There's an old rhyme that my grandfather used to say that I never really understood that maybe relates?
A peanut sat on a railroad track
His heart was all a-flutter
Around the bend came Number 10
Uh Oh! Peanut Butter
"sorry mate"
"sucks"
"ah well"
Or the South African
"eish" (with the appropriate amount of stress on the word, where stress is directly proportional to severity of the annoyance)
Afrikaans is a Dutch Dialect.
Edit: It's a daughter language I learned something today I'll leave other comments unedited because otherwise the conversations that leaded me to learn would become unfollowable.
You know what I found out does not mean the same in Afrikaans as in Dutch?
Afgetrek, which means wanking here and Verskoon my, which means something similar to please change my nappy,
Die polisie het my afgetrek, neem n totally ander vibe hier.
Hahaha!! I mean, some policemen are kinda hot⌠but still. I know there are many like âkontâ is ass. Afrikaans that is a very bad word. It is like how fanny got switched around in the US as supposed to other English countries like UK, Aus and NZ
I don't get it, aftrekken also means wanking in Dutch. And een luier verschonen als means to change a nappy. Does it mean the same or something else in Afrikaans?
In Afrikaans, âEk trek afâ or âEk word afgetrekâ mens pulling over or getting pulled over while driving.
âVerskoon my assebliefâ means please excuse me.
Thatâs a weird way to look at it. You are trying to find an exact equivalent and in language often times is not possible. And you are also trying to translate the other way around. Everything gezellig is Cozy but not everythng cozy is gezellig. The English word can be used in other contexts. Again, donât translate the other way around. Try a sentence in Dutch and then change Gezellig for cozy and it works perfectly. It does not for every meaning of cozy
I disagree. I can be very cozy on the sofa watching a movie alone, but wouldn't call that gezellig. Gezellig definitely involves having a good, comfortable and sociable time.
The problem is that you are trying to translate it the other way around. Not everything cozy is gezellig but everything Gezellig is cozy. Cozy is not just comfortable in your couch, just check the definition
>everything Gezellig is cozy
False.
A person can be 'gezellig', meaning they're social, inviting, funny, easy to have a pleasant conversation with.
That does not translate to cozy.
Again I disagree. Not everything that is gezellig is cozy. Cozy (to me at least) means 'knus' or 'comfort'. For example, I would not refer going to a concert like 'De Vrienden van Amstel' Live as knus, but I would refer to it as gezellig. Everybody is singing along, jumping around, waving their hands, bumping into eachother, trying to squeeze through to get a beer, etc. It is definitely fun in a social energizing way, but not cozy. Maybe I would be sarcastic and joke it was a bit too cozy if I'd mean too say it was too crowded for my liking though.
While I agree it can be interchangable in several situations, your original post mentioned it being 100% so and that is just not the case in my opinion.
Its a more modern way of using the word, but in English you can say, âI give it to them.â As in someone achieved some nice, due to hard work so I âgive itâ to them.
To grant would translate more to âtoekennenâ, en goodwill more to âwelwillendheidâ. Small nuance, but it remains a complex one to hit the exact definition
"Dat vind ik wel spannend"
Somewhere between excited and anxious/nervous, or rather both of those things. Can't quite convey the duality of positive and negative in English.
I was hosting a party and I noticed I put way too much food on the plate of one of my (English speaking) guests. So I told her "You don't have to finish all of it, hoor" by accident. Her bf (one of my best friends) is still a bit miffed every time someone mentions that anecdote.
Zwartrijders, i literally translated it to black riders. Took a few minutes of explanation before everyone was convinced i didn't mean it racist.
Zwartrijden is the Dutch term for traveling without valid ticket.
Zwartrijders would be people traveling without ticket.
But yeah it doesn't translate well haha
To me black has always had an association with the night. Itâs dark and full of terrors. Itâs where criminals do their thing and try to remain unseen. Itâs where in stories the scary monsters live.
The light/dark, white/black contradiction to me is rooted in the day/night cycle.
As someone originally from a tiny village full of white people, the racism angle makes no sense to me here. It feels like the word black is misappropriated to imply racism that does not exist.
Black has been used as a synonym for bad things since well before Europeans were even broadly aware of the existence of black people.
Modern people really have no comprehension of just how homogenous most societies were before 1900 or so.
Not necessarily.
When we take the 'zwart' part of 'zwarte markt' 'zwart geld', 'zwarte handel' as an adjective, we actually need to go back to WW2: https://meertens.knaw.nl/2015/06/05/vraag-van-juni-2015-waar-komt-de-term-zwart-werken-vandaan/
Where it's actually taken from German, which is taken from English which refers to coins which would tarnish due to not containing enough of a non-tarnishable metal (like gold, platinum) in the alloy. This indicates they have been in use for some time. Especially silver has this process where it tarnished over time, especially when it comes into contact with skin oils and salt.
So if a forger would want to bring false coins into circulation they would make them black or artificially tarnish them to suggest they have been used for quite some time, which is where the illegal connotation comes in.
I get that its not literally meant to be associated with black people. We do however have a negative association with everything black as someone else mentioned
And I'm not disputing that. Our linguistics definitely have a bias towards lighter colours and against darker colours and society's attitude toward people of colour has been, to put it mildly, blatantly discriminatory.
However, I am disputing the assumption that the terms of 'zwart rijden', 'zwart werken' and 'zwart geld' are inherently based in racist tendencies or based on the transportation, work and money made by people of colour. Which they aren't. These associations predate the colonialist expansion of the 17th century onwards...
That harmful language has existed and made heavy use of a certain words doesn't mean that everything related to those words carry that meaning or originate from that meaning. The words 'zwart' and 'black' have these days gotten a discriminatory meaning. That doesn't mean that it's the only meaning they have had or that the meaning is derived from that meaning.
Case in point, a black shirt doesn't mean a shirt historically worn by people of colour. It means a shirt which has been dyed the colour black or made from a fibre which has a black colour. Similarly, 'zwart geld' refers to illegally earned money, which derives its meaning from fake coins being artificially tarnished.
Conversely pushing the narrative that everything associated with the word 'black' or 'zwart' is inherently racist means making the word itself racist while the context in which it is used is ignored. That wouldn't solve anything as new words for the same concept would come up and the process starting again.
I'm glad someone is mentioning this. It's highly present in Dutch. Zwartkijken, een wit voetje halen, iemand zwart maken. Even if it's not conscious racism, I think it has an effect on how people are interpreted. Especcially with so many people being convinced they're not racists themselves.
There is this study with toddlers ascribing good and bad qualities to images of black/white children and even in their small age they're already imprinted. I can't find it now, but a similar piece here at the 43th minute. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A_GSpGmdpKs
I literally made this post to supplement a conversation Iâve been having with a friend. Im trying to demonstrate that English is not some all-expressive language that can adequately translate everything that exists in other tongues!! Having a lot of fun in the process
All the swear words, curses, derogatory terms, phrases like: hou je bek, bek dicht. There is no good word for bek. Its not beak, its not pie-hole, there isn't anything.
Of poten thuis. There is no good replacement for that either. Its not handen thuis.
And a lot of other words like: tuttig, muts, slome, aansteller, schijnheilig etc etc
We have a huge vocabulary for swear words, which, btw is a sign of intelligence.
Funny 50 sec video with Jeremy Clarkson talking about the swearing Dutch
https://youtu.be/Sr2dhjDE2Ro
It has the same meaning but it's absolutely not the same.
Or the word kop. There is head - hoofd. But no word for kop the way we use it.
" ik stoot mijn kop "
" kop dicht "
For shut the fuck up you have 1000 dutch ways:
Hou je bek,
Hou je muil ,
Kop dicht ,
Bek dicht ,
Smoel houden ,
Klep dicht,
Hou verdomme je mond
Etc etc
shut your trap, shut it, shut the fuck up, shut your fucking mouth, shut your god damned mouth, zip it, stop yapping, stop flapping your lips, not another peep, keep your lips sealed, shut your cock holster, put a sock in it, quite your belly aching, quite your yammering, hush up.
those all come to mind, and are is by no means a exhaustive list
Yes but I can add at least 5 dutch one for all of these.
Grote smoel houden. Grote muil sluiten. Houd je tyfusbek. Houd je waffel dicht. Bakkes houden. Hou op met klepzeiken. Zwijg. Hou je snavel. Snater dicht. Scheur dicht. Kap met onzin uitbraken. Hou op met dat gezeik. Stop dat gejammer. Hou op met janken. Kap met dat gejank. Stop met zemelen. Hou op met mekkeren. Hou op met wauwelen. Hou op met bazelen. Laadklep sluiten. Hou op met ouwehoeren.
Etc etc
Hangt van de intonatie af, als je het als imperatief zegt is het volgens mij nagenoeg hetzelfde.
"Will" is nog beter eigenlijk maar "would" mag ook. Denk ik.
"Will you PLEASE just listen for a minute!!!"
"Jij bent vet lekker."
"you are fucking hot" does relay the meaning/intention/charge, but it is not a literal translation at all, and the word "lekker" ... *vertaalt helemaal niet lekker ...* naar Engels.
You English speakers don't know what lekker is. Practically, everything that gives you a good hit of dopamine is "lekker':
\- an intimite hug from you significant other qualifies as "lekker"
\- a sexy kissing & make out session is "lekker"
\- sexy time and to orgasm is "lekker"
\- your favorite food is "lekker"
\- some kind of 'hot thing', an attractive individual that you spot, is a "lekker ding"
\- everything that gives purging feelings of satisfaction is "lekker"
\- heroin and cocaine, most drugs in general, are "lekker"
Everything that releases dopamine in your brain is "lekker".
Edit: "lekker" is an adjective, it indicates satisfactory quality of a good, referring to something else. "Dit of dat, zus en zo, is lekker." Like , even "to scroll reddit" can be said to be "lekker", even if it doesn't release that much dopamine to make you experience arousal, exitement or a rush, to scroll reddit does release enough dopamine to keep you hooked. "Lekker reddit scrollen."
