Dutch/Lesson 12A

Quiz
{ Select the proper translation +-- something that --+ which -+- which? ---+--- with which -+- that which +-- who? --+ he who
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 * wie,|welk,|degene die,|waarmee,|iets wat,|datgene wat,|dat,

{ Translate into Dutch
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This is not the man whom I saw yesterday -- Dit is niet { de man die ik } gisteren zag. Where is the knife with which I can cut the bread? -- Waar is het mes { waarmee ik } het brood kan snijden? Is that all you have to say? -- Is dat { al wat } je te zeggen hebt? There is the horse that I want to buy -- Daar is het paard { dat ik kopen } wil.

{ Form a sentence by putting the words in the right order

mensen teleurgesteld. wordt vaak Ze door { Ze wordt vaak door mensen teleurgesteld. }
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{ Form a sentence by putting the words in the right order

mei geallieerden De verslagen. werden in Duitsers door de 1945 { De Duitsers werden in mei 1945 door de geallieerden verslagen. }
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{ Form a sentence by putting the words in the right order

geen brood daar wordt gebakken. Er  { Er wordt daar geen brood gebakken. }
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{ Form a sentence by putting the words in the right order

wordt Ik niet of meedoet. er weet dat je verwacht { Ik weet niet of er verwacht wordt dat je meedoet. }
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{ Form a sentence by putting the words in the right order

De gezien toen werd door binnenging. inbreker het politieagent hij een huis { De inbreker werd door een politieagent gezien toen hij het huis binnenging. }
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{ Form a sentence by putting the words in the right order

een tv-nieuws er zei ontspoord Het in Rotterdam trein was. dat { Het tv-nieuws zei dat er in Rotterdam een trein ontspoord was. }
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Vocabulary 12A
Conjunctions are not the only way that sentences can be connected. There are many adverbs, adverbial expressions or conjunctive expressions and a few more that can refer to the contents of another phrase. Study this page with connective terms and then translate the following narrative.



The vanishing -d-
You may have noticed that a -d- is not always pronounced as such. E.g. goedendag is often pronounced, even written, as goeiendag. This is a general phenomenon in the language. Intervocalic -d- easily weakens to a [j] - sound as in beyond or to a [w] sound or it disappears altogether. The phenomenon is associated with register differences. Actually saying goedendag rather than goeiendag makes you sound very formal, even stiff, distant and unfriendly. Goeiedag is a lot friendlier, and most people shorten that even further to dag

hou(d)en
The -d is often dropped in the singular or the present tense, even in written Dutch:
 * Hou(d) je van sport?
 * Ik hou(d) van je

Before a vowel, people might slip the -d- back in:


 * Ik houd ervan.

In the plural the -d- is seldom dropped in the written standard, but in colloquial speech "houen" and "gehouen" are pretty common in some parts.

me(d)e
The prepositional adverb of met was originally mede. Often this is pronounced and written mee, and this forms has long since been accepted as standard Dutch.. Interestingly both forms are still in active use, but there is a register difference. Mede sounds official and high register:


 * De minister deelde mede dat hij zou aftreden - the minister announced that he would resign
 * Jan deelde mee dat hij op vakantie ging - John announced that he was going on vacation.

Mede is also used to mark an additional reason:


 * Mede omdat hij ziek was, ging hij niet mee ~ Another reason he did not come along was that he was ill

In this case it cannot be replaced by mee, but the usuage is definitely high register.

ne(d)er
The adverb neder (the cognate of nether) can still be seen in Nederland or vernederen (to humiliate), but in many cases it has been replaced by neer: neerzien, neergaand etc.

le(d)er
The cognate of leather is leder and this is also the high register translation. Lower register is leer.

The same goes for the adjectives lederen - leren.


 * Ons meubelbedrijf handelt in lederen bankstellen en stoelen - Our furniture store retails leather sofas and sectionals
 * De motorrijder droeg een leren jas en leren broek - The biker wore a leather jacket and leather pants

No true hotblooded tough biker guy would be caught dead saying lederen anymore than a furniture store would stoop to advertising leren stoelen, unless intended for bikers perhaps.

zegde/zei
The past tense of zeggen is another example of the intervocalic -d- phenomenon. The original past tense was zegde; the -g- weakened to zeide. In analogy to the strong verbs this lost its final syllable -de- to form zei. It is certainly not unusual to hear the plural zeiden pronounced as zeien.

This did not happen in all derived verbs. E.g. toezeggen gas a past tense zegde toe.

The adjective zijden - meaning silken is also often pronounced as zijen.

gou(d)en ou(d)e
Popular music and its hit parade do not wish to be considered high register and so a song that was a great hit some long time ago is een gouwe ouwe (a golden oldie) and nothing else. And young people can be heard to refer to their parents as m'n ouwe lui. You certainly don't want to scold somebody an oude lul, that really would have to be ouwe lul, although non-native speakers perhaps best refrain from such rude expressions. (Lul means dick and no, it is not high register.)

wou(d)en
The past tense of willen was originally wolde(n). In Dutch -old- and -ald- has generally become a diphthong ou. Hence gold is goud in Dutch and old is oud. Thus wolde became woude in the singular and wouden in the plural. The weakness of -d- shortened the singular to a pseudo-strong monosyllabic wou and the plural to wouen or wouwen. This is however considered low register and dialectal by some people who insist that it must be replaced by wilde and wilden. In its official spelling standard the Taalunie has not gone along with that and has recognized wou and wouden as legitimate standard Dutch words. The form wouen is mentioned in ANS but was apparently an intervocalic bridge too far for the Taalunie.

het wouwaapje
The tendency to consider dropping the intervocalic -d- somehow substandard -despite it being widespread and centuries old- has led to an interesting hyper-correction of the name of a small heron species the Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus). It is very secretive and nocturnal. Its nightly calls sound like wow-wow and its original name was wouwaapje: a little monkey that does wow-wow. People mistook the wouw part as having resulted from the intervocalic -d- and 'restored' the -d- to woudaapje for their 'official' bird lists and bird guides. This changed the meaning of the name beyond recognition, because woud means forest. The bird actually lives in reedy wetlands. As diminutives are also not deemed 'official' enough to appear in such exalted listings and books, Wikipedia now insists that the name has to be woudaap. Thus the diminutive Little Bittern that wows in the reed marshes has been transformed into a Forest Ape.

It made Hans Dorrestijn sigh:

Spelling
In 19th century spelling the phenomenon was rendered in the spelling by a circumflex: mêe, nêer, Nêerlands etc., but this convention has been dropped later on.

Vocabulary exercise
Study the phrases used when talking about hobbies

Then listen to the following sound files and write down the Dutch and the English translation: