In Dutch the words for the article ‘a’ and the number ‘one’ are
often spelled the same: ‘een’. However, they differ in pronunciation.
When
it is not clear from context, we write ‘één’ for ‘one’. In any case,
when you mean to say ‘one’, you have to pronounce it as ‘één’ (‘een’,
in Dutch phonetic script).

1. a [article; ‘un’]

Not much to write here 🙂 However, there is one typical Dutch use
of ‘een’. In recent years it has become popular to use ‘een’ in
combination with a person or an entity, in order to make a comparison
with the category that that person or entity belongs to. Ok, I guess an
example will clarify, see below.

Examples:
– “Er zwemt een eendje in de vijver.”
(“A (small) duck/duckling is swimming in the pond.”)

– “Grote atleten hebben in dit stadion records gebroken; ik noem een Carl Lewis, een Nelly Cooman, een Haile Gebreselassie…”
(“Great athletes have broken records in this stadium; I mention the likes of Carl Lewis, Nelly Cooman, Haile Gebreselassie…”)

– “Frank raadde zijn manager af de concurrentie aan te gaan met een KPN of een Telfort.”
(“Frank advised his manager not to compete with the likes of KPN or Telfort.)

2. one [number; ‘een’]

Examples:
– “Er zwemt één eendje in de vijver.”
(“One duck is swimming in the pond.”)

– “Niet één, maar twee eendjes zwemmen in de vijver.”
(“Not one, but two ducks are swimming in the pond.”)

– “Eén, twee, drie, vier, hoedje van, hoedje van…”
(First phrase of a classic Dutch song. The point here is that the capital E has no diacritic.)

3. equal [adverb; ‘een’]

Example:
“Alle mensen zijn een.”
(“All humans are equal.” Note that it is more common in Dutch to use the word ‘gelijk’ instead of ‘een’ in this context.)

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.”)