Why the Dutch Language is a pain in my A$$

[@koenvanasch]

Mag ik jouw kussen?: ‘Can I have your pillow?’ Mag ik jou kussen?: ‘Can I kiss you?’

[@TheRealTricky]

Wat 1 letter kan doen..... Nou ja, mijn Franse leraar had het ooit over dat je in een restaurant in Frankrijk duidelijk om POISSON moet vragen en niet om POISON, anders krijg je geen vis maar vergif. Ook weer 1 letter verschil. Nederlands is dus niet uniek.

[@BobWitlox]

Poisson en poison spreek je alleen anders uit. Die 2 Nederlandse zinnen klinken hetzelfde.

[@TheRealTricky]

@@BobWitlox Niet helemaal waar, daar je de "w" wel degelijk uit hoort te spreken, maar omdat we een beetje lui zijn of gewoon te snel spreken valt hij soms een beetje weg, en hij is ook moeilijk te horen als mensen het wel goed zeggen. Officieel is de "w" niet stil. In de praktijk komt het wel zo over.

[@sleepsmartsmashstress740]

kissing and pillow are sementically close Germans do it too

[@CapitalTeeth]

"Jouw" is addressing something the person you're talking to has. "Jou" is addressing the person you're talking to. I hope this clears it up.

[@Nickachuuuuu]

"If one of you guys know the rule, let me know in the comments." Bold of you to assume the Dutch language HAS rules.

[@JeeWeeD]

woordenlijst.org/leidraad

[@mrjules1982]

They're more like... guidelines 😉.

[@ps1hagrid268]

Oh they are there but they just only work for 75% of the time

[@TheB0sss]

Exceptions make the rules

[@toaojjc]

@@mrjules1982 totally a pirate code.

[@forkless]

Fun fact: A fair number of Dutch natives can not conjugate verbs properly.

[@Felixr2]

It's not limited to just verbs, either

[@Treinbouwer]

Er zijn idd veel te veel mensen die veel te veel fouten maken. (Dialectiek uiteraard niet meegerekend, dat zou niet eerlijk zijn)

[@lolman2045]

Ja echt he

[@frogstereighteeng5499]

I was born in the Netherlands and did not learn how to write until I was 15 or 16. Still bloody well confused about everything in writing.

[@patrickwalt6903]

Yeah they switch up a d with a t a lot and the other way around, since we pronounce them the same. Immigrants often do it better, because they just learn the rules.

[@keesvandersar7063]

Yep, these are the hard things in Dutch. As a native I even struggle with these too. I often have to stop writing in the middle of a sentence to check if I am doing it right.

[@cristinam9861]

🤯really? but WHY ?

[@imweaird7557]

Same

[@Jblah]

Noob

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

But it doesn’t have to be that way tho - grammar rules and words can be changed to make the language easier to speak etc and to improve it... I like the articles de and het... But I don’t like the idea of putting the verbs at the end (in longer sentences) and, time should be added before the pronoun or at the end of the sentence, and more commas should be used to make it easier to read the sentences, and some of the pronouns should be changed... When it comes to pronunciation, they should no longer use the hard G because it sounds bad as the sound of clearing one’s throat - the ultra soft G should be used instead, where the G is pronounced like a normal G close to an H or like an H or like combination of G + H, and I noticed that a lot of them are using a soft G, esp the younger people...

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

The logically correct pronouns would (and should) be... Ik ^ mij / me ^ mijn jij ^ jou / je ^ jouw hij ^ hem / he ^ hijn sij ^ har / se ^ sijn Et ^ em ^ eijn Xej ^ Xie / Xe ^ Xijn (for feminine flowers / plants / fruits etc and for me) U ^ Uj ^ Uw (can only be used when talking with me) Nej ^ Nar / Ne ^ Nijn (for me / flowers) Gij ^ Hon / Ge / Hun ^ Gijn (for my pure protectors aka the alphas and for trees and other masculine plants / elements of nature and for me as The God / my masculine personalities) Qij / Qe ^ Kyr / Ke ^ Qwijn (for / about me) wij / we ^ ons ^ onze (not sure about this one) jijllie ^ jijlle ^ jouws dij / de ^ dem ^ deijn (for m - moving objects aka humn / non-humn animIs) zij / ze ^ zem ^ zeijn (for non-m - moving objects aka humn / non-humn animIs) tij / te ^ tem ^ teijn (for both m and non-m - moving objects) Nij / ne ^ nem ^ neijn (for neutral non-moving objects / elements / beings / nature and for both feminine and masculine plants / trees / flowers and for me) Vij / ve ^ vem ^ veijn (for trees / masculine plants / my protectors / me) Xij / xe ^ xem ^ xeijn (for me and for flowers / plants / fruits who are also feminine like me) (Some of these could be better, I might come up with better ideas for the ones that don’t sound right...)

[@yvesvandevyvere3463]

You should read e-mails/letters between native Dutch speakers: the amount of -dt, -tte, -dde, -d mistakes you find is enormous. While it's actually not difficult.

[@jarosbodytko6462]

It really isn't difficult. And don't get me started on social media. That's just an excuse to make stupid 'mistakes' on purpose. And still people expect to be taken seriously in a discussion when they don't even bother to check their spelling.

[@dickyyaa959]

Maybe it isn’t difficult to you, but not every human being is as skilled as the other. Not everyone is able to pick up the spellingrules.

[@therealcleany]

@@dickyyaa959 although in this case it really just isn't.

[@royjansen93]

Tte or te. Dde or de is just stupid. But d or dt is like your and you’re in English.

