Category Archives: DWOTD 1.0

Original DWOTD post 2006 – 2013

Verschrikkelijk

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terrible, dreadful, awful [adjective / adverb] [‘vur-sgri-ku-luk’]

"Verschrikkelijk" is for most non-native Dutch speakers a terrible word to pronounce 🙂 The tongue breaking focuses around the letter combination "s"-"ch"-"r", pronounced: sharp "s" – raspy "g" – rolling "r". The only thing that we can advise is: keep on practising 😉

Examples:
– "Verschrikkelijk!"
("Terrible!")

– "Dat is verschrikkelijk nieuws!"
("That is awful news!")

– "Het spijt me verschrikkelijk, lieveling."
("I’m dreadfully sorry, darling.")

– "Sinds de introductie van de euro is alles verschrikkelijk duur geworden."
("Since the introduction of the euro, everything has become terribly expensive.")

– "Frank deed verschrikkelijk kinderachtig tijdens die vergadering."
("Frank acted terribly childish during that meeting." Lit.: "Frank did terribly childish…")

– "Wat een verschrikkelijk auto ongeluk: drie doden, één zwaargewonde."
("What a terrible car accident: three dead, one heavily injured.")

Related words:
– "Gruwelijk": horrible.
– "De Verschrikkelijke Sneeuwman": The Yeti.  Lit.: The Abominable Snowman.

Belachelijk

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ridiculous, ludicrous [adjective / adverb] [‘bu-la-gu-luk’] Iconspeaker_klein_3

Examples:
– "Belachelijk!"
("Ridiculous!")

– "Doe niet zo belachelijk."
("Don’t be (so) ridiculous.")

– "Dat is een belachelijk verhaal."
("That is a ludicrous story.")

– "In Nederland betalen we belachelijk veel belasting."
("In The Netherlands we pay a ridiculous amount on taxes." Lit.: "…pay ridiculously much taxes.")

– "Frank heeft zichzelf tijdens die presentatie belachelijk gemaakt."
("Frank made a fool out of himself during that presentation." Lit.: "…made himself (look) ridiculous…")

– "Een lekke band is een belachelijk slecht excuus om op een eerste afspraakje te laat te komen."
("A flat tire is a really lousy excuse to arrive too late at a first date." Lit.: "…a ridiculously bad excuse…")

Related words:
– "Belachelijk maken": to ridicule.
– "Spot": ridicule / mockery.
– "Hoon": scorn.

Ongelofelijk

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incredible, unbelievable [adjective / adverb] [‘on-gu-loo-fu-luk’]

Examples:
– "Ongelofelijk!"
("Incredible / unbelievable!")

– "Niet te geloven!"
("Incredible / unbelievable!" Literally: "Not to believe!")

– "Hij is een ongelofelijke klootzak."
("He is an incredible bastard.")

– "Het is ongelofelijk, maar waar!"
("It’s incredible, but true!")

– "Sommige mensen vinden De Da Vinci Code een ongelofelijk goed boek."
("Some people think that The Da Vinci Code is an incredibly good book.")

– "Het heeft Frank ongelofelijk veel moeite gekost om zijn excuses aan te bieden."
("It has taken an incredible amount of effort for Frank to offer his apologies.")

Related words:
– "Geloven": to believe.
– "Ongeloof": disbelief.
– "Geloof": belief, faith.
– "Onvoorstelbaar": unimaginable.

Boterham

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slice of bread, sandwich [noun] [de boterham, de boterhammen; ‘boo-tur-ham’]

A "boterham" is either a slice of bread, as part of a loaf of bread, or it is one folded slice of bread with some kind of filling. A "dubbele boterham" involves two slices and comes down to a sandwich. There is some ambiguity here: it is sometimes unclear if a "boterham" is composed of one or two slices of bread. So most Dutch people clarify by saying "enkele boterham" (single), "dubbele boterham" (double), or "sneetje", the latter if they don’t want the slice to be folded 🙂

Normal home made Dutch "boterhammen" are very modest compared to sandwiches that you’d buy somewhere (which in turn are very modest compared to for example U.S. sandwiches 🙂 ). Maybe it’s the Calvanistic influence!

Examples:
– "Wil je een boterham of een sneetje met kaas?"
("Would you like a sandwich or a slice with cheese?")

– "Lunch jij op het werk of neem je boterhammen mee?"
("Do you have lunch at work or do you bring sandwiches?")

– "Ik doe meestal kaas op mijn boterham."
("I usually put cheese on my sandwich.")

– "De boterhamzakjes zijn op, wil jij nieuwe kopen?"
("We are out of sandwich bags, can you buy new ones?" Lit.: "The sandwich bags are finished…")

Expressions:
– "Zijn boterham verdienen met…": to earn a living with… Lit. "to earn a slice of bread with…"
– "Een dikke boterham verdienen.": to make good money. Lit. "to earn a fat/thick sandwich".
– "Een afgelikte boterham.": lit. a "licked off" sandwich, this is a person who has been "loved" by many others if you know what we mean. A bit like the "town bike".

Related words:
– "Belegde boterham": a sandwich, a slice of bread with filling.
– "(Brood)beleg": a filling, slices of ham/cheese, whatever you put on your sandwich.
– "Broodje": a bun, a roll.
– "Belegd broodje": bun/roll with a filling.
– "Smeren": to butter, to spread. See also 194. Peren for a different use of "smeren".

Example:
– "Ik zag twee beren broodjes smeren, o dat was een wonder…"
("I saw two bears preparing sandwiches, oh that was a miracle." First line of well-known Dutch children’s song.)

Kappen

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The informal translation of "kappen" (number 2. below) is very common.

1. to chop, to cut, to axe (trees and such) [verb] [kapte, gekapt; ‘ka-pun’]

Examples:
– "De milieuactivisten protesteerden de hele nacht tegen het kappen van het bos."
("The environmentalists protested all night against the cutting of the forest.")

– "Het kappen van de regenwouden is een gevaar voor het behoud van onze Aarde."
("The felling of the rain forest is a danger to the preservation of our Earth.")

Related words:
– "Bijl": axe.
– "Hout": wood.
– "Boom": tree.
– "Bos": forest, woods.
– "Houthakker": lumberjack/man.

2. to stop, to quit, to break, to cut it out [verb; informal] [kapte, gekapt]

Examples:
– "Ik denk dat ik ga kappen met pianoles; ik kom gewoon niet aan spelen toe!"
("I think I’m going to quit my piano lessons; I just don’t find the time to play!")

– "Wordt het niet eens tijd dat jullie kappen met jullie relatie?"
("Isn’t it about time that you two break off your relationship?")

– "Dit heeft geen enkele zin, laten we er maar mee kappen!"
("This is completely useless / this serves no purpose at all, why don’t we just stop (doing this)!")

– "Nu is het genoeg, ik kap ermee!"
("Now I’ve had it / it is enough, I quit!")

– "<moeder tegen vervelende kinderen:> En nu kappen!"
("<mother to annoying children:> Cut it out now! / Now stop it!")

– "Kap nou!"
(Even more informal translation of "Stop it!")

3. to do somenone’s hair [verb] [kapte, gekapt]

It is more common to use the verb "knippen" (to cut (with scissors)) if the context is clear, however Kapsalonthe ‘Related words’ below show some examples of derivations.

Related words:
– "Kapper": hair dresser.
– "Kapsalon": hairdresser’s salon.
– "Kapsel": hair style, hairdo.