chaos, pandemonium
[noun]
[de hek-sen-ke-tel, de hek-sen-ke-tels]

"Heksenketel" is composed of "heks" and "ketel", which respectively translate to "witch" and
"cauldron/kettle". "Heksenketel" therefore literally translates to "witches’ cauldron". However…unless you’re reading a Harry Potter book, you will only hear "heksenketel" being used in its figurative meaning: a place or situation with (lots of) confusion and disorder: a chaos or pandemonium.

Examples:
– "Het was vanochtend een heksenketel op de Nederlandse wegen." 
("It was chaos on the Dutch roads this morning.")

– "Tijdens de Drie Dwaze Dagen is het altijd een heksenketel in de Bijenkorf." 
("During the Three Mad Days it’s always a pandemonium at the Bijenkorf department store.")

– "Na de wedstrijd Ajax-Feyenoord was het weer een enorme heksenketel rond het stadion." 
("After the Ajax-Feyenoord match it was a big chaos again around the stadium.")

Expressions:
– "Heksen": lit.: to perform witchcraft [verb] [hekste, gehekst]. Fig.: to do the impossible.

Example:
– "Je moet als de wiedeweerga je koffer in gaan pakken, anders halen we het vliegtuig niet" – "Rustig, rustig, ik kan niet heksen!"
("You have to pack your suitcase on the double, otherwise we’ll miss the plane" – "Slow down, slow down, I can’t do the impossible!")

Related words:
– Heks: witch [noun] [de heks, de heksen].
– Ketel: cauldron, kettle [noun] [de ketel, de ketels].
– Bezem: broom [noun] [de bezem, de bezems].

Example:
– "De bezem van Harry Potter is een Nimbus 2000…de snelste in zijn soort…"
("Harry Potter’s broom is a Nimbus 2000…the fastest of its kind…")

– Heksenjacht: witch hunt [noun] [de heksenjacht, de heksenjachten].
– Hekserij: witchcraft [noun] [de hekserij, <no plural>].

Extra:
The Harry Potter books are immensly popular in the Netherlands too. Except for Harry, Voldemort and Hagrid, the translated names of the characters (and other things) differ quite a lot from the original English names. Here’s a brief overview:
– Harry Potter : Harry Potter
– Ron Weasly : Ron Wemel
– Hermione Granger : Hermelien Griffel
– Hagrid : Hagrid.
– Albus Dumbledore : Albus Perkamentus
– Voldemort : Voldemort
– Severus Snape : Severus Sneep
– Draco Malfoy : Draco Malfidus
– Gryffindor : Griffoendor
– Slytherin : Zwadderich
For an extensive overview, check this link.

detail
[noun]
[het de-tail, de de-tails]

The only detail worth mentioning here is the pronunciation of the word "detail". Due to the "ai" sound, the "l" kind of turns into a "j". Listen to Marc giving it a try as soon as the audio is available 🙂

Examples:
– "Ach man, dat zijn toch allemaal details, waar maak je je druk om!" 
("Man, those are all just details, what are you so worried about!")

– "Sander is gek op al de details die oude Amsterdamse huizen hebben." 
("Sander really likes all the details that old Amsterdam houses have.")

– "Is Sarah in Oslo of in Lillehammer?" – "Wat maakt het uit, dat is slechts een detail!"
("Is Sarah in Oslo or in Lillehammer?" – "Whatever, that’s just a detail!")

– "Hij richt zich altijd op de technische details van een oplossing en nooit op het grotere plaatje." 
("He always focuses on the technical details of a solution and never on the bigger picture.")

– "Wie, Frank? Nee die geeft inderdaad niet om details, dat kun je wel zien aan zijn voorkomen." 
("Who, Frank? No, clearly he doesn’t care about details, you can tell from his appearance.")

Expressions:
– "In grote lijnen": on the whole, broadly speaking.
– "Oog hebben voor detail": to have an eye for detail.
– "High level": high level. One of the many English management expressions that have been incorporated into Dutch office jargon.