[@TheRealTricky]

The more trivial the challenge the more mistakes there will be. And those mistakes actually predate the internet, so why is social media brought up?

[@thomasoffereins]

Just of think of it as “half a mile” - you are half way to 3 o clock: so “half 3”

[@GrouchierThanThou]

That's not helpful at all though, because you wouldn't say anything like: "It's half a mile less than 4 from here." Instead you would just say: "It's 3 and a half miles from here."

[@sarahalicewyndham1288]

That helps! Half way til 3. Thanks

[@GrouchierThanThou]

​@@sarahalicewyndham1288 Halfway til 3 miles is 1.5 miles though. So no, that doesn't help.

[@RH-ro3sg]

I'd interpret it as 'half (an hour to) three' which would be quite similar to 'quarter to three', imho. It's just that we abbreviated it and omitted the "an hour to" part, which isn't confusing in Dutch, since we never use the 'half past' construction.

[@erwindewilde1930]

if you don't understand Dutch, don't start to fully understand. your American English is also sometimes irritating ....... or annoying, but that has more to do with the pronunciation, than with the vocabulary, and conjugations Australians even worse

[@thomasbrevink]

With the using of "koftschip" in the past tence it's important you pick the right stem. Correct is: Ik verf (i paint) Ik verfde (i painted) Although the F is in "koftschip" You have to take the verb 'verven'. The V (-en) is not in "koftschip" sow you get +de. Another example is: ik verhuisde (i moved). Verb is: verhuiZen.

[@caseykilmore]

This is true I should have included this as an example this is great feedback

[@h4pp13]

Ik heb een hoop: ‘I have got a lot’ Ik heb hoop: ‘I am hopefull’ Daar ligt een hoop: ‘There lays a pile’

[@ivodekler7786]

This one is hard when you learn English: remembering when to use single or double L. In this case it's "hopeful" (= hoopvol, alleen de engelse suffix "-ful" betekent niet "vol" volgens mij)

[@klontjespap]

@@ivodekler7786nouja in het geval van "hopeful" is het wel "hoopvol", maar normaal gesproken zou ik het ook eerder met met -lijk of -baar associeren inderdaad, maar als je gaat kijken op hoe je het hier zou zeggen, is het all over the place wonderful -> wonderbaar. hateful/-> zou ik als haatvol vertalen resentful -> haatdragend/rancuneus? playful -> speels (WTF is going on here?) geen touw aan vast te knopen eigenlijk :')

[@DiederikAms]

Not about Dutch vs English, but nevertheless always funny to remember “Attention, n’escalier pas dans cette espoire, car elle est encore semaine” 😂

[@zimonzieclown1633]

@@ivodekler7786 It does if you consider "hopeful" to mean "full of hope".

[@BobWitlox]

I think of "half 3" as being "halfway to 3 o'clock", so in that sense it's logical it's half past 2.

[@GabrielPettier]

I understand it kind of the same, "3 minus a half", but "half 3" would logicaly mean 1.5, which is kind of confusing. The way the dutch language expresses numbers confuses me as well, saying units before dozens is weird, and even more so when you have longer numbers like "drie onderd en fijv en seztig". (and I can't imagine the hurdle pronuncing a number in the hundreds of thousands).

[@BobWitlox]

3 o'clock is fully 3. 2:30 halfway from 2 to 3. So it's "half". I think that's the origin of the Dutch "half". As a native Dutch speaker, some numbers confuse me too. But only combinations of 7, 8 and 9, somehow. So for instance 78 or 89. I have to think for a moment, or when someone says the number and I have to write them down, I have to think. For the others I instinctively have a feeling for the number, such as 65 or 38. No thinking required. I just know them.

[@PVComedy]

romeinse cijfers bro ez pz IV is toch ook 4

[@pieterbrouns3030]

Driemiljoenvijfhonderddrieentachtigduizendtweehonderdnegenendertig is 3583239

[@marleenb2979]

if you think about it it actually makes sense. take centuries. the year 134 starts with a 1, which could cause the confusing of it being first century, but if you start at 0, 0-100 is first century and 100-200 is second. its the same for time. 0:00-1:00 is the first hour, so naturally 0:30 would be half one-halfway the first hour. and halfway the second hour -half 2- is 1:30. also a shorter trick is to remember that quaters can be quater to six or quater past six, and just like those use the other one than you are used to, so half to six instead of half past five.

[@Rebberfoon]

OMG the 'hoor je dat' was so smooth sounding

[@kaans695]

also "verleden tijd", your dutch sounds nice

[@rutgerdemuelenaere2363]

The 'd/t' issue is a sizeable pain in the backside for native dutch speakers as well. And I feel obliged to compliment you on your pronunciation of the dutch words and phrases, you sound better than some native dutchies I know.

[@j.hensbergen6022]

There is no -t or -d issue. Just -t or not.

[@mariadebake5483]

I always thought it very easy to use d/t. No problem

[@j.hensbergen6022]

@@mariadebake5483 there is no issue d or t, just t or not. As a teacher I don't understand why people think it is hard to do. Every child learns this at age 7 (stam + t)

[@mariadebake5483]

@@j.hensbergen6022 Well I don't understand why some people think it difficult either

[@magc_csgo7098]

@@j.hensbergen6022 they mix it up because of the ‘voltooid deelwoorden’. Then ‘betalen’ becomes ‘hij heeft betaald’ and you add the -d. Most people then assume the -d also is used in the 2e persoon enkelvoud en will write ‘hij betaald de rekening’ although the very simple rules state it is always stam + t, except if the stam already ends with -t. That is the only exception, but still most people assume the rule is far more complicated.

