lousy, terrible, rotten, miserable, extremely bad [adjective] [‘bu-la-burt’]

"Belabberd" indicates the opposite state of well-being. "Belabberd" can be used for mental and physical state, situations and performance.

Examples:
– "Ik voel me belabberd, ik heb echt een giga kater…"
("I feel terrible/like crap/miserable, I really have a huge hangover…")

– "Wat?! Je bent ontslagen? Dat is echt belabberd!"
("What?! You’ve been fired? That’s really lousy!")

– "Alweer zulk belabberd weer vandaag. Regen, regen en nog eens regen…"
("Again such rotten weather today. Rain, rain, rain…" Lit. : "Rain, rain and rain again…")

– "Tegen Roemenië heeft het Nederlands elftal een belabberde prestatie geleverd."
("The Dutch football/soccer team played extremely badly in the match against Romania." Literally: "Against Romania the Dutch team delivered a lousy performance." Note that "elftal" literally means "a set of 11".)

– "Met name de spits heeft belabberd gespeeld."
("Especially the forward played extremely badly.")

Related words:
– "Beroerd": miserable.
– "Slecht": bad.

to lug, drag, carry, haul [verb] [sjouwde, gesjouwd] [‘sjou-wun’]

"Sjouwen" is to carry with a lot of effort and possibly difficulty. It implies that whatever you carry is heavy.

Examples:
– "Kun je mij aanstaande zaterdag helpen met het sjouwen van een paar dozen?"
("Can you help me haul a few boxes this coming Saturday?" )

– "Ga je even mee naar de supermarkt? Anders moet ik zo sjouwen met al die tassen."
("Will you come with me to the supermarket? If not, I have to lug all the bags (so much)." Literally:"… with all those bags." To our German readers: don’t mistake "tas" for "Tasse" (like we do when we try to speak German 😉 ).)

Related words:
– "Rondsjouwen": to drag about/around, to lug around.
– "Slepen": to drag, lug, or to tow.
– "Tillen": to carry.

of bad quality, of low significance, rubbishy, not cool [adjective] [‘flut‘]

"Flut" is used to say informally that something is not to one’s liking. Usually this is because it’s of bad quality or just not cool. You can’t really use "flut" for "nonsense" in itself, like the English "rubbish", but in combinations it’s possible (see Examples).

There are many ways in Dutch to express that something is not to one’s liking, in other words: that something sucks 🙂 We’ll cover a few under Extra, ranging in mildness and vulgarity.

Examples:
– "Hé, bevalt je nieuwe stereo?" – "Niet echt, het is een flutapparaat!"
("Hey, do you like your new hifi set?" – "Not really, it’s a crappy device." The Dutch commonly refer to a hifi set as a "stereo".)

– "Dit is echt flut…ik ben weer eens blut."
("This really not cool…I’m broke again.")

– "Wat een flutargument!"
("Nonsense!" Literally: "what a rubbish/absurd/nonsensical argument!")

– "Heb jij ‘Spaceballs’ gezien? Wat een flutfilm!" – "Nee man, die film is geniaal!!"
("Did you see ‘Spaceballs’ ? I think that movie is rubbish!" – "No way dude, that movie is brilliant!!")

– "Heb je nog wat kunnen krijgen voor je auto?" – "Ja, een flutbedrag!"
("Have you been able to get something in return for your car?" – "Yeah, like nothing!" A "bedrag" is an "amount" and "flutbedrag" is something like a "measly sum".)

Extra: here are some other ways to say that something is not to your liking 🙂
– "Dit is pet": follow the link for explanation.
– "Dit is shit": no explanation needed.
– "Dit is kut": this is very informal, "kut" is slang for vagina.
– "Dit is klote": again very informal, "klote" is short for "kloten": slang for testicles.
– "Dit is vervelend": this is unfortunate/annoying.
– "Dit is onfortuinlijk": this is unfortunate.
– "Dit is ruk": literally "this is wank/jerk", a good translation of "this sucks"; derived from "rukken": to jerk off, to wank.
– "Dit is but": derived from English "butt", another good equivalent for "this sucks".
– "Dit is balen": this is unfortunate, this sucks, this is upsetting etc.
– "Dit is jammer": this is unfortunate/a pity.
– "Dit is niet tof": this is not cool.

broke, out of money [adjective] [‘blut‘]

"Blut" is used to say informally that you are out of money. It can be used for both a temporary and more permanent state of being broke.

Examples:
– "Kun jij je zus geld lenen? Ze is weer eens blut."
("Can you lend your sister (some) money? Once again she is broke.")

– "Heb jij nog flappen? Ik ben blut."
("Do you have money left? I’m broke.")

– "Meestal ben ik blut ruim voor het einde van de maand…"
("Usually I’m broke way before the end of the month…")

Expressions:
– "Volkomen blut": flat broke. Literally "completely broke".
– "Iemand blut spelen": to clean someone out.

Example:
– "Ik ben gisteren blut gespeeld aan de blackjacktafel."
("I was cleaned out yesterday at the blackjack table.")

Related words:
– "Platzak": this is a synonym for "blut" and literally means "flat pocket".
– "Arm": poor.

1. fag, smoke, cig(arette) [noun] [de peuk, de peuken] [‘peuk‘]

“Peuk” is a popular synonym for cigarette. It is always used informally. The original translation of “peuk”, see 2. below, is also common.

Examples:
– “Heb je een euro voor me? Ik wil peuken halen bij het café op de hoek van de straat.”
(“Do you have a euro (for me)? I want to get cigarettes in the bar at the corner of the street.”)

– “Kan ik een peuk van je bietsen?”
(“Can you spare me a fag? / Can I have a smoke from you?” Literally: “Can I bum/scrounge a fag of you?”)

– “Op de grond ligt een tapijt van peuken.”
(“A carpet of (cigarette) butts lies on the floor.” See Extra below.)

Related words:
– “Sigaret”: cigarette.
– “Een pakje peuken”: a pack of smokes/fags.
– “Aansteker“: lighter.
– “Opsteken”: to light (up).

2. butt, stub [noun] [de peuk, de peuken] [‘peuk‘]

Examples:
– “Na de lunchpauze liggen er buiten overal peuken op de grond.”
(“After the lunchbreak, there are (cigarette) butts all over the place outside.” Lit. “… lie all over the place…”)

– “In het studentenhuis hing een stank van peuken en verschaald bier.”
(“In the students’ house there was a stench of fags and stale beer.” Lit.: “…there hung a stench…”)

Extra:
From 1990 to 2005, the show “Jiskefet” was broadcast on the Dutch television. It was a show with various humoristic and absurdistic sketches. One of the recurring sketches was three snob students bragging about drinking beer and shagging women. In one episode, there’s the song “Er zit een haar in m’n glas (start 1.45)” (there’s a hair in my glass), which also contains the line: “op de grond ligt een tapijt van peuken” (on the floor lies a carpet of (cigarette) butts).

The diminutive of “peuk” is “peukje” and the informal diminutive is “peukie”. There is a beach restaurant/bar in Scheveningen that is called “peukie”: http://www.peukie.nl . They apparantly also claim to be a steakhouse 🙂