Twaalf woorden (twelve words) deel een

One for every month

As one can gather from previous posts (scares, a year in numbers), I have a penchant for listing and evaluating things. So, to commemorate my first year as an expat, I sat down and had a think about the words and structures in Dutch that I think are fantastic. I'll do my best to expound on my reasons.

1.    Morgen

A lovely word. Before I could ever say anything else in Dutch, I could say that at the beginning and end of my day.

In Dutch, it means morning and tomorrow; typically preceded by goede (good) or tot (‘til). Here are the things it has going for it…

In Dutch:

·    The rs tend to be rolling ones, produced by the tongue vibrating against the roof of the mouth.

·       In Dutch, the g is a guttural/soft; like coughing up a furball

·    The e at the end is known as a duffe e, so it's a sharp and short exhalation, like the vowel in "bet."

And

·       You say it multiple times during the day.

So, three key parts of Dutch pronunciation regularly used; Mana from Heaven!

2.   Foefelen

It's a Flemish word, that is used commonly in relation to the Belgian pastime of tax avoidance. It means to fudge; to do something using shortcuts; cutting corners; to not follow official guidelines, or standard practises; taking the change on a split bill.
I like this for two reasons: It is one of the first words I learnt from my friends at work. We use it when teasing each other. And I think it has wonderful succinctness and onomatopoeia. ¹

3.   Er

Here we have a doozy of a thing. It is a Chimera; taking on many of the roles that there, here, that, those & these fulfill in English:

·      Counting something that has been referenced already (Ik heb er drie = "of which I have three")

·       A substitute for a place (Ik ben er = I am here/there [depending on the place in question])

·      In certain cases, a substitute for a noun (Er zijn mensen binnen = "There are people within/inside"; -”Ik ga dansen.” -”Geniet ervan.” = -”I am going dancing” “Enjoy that/get enjoyment from it”)

·  Which smoothly leads me to another of it's quirks. Er joins prepositions to form words like ervan, ervoor, erover, etc. = thereof, for that, thereover, etc. In English, it is a rather archaic thing, usually relegated to legalese ("Where were you the night thereof?”)

·   The final one, the one I had to look up because I don't use it regularly at all, is er in passive sentences: Er was niks gezegd = "There was nothing said"

It really helped me get into thinking in Dutch. It’s such a marvelous, nuanced, Jack-of-all-trades.

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¹You'll probably have to read the fine print, but by being on my blog, you have implicitly “asked me.” Deal with it.