[@Jacob-W-5570]

Koftschip ?? it's " 't kofschip" which is an actual ship type. te veel and teveel are both correct, they are different words :D

[@harrytimmer2934]

We used fokschaap

[@nathalievogel9253]

@@harrytimmer2934 and we used t ex-fokschaap 😂

[@heroicnonsense]

​@@nathalievogel9253 xtc-koffieshop, 't sexy fokschaap, kofschiptaxi... allemaal in omloop. De "x" is toegevoegd omdat er in de huidige "groene" spelling veel Engelse werkwoorden zijn "gelegaliseerd" die voorheen op "-ks" eindigden en nu op "-x" (zoals "faxen")

[@blondedarkness6258]

t ex kofschip

[@Tristanimator_]

We used het sexy fokschaap

[@weejeekaa]

You join words together when it's one term, it's a thing on its own. Like a rugzak (a 'zak' for your 'rug'). But when one part of the word is an added description to the term, it is loose from the rest of the word. So you would say a 'blauwe rugzak' and not 'blauwerugzak' because that second way of spelling it would mean all backpacks are blue, or blue backpacks is a concept on its own. So it's sort of the difference between a noun and an adjective. In that way, the noun 'overload' is 'teveel' but when you say there's too much of something it's 'te veel' cause ' te' adds information to the 'veel'. I don't know if this is clear hahaa

[@mauritsponnette]

I'm sorry for commenting six months late, but wow, you just blew my mind! I've been speaking Dutch my whole life and hadn't a clue as to how to stick things together. Danku makker 😂🙏

[@SatumangoTheGreat]

@@mauritsponnette Same here :-)

[@magc_csgo7098]

Or maybe a better example: langeafstandsloper means someone who walks long distances. But a Lange afstandsloper means someone who walks distances (not particularly long distances) and who is long. A langeafstands loper would mean someone who walks and is a long distance, which makes no sense in either Dutch or English. So if you add a single word in front, it will affect the entire word after that word, and if you join them together, it will affect the next part of that word. So Lange in langeafstandsloper only affects the ‘afstand’ in the example, while Lange in ‘Lange afstandsloper’ will affect the complete ‘afstandsloper’.

[@florisvansandwijk6908]

You really have a good grasp of Dutch, I think. You know more about the grammatical rules than many Dutch people. So don't worry about these little annoyances.

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

The flower / nature related names Flor (in Floris) and sand (in Sandwijk) must be edited out and changed - flowers and nature related terms only reflect me (as do all other big terms) and cannot be misused in names etc!

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

The logically correct pronouns would (and should) be... Ik ^ mij / me ^ mijn jij ^ jou / je ^ jouw hij ^ hem / he ^ hijn sij ^ har / se ^ sijn Et ^ em ^ eijn Xej ^ Xie / Xe ^ Xijn (for feminine flowers / plants / fruits etc and for me) U ^ Uj ^ Uw (can only be used when talking with me) Nej ^ Nar / Ne ^ Nijn (for me / flowers) Gij ^ Hon / Ge / Hun ^ Gijn (for my pure protectors aka the alphas and for trees and other masculine plants / elements of nature and for me as The God / my masculine personalities) Qij / Qe ^ Kyr / Ke ^ Qwijn (for / about me) wij / we ^ ons ^ onze (not sure about this one) jijllie ^ jijlle ^ jouws dij / de ^ dem ^ deijn (for m - moving objects aka humn / non-humn animIs) zij / ze ^ zem ^ zeijn (for non-m - moving objects aka humn / non-humn animIs) tij / te ^ tem ^ teijn (for both m and non-m - moving objects) Nij / ne ^ nem ^ neijn (for neutral non-moving objects / elements / beings / nature and for both feminine and masculine plants / trees / flowers and for me) Vij / ve ^ vem ^ veijn (for trees / masculine plants / my protectors / me) Xij / xe ^ xem ^ xeijn (for me and for flowers / plants / fruits who are also feminine like me) (Some of these could be better, I might come up with better ideas for the ones that don’t sound right...)

[@salome_psychostudy_asd]

I'm improving my English at the same time as I'm learning Dutch, you're teaching me both in your videos thank you so much!!

[@joriskbos1115]

The reason "half drie" is 2:30 in Dutch is that it really means halfway through the third hour, instead of half past three in English which gets shortened to half three

[@HerveusGalli]

As a linguistics student I noticed a far easier way (I think) for remembering when to use -te or -de than 't kofschip. Namely, when the last consonant of a verb stem (infinitive minus -en) is voiceless, use -te, when it is voiced, use -de. (voice is the difference between s and z). Note that there used to be a difference in voice between 'g' and 'ch' (voiced and voiceless) but in most dialects this has disappeared. Still, it's slagen --> slaagde and lachen --> lachte.

[@bosoerjadi2838]

I used to confuse whether 't kofschip meant using -te or -de. To me it seemed more natural to conjugate with -te than -de so if 't kofschip indicated the exceptions to the natural form, I tended to associate it with -de. Which is the wrong assumption, of course. Lots of low marks until I finally got it right.

[@kim831]

for the d/t i usually replace the verb with lopen which makes it easier, also just a heads-up it's actually 't kofschip x, the x is also part of it

[@bobjansen6632]

Most of these mistakes are still made by at least 30% of native speakers. things like: beter dan jou, die huis and roepte are things you hear almost daily over here.