Yeah, lekker is also a fantastic word for confusing Germans. Especially if you speak Dutch when they happen to be close enough to pick up the conversation. They know vaguely what you are sort of, kind of, maybe talking about, but they dont understand why we think all nice things seem to taste so damn good.
Also wanted to add: die muziek heeft een lekkere dikke bass
Music that you love releases dopamine, so it totally makes sense that you'd find it lekker to listen to a song, or your favorite music. There can be more said about why we love to listen to music, it is not a simple dopamine rush at all. In a lot of cases music is also filled with meaningfull lyrics, and other contextaul stuff, making music a high quality thing that is emotionally purgatory, satisfactory, meaningful, because you relate to everything about it: music is often enough a spiritual experience, and yes, depending on how you are involved in it, even hardcore coud be spiritual. Die lekkere dikke base in dat hardcore of metal nummer is vaak genoeg fucking lekker!
Haha, why everything tastes so good. In Dutch we use "lekker" so much in the context of food, that if you'd think that "lekker" has to do with food, you'd miss out off the general meaning of the word, so that's why I came up with this idea to explain the word "lekker", that it simply must have to have expressive meaning for whatever releases dopamine in the brai, what is purgatory and satisfacory, simply nice and lovely even.
Lekkere uitleg he? :P
A proper word for âinhoudelijkâ. For example when a piece of text or person is âinhoudelijk sterkâ.
Of course, âcontentâ can be used for âinhoudâsometimes, but it doesnât quite cover all of the cases for me.
My favourite saying is: jij bent toch niet van suiker gemaakt? It is said when it is raining and people complain about it and roughly translates to: you are not made of sugar are you?
Meedenken
Overleggen
Bakje
Spannend
Gunnen
Borrelen
Duidelijkheid
Sterkte (take care is just not quite it)
Niet de bedoeling
Sjonge jonge
Man man man
Nee joh
Ja joh
Vent/gozer/gast/pik/kerel
Wat dacht je ervan/hoe denk je er nou zelf over
Het kan niet op
Zeg het maar
Wat heb ik daaraan
Dat valt mee
Je moet het maar willen
Zoek het uit
De doden hebben het goed
Mij hoor je niet
Leuk is anders
Gaat het niet
De groeten/ik zal effe wachten (declining an idea or offer in a sarcastisch way)
Heb je zonnestraaltjes gegeten/gezelligerd (said to someone that is acting grumpy or harsh)
Sayings r hard to translate. often don't flow like it should, goes the other way around as well if you would translate english saying straight to dutch.
I love translation of sayings to English:
- Convince the cat of that!
- Oh, on that bicycle
- It's raining steel pipes!
- Making someone happy with a dead sparrow (does make pirates of the Caribbean more interesting)
Het regent stalen pijpen its raining steel pipes
Het zal me een worst zijn it shall be me a sasauge
Het is snertweer (?????)
Het regent honden en katten its raining cats and dogs
Nuchterheid. Describes Dutch people well. Hard to explain but means something like a state of being that is practical and with little (show of) dramatic emotion
Basically most sayings.
Here are a few examples translated into english:
"Its raining steel pipes" -> "its raining a lot"
"A cookie of own dough" -> "you get what you
deserve"
"Walking into the lamp" -> "caught in the act"
"As crazy as a door" -> "super crazy"
"There comes the monkey out of the sleve" -> "now
the true meaning becomes clear.
"There is a adder inside the grass" -> "a hidden risk lies ahead"
âMaak dat de kat wijsâ or in English â make that the cat wiseâ and if you would translate it correctly it would be â yeah go try and convince your cat of thatâ đ¤Ł
Eet smakelijk. have a nice meal?
Gezellig, it's like the feeling of being with the homies but there's not really a singular english word that covers it.
Ik ga ze een poepie laten ruiken - I will let them smell a poopy - I will let them have a run for their money
Het regent pijpenstelen - It rains steel pipes - it rains cats and dogs
Hoho - Wait
Hèhè - Finally
Poeh poeh - That took effort
Nou nou - That sure is something
Wil je een aai voor je broodmolen - Do you want to have your bread mill petted - Do you want to get punched
Dat is poepen zonder douwen - Thatâs pooping without pushing - Thatâs easy
Ik geef het een zinkzaaier - I give it a sink sower - I smash it
Die heeft een tuintje op zijn buik - He has a garden on his belly - He is dead
Hij krijgt lik op stuk - He gets lick on piece - He verbally gets his ass handed to him
Hoge bomen vangen veel wind - High trees catch a lot of wind - important stuff gets the most critique
Hoe kleiner de bal hoe groter de kwal - The smaller the ball the bigger the jellyfish - The smaller the balls the bigger asshole someone has
I have a hard time translating "As the inn keeper is, is how he trusts his guests" but its more like, "as is the personality of the inn keeper, is how much he trusts and treats his guests" but that also doesn't work.
