Elke Dag Nederlands

Simple Dutch daily.

[everydaydutch]

She is looking better because of it. Это сделает лучше.

[everydaydutch]

I didn’t know you would become angry. Я не знала, что ты разозлишься.

[bluebird-baby-deactivated202211]

Polyglot Diary Ideas

I recently saw a post (sorry I don’t have your @) about what a good idea it is to keep a diary in your target language. It will help you realize what words you don’t know, you need, and want to learn! Plus it’s great practice!

So I thought I’d drop some ideas/prompts for you to try once a day, or at your own pace.

Keys

Underline words you use often, so you can later look up synonyms!

Write words you aren’t sure you’re using correctly in a different color.

Put a * next to words you’re having trouble memorizing, and put definitions of that word at the bottom of the page. 

Prompts

Introduce yourself!

Introduce your family. 

How many siblings do you have?

What are they like? (Try to use at least three adjectives!)

What do you like to do?

What are your favorite foods?

When you go to a restaurant, what do you like to order?

What year are you in school?

What subjects did you take in school?

What is your favorite season?

Why is it your favorite?

What don’t you like? 

Say something about one of your friends!  (Try to use at least three adjectives!) 

Name a memory with your friend.

What’s your favorite color/animal?

Introduce your pets!

What are they like?

Name a memory with your family!

What is your favorite thing to wear?

What is your favorite type of weather?

What is your favorite holiday?

What do you look like? 

Where do you work?

What do you do there?

What did you have for dinner last night? Who was there?

What is your favorite book/show/movie?

What’s it about?

Recite a poem or quote in your target language! 

What is your house like? (Ex: My house is small. / I have a brown couch.)

How are you feeling?

What was the last thing you read/watched?

 How was it?

What was the last thing you read/watched in your target language?

Do you have any hobbies?  (Ex: sports, knitting)

Who did you last see?

What did you guys do?

Where is the last place you went?

How was your day?

Who is your favorite celebrity? 

Describe something you saw today. 

What did you do yesterday/last week?

What do you hope to do in the future? (Ex: “There’s a concert next week..”)  

This is all I can come up with for now, but remember! You do it how you want to do it! It doesn’t have to be artsy, it doesn’t have to be long, or detailed, your handwriting doesn’t have to be pretty. My first page of a language diary was - “Hello, my name is ___, I am __ years old. My moms’ name is ___, I have __ brothers/sisters. Their names are ___.” It’s not supposed to sound sophisticated, it’s supposed to help you learn as you grow.  Happy Learning!

[everydaydutch]

I feel comfortable with you. С тобой я чувствую себя уютно.

[everydaydutch]

I don’t like it.

[siriolangs]

Ehi, could you’re recommend some Dutch langblrs, I follow a couple but I’d like to follow more :D

L

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Reblog if you’re a Dutch langblr

[everydaydutch]

It would be nice to see more Dutch materials

[everydaydutch]

I can’t stand it. Терпеть не могу

[everydaydutch]

How to sound negative in Dutch

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?

[hotairballoon221]

Dutch Homonyms.

Homonyms are words with multiple meanings.

Bank

1: The bank that handles money.

2: A bench.

3: A sandbank (zandbank)

Vorst

1: A king, emperor

2: Frost

Sla

1: Lettuce

2: From the verb “slaan”,  meaning “to hit”. (Ik sla - I hit)

Naar

1: Direction. “Ik ga naar daar” (I’m going there)

2: Bothersome, annoying. 

Blik

1: A look, gaze

2: A can

Spinnen

1: Plural of “spin”, meaning “spider”

2: Purring (of a cat)

3: Spinning wool.

Lijken

1: Plural of “lijk”, meaning “corpse”

2: To look like / to resemble

3: To seem 

Waren

1: Goods

2: From the verb “zijn”, meaning “to be” (Zij waren- they were)

Weken

1: Plural of “week”, meaning “week”

2: To soak

Schop

1: A shovel

2: A kick

Gerecht

1: A dish

2: The court

Kater

1: A male cat

2: A hangover

Graven

1: To dig

2: Plural of “graf”, meaning “grave”

Ofcourse there are a lot more! Add to the list if you want :) x Tamara

[join-the-dutch-clan]

Bot: bone, rude, blunt

Wind: wind, fart

Kop: cup, head

Stom: stupid, mute

[thenightavl]

My favourite will always be monster (monster & sample)

[everydaydutch]

You say that when you get a smaller cup of coffee than expected. Internet suggests it’s called so because people in The Hague are greedy, but it’s not such a valid explanation to my taste.

[everydaydutch]

Koningsdag

One very orange Friday in the whole Netherlands kingdom today. All the country celebrates the birthday of a king. Free market, music and drinks everywhere. Which words do you need to live through this day?

👑Vrijemarkt - free market. People are free this day to set all that they want to sale on the pavement of every city, and no taxes to be paid over that.

👑koningklijk bezoek - royal visit. On the day of his birthday king visits one of the Dutch cities with all his family to walk through the streets and share the celebration with people.

👑gefeliciteerd - congratulations! In Holland it’s normal to say it not only to the person whose birthday it is, so share this word with everyone today.

👑vieren - to celebrate. Today everyone celebrates a birthday of one of the country symbols together, a free day is a great opportunity to have fun, and all thanks to the monarchy.

👑Handjes schudden - shaking hands. King and his family will be doing this to people who are lined on the route of royal visit.

[everydaydutch]

How to complain the Dutch way? - het weer - It is always either rain or wind. The sudden but short heatwaves in summer or spring are switching continuously with the weeks of wet coldness. Weather in Holland changes really fast, within one day you can be wearing a jacket and flip flops, it’s wise to have both, sunglasses and umbrella in your bag as you go out. - verkeer- Transport systems are well organized, however if once in a while a train is late, then it is like a catastrophe breaking all the normal circle of life. Being late I one section of your trip will cause missing the next connection and what seems a small 5-minute delay can result in being late for an hour at the final destination. - buren - Loud neighbors with a drill on Sunday morning, many smoking guests at a late barbecue party, cats pooping on your lawn and even high trees in your neighbors’ garden that drop old leaves and shadow - these all are valid reasons to be pissed at the neighbors. - politici - Too much taxes, wrong foreign policy decisions, new laws threatening privacy or taking too much time to make a new cabinet. Whatever new comes up in the news is a reason to complain. - geld - Spending too much on the things that were just next day added to the sale, staying in the red numbers on bank account or discussing unreasonable rent price in your city, these are favorite topics

[everydaydutch]

7 Dutch Interjections

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?

[everydaydutch]

I need time to get used to it. Нужно время, чтобы к этому привыкнуть.

[everydaydutch]

You are wasting your time. Ты теряешь своё время

[everydaydutch]

What are you talking about? Ты о чем вообще?

[everydaydutch]

Would you like to drink something together? Выпьем что-нибудь вместе?