[@forkless]

Not sure if this can be quantified in numbers, but you are right. Many of these written mistakes are fairly common with Dutch native speakers -- people in academia included.

[@ehekkert]

The one that irritates me the most is the incorrect use of hun. Hun is what we call a 'bezittelijk voornaamwoord' which indicates possession, 'hun huis' (their house), 'hun auto' (their car) but all to frequently you will hear 'hun hebben ... ' (they have ...) which to be fair if used as 'hun hebben een auto' (they have a car) could be seen as indication possession but should have been 'zij hebben een auto'.

[@NeoOnyx]

It amazes me how kids nowadays can't write or speak proper Dutch. And since social media came about it's gotten even worse. If you correct them, you can expect a tsunami of comments on that, so I won't do that ;-) And also if I'm watching an English spoken movie on tv, I notice real dumb mistakes in the translation. If the character talks about the number 57, it's translated to 75. Or when they talk about 'the second floor', it's translated to 'de tweede verdieping'. Those are things a translator should know. I know it's a bit off-topic, but I just wanted to mention it.

[@forkless]

@@NeoOnyx Or not even being able to use the proper articles. Another pet peeve is the wrong use of enige and enigste.

[@DavidNijman]

@@ehekkert Don't forget : Hun en hen...;-)

[@eizeoosting843]

About the clock, we typically only use the 24 hour notation when writing the digital version, but never in speaking. In speaking, we always visualize the analog clock in mind. So, we would write 15:25 but when spoken we would say “5 voor half 4” and we hardly ever have to clarify am or pm because most of the time this is clear out of the context or expectation. When saying it, I picture the analog clock, I would not picture it to the digital form 3:25 or 15:25. Interesting point about having to append an ‘e’ or not and whether we really need ‘de’ en ‘het’. There are cases where the difference is useful. A sample is the difference between: - De zware verrotte pompoen - De zwaar verrotte pompoen In the first sample, the pumpkin is both heavy and rotten. In the second sample the pumpkin is heavily rotten. When we change ‘de’ to ‘een’ thing remain the same. - Een zware verrotte pompoen - Een zwaar verrotte pompoen However, for words with ‘het’, things turn different for ‘een’ - Het zware verrotte dier - Het zwaar verrotte dier With ‘een’ for a ‘het’ word, we never amend the ‘e’ - Een zwaar verrot dier This could have both meanings, the animal being heavy and rotten, or the animal being heavily rotten. Just to confuse everybody :-)

[@blueey2938]

i have mad respect for all foreigners trying to learn dutch, even the dutch don't know the grammar rules

[@pacman22XD]

When conjugating verbs that end with a d, try temporarily replacing the verb with one that doesn't end with a d to check if it needs a t or not.

[@SanderOpdam]

I love it when foreigners explain my language. I honestly never noticed the articles de and het and diminutives pattern. Thank you for that 😊

[@Doeff8]

For the d/t there are rules. What always helped me is replacing the verb with 'lopen' (to walk). If intuitively a t is needed, you know what to do.

[@Dutch_Pancake]

When "je" comes after the verb, the "t" isn't added also. For example: "Dan verbrand je je niet." A lot of Dutch people find the language confusing too.

[@GabrielPettier]

too what? oh…

[@Dutch_Pancake]

@@GabrielPettier confusing. Sorry, forgot to insert the word. xD

[@GabrielPettier]

@@Dutch_Pancake i though it was a joke about ”erg” :)

[@Dutch_Pancake]

@@GabrielPettier Lol, didn't even think about that. Good one, haha. xD

[@GrouchierThanThou]

@@GabrielPettier Ergt grappig.

[@robgerhardterellen1488]

You are so cute ♡ explaining why learning Dutch is such a frustating experience. Be happy taking intro consideration most native people from the Netherlands with the same feeling.

[@wardenzo]

Even as a native speaker it took me ten years (from learning about it in groep 6 van de basisschool) to really get a natural feeling for -dt. Before that I used to mentally replace the verb in question with lopen to find out whether I had to use -dt. Every time.

[@nlbergsma]

Do the same. Very effective. But it does not help a foreigner of course.

[@TheJAMF]

1:45 Talking to friends in the UK you have to be alert, because depending on who you talk to, they use both. I don't think it's location dependant, because one is from Coventry and one's from Sheffield. Half three is not the same as half past three.

[@liggie60]

I recognize this as well. When speaking to my friend in Morecambe he uses the term "half three" for 2:30, but his wife uses "half past two" He originates from Basildon (with Scottish ancestry, I believe), his wife is from Cumbria. Can you imagine the confusion setting the time for supper ? Either one of them will find the dog in the bowl (de hond in de pot).

[@rongart5989]

Geweldige uitleg! Het zou voor een hoop mensen die hier geboren zijn ook zinnig zijn om naar te kijken. Prima filmpjes allemaal, een feestje om naar te kijken/luisteren.

[@jv.g1589]

Zeker,! Voor het eerst in 50 jaar is het nu wel duidelijk!

[@richarddury1]

Past tense choice of T/D is the same as in English pronunciation: cookT, coughT, passT, wishT etc. vs gagD, lovD, buzD, ageD --- a voiceless sound is followed by a voiceless T, a voiced sound by voiced D. It's a way of keeping vocal chords from having to switch from not vibrating to vibrating and vice versa. (Then English confused things by changing the spelling to 'd' in most cases.)