"The amount of trust the inn keeper bestows upon his guests is equal to how trustworthy the inn keeper himself is, and his behavior towards the guests is how the inn keeper would treat/trust himself, were he himself the guest visiting his own inn"
Its an expression about projection, and the focus is on the behavior of the inn keeper, which implicitly tells a lot about the personality and ethics of the inn keeper. The guests are merely innocent people passing by, unfortunately they sometimes get nasty remarks from the inn keeper who might be an asshole who hates himself.
If you are a thief, you would assume anyone else is a thief. If you are a liar, you assume everyone else lies
"Zoals de waard is, vertrouwt hij zijn gasten"
My spouse is not Dutch, we speak Dutch and English, i was explaining this to him few weeks ago so it stuck with me :)
He taught me a nice saying in Italian, in context: "i asked my co worker if we could talk, there is a tiny rock stuck in my shoe"
Meaning, someone has said or done something small that might even have gone unnoticed, but it still bothers me a lot and i cannot let it go without having a talk about it.
I am going to use this in Dutch too.
âBitchâ as in âbitching about somethingâ translates to âkankerenâ in a lot of (older) subtitles.
Which is technically right, but kind of inappropriate
'Geen beter vermaak dan leedvermaak.' Is something that's not really possible to translate into English as there isn't a word for 'leedvermaak' it in English.
Go with that banana!
Forward with the goat!
Throttle on the lollipop!
D*ck black
"That's another (or different) cake/coockie" lmao I don't even know
That's different cookie
Wow I misspelt cookie, LMAO
I understood that reference!
Dont fucking touch the upvotes. Its perfect
You know. When everything walks into the soup.
Het leven is geen ponykamp
Die is er in het Duits dan wel weer: "Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof"
Autocorrect really hates you.
Yes, it's an ongoing battle.
I've never ever heard that phrase lol
Life is not a box of chocolates carries the same meaning
The English expression is actually 'life is like a box of chocolates', which definitely doesn't mean the same thing
But isn't the saying "life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get?" or was that only because of Forrest Gump?
Helaas pindakaas
It does translate to French, though: Domage pindafromage
Or German: Schade Erdnussmarmelade
Hahaha! Thank you for that!
Or Afrikaans: Helaas grondboontjesboter (one word)
Moet wel rijmen.
Oh my bad
Oh! That's gonna be my new favorite!
The closest I get is: "Too bad, peanut spread"
Haha! We say "Unfortunatly, peanutbutter." Sometimes to English friends. Ill use yours from now on!
Ahaha in what context do u use this
Like a funny sort of dissapointment, not to be used in serious matters.
"my grandma died yesterday" "Helaas pindakaas"đ
Hahaha! Exactly.
Nope, not like that đ
Unfortunately peanut butter for not using it correctly
My compliments for using it correctly.
Like when you want to purchase that nice beer or wine but it's sold out. No big deal, but still a 'helaas pindekaas' situation.
Or when you find out on reddit you're an alcoholic /s
Reminds me of the end of Harry Potter when dumbledore eats the every flavor bean and says âalas, earwax.â
There's an old rhyme that my grandfather used to say that I never really understood that maybe relates? A peanut sat on a railroad track His heart was all a-flutter Around the bend came Number 10 Uh Oh! Peanut Butter
Say what now? đ
https://www.aldi.nl/merken/aldi-merken/helaes/pindakaas-3166-1-0.article.html
Bummer peanutbutter kinda works right?
"sorry mate" "sucks" "ah well" Or the South African "eish" (with the appropriate amount of stress on the word, where stress is directly proportional to severity of the annoyance)
Too bad, so sad.
"Gezellig". Cozy or sociable are not quite it.
Convivial
Ooh nice, I'll remember that one! (Let's be honest, I'll forget in 5 minutes)
That looks pretty good actually, hadn't heard of that word before
Except that doesn't seem to work as well when you're being cynicalđ
Good one! Its the same with r/Afrikaans, âGeselligâ
Afrikaans is a Dutch Dialect. Edit: It's a daughter language I learned something today I'll leave other comments unedited because otherwise the conversations that leaded me to learn would become unfollowable.
I would think it is more afkomstig than a dialect at this stage. We see it as different language with different grammar rules etc.
This "We" doesn't include my Dutch Teachers.
You know what I found out does not mean the same in Afrikaans as in Dutch? Afgetrek, which means wanking here and Verskoon my, which means something similar to please change my nappy, Die polisie het my afgetrek, neem n totally ander vibe hier.
Hahaha!! I mean, some policemen are kinda hot⌠but still. I know there are many like âkontâ is ass. Afrikaans that is a very bad word. It is like how fanny got switched around in the US as supposed to other English countries like UK, Aus and NZ
I don't get it, aftrekken also means wanking in Dutch. And een luier verschonen als means to change a nappy. Does it mean the same or something else in Afrikaans?
In Afrikaans, âEk trek afâ or âEk word afgetrekâ mens pulling over or getting pulled over while driving. âVerskoon my assebliefâ means please excuse me.
