honouring, ceremony, homage
[noun]
[de hul-di-ging, de hul-di-gin-gen]

Although literally "huldiging" is an ‘honouring’, it is typically used for formal ceremonies where people get some kind of award or receive a title. The verb is "huldigen": to honour, to pay tribute to.

Read more about the traditional "huldiging" of Dutch Olympic medal winners at the Holland Heineken House in the ‘Extra’  below.

Examples:
– "Heb je gisteren de huldiging gezien van Annette Gerritsen en Laurine van Riessen?" – "Nee, ik heb het gemist, jammer maar helaas!" 
("Did you see the ceremony with Annette Gerritsen and Laurine van Riessen yesterday?" – "No, I missed it, that’s just too bad…" Annette and Laurine won silver and bronze medals for the 1000 meter women speed skating. )

– "Bekijk de beelden van de huldiging van Sven Kramer in het Holland Heineken House." 
("Watch the footage of the homage to Sven Kramer at the Holland Heineken House." Read more in the ‘Extra’ below.)

– "Winaars krijgen een huldiging, maar verliezaars krijgen doorgaans niks…" 
("Winners are honoured, but losers usually get nothing…")

Related words:
– Huldigen: to honour, to pay tribute to [verb] [huldigen, gehuldigd].
– Onderscheiden: to award with (a medal) [verb] [onderscheidde, onderscheiden].
– Uitreiken: to present a medal (or a prize) [verb] [reikte uit, uitgereikt].

Example:
– "De prijs werd uitgereikt door een lokale beroemdheid."
("The prize was presented by a local celebrity.")

– Uitreiking: presentation (of medals or a prize) [noun] [de uitreiking, de uitreikingen].

Extra:

During the Olympic games there is a "huldiging" every day for medal
winners, but for Dutch medal winners there is the traditional additional "huldiging"
in the Holland Heineken House (HHH),
where Dutch fans celebrate the medals won. Of course there is a lot of
Heineken beer, oranjegekte ("orange madness"), performances by Dutch
singers and other BN’ers.

The first HHH-huldiging was for Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer. He won the gold
medal for the 5km men speed skating. This link shows a video made back
stage of Sven’s "huldiging" at the Holland Heineken House. It shows
‘oranjegekte’, a few BN’ers and an athlete who seems to be more nervous
to face the Dutch fans than he was before his race 🙂 . Check out the Holland Heineken House YouTube channel for more videos.

fibber, storyteller
[noun]
[de jok-ke-brok, de jok-ke-brok-ken]

"Jokkebrok" is typically only used for children, or jestingly for an adult. If you want to call somebody a liar, say "leugenaar". The related verb to "jokkebrok" is "jokken": to fib. Telling plain lies would be "liegen".

Examples:
– "Ohoh, jokkebrok! Jij hebt echt wel dat snoepje gestolen!" 
("Ooooh, (you) fibber! Surely you stole that piece of candy!")

– "Dat is helemaal niet waar, ik ga tegen de meester zeggen dat je een jokkebrok bent." 
("That is absolutely not true, I’m going to tell the teacher that you are a fibber." In Dutch primary schools a male teacher is called ‘meester’ ("master") and a female teacher is called ‘juf’, or ‘juffrouw’ ("miss").)

– "Jokkebrok? Dat zeg je toch niet tegen een volwassene? Hij is gewoon een regelrechte leugenaar!" 
("Fibber? You don’t call an adult that! He is nothing but a downright liar!")

Related words:
– Jokken: to fib [verb] [jokte, gejokt].
– Liegen: to lie [verb] [loog, gelogen].

Example:
– "Je loog tegen mij, alsof ik een kind was…"
("You lied to me, as if I was a kid…" Line from the popular Dutch 80s song "Je loog tegen mij" by the band "Drukwerk". The singer Harry Slinger was famous for his hat.)

– Leugenaar: liar [noun] [de leugenaar, de leugenaars].
– Leugen: lie [noun] [de leugen, de leugens].
– Smoes: poor excuse [noun] [de smoes, de smoezen].

adoption
[noun]
[de a-dop-tie, de a-dop-ties]

Only since 1956 adopted children have the same legal status as
biological children. Before 1970 it was not common to adopt children
from foreign countries. These days most adopted children come from the
so-called ‘ontwikkelingslanden’ (developing countries).

Examples:
– “Door de ramp op Haïti komt een aantal adoptiekinderen sneller dan verwacht naar Nederland.” 
(“Because of the disaster in Haiti, a number of adopted children are coming to the Netherlands quicker than expected.”)

– “Is hij geadopteerd? Ja, zijn biologische ouders zijn Chinees.” 
(“Has he been adopted? Yes, his biological parents are Chinese.”)

– “Zij heeft altijd een heel goede
band met haar adoptieouders gehad en heeft, toen zij zelf kinderen
kreeg, ook haar biologische ouders gezocht.” 
(“She
has always had a very good relationship with her adoptive parents and
when she got children of her own, she has also searched for her
biological parents.”)

– “De adoptie van een kind duurt vaak een aantal jaren.” 
(“The adoption of a child often takes several years.”)

– “Hij heeft één geadopteerd zusje uit Sri Lanka en één geadopteerd broertje uit Kenia.” 
(“He has one adopted little sister from Sri Lanka and one adopted little brother from Kenya.”)

– “Voordat zij werd geadopteerd, heeft ze een paar maanden in een weeshuis in Polen gewoond.” 
(“Before she was adopted, she had lived in an orphanage in Poland for a couple of months.”)

Related words:
– Adoptiekind: adopted child, adoptee [noun] [het kind, de kinderen].
– Adoptieouder: adoptive parent [noun] [de ouder, de ouders].
– Weeshuis: orphanage [noun] [het huis, de huizen].
– Adopteren: to adopt [verb] [adopteerde, geadopteerd].
– Biologische ouder: biological parent [noun] [de ouder, de ouders].

scarcely, barely, only just

[adverb]
[am-per]

The word "amper" is an alternative for the less intuitive use of "bijna niet/nooit/geen", "nog/maar net" or even "nog maar net" 🙂

Examples:
– "Hij was amper binnen of hij begon al te zeuren." 
("He had barely entered (the room) before he started whining." An alternative that you may hear would be "Hij was nog maar net binnen of hij begon al te zeuren.")

– "Dit rapport is amper twee A4’tjes; sorry, maar dit kan ik niet serieus nemen." 
("This report is scarcely two pages (long); I’m sorry, but I can’t take this seriously." In the Netherlands it is common to refer to the standard A4 paper size (if applicable of course). Naturally, we use the diminutive 😉 )

– "Ik heb haar amper gesproken toen ze op vakantie was." 
("I have hardly spoken to her while she was on holiday.")

– "Sommige mensen hebben amper geld om eten te kopen." 
("Some people have only just enough money to buy food.")

– "Hij had amper leren autorijden toen hij van zijn ouders een spiksplinternieuwe auto kreeg." 
("He had scarcely learned how to drive (a car) when his parents bought him a brand-new car." If ‘spiksplinternieuw’ makes you spit on people, you can also say ‘gloednieuw’ (although the latter might hurt your throat 🙂 .)

Related words:
– Zelden: seldom, rarely [adverb].
– Weinig: few, little [adverb/adjective].