[@kassange]

Hahaha loving this video! As a native speaker I still sometimes struggle with the joining together of words. I often find myself doing a google search to make sure I spell adverbs like 'desalniettemin' right

[@Kelkschiz]

My number one annoyance is that we 'say' the two-digit numbers in reversed order. So we say "zevenendertig" for the number 37, we first say the last digit as it were. The English way of saying numbers is to just name them in order from left to right. So thirty-seven in the above case. That just seems so much more logical and convenient. Often I have to think twice, especially when using both Dutch and English equally during the day. The things you mentioned all came naturally to me, that is I didn't have to formally learn the rules for them. The only exception is the 'dt' thingy, which took me a while to grasp and apply correctly as well. Probably because you can't hear what is happening.

[@caseykilmore]

YESSSSS!!!!!

[@svschouw]

Hard agree! I also use a lot of dutch and english during the day and when I need to read a number like "137" aloud I often accidentally say "honderddrieënzeventig" before correcting myself (or I would just say 1-3-7). I'm seriously considering just pronouncing it like "honderddertigzeven" in the hope it catches on.

[@merel.a.m]

Me, as a native Dutch speaker, still have troubles with the 'tt', 'dd', 'dt', or the 'd' or 't' at the end.

[@j.hensbergen6022]

zwak werkwoord krijgt in de verleden tijd alleen te/de (ev) of ten/den (mv) achter de stam. That's it!

[@andyhorvath6630]

I really admire your ability to speak Dutch and your pronunciation! My family from Australia doesn't come near! About multiple meanings of words: "Zij vroeg haar haar haar te doen" (she asked her to do her hair) And about long words; try Hungarian (or Gaelic, but I don't speak that): eltöredezettségmentesítőtleníttethetetlenségtelenítőtlenkedhetnétek (which roughly translates to: you will be indestructible), but you will never hear anyone use this long words in real life

[@Mnkomi7655]

Love your channel. It’s relaxing to listen to you while at the same time I learn more than I did at school. So many ‘aha’ moments.

[@JustCurious_eu]

I am a Dutch native speaker and I have the same issue with time... and that is because I was raised not in “algemeen Nederlands”, which is the official Dutch language, but in a West Flanders dialect. In our dialect expressing time goes like in English. Trouble for me started in primary school and honestly trouble is still not over while in the meantime I am way in my fifties... Indeed, still recently I missed an appointment by an hour due to the “half hour” expression: I was convinced the appointment was at 7:30, while it actually was at “half zeven”. Just to say, I totally understand your confusion.

[@B0K1T0]

11:18 Actually "te veel" is written as "teveel" when it's a noun, to make things more complicated.. :D

[@trudy7944]

Example: Het teveel aan suiker, kun je weghalen. Er zijn te veel mensen in de kamer. Instagram: VOLLEZIN

[@marleen771]

@@trudy7944 Eindelijk iemand die mij hierover een concreet voorbeeld geeft! Super blij mee. Dank je :-)

[@FredtheFrisian]

I really love your observations. There are a lot of things we take for granted in our (mother)language and our customs and it is refreshing to look at it from a different perspective. Some things you come across are perhaps somewhat less difficult or strange; for instance, you compare words with the same spelling (meer, weer, erg). But they are used clearly different, because one is a noun or an adjective and the other an adverb. I think you can find words with different meanings in English as well, though I can't think of one now. Regarding the frustration of "de" en "het": I can understand you perfectly, but on the other hand: you can consider yourself "privileged", because the English language is more of an exception than the Dutch; it even gets more complicated when you have to speak German (die, der, das). Thanks for all your insights, keep on sharing them!

[@happyspanners]

Weg makes more sense when you think of the English words “way” and “away”, which are obviously cognates.

[@marmura]

I just started learning Dutch, and god it is a struggle for me. But now I feel more at ease knowing that it is genuinely a hard language and it's not just me being a dummy.

[@CouldBeMathijs]

Hoe gaat het daar nu mee? Lukt het een beetje?

[@pbhuygen]

I truely admire your dedication. May it be a sort of consolation - most Dutch don't score an A on these 'rules'.

[@woodychopp]

The best way to conceptualize the time is that english speakers count from and to the hour where dutch speakers count from and to the half hour. So everything up to a quarter before or after the hour and half hour gets linked to that. That's why you don't only have ten past two but also ten past half (to) three (2:40). The half hour before instead of after the hour is because if you want to leave at 3 you get to say "half an hour before 3". It's just more logical to us.

[@michelleken.]

Yes, there's indeed a small difference between "te veel" and "teveel", although they eventually contribute the same meaning to a sentence. "Teveel" is acyually (just like "tekort") a noun. It is "het teveel" or "een teveel" (literally translated: "a toomuch" or "a toomany", which obviously doesn't exist in English.) and is usually used together with the word "aan". While "te veel" is an adjective used together with "te" (= "too") like in "too strong" = "te sterk". For example: "Er is een teveel aan kippen in de schuur.", while "te veel" (= too much/too many) would actually be used like this: "Er zijn te veel kippen in de schuur". So "teveel" is used like a noun, while "te veel" is just used like an adjective like in English. Both sentences would be translated as "There are too many chickens in the barn.", but only the last one can bet literally translated like this (te veel = too many/too much) (You obviously can not say "There's a toomuch/toomany of chickens in the barn.") and the first one can not be translated literally due to the fact that there is no literal translation for the word "teveel" in English. I hope you understand it a little more with this explanation! ;) Succes! Nice video btw! :)))

[@ingridaalderink1411]

Teveel = there is an "excess" of something Te veel = there are "too many" of something

When i was small i learned a little rhyme from my grandfather. Try to say it fast and it could become a "tongbreker". Toen mijn moeder aan de was, was. Zag ze twee vliegen, vliegen. Er was een bij, bij. Die vloog onder de deur, deur. En over de weg, weg. The second "deur" means door in the Brabants dialect. Would you say that in ABN, the rhyme would have been broken.

