Category Archives: Dutch phrase of the week

Kommer en kwel

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all sorrow and misery
Click to listen
[Dutch phrase
of the week]

Sloppenwijk Although 'kommer' and 'kwel' both exist as independent nouns, it is highly likely that you will never encounter them outside this expression. You can use "kommer en kwel" to describe a situation or state that is bad or miserable. How bad or miserable depends a bit on the context 🙂

Examples:
– "Het Engelse team ligt uit het toernooi, maar het was heus niet alleen kommer en kwel." 
("The English team is out of the tournament, but really it wasn't all that bad." Note the use of "eruit liggen"; to be out of a competition after losing.)

– "Hoe was je vakantie, Zuid-Frankrijk toch?" – "Het was verschrikkelijk met die regen, echt kommer en kwel!" 
("How was your holiday, the south of France wasn't it?" – "It was terrible with all that rain, truly sorrow and misery!")

– "Overal is het kommer en kwel, mensen worden ontslagen, ze kunnen de hypotheek niet meer opbrengen en hun spaargeld wordt minder waard!" 
("The situation is really really bad everywhere, people are being fired, they can't afford the mortgage any longer and their savings decrease in value!" Note that "opbrengen" is more like "to raise" than "to afford" which is mostly translated as "zich veroorloven".)   

– "Na de aardbeving in Haïti was het niets dan kommer en kwel." 
("After the earthquake in Haiti it was sorrow and misery all over the place.")

Related words:
– Kommer: sorrow, distress [noun] [de kommer, <no plural>]
– Kwel: seepage [noun] [de/het kwel, <no plural>]   
– Ellende: misery, miserable situation [noun] [de ellende, de ellenden]. The plural is never used though.
– Verdriet: sorrow [noun] [het verdriet, <no plural>].
– Uitzichtloos: hopeless, futureless [adjective].

Wind tegen

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against the wind Click to listen
Wind tegen
[Dutch phrase of the week]

Literally, "wind tegen" translates to "wind against". It is commonly used in combination with the verb "hebben" (to have): "wind tegen hebben" (to go against the wind, to have the wind blowing against you). Note the subtlety that the Dutch actually say "the wind" goes "against you", instead of "you" go "against the wind"…we respect THE WIND… 🙂

The opposite of "wind tegen" is "wind mee": before the wind. When there's no wind, it's "windstil".

In the Netherlands, there's usually a south-west wind blowing, but it seems that no matter which direction you go, you always have "wind tegen"…

Examples:
– "Ik had vandaag wind tegen op de fiets naar werk." 
("Today, when I was riding my bike to work, I had the wind blowing against me." Lit.: "…on the bike.")

– "Met wind tegen moet je harder trappen. bijna zwoegen…" 
("Against the wind, you have to pedal harder, almost toil…")

– "Ik ben helemaal uitgeput van de hele tijd wind tegen…" – "Dat valt toch wel mee? Het is bijna windstil nu." 
("I'm completely exahausted from having the wind against me all the time…" -"It's not so bad, is it? There's almost no wind now.")

Expressions:
– "De wind van voren krijgen": to get it good, to draw a storm on one's head.
– "Met alle winden meewaaien": to set one's sail to every wind, to bend with every wind.

Example:
– "Veel politici waaien met alle winden mee, verschrikkelijk!"
("Many politicians bend with every wind, terrible!")

Related words:
– Rukwind: squall, gust [noun] [de rukwind, de rukwinden].
– Tegen: against [preposition].

Example:
–
"Wiet roken is tegen de wet, maar wordt in Nederland onder bepaalde
omstandigheden gedoogd."
("Smoking weed is against the law, but is allowed
under certain conditions in the
Netherlands.")

– Waaien: to blow [verb] [waaien, waaide, h. gewaaid].
– Wind: 1. wind [noun] [de wind, de winden]. 2. fart [noun] [de wind, de winden].

Daar ben je mooi klaar mee!

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a fine state of affairs! Click to listen
[Dutch phrase of the week]

“Daar ben je mooi klaar mee” is Parkeeractieused when something happens to people that puts them in a bad or less optimal situation (with ‘je’ translating to third person ‘one’). Replace ‘je’ with any other personal pronoun to make it fit your situation. The translation depends a bit on the severity of the situation. Literally it translates to something like ‘that finishes it nicely for me’.

Examples:
– “Hoe bedoelt u ‘mijn reservering staat niet in de computer’? Alsof ik nu nog een ander hotel kan vinden; daar ben ik mooi klaar mee!”
(“What do you mean ‘my reservation is not in the computer’? As if I’m able to find another hotel now; nice going!”)

– “Pfff, daar zijn we mooi klaar mee zeg, de loodgieter is gewoon niet op komen dagen!” 
(“Pfff, we are somewhat screwed, the plumber just didn’t show up!” Note the verb ‘opdagen’: to show up.)

– “De laptop van een collegaatje is gestolen; al haar werk kwijt! Daar ben je mooi klaar mee zeg, als dat je gebeurt!” 
(“A colleague of mine had her laptop stolen; all her work lost! You are really miserable when that happens to you!”)

– “Ja zeg, daar zijn we mooi klaar mee, dat was toch niet de afspraak?” 
(“Yeah right, what good is this to us, this wasn’t the deal was it?”)

– “Ik hoor net dat het vliegtuig nog meer vertraagd is, daar zijn we mooi klaar mee!” 
(“I’ve just heard that the plane is even more delayed, poor us!”)

Expressions:
– “Ik ben er klaar mee!”: I have had it with it.
– “Ik ben (helemaal) klaar met …”: I have (completely) had it with ….

Example:
– “Ik ben helemaal klaar met dat urenboeken. Het management bekijkt het maar!”
(“I have completely had it with booking hours. Management can forget it!” Literally ‘bekijken’ is ‘to look at / to examine / to inspect’.)

Related words:
– Klaar: ready, done [adverb/adjective].

Wat zullen we nou krijgen!

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what are we in for now, what is this / going on here? Click to listen
[Dutch phrase of the week]

bubble-gum-438404_640The verb “krijgen” translates as “to get, obtain, receive” (but there are many subtleties in its usage; best to check out the DWOTD on Krijgen). The use of “krijgen” in this week’s phrase may be interpreted as “you are are getting something that you do not want”. The one using this phrase usually is indignant because something happens that is not supposed to happen.
The translation above is the dictionary suggestion, but depending on context, it can probably also be translated as “what’s going on / happening here?!”, “what the hell…”, “I’ll be damned”, etc.

Examples:
– “Zeg, wat zullen we nou krijgen, ben je helemaal gek geworden?!” 
(“Hey, what’s going on here, have you gone completely mad?!”)

– “Hé, wat zullen we nou krijgen, wegwezen jullie, dit is privéterrein!” 
(“Hey, what the hell, get out of here, this is private property!”)

– “Wat zullen we nou krijgen, dat was niet de afspraak! Eerst je kamer opruimen, en dan pas mag je uit!” 
(“What’s this?! This not what we have agreed upon! First you clean up your room, and then you are allowed to go out!”)

– “Wat zullen we nou krijgen, iedereen moet drastisch bezuinigen maar de directeur heeft alweer een nieuwe auto!” 
(“I’ll be damned, everybody has to cut back drastically but the managing director got himself yet another new car!”)

Expressions:
– “Wat krijgen we nou?!”: similar to ‘wat zullen we nou krijgen’.
– “Krijg nou wat!”: what the hell, I’ll be damned, etc..

Related words:
– Krijgen: to get, obtain, receive [verb] [kreeg, gekregen].
– Verontwaardigd: indignant [adverb/adjective].

Dat zal mij worst wezen

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I couldn't care less Click to listen
[Dutch phrase of the week]Worst

Literally "that would be sausage to me", this expression is used to say that you couldn't care less about something. Note that you cannot use it to say that you don't care about somebody. Often the "mij" becomes "me". You will also hear "dat zal me worst zijn".

Check out the comments to this post for a discussion on the use of 'wezen'.

Examples:
– "De Giro d'Italia start in Amsterdam dit jaar!" – "O ja? Dat zal me worst wezen, wielrennen boeit me niet." 
("The Giro d'Italia starts in Amsterdam this year!" – "Really? I couldn't care less, bicycle racing does not interest me at all.")

– "Dit kun je toch niet maken man? Asociaal!" – "Ik doe waar ik zin in heb, OK? Wat jij van mij vindt zal me worst wezen!" 
("You can't do this / be serious about this! That is so rude! – "I can do what I want, OK? I couldn't care less about what you think of me!")

– "Heb je je targets van dit jaar al met je manager besproken?" – "Targets? Dat zal me allemaal worst wezen, want iedereen wordt toch ontslagen door de crisis!" 
("Have you already discussed this year's targets with your manager?" – "Targets? I couldn't care less about my targets because due to the crisis everybody will get the sack anyway!" Note that when the Dutch use management terminology it is often in English.)

Expressions:
– "Wat kan mij het schelen!": what do I care!
– "Dat kan me niet rotten": I couldn't care less [informal].
– "Boeien!": Boring / not interesting at all / I so not care etc… The verb "boeien" translates as "to fascinate/captivate".

Related words:
– Worst: sausage [noun] [de worst, de worsten].
– Saucijzenbroodje: 'sausage roll' [noun] [het saucijzenbroodje, de saucijzenbroodjes]. Popular Dutch snack that you can often buy in department stores or at train stations.
– Slager: butcher [noun] [de slager, de slagers].

Extra:
Hema rookworst The "HEMA" is a popular department store in the Netherlands, where you can buy almost anything of reasonable quality at a reasonable price. This includes the famous "HEMA rookworst": HEMA smoked sausage. Although the Dutch are not really 'sausage minded' (as some people would say of the Germans) the HEMA rookworst is a popular snack amongst the old and young. After having successfully expanded to Belgium, HEMA tried its luck in Germany. Soon the number one selling item was… the rookworst!