Twaalf woorden deel twee

Welcome back to a recap of my fun and fascinating journey with/in/through(?) Dutch.. (it sounds much better when you imagine it’s Gene Wilder saying it).

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4.   Ik heb X nodig/Jij hoeft dat niet te X

In Dutch, there isn’t a direct translation to “I need ...”. They typically say the former phrase above, which literally translates as: "I have X necessary”. Or sometimes it is: Het is nodig dat... = “It is necessary that...”.

The phrase above translates as: “You need not X...”. The latter does phrase include the verb closest to “need” in Dutch: hoeven, which is used in reference to people acting/doing, or more precisely not doing something... Apparently, it is never used in the positive (usually mogen, kunnen or moeten are used to indicate what one "may", "can" and "must" do).

I’ve always considered Dutch as some kind of cross between English and German. So it’s interesting that need (brauchen in German) isn’t in Dutch.

5.   Zitten

Sit. This verb does double duty. Zitten is often used to indicate where someone is situated or what kind of situation they are in, e.g. someone is in a meeting (hij zit in een vergadering), someone is in another country (momenteel zit hij in Ierland), someone is having trouble (hij zit in problemen).

6.   Fout/Zout/Wouter

Here's something that's just a curiosity.¹ While listening to an audiobook, A Spymaster's Guide to Learning Languages, I learnt that the within a family of languages there are often sounds that change consistently from one language to another.

Above we have the Dutch for “Fault (Wrong)”, “Salt” “Walter”. Excluding the spelling change for fault, the vowel sounds are the same for these words in each language. So “ou” in Dutch can be an “al” in English. Oud to old is, unfortunately, a bit of a stretch, but I am just putting it out there.

7.   Verschrikkelijk

It means terrible, appalling, horrible… which is strangely appropriate, because I had a devil of a time pronouncing it.

·      The s has to be an s, not an sh.²

·      The ch is a similar guttural sound to the aforementioned g.

·      And bookended by rolling rs.

Now. Each of those sounds has to be pronounced clearly, smoothly and in relatively quick succession. Vibrating tongue against the roof of the mouth (r), point of tongue against the rough of the mouth (s), guttural sound from the throat (ch), vibrating tongue against the roof of the mouth (r)… Much like morgen it is a great word for working on some critical sounds in Dutch.

8.   Voorstellen

It comes up a couple of times in the list; I like the simplicity of Dutch that there are some words that, based on context, tacking on a preposition or combining two words together, adopt a new meaning or nuance. There's an earthy, solid and elegant feel to much of the language. Sometimes English feels like porcelain on the tongue, like you have to be gentle with the words or they will break. Here's a fine example of what I mean.
Suggest or propose. Other than direct translations for those, in phrase, it would be used where “I think that...” (Ik stel voor dat…), is used in English. It has a more rooted feel than “suggest”, but not as hoity-toity as “propose.” When I say it, it’s like picking up a hammer to fix something, like working with your hands.

Plus it is a sterling example of prepositions modifying verbs.³ It’s a nice concept, no need for fancy words. Although, on closer inspection, this is identical to pro-pose. Huh… I never noticed that before.

So there is the end of the latest section... Stay tuned for the final 4 things about Dutch that I find most remarkable!

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¹Let's face it, the world is a curious, sublimely intricate, but simple place, and you are here to hear me give my take on it.

² I keep slipping, or should I say shlipping

³A characteristic of Germanic languages, whereby a preposition (A) modifies the meaning of the verb (B). If it is separable it is placed at the end of the sentence so AB in a normal sentence becomes: subject B object A. But other times it is not separable such as with ver- and ont-, then there are various exceptions for the other prepositions, which make sense, because there are some things too important to wait until the end of sentence to have the fun meaning of. Am I right?

It is an efficient piece of linguistic trickery that makes use of fewer verbs. And for ~50% of the time, there is a pattern/sense to the effect that a preposition has on different verbs.ⁱ

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ⁱMy Dutch teacher generally has a very long think before ever saying that there is a rule for anything in Dutch. In all our classes together, she has only given the nod to one of my queries.^a The main rule appears to be that at least 25% of the time there are exceptions to a rule. Quite often she discourages me from looking for patterns and rules.

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^aIt was about the distinction in application between behandelen and aankunnen. The first literally means to handle, but it can also be used figuratively, when you talk about how you treat people or how you handle something in a figurative sense. The second means to cope or manage something. And the line in the sand is that the first is only applied in the figurative sense to things that you can physically touch with your hands, whereas aankunnen is for abstractions that you cannot touch, e.g. a situation, a challenge, etc. Naturally, I am open to correction from this, since I am not a native speaker, and because our classes are always in Dutch, it is possible I have mis-interpreted my teacher's explanation.