[@windmill1965]

A "teveel" can be translated as a surplus. And a "tekort" as a shortage. Identical to teveel/tekort are the words surplus and shortage nouns.

[@sanderd17]

Yeah, in our dialect we also use the "3 and a half" form to express 3:30. So it's hard to tell the time to a real Dutch speaker. We can only distinguish the form "3 and a half" vs "half 3". But I'm done English regions, they even use "half 3" to express 3:30. That just adds to the confusing.

[@snoopiiii]

What do you get with having more water, a lake. That's how I imagine they share the same word.

[@dutchman7623]

More or moor? When a ditch contains moor water and ends up in a clear river, the river contains less moor water. Something you can clearly sea. 😊

[@TheHansoost]

I was born in Utrecht but was carried off to Canada when only 4, so my Dutch is kitchen Dutch, that is, what I heard my family talk about. I have struggled to keep up with the language . My reading is improving but writing (syntax esp.) Is difficult. Thanks for your explanations. Your pronunciation is really very good, excellent in fact.

[@camillawilliams3954]

Actually it is: 't Kofschip instead of "koftschip". The result is the same but that's the correct dutch phrase.

[@megalondonkleuter]

Well... " t' ex fokschaap "

[@karensantana5849]

I also know it with the name of Koffieshop and then you dont use the vowels :-)

[@swekflikkr]

@@karensantana5849 yhea, its XTC koffieshop!

[@EJannings]

@@megalondonkleuter Ik dacht dat dat niet hoefde, omdat het oorspronkelijk om de klank zou gaan. Een x klink als ks en die zitten allebei al in het 't kofschip. Een d klinkt echter niet 100% hetzelfde als een t, en ook een v zou eigenlijk niet hetzelfde als een f moeten klinken, dus daar geldt dat niet voor.

[@megalondonkleuter]

@@EJannings Daar zit wel wat in, inderdaad een X klink als KS, maar iemand die een taal leert kun je niet van uit gaan dat KS ook voor de X gelt. Als dat wel zo zou zijn, dan zou diegene ook denken dat de T ook op een D klink. Of de F op een V, of de S op een Z. Dus om verwarringen te voorkomen is het beter om ook de X toch bij te noteren. Dus: t' ex kofschip, of 't ex fokschaap Nog een klein voorbeeldje (om het af te leren): Fixen, fixten Ik fix, fixte Jij fixt, fixte Hij/zij/het fixt, fixte

[@helloitsme7553]

11:30 a lot of dutch people don't know which you stick together and which not. It's just intuition for most of us

[@martvandenmunckhof9573]

Hallo Casey , je doet het geweldig. Je weet meer van de Nederlandse taal dan menig Nederlander. I would like to know so mutch about your language. Please go on With your films onnYoyTube.

[@ehekkert]

Words with multiple meanings are also quite common in English. A few examples. left (I left the house / to the left) right (that is right / go right at the lights) park (park the car / in the park) bark (tree bark / dog bark) crane (bird / construction) bit (a little bit / she bit into an apple / a byte is eight bit ) address (to address the crowd / what is the address) rock (the music / a stone) tender (gentle / legal tender)

[@BugzFilms]

Jam- has about 3 meaning. Strawberry jam... traffic jam. Music jam session

[@hfokker9562]

@@BugzFilms but al the jams are something that is kind of jammed...

[@merelklopper3749]

i promise babe, even natives struggle with this! dutch is very difficult, i can't imagine learning it if you're not native. you're amazing!

[@padraigpearse1551]

There is actually a waterbased meer in english too. A mere is a shallow lake so the dutch makes a bit more sense when you know that and it probably stems from the german "meer" meaning sea

[@rasmusvanwerkhoven1962]

MEER waterig WEER op de WEG en in het MEER gaat uiteindelijk wel WEER WEG.

[@im2274]

seriously i want to cry

[@rasmusvanwerkhoven1962]

@@im2274 oh, how come? Is it because of my comment? If that’s the case, then I’m so sorry for sending it.

[@Crunch0r]

1:44 Another way to see it (and in my opinion the most logical/easy) is to think of it as: *_halfway_* towards *_3_* o'clock. Or: you have *_half_* of the full *_3_* o'clock.

[@Aragorn.Strider]

12:39 Humor: "Ging ik naar het strand en wat denk je ? Strand weg" HAHAHA (should be strandweg)

[@henridejong9433]

De grap werkt beter met restaurant...

[@elmartee4061]

Hi, great fun video. As a tip to understand the “‘t kofschip” rule, it is easier to understand it in terms of voiced and unvoiced sounds. If the stem ends with an unvoiced sound, the next d/t remains unvoiced (so the t) to make it easier to pronounce. Ik fiets->ik fietste->ik heb gefietst. Stems ending with a voiced sound get the voiced variant (d). Ik brand->ik brandde->ik heb gebrand. These two examples also show the rule you mentioned of no double t or double d at the end of the word, which is just a fairly arbitrary spelling convention to learn off the top of your head. With beven->ik beef->ik beefde the rule seems not to apply until you realise that we actually voice the f in beefde (as if it is a v). That you have to keep the d in gebeefd is for spelling consistency with beefde, just convention again. Maybe just learn t kofschip :)

[@renepeterse1884]

T, d, dt, learning this is called “struikelblokken” at school, and for a reason

[@demi3115]

Except that there is no such thing as 'dt'..

[@targun6063]

Just use "gij" and "ge" with the correct conjugations and you will see the majority of your teachers struggle with things like "gij werdt".

[@eefaaf]

In Catalan they take it a step further telling time: they talk about 1, 2 or 3 quarts of the hour. So, 3 quarts of 3 means a quarter to 3. And without the number 'quarts of 3' it expresses 'around half past 2'

[@washellwash1802]

What'll really twist your noodle: lake is meer in Dutch but see in German. Sea is zee in Dutch but meer in German. No clue how that happened.

[@clasqm]

They both borrowed the Latin "mare", and applied it to the nearest bit of water. In one case the nearest bit of water was a lake, in the other case ...

[@tmhc72_gtg22c]

A further complication in German is that if "See" is masculine it means lake, but if "See" is feminine it means sea.

[@j.p.vanbolhuis8678]

That is only true for "Hochdeutsch" Plattdeutsch gave the name to the Northsea and the East sea (Nordsee and Ostsee). They do know the difference, but landlocked hochdeutsch does not know about the sea and thus call the largest body of water they know to be a "see"

[@cwtim]

For putting the words together I would think about the word to be sold in one package. See; on the box it writes "Rookmelder". (smoke alarm) separate from each other "Rook Melder", the box mentions to contain smoke and an alarm that would be wrongseparate

[@hfokker9562]

Echt lachen dit kanaal. Genieten gewoon, en dat van m'n eigen taal!

[@glenndb9646]

Great video as always. I have been sharing them with my NT2-students. Native Dutch speaker here and now NT2-teacher (Dutch as a second language). I learned the 't kofship-rule when I was growing up, but I prefer to use 'softketchup x' or 'soft x ketchup' with my students. 't Kofschip has an i in it which can cause confusion. The stem of the verb 'groeien' for example ends in an i and the past tense is 'groeide'. That's why you only use the consonants in 't kofship x. The 'x' was added later to include newer verbs like 'faxen' (faxte) and 'mixen' (mixte). Keep up the great work. Groetjes!

[@GerbenWijnja]

't fokschaap is another one you can use. But half of Dutch people don't bother thinking about it and do it wrong all the time. And most people don't care (except for a grammar nazis like myself), so don't worry too much about forgetting a t after a d. Most people won't even notice if you write "hij vind" instead of "hij vindt". There are more important things to master in Dutch, like writing a t instead of a d, or vice versa. Like: ik vint, or hij loopd. That's just terrible.

[@a.b.8035]

I think it's even easier to teach that voiceless consonants receive an ending -t/-te(n), and all others -d/-de(n)

[@Whistler4u]

When my wife learned Dutch she had the problem of when to use the word "Er" . It's hard to explain this word and when to use it.

[@dutchreagan3676]

Bestaat ook niet in het Limburgs. Het woordje 'er' is onbekend....

[@agceh]

@@dutchreagan3676 Er zijn provincies waar ze dit wel gebruiken..

[@cristinam9861]

What "er" mean?

[@Whistler4u]

@@dutchreagan3676 Dus sprookjesboeken beginnen daar met "Was eens" ?? ;)

[@Whistler4u]

@@cristinam9861 It's a hard one. "Definition of items or people" or a definition of time or place.

[@mieskeb8095]

The verb 'durven' (dare) in the past tense is even harder to add de or te to with the koftschip rule. This verb ends with an 'f' if you spell it in first person (ik durf). It is still spelled with 'de' (ik durfde) instead of 'te' because the verb in it's full word is spelled with a 'v'.

[@marco-lk3hj]

When you pronounce Dutch sentences you kinda sound as a native speaker.

[@different5061]

respect for you to learn all those rules, cos many dutch people don't even know how to write correctly

[@mirola73]

Learn German, A HELL OF A LOT worse ! 16 versions of the word 'the', how many in Dutch ? There you go.

[@rudirestless]

German native speaker here ( and teaching German) . even I sometimes struggle with joining or not joining words together in German. Having been here ten years, I finally understand het koftschip better than before. It took you as a foreigner to explain it to me. Thanks!

[@boudewijnthart3655]

dear Casey, Love your systematic approach to our beautiful language. I was amazed that you didn't mention as annoying the word "er" as in "er is geen brood in huis" Since someyears I'm a "taalcoach" for refugees and "er" is one of the hardest words to explain. Besides that, I can help you out with "weer" When it means weather, it's almost the same as the oldfashioned word "weder" in Dutch. (And "Wetter"in German ). But the Dutch simply shortened "weder" into "weer" taking possible confusion with the meaning "again" for granted

[@o_d1559]

Regarding the "half" time... it is a thing in several countries I know of... once I was studying abroad with a lot of international people and we would do lunch 1 Danish girl, a Swedish guy, an English girl and me (Dutch)... we thought we agreed to meet at half 1 (12:30 in Dutch, Danish, Swedish apparently) and the English girl was the only one showing up at 13:30 :D We were quite hungry by the time she arrived :D

[@sjorsweeda3717]

About the little words with 'te' (and some others): if you could use the second word only and still have a correct sentence, then there is a space most of the time. For example: 'Ik heb te veel huiswerk.' (This is not always true, but is generally a good method)

[@moladiver6817]

I have the same issue with half hour times but the other way around. 😅 To me as a Dutchie the reasoning is this. 3 o'clock means it's 3 at the whole hour. Half 3 is only halfway into that whole hour. It's only half the hour or in other words a half hour before the whole hour (of 3). Aka 2:30. Half a bread is less than a whole bread. Half 3 comes before (whole hour of) 3. The English version is just an abbreviation where you skip the word 'past' which to me is actually quite tricky because I constantly forget which word is being omitted, past or before. 😜 The 24 hour clock is a blessing. The AM / PM system is horribly inconsistent because it goes from 12 to 1, 2, 3 up to 11. 12AM is followed by 1AM. My 24 hour mind always struggles with that system because it wants to go from 1 to 12. So 10AM, 11AM, 12AM.. Nope wrong. 😅 Or after 11 PM comes 12 PM so 12 PM is midnight.. No wrong again. ☺️ The 24 hour system is much more straightforward. Hour 0 to 23, 0 being midnight and 12 being noon. No mistake possible. Sure it takes getting used to the hours from 13 to 23 but if you can subtract 12 that shouldn't be too difficult. And then over time 22:00 just feels like 10PM without thinking. Teveel can be written apart and together. I think there's been a tendency over the centuries to separate these shorter words. For example en de used to be spelled ende centuries ago. In general though I don't think there's a rule so you just gotta memorize the ones that are usually joined. The really long samenstellingen actually have a reasoning behind them. Take your example, meervoudigepersoonlijkheidsstoornis. You could write it as meervoudige persoonlijkheidsstoornis but them meervoudige would reflect on stoornis instead of persoonlijkheid. That would make it a multiple disorder instead of multiple personalities as one disorder. But.. I tend to write these long words apart anyway mostly because auto correct on my phone gets those completely wrong. It's much easier to just write meervoudige persoonlijkheid stoornis on a phone and I do it all the time. Technically it's wrong of course but given the time this way of writing might actually become dominant. And especially Dutch spelling evolves quite fast. A final remark about the neutral gender. There's a shift happening in the Dutch language where het-words are slowly turned into de-words. De meisje, deze dingetje, de gebouw. This happens especially in street language among young people. But there are older examples too. For example in Rotterdam it's quite common to say de zout instead of het zout when you're asking someone to pass the salt at the dinner table. So it seems that the Dutch language is slowly moving towards a one gender system just like English.

[@gert-janvanderlee5307]

6:39 The "Hoor je dat?" was perfect!

[@jv.g1589]

Haar uitspraak is echt geweldig! Ik heb nog nooit iemand (die hier niet is geboren of hier al langer woont) het woord WEG zo perfect horen uitspreken!!

[@andreimircea2254]

As a learner, the syntax still annoys me because I still don’t fully get it despite mostly understanding the general idea. E.g.: Subject + Verb + Object + Verb 2 + ‘connector’ (e.g. “als”) + Subject 2 + Object 2 + Verb 3 + , + (dan) + Verb 4 + Subject 3 + Object 3 + Verb 5. And I also know the rule: Verb + time + manner + place Yet despite know how the theory behind the syntax works, when I write or sometimes say long sentences I still make major mistakes.

[@Floddertje216]

Ik woon sinds 12 jaar in Friesland (in het noorden van Nederland) en daar zegt iedereen ook ‘het is twintig voor drie’ i.p.v. ‘tien over half drie’ of ‘het is twintig over zes’ i.p.v. ‘tien voor half zeven’. Echt opvallend!

[@ewaldhouba]

If someone asks me the time, I often give a very confusing answer. If for instance the time is 15:17, I say (and I can do this without really thinking because I used it often): "Het is twee minuten over kwart voor half vier". In English it is even more complex if you use the "half past": "It is two minutes past a quarter to haf past three". And then look at their faces and let them puzzle it out. Your accent is pretty perfect, by the way.

[@JuliaCheri]

As far as I know the rule for joining words together is: as long as you can pronounce and read it without difficulty, you write them together. But when certain vowels are joined it would make some words difficult to pronounce and read. For instance the word: "auto-uitlaat" (car exhaust pipe), you would write this with a dash because if you write "autouitlaat", the O and U combined would make the existing "OU" sound, which isn't right in this word. But in the word "politieacademie" (police academy) it's not a problem to combine the E and A because "EA" is not an existing sound like "OU", which makes the dash not necessary here.

[@GrouchierThanThou]

To get a grasp on Dutch time telling you might consider that Dutch pretty much treats half hours the way English treats full hours. Consider a dial clock: - In English the "anchor" is at the 12 position and you say how many minutes "to" or "past" the anchor the minutes hand is. This divides time into half hours alternating between M to H and M past H, where M is at most 30 minutes. - In Dutch the anchors are at the 12 and 6 positions and you say how many minutes "voor" or "over" an anchor the minutes hand is. This divides time into quarter hours cycling through M voor half H, M over half H, M voor H, en M over H, where M is at most 15 minutes.

[@joriskbos1115]

One more complaint. The open syllable rule. When there is an open syllable it is always pronounced long, so to make it short you have to double the consonant after. The reason for this is that Dutch used to have "sharp-long" and "soft-long" syllables that had to be represented in spelling, so the one would always be spelled with a double vowel, while the other would make use of the open syllable rule. This means that you had to spell "heeten", "loopen" and "oogen", but "lezen", "haven" and "over". Eventually they did away with this, because no one made this distinction in pronunciation since the middle ages. They made everything follow the open-syllable rule so that the spellings of words with short vowels--and doubled consonants as a result--wouldn't change, but only the words with unnecessary doubled vowels. That does mean we are still left with this open-syllable rule which can cause some confusion, because of other spelling and grammar rules. You write "mede", but