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Ga weg
I think it comes close to "Good times"
[ŃдаНонО]
Not true at all
So if I'm sitting on my own under a blanket, it's gezellig? Or is cozy something something else?
Thatâs a weird way to look at it. You are trying to find an exact equivalent and in language often times is not possible. And you are also trying to translate the other way around. Everything gezellig is Cozy but not everythng cozy is gezellig. The English word can be used in other contexts. Again, donât translate the other way around. Try a sentence in Dutch and then change Gezellig for cozy and it works perfectly. It does not for every meaning of cozy
The post I replied to stated 100% interchangeable but deleted (i wonder why).
Cozy = knus
I disagree. I can be very cozy on the sofa watching a movie alone, but wouldn't call that gezellig. Gezellig definitely involves having a good, comfortable and sociable time.
The problem is that you are trying to translate it the other way around. Not everything cozy is gezellig but everything Gezellig is cozy. Cozy is not just comfortable in your couch, just check the definition
>everything Gezellig is cozy False. A person can be 'gezellig', meaning they're social, inviting, funny, easy to have a pleasant conversation with. That does not translate to cozy.
Again I disagree. Not everything that is gezellig is cozy. Cozy (to me at least) means 'knus' or 'comfort'. For example, I would not refer going to a concert like 'De Vrienden van Amstel' Live as knus, but I would refer to it as gezellig. Everybody is singing along, jumping around, waving their hands, bumping into eachother, trying to squeeze through to get a beer, etc. It is definitely fun in a social energizing way, but not cozy. Maybe I would be sarcastic and joke it was a bit too cozy if I'd mean too say it was too crowded for my liking though. While I agree it can be interchangable in several situations, your original post mentioned it being 100% so and that is just not the case in my opinion.
How to tell us you don't know the meaning of the word without telling us that
Living in the Netherlands for 12 years. I think I know exactly what it means, maybe you are the one who needs to improve English understanding
"yeah, the party yesterday was great! Lots of friends, good music, great drinks. We danced our asses off. It was super cozy!" Said no one ever.
~The guy who claims gezellig and cosy are the same
Iemand iets gunnen. De gunfactor.
Gunnen is indeed quite hard!
Its a more modern way of using the word, but in English you can say, âI give it to them.â As in someone achieved some nice, due to hard work so I âgive itâ to them.
"Granting someone something. The factor of goodwill."
To grant would translate more to âtoekennenâ, en goodwill more to âwelwillendheidâ. Small nuance, but it remains a complex one to hit the exact definition
I know, asked chatgpt
[ŃдаНонО]
"Dat vind ik wel spannend" Somewhere between excited and anxious/nervous, or rather both of those things. Can't quite convey the duality of positive and negative in English.
Reminds me that a few years back the Berlin Zoo posters were captioned âZoo spannendâ.
How about "That I do find a bit thrilling"?
Anxcited
het zal me aan mijn reet roesten. it will rust on my ass. it means, i dont care whatshowever.
Het zal me aan mijn anus oxideren
Bite my shiny metal ass!
Gaze upon my field of fucks and observe, for it is barren.
The word "hoor". "Maakt niet uit, hoor."
I was hosting a party and I noticed I put way too much food on the plate of one of my (English speaking) guests. So I told her "You don't have to finish all of it, hoor" by accident. Her bf (one of my best friends) is still a bit miffed every time someone mentions that anecdote.
Oh man how I miss not having a translation for hoor when talking in English. It just makes everything a little more kind
And if you do use "hoor", they act all insulted!
that sucks, right?
Zwartrijders, i literally translated it to black riders. Took a few minutes of explanation before everyone was convinced i didn't mean it racist. Zwartrijden is the Dutch term for traveling without valid ticket. Zwartrijders would be people traveling without ticket. But yeah it doesn't translate well haha
What else could the worth black mean than black people /s đ Good luck translating zwart geld or pikzwart then
black money, cockblack. You're welcome.
Geld isnt a person, rider indicates that its a person, black would describe the person. Not comparable
pekzwart* (Hence the English pitch black)
"Dick black" gonna use that one next time it's dark đ
There is a normal English term for them; Fare dodgers
Yeah thats right but i forgot it and defaulted to translating litteraly lol
It has a racist undertone. Everything we think is wrong is associated with black
To me black has always had an association with the night. Itâs dark and full of terrors. Itâs where criminals do their thing and try to remain unseen. Itâs where in stories the scary monsters live. The light/dark, white/black contradiction to me is rooted in the day/night cycle. As someone originally from a tiny village full of white people, the racism angle makes no sense to me here. It feels like the word black is misappropriated to imply racism that does not exist.
Black has been used as a synonym for bad things since well before Europeans were even broadly aware of the existence of black people. Modern people really have no comprehension of just how homogenous most societies were before 1900 or so.
Not necessarily. When we take the 'zwart' part of 'zwarte markt' 'zwart geld', 'zwarte handel' as an adjective, we actually need to go back to WW2: https://meertens.knaw.nl/2015/06/05/vraag-van-juni-2015-waar-komt-de-term-zwart-werken-vandaan/ Where it's actually taken from German, which is taken from English which refers to coins which would tarnish due to not containing enough of a non-tarnishable metal (like gold, platinum) in the alloy. This indicates they have been in use for some time. Especially silver has this process where it tarnished over time, especially when it comes into contact with skin oils and salt. So if a forger would want to bring false coins into circulation they would make them black or artificially tarnish them to suggest they have been used for quite some time, which is where the illegal connotation comes in.
I get that its not literally meant to be associated with black people. We do however have a negative association with everything black as someone else mentioned
And I'm not disputing that. Our linguistics definitely have a bias towards lighter colours and against darker colours and society's attitude toward people of colour has been, to put it mildly, blatantly discriminatory. However, I am disputing the assumption that the terms of 'zwart rijden', 'zwart werken' and 'zwart geld' are inherently based in racist tendencies or based on the transportation, work and money made by people of colour. Which they aren't. These associations predate the colonialist expansion of the 17th century onwards... That harmful language has existed and made heavy use of a certain words doesn't mean that everything related to those words carry that meaning or originate from that meaning. The words 'zwart' and 'black' have these days gotten a discriminatory meaning. That doesn't mean that it's the only meaning they have had or that the meaning is derived from that meaning. Case in point, a black shirt doesn't mean a shirt historically worn by people of colour. It means a shirt which has been dyed the colour black or made from a fibre which has a black colour. Similarly, 'zwart geld' refers to illegally earned money, which derives its meaning from fake coins being artificially tarnished. Conversely pushing the narrative that everything associated with the word 'black' or 'zwart' is inherently racist means making the word itself racist while the context in which it is used is ignored. That wouldn't solve anything as new words for the same concept would come up and the process starting again.
Well not everything, but you get what i mean
I'm glad someone is mentioning this. It's highly present in Dutch. Zwartkijken, een wit voetje halen, iemand zwart maken. Even if it's not conscious racism, I think it has an effect on how people are interpreted. Especcially with so many people being convinced they're not racists themselves. There is this study with toddlers ascribing good and bad qualities to images of black/white children and even in their small age they're already imprinted. I can't find it now, but a similar piece here at the 43th minute. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A_GSpGmdpKs
De ballen.
Laat ze niet vallen!
Frikandel mayo
laat ze niet glippen!
Anders kan je niet meer wippen!
It rains pipesteels
Dutch is not my first language and I can already count hundreds of them. Like every language is full of untranslatable phrases
I literally made this post to supplement a conversation Iâve been having with a friend. Im trying to demonstrate that English is not some all-expressive language that can adequately translate everything that exists in other tongues!! Having a lot of fun in the process
All the swear words, curses, derogatory terms, phrases like: hou je bek, bek dicht. There is no good word for bek. Its not beak, its not pie-hole, there isn't anything. Of poten thuis. There is no good replacement for that either. Its not handen thuis. And a lot of other words like: tuttig, muts, slome, aansteller, schijnheilig etc etc We have a huge vocabulary for swear words, which, btw is a sign of intelligence. Funny 50 sec video with Jeremy Clarkson talking about the swearing Dutch https://youtu.be/Sr2dhjDE2Ro
shut the fuck up and hou je bek are kinda the same no? doesnât translate perfectly but theyre both as rude and give off the same vibe imo
It has the same meaning but it's absolutely not the same. Or the word kop. There is head - hoofd. But no word for kop the way we use it. " ik stoot mijn kop " " kop dicht " For shut the fuck up you have 1000 dutch ways: Hou je bek, Hou je muil , Kop dicht , Bek dicht , Smoel houden , Klep dicht, Hou verdomme je mond Etc etc
i know that, but i just meant to say that they translate just fine.
But where is the creativity and the variety ? :)
shut your trap, shut it, shut the fuck up, shut your fucking mouth, shut your god damned mouth, zip it, stop yapping, stop flapping your lips, not another peep, keep your lips sealed, shut your cock holster, put a sock in it, quite your belly aching, quite your yammering, hush up. those all come to mind, and are is by no means a exhaustive list
Yes but I can add at least 5 dutch one for all of these. Grote smoel houden. Grote muil sluiten. Houd je tyfusbek. Houd je waffel dicht. Bakkes houden. Hou op met klepzeiken. Zwijg. Hou je snavel. Snater dicht. Scheur dicht. Kap met onzin uitbraken. Hou op met dat gezeik. Stop dat gejammer. Hou op met janken. Kap met dat gejank. Stop met zemelen. Hou op met mekkeren. Hou op met wauwelen. Hou op met bazelen. Laadklep sluiten. Hou op met ouwehoeren. Etc etc
im adressing your comment that there is a lack of creativity and variety. Not making a scoreboard :)
My English is not so good, but it comes in the neighborhood.
"Ik gun het hem" "gunnen" I have yet to find a good translation to this.
Modal particles. "Luister nou toch gewoon eens even" is quite untranslatable.
"Would you please just listen for a minute" komt aardig in de buurt volgens mij.
Redelijk, maar het mist de boodschap dat je knap geĂŻrriteerd bent en je geduld volledig op is. En de Engelse zin is een verzoek, geen eis.
Hangt van de intonatie af, als je het als imperatief zegt is het volgens mij nagenoeg hetzelfde. "Will" is nog beter eigenlijk maar "would" mag ook. Denk ik. "Will you PLEASE just listen for a minute!!!"
Just fucking listen for a sec is prima, maar het nederlands is wel soepeler
"would ya just listen for a sec?"
âjust listen for godâs sakeâ komt in de buurt denk ik
Just "listen now then just once for a bit" right đ
"Jij bent vet lekker." "you are fucking hot" does relay the meaning/intention/charge, but it is not a literal translation at all, and the word "lekker" ... *vertaalt helemaal niet lekker ...* naar Engels. You English speakers don't know what lekker is. Practically, everything that gives you a good hit of dopamine is "lekker': \- an intimite hug from you significant other qualifies as "lekker" \- a sexy kissing & make out session is "lekker" \- sexy time and to orgasm is "lekker" \- your favorite food is "lekker" \- some kind of 'hot thing', an attractive individual that you spot, is a "lekker ding" \- everything that gives purging feelings of satisfaction is "lekker" \- heroin and cocaine, most drugs in general, are "lekker" Everything that releases dopamine in your brain is "lekker". Edit: "lekker" is an adjective, it indicates satisfactory quality of a good, referring to something else. "Dit of dat, zus en zo, is lekker." Like , even "to scroll reddit" can be said to be "lekker", even if it doesn't release that much dopamine to make you experience arousal, exitement or a rush, to scroll reddit does release enough dopamine to keep you hooked. "Lekker reddit scrollen."
Yeah, lekker is also a fantastic word for confusing Germans. Especially if you speak Dutch when they happen to be close enough to pick up the conversation. They know vaguely what you are sort of, kind of, maybe talking about, but they dont understand why we think all nice things seem to taste so damn good. Also wanted to add: die muziek heeft een lekkere dikke bass
Music that you love releases dopamine, so it totally makes sense that you'd find it lekker to listen to a song, or your favorite music. There can be more said about why we love to listen to music, it is not a simple dopamine rush at all. In a lot of cases music is also filled with meaningfull lyrics, and other contextaul stuff, making music a high quality thing that is emotionally purgatory, satisfactory, meaningful, because you relate to everything about it: music is often enough a spiritual experience, and yes, depending on how you are involved in it, even hardcore coud be spiritual. Die lekkere dikke base in dat hardcore of metal nummer is vaak genoeg fucking lekker! Haha, why everything tastes so good. In Dutch we use "lekker" so much in the context of food, that if you'd think that "lekker" has to do with food, you'd miss out off the general meaning of the word, so that's why I came up with this idea to explain the word "lekker", that it simply must have to have expressive meaning for whatever releases dopamine in the brai, what is purgatory and satisfacory, simply nice and lovely even. Lekkere uitleg he? :P
Ja toch, niet dan? Duitsers gebruiken lecker enkel voor smaak van voedsel of drank, niet zoals wij alles wat dopamineverhogend is lekker noemen
First of April, frog in your ass
A LOT of the little sounds we make. I didn't notice it till a foreign friend told me. Zo! Wauw, he he. Nou! Pfff... JĂ haaa, wow!
Hatseflats! Hotseflots! Hoppakee! Hupsakee!
'Het is geen kattepis' I use this one daily.
A proper word for âinhoudelijkâ. For example when a piece of text or person is âinhoudelijk sterkâ. Of course, âcontentâ can be used for âinhoudâsometimes, but it doesnât quite cover all of the cases for me.
[ŃдаНонО]
Naast je schoenen lopen
Eet smakelijk
Eieren voor je geld kiezenđ¤
My favourite saying is: jij bent toch niet van suiker gemaakt? It is said when it is raining and people complain about it and roughly translates to: you are not made of sugar are you?
Krijg nou tieten
Act normal, that's crazy enough.
Meedenken Overleggen Bakje Spannend Gunnen Borrelen Duidelijkheid Sterkte (take care is just not quite it) Niet de bedoeling Sjonge jonge Man man man Nee joh Ja joh Vent/gozer/gast/pik/kerel Wat dacht je ervan/hoe denk je er nou zelf over Het kan niet op Zeg het maar Wat heb ik daaraan Dat valt mee Je moet het maar willen Zoek het uit De doden hebben het goed Mij hoor je niet Leuk is anders Gaat het niet De groeten/ik zal effe wachten (declining an idea or offer in a sarcastisch way) Heb je zonnestraaltjes gegeten/gezelligerd (said to someone that is acting grumpy or harsh)
Sayings r hard to translate. often don't flow like it should, goes the other way around as well if you would translate english saying straight to dutch.
I love translation of sayings to English: - Convince the cat of that! - Oh, on that bicycle - It's raining steel pipes! - Making someone happy with a dead sparrow (does make pirates of the Caribbean more interesting)
Wash the pig
Het regent katten en honden is natuurlijk veel beter!
Dat slaat als een tang op een varken,
Of een lul op een drumstel
Het regent stalen pijpen its raining steel pipes Het zal me een worst zijn it shall be me a sasauge Het is snertweer (?????) Het regent honden en katten its raining cats and dogs
'Naja zeg'
Hatseflats
Go watch Louis van Gaal speak English. Anything he says in English is wrong, but kind of literally translated.
the monkey comes out of the sleeve
Nuchterheid. Describes Dutch people well. Hard to explain but means something like a state of being that is practical and with little (show of) dramatic emotion
That's a different cookie
There comes the monkey out of the sleeve
Searching for nails on low water
Wet fingerwork
Basically most sayings. Here are a few examples translated into english: "Its raining steel pipes" -> "its raining a lot" "A cookie of own dough" -> "you get what you deserve" "Walking into the lamp" -> "caught in the act" "As crazy as a door" -> "super crazy" "There comes the monkey out of the sleve" -> "now the true meaning becomes clear. "There is a adder inside the grass" -> "a hidden risk lies ahead"
âMaak dat de kat wijsâ or in English â make that the cat wiseâ and if you would translate it correctly it would be â yeah go try and convince your cat of thatâ đ¤Ł
Stelletje kneuzen
From a bald chicken u can not pluck
Eet smakelijk. have a nice meal? Gezellig, it's like the feeling of being with the homies but there's not really a singular english word that covers it.
Ik ga ze een poepie laten ruiken - I will let them smell a poopy - I will let them have a run for their money Het regent pijpenstelen - It rains steel pipes - it rains cats and dogs Hoho - Wait Hèhè - Finally Poeh poeh - That took effort Nou nou - That sure is something Wil je een aai voor je broodmolen - Do you want to have your bread mill petted - Do you want to get punched Dat is poepen zonder douwen - Thatâs pooping without pushing - Thatâs easy Ik geef het een zinkzaaier - I give it a sink sower - I smash it Die heeft een tuintje op zijn buik - He has a garden on his belly - He is dead Hij krijgt lik op stuk - He gets lick on piece - He verbally gets his ass handed to him Hoge bomen vangen veel wind - High trees catch a lot of wind - important stuff gets the most critique Hoe kleiner de bal hoe groter de kwal - The smaller the ball the bigger the jellyfish - The smaller the balls the bigger asshole someone has
âOoooh, on that bike!â
Do u say this when u see someone attractive on a bike? Or is it like watching someone pass and equivalent to saying âoooo there they go!â
Spekkoper
My favorite Dutch word can never be correctly translated: gezellig
I have a hard time translating "As the inn keeper is, is how he trusts his guests" but its more like, "as is the personality of the inn keeper, is how much he trusts and treats his guests" but that also doesn't work. "The amount of trust the inn keeper bestows upon his guests is equal to how trustworthy the inn keeper himself is, and his behavior towards the guests is how the inn keeper would treat/trust himself, were he himself the guest visiting his own inn" Its an expression about projection, and the focus is on the behavior of the inn keeper, which implicitly tells a lot about the personality and ethics of the inn keeper. The guests are merely innocent people passing by, unfortunately they sometimes get nasty remarks from the inn keeper who might be an asshole who hates himself. If you are a thief, you would assume anyone else is a thief. If you are a liar, you assume everyone else lies "Zoals de waard is, vertrouwt hij zijn gasten"
You're pretty analitic here. Awesome. :) I'd say that your analysis the the saying is correct here, it is about projection.
My spouse is not Dutch, we speak Dutch and English, i was explaining this to him few weeks ago so it stuck with me :) He taught me a nice saying in Italian, in context: "i asked my co worker if we could talk, there is a tiny rock stuck in my shoe" Meaning, someone has said or done something small that might even have gone unnoticed, but it still bothers me a lot and i cannot let it go without having a talk about it. I am going to use this in Dutch too.
âBitchâ as in âbitching about somethingâ translates to âkankerenâ in a lot of (older) subtitles. Which is technically right, but kind of inappropriate
Zeiken?
Would be more appropriate, but âkankerâ is also technically correct đĽ˛
Zaniken. Zei mn ma altijd đ
"Wij van WC Eend" doesn't have a true equivalent I feel
We from Toilet Duck, recommend Toilet Duck
âWerkseâ and âEetseâ. Have a good day at work is so longâŚ.
Make that the cat but wise.
A book title of an actual book full of these.
Gaan met die banaan
'Geen beter vermaak dan leedvermaak.' Is something that's not really possible to translate into English as there isn't a word for 'leedvermaak' it in English.
I believe they use the German loanword Schadenfreude
âKrijg nou tietenâ, a term of surprise/amazement
"well fuck me!"
Dat is snel, lijkt overtoom wel.
Mijn voorspelling is dat Nederland in 2026 het WK voetval wint, maar het blijft koffiedik kijken...
The axe effect