Related words:
– Gedetailleerd: detailed [adjective/adverb].
– Helicopterview: helicopter view [noun].
– Mierenneuken: to nitpick [verb] [mierenneukte, gemierenneukt].

to betray, to give away, to tattle
[verb]
[ver-klik-te, ver-klikt]

“Verklikken” or “klikken” is to give away information about a person to someone else. The informer is called a “verklikker”. The verb is often used when it concerns petty tale-telling by children. More serious betrayal is called “verraad”, the person who betrays is a “verrader” (“traitor”), and the verb is “verraden” (“to betray”). A synonymous verb which is slightly more informal than “verraden” is “verlinken”. Another verb which also means to reveal something is “verklappen”. Unlike “verklikken”, “verraden”, and “verlinken”, this verb doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation.

Examples:
– “Het meisje verklikte tegen haar moeder dat haar broertje de koektrommel had leeg gegeten.” 
(“The girl told her mother that her brother emptied the cookie box.”)

– “Haar beste vriendin gaat vreemd met haar man; ze voelt zich verraden.”
(“Her best friend cheats on her with her husband; she feels betrayed.”)

– “In de Tweede Wereldoorlog werden Joodse families soms verraden door hun eigen buren.”
(“During the Second World War, Jewish families were sometimes betrayed by their own neighbours.”)

– “De crimineel verlinkte zijn handlangers in ruil voor strafvermindering.”
(“The criminal gave away his accomplices in exchange for a reduction of his sentence.”)

– “Je mag niemand verklappen wat we gaan doen, het is een verrassing.”
(“You cannot tell anyone what we will do, it’s a surprise.”)

– “In 2002 werd de kliklijn “Meld misdaad anoniem” landelijk ingevoerd.”

(“In 2002, the telephone number “Report crime anonymously” was introduced in the entire country.” Please note that “kliklijn” means “squeal-line”.)

Related words:
– “[Iemand] verlinken”: to betray [someone], to disclose against [verb] [verlinkte, verlinkt].
– “[Iets of iemand] verraden”: to betray [something or someone] [verb] [verried, verraden].
– “Verraad”: betrayal [noun] [het verraad, no plural].
– “Verrader”: betrayer [noun] [de verrader, de verraders].
– “Verklikker”: informer [noun] [de verklikker, de verklikkers].
– “[Iets] klikken”: to reveal [something], to tell [verb] [klikte, verklikt].
– “Kliklijn”: phonenumber that you can call if you want to reveal secret information [noun] [de kliklijn, de kliklijnen].

to be disappointing
[verb]
[te-gen-val-len, viel te-gen, is te-gen-ge-val-len]

“Tegenvallen” is used  when something does not answer to one’s positive expectations. The related noun is “tegenvaller”: disappointment/setback. When something is very disappointing, you can add a number of adverbs, see Extra.

You may often see a construction in the third person with an objective pronoun, for example: “Het valt me tegen dat…”, which translates to “It’s disappointing to me that…/It disappoints me that…”.

The opposite is the verb “meevallen” and the noun “meevaller”, which is used when something does not meet one’s negative expectations.

Examples:
– “Het miezert weer vandaag…dat valt tegen.” 
(“It drizzles again today…that’s disappointing.”)

– “De beurskoersen vallen weer behoorlijk tegen deze week.”
(“The stock exchange indexes are pretty disappointing again this week.”)

– “Het valt me vies tegen dat ik een bekeuring heb gekregen voor 3 km te hard rijden.”
(“It really disappoints me that I’ve had a speeding ticket for driving 3 km/h too fast.”)

Related words:
– Teleurstellen: to disappoint [verb] [stelde teleur, teleurgesteld].
– Teleurstelling: disappointment [noun] [de teleurstelling, de teleurstellingen].

Extra:
When something is very disappointing, you can add a number of adverbs. We’ve given the literal translation:
– erg tegenvallen: to be very disappointing.
– echt tegenvallen: to be really disappointing.
– zwaar tegenvallen: to be heavily disappointing.
– bijzonder tegenvallen: to be especially disappointing.
– vies tegenvallen: to be dirty disappointing.
– behoorlijk tegenvallen: to be quite disappointing.