police [noun] [de politie, <no plural>]

The Dutch police is divided in 25 regional police forces and one national police force (the KLPD). More information on the organizational structure and the several ranks can be found at Wikipedia.

Examples:
– "Er is een ongeluk gebeurd! Bel de politie!"
("There has been an accident! Call the police!" The word "ongeluk" appeared earlier in 129. File.)

– "De politie heeft een 38-jarige man gearresteerd op verdenking van moord."
("The police have arrested a 38 year old man on suspicion of murder.")

Note that "politie" is singular in Dutch ("heeft" is the singular conjugation of the verb "hebben"), opposed to plural in English ("have", not "has").

– "De politie is je beste kameraad."
("The police is your best pal." A really old Dutch song about the police being one’s best friend. How times have changed…)

– "Laten we de weg even vragen aan die politieagent."
("Let’s ask that police officer for some directions." Literally: "Let’s ask that police officer for the road.")

Note that the word "even" is not really translated. Literally, it would translate to "briefly" or "shortly". In Dutch it is used frequently though to indicate that a certain activity will not take long. In spoken language, "even" is often corrupted to "effe".

Example:
– <de ene zakkenroller tegen de andere>: "Kijk jij effe of er politie in de buurt is…"
(<one pickpocket to the other>: "You go see if there’s police around…")

Related words:
– "Arresteren": to arrest.
– "Politieagent": police officer.
– "Zakkenroller": pickpocket.

Extra:
In times of polical campaigning, the following slogan can often be heard: "Meer blauw op straat!", which literally translates to "More blue on the streets!" Since the Dutch police wear blue uniforms, this slogan obviously stands for the intention to have more police officers patrolling in the streets.

basket [noun] [het mandje, de mandjes]

– "In deze winkel is het verplicht om een mandje te gebruiken."
("In this store it’s mandatory to use a shopping basket.")

– "Ik gebruik liever een mandje dan een karretje."
("I’d rather use a basket than a cart.")

– "Toen Frank ziek thuis lag, kreeg hij van zijn collega’s een fruitmandje opgestuurd."
("When Frank was ill at home, his colleagues sent him a basket of fruit." Literally: "… was lying ill at home, he was sent a basket of fruit…")

cash register, cash desk, checkout [noun] [de kassa, de kassa’s]

Examples:
– “U kunt betalen bij de kassa.”
(“You can pay at the cash desk.”)

– “Er staat een enorme rij bij de kassa!”
(“There’s a huge queue/line at the checkout!”)

– “In kleine winkeltjes wordt soms nog een ouderwetse mechanische kassa gebruikt.”
(“In small (little) shops sometimes an old-fashioned mechanical cash register is still used.”)

Related words:
– “Kassakorting”: an extra discount (“korting”) that you will receive once you pay at the “kassa”.
– “Afrekenen”: to pay (for goods or a service).
– “Betalen”: to pay (in general).
– “Kassameisje”: girl at the cash register/checkout. See also ‘Extra’.
– “Kassajuffrouw”: in case it is more of a woman than a girl 🙂

Expressions:
– “Kassa erbij!”: “add a check-out!”. This you might hear when the supermarket personnel notices that people are queueing up too much. The “Albert Heijn” supermarket has displays that say “3 in de rij, kassa erbij!”, which they of course don’t do.

– “Kassa!”
1. <in case something is (too) expensive> “What a rip off!”
2. <in case someone is lucky> “Bingo!” / “Jackpot!”

Extra:
In The Netherlands, there’s the common prejudice that girls working at
the checkout of a supermarket are not too bright. This prejudice is
parodied by “De Vliegende Panters“, a Dutch group of cabaret performers; the song is about the promiscuous behaviour of one of the “kassameisjes”.