beard [noun] [de baard, de baarden]

Examples:
– "Sinterklaas en de Kerstman hebben beiden een baard."
("Sinterklaas and Santa Claus both have a beard.")

– "Mijn vader had altijd een baard, maar onlangs heeft hij zich geschoren en dat ziet er heel gek uit!"
("My dad used to have a beard, but recently he shaved and it looks really weird!")

– "Ik wil wel een baard laten staan, maar verder dan een paar stoppels kom ik niet."
("I do want to keep a beard, but I don’t get past the stubs stage." Lit.: "… any further than a few stubs.")

Expression:
– "Hij heeft de baard in de keel.": (Lit.: "he has the beard in his throat") This is said when the pitch of the voice of young boys in their puberty keeps switching between low and high. In general, it is used to indicate that ‘he is turning into a man’ (of which obviously the growth of a beard is a sign).

Related words:
– "Bakkebaarden": sideburns.
– "Snor": moustache.
– "Scheren": to shave.
– "Sik": goatee.
– "Ringbaard": fringe of beard.
– "Stoppelbaard(je)": stubble (beard).

Extra:
There is quite some ‘beard terminology’ in Dutch. Here is a list with a few examples:

– "Maandagochtendbaardje": like "stoppelbaardje". Literally: Monday morning beard.

– "Ruud-Lubbers-baard": stubble beard that you can’t seem to get rid off even though you shave every day, like the one Ruud Lubbers always has (former prime minister of the Netherlands, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)).

– "Pratende kut": very very informal, but very common synonym for a fringe of beard, literally "talking c*nt".

belly, stomach, tummy, abdomen [noun] [de buik, de buiken]

"Buik" is used to indicate a region of the body. The organ "stomach" is translated with "maag".

Examples:
– "Die man heeft een dikke buik."
("That man has a fat belly.")

– "Mijn vrouw is zwanger!" – "Wat leuk, wordt haar buik al dikker?"
("My wife is pregnant!" – "How nice, is her belly getting bigger already?")

– "Ik heb buikpijn, misschien heb ik iets verkeerds gegeten."
("My stomach aches / I have a stomachache, maybe it’s something I ate that’s upsetting me." Literally: "Maybe I ate something wrong.")

– "<moeder tegen een kind:> Heb je je buikje lekker rond gegeten?"
("<mother to a child:> Have you eaten your fill?" Literally: "Have you eaten your tummy nicely round?")

Expressions:
– "Schuddebuiken van het lachen": to shake with laughter. This expression is intended  to be used to say that you really really have to laugh hard. Literally so much that your belly is shaking (‘schudden’). However, it is mostly used ironically.

Examples:
– "Het publiek schuddebuikte van het lachen."
("The audience shook with laughter.")

– "Heb je gister die comedy nog gezien op tv?" – <ironisch:> "Ja, het was echt schuddebuiken."
("Did you see that comedy on tv yesterday?" – <ironically:> "Yeah, it was really fun (NOT).")

– "Dat kun je op je buik schrijven.": You can forget about that / that’s not going to happen / no way! Lit.: You can write that on your belly.

– "Daar heb ik mijn buik van vol." I’m fed up with that. Lit.: My belly’s full of that.

– "Vlinders in de buik hebben." To have butterflies in one’s stomach, to be in love.

– "Het zijn twee handen op één buik.": this is said about people that are in agreemeent or take up the same position ("to be hand and glove"). Lit: That’s two hands on one belly.

Related words:
– "buikpijn": stomachache, bellyache.
– "navelpiercing": belly button piercing.
– "wasbordje": washboard.

alphabet [noun] [het alfabet, de alfabetten; ‘al-faa-bet’]

Examples:
– “Ken jij het Griekse alfabet?”
(“Do you know the Greek alphabet?”)

– “A, b, c, d, …, x, y, z; dat zijn de letters van het alfabet!”
(“A, b, c, d, …, x, y, z; those are the letters in the alphabet!” See below for the pronunciation of the letters of the Dutch alphabet.)

– “In de bibliotheek staan de boeken op alfabetische volgorde.”
(“In the library the books are arranged in alphabetical order.” Literally: “…the books are standing in…”)

Related words:
– “Alfabetiseren”: to alphabetize.
– “Analfabeet”: [noun] illiterate (person). A person who is illiterate with respect to computers is called a “digibeet”.

The Dutch alphabet
Below we list the Dutch alphabet with pronunciation. Remember that we use Dutch phonetic script: the letter P is not pronounced as the English ‘pee’ but as ‘pay’; the latter we write as ‘pee’. See ‘Hints on pronunciation‘ for interpretation. Also, try to copy the examples below into one of the on-line text-to-speech engines.

A – aa
B – bee
C – cee
D – dee
E – ee
F – ef
G – gee
H – haa
I – ie
J – jee
K – ka
L – el
M – em
N – en
O – oo
P – pee
Q – kuu
R – er
S – es
T – tee
U – uu
V – vee
W – wee
X – ix
Y – ij
Z – zet

Example: (try to copy the text into one of the on-line text-to-speech engines!)
– <aan de telefoon:> “Kunt u uw naam spellen alstublieft?” – “Ja zeker, mijn naam is Jones: J-O-N-E-S.”
(<on the phone:> “Can you please spell your name?” – “Yes of course, my name is Jones: J-O-N-E-S.”)

About N and M:
It is sometimes hard to distinghuish between N (‘en’) and M (‘m’) when spelling out these letters on the phone. This is resolved by saying ‘Nico’ if you mean N and ‘Maria’ if you mean M (there are names for each letter in the alphabet). Alternatively, one uses the word ‘tweepoot’ (‘two leg’) for N and ‘driepoot’ (‘three leg’) for M to clarify.

Example:
– <aan de telefoon:> “Mijn naam is Boom: B – O – O – M.” – “Hoe zegt u: Boom of Boon?” – “Boom, met een driepoot op het eind.”
(<on the phone:> “My name is Boom: B – O – O – M” – “Did you say Boom or Boon?” – “Boom, with a ‘driepoot’ at the end.”)

1. chest, breast [noun] [de borst, de borsten]

– "Borst vooruit!"
("Chest out! (Shoulders back!)")

– "Die bodybuilder heeft een erg brede borst.")
("That body-builder has a very broad chest.")

– "De vader hield zijn zoontje dicht tegen zijn borst gedrukt."
("The father clasped his (little) son close to his breast.")

Related words:
– "Borstkas": chest, thorax.
– "Borsthaar": chest hair. See also 126. Kruimeldief.

Expressions:
– "Zichzelf op de borst kloppen": to congratulate oneself, to boast (lit. to pat oneself on the chest).

– "Uit volle borst zingen": to sing lustily / on the top of one’s chest (lit. to sing out of full chest).

– "Maak je borst maar nat": you better get ready / roll your sleeves up! (lit. you got to wet your chest.)

– "Dat stuit mij tegen de borst": "that is repugnant to me / that
goes against the grain with me." (lit. that bounces against my chest.)

2. (female) breast [noun] [de borst, de borsten]

The plural ‘borsten’ also translates to ‘bosom’.

Examples:
– "De jonge moeder gaf haar kind de borst."
("The young mother gave her child the breast / nursed her child / breast-fed her child.")

– "Een jaarlijks mammogram is een belangrijk wapen tegen borstkanker."
("An annual mammogram is an important weapon against breast cancer.")

– "Ben je een borstenman of meer een billenman?"
("Are you a boobs-man or more of an ass-man?")

Related words:
– "Buste": bosom (formal).
– "BH": <pronounce: ‘bee-haa’> bra (commonly used abbreviation for ‘bustehouder’ ("bosom keeper/supporter") ).
– "Boezem": bosom.
– "Tiet": tit, boob.
– "Tepel": nipple.
– "Borstvergroting": breast augmentation/enlargement.

Expressions:
You might overhear men say the following, implying a woman has big breasts:

– "Zij heeft een flinke bos hout voor de deur.": literally, "she has quite a big bundle of wood in front of her door".
– "Zij heeft een flinke voorgevel.": literally, "she has quite a big façade".