escape clause is gone.
Your boyfriend’s mother calls right before you head off on your round the world trip and says “I hope you have a good trip.” Were you included in that well wishing or is she secretly hoping you will be chased away by a rabid pack of monkeys? With jullie you would know.
You waited ages to attend the Harry Potter marathon and are just at the crucial moment in the last movie but everyone around you is chattering away and munching loudly on their popcorn. Your shout of “can you please be quiet” is just not as meaningful as if you had used jullie.

And there you have it, the low-down on why jullie is my favourite word in Dutch. What’s your favourite word in Dutch?

Kip, Paard, Koe – Chicken, Horse, Cow

Posted by heather 5 Comments

Sep 24 2011

The other day I was doing some work with Radio 538 playing in the background, when a song came on that I hadn’t heard before. The melody was pretty catchy in one of those “stuck in your head for three hours” type of ways. It didn’t help that there weren’t too many words in the song and the ones that were in it were mainly words I knew.

I made a note of the song because I thought it would be a good one to share with you. If you have wanted to learn the names of some of the animals you might find on a farm, then you will be off to a good start just with the song title alone, which is Kip Paard Koe (Chicken Horse Cow) by Want Want.

Below you will find the song lyrics as well as some of the English translations. There are loads of different videos that have been made for this song. Here is the original.

And just in case you haven’t heard enough, here is a different video:

Dutch – English Vocabulary

ik wil – I want
kip – chicken
paard – horse
koe – cow
samen – together
gebakken ei – fried egg
karnemelk – ~~sour milk~~ buttermilk (thanks, Andy!)
groentes verbouwen – growing vegetables
planten die krop – plant those crops

Kip Paard Koe – Lyrics by Songteksten.nl

Ik wil een kip en een paard en een koe

Een kip en een paard en koe

Kampen daar wil ik naar toe

Samen met mijn kip en mijn paard en mijn koe

Hamlap met spekjes

Gebakken ei, karnemelk en kaasjes erbij

Koetjes en kalfjes, kwart voor 6 op

Groentes verbouwen, planten die krop

Ik wil een kip en een paard en een koe

Een kip en een paard en koe

Kampen daar wil ik naar toe

Samen met mijn kip en mijn paard en mijn koe

Ik wil een kip

Hamlap met spekjes

Gebakken ei, karnemelk en kaasjes erbij

Koetjes en kalfjes, kwart voor 6 op

Groentes verbouwen, planten die krop

Ik wil een kip en een paard en een koe

Een kip en een paard en koe

Kampen daar wil ik naar toe

Samen met mijn kip en mijn paard en mijn koe

Ik wil een kip en een paard en een koe

Een kip en een paard en koe

Kampen daar wil ik naar toe

Samen met mijn kip en mijn paard en mijn koe

Dutch Numbers: Becoming a Number Pro

Posted by heather No Comments

Sep 7 2011

Image Credit: jsnflo

If you are relatively new to learning the Dutch language, then one of the first things you probably want to learn is how to count. A good goal, especially as knowing the numbers really does open doors. For example, you’ll be able to understand how much something costs when the salesperson tells you the amount, you can specify how many of something you want and perhaps even more important, you can understand where the traffic cameras are when the radio station rattles off their location (you’ll hear the road name/number and the kilometer location).

So let’s start off with the numbers zero to ten:

zero	nul
one	één
two	twee
three	drie
four	vier
five	vijf
six	zes
seven	zeven
eight	acht
nine	negen
ten	tien

If you are more of an audio learner, then this handy clip by Bert and his pet pigeon should be just up your ally, although Bernice doesn’t seem to know the word for zero. One thing to remember with this set of numbers is the number one (één). Those marks above the e’s are important. They let you know that the word is één, meaning one and not een, meaning a/an (and that you should pronounce them accordingly).

Moving Up in the Number World

Presuming you are feeling pretty confident with your nul to tien knowledge, let’s go a little higher. This time Ernie will help us out on this one.

eleven	elf
twelve	twaalf
thirteen	dertien
fourteen	veertien
fifteen	vijftien
sixteen	zestien
seventeen	zeventien
eighteen	achttien
nineteen	negentien
twenty	twintig

Here you need to look out for the irregular spelling of 13 (dertien) and 14 (veertien).

Becoming a Number Pro

If you are looking to count even higher, then the following numbers will come in handy for you. Keep an eye out for the irregular spelling of 80 (tachtig).

10	tien	100	honderd
20	twintig	200	tweehonderd
30	dertig	300	driehonderd
40	veertig
50	vijftig	1000	duizend
60	zestig	10,000	tienduizend
70	zeventig	100,000	honderdduizend
80	tachtig	1,000,000	één miljoen
90	negentig	1,000,000,000	één miljard
100	honderd

If you want to put some of these numbers together, then you will need to know a little bit about the format. In English, when you count up from 20 the format comes in the form of “twenty plus four,” so you get twenty-four. But in Dutch it is the other way round. So, the form is “four plus twenty,” equaling vierentwintig.

Once you get your head around it, it can be quite fun and you can impress everyone with the ability to read really long words (you don’t have to mention that they are numbers). For example:

vierenveertighonderdachtennegentig = 4498

If you really want to hear all the numbers from zero to 100 be pronounced then you can take a look at this video. I do warn you though, it is not the most exciting.

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Posts tagged with "vocabulary"

Body Parts in Dutch

How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths

My Favourite Word in Dutch

Kip, Paard, Koe – Chicken, Horse, Cow

Dutch Numbers: Becoming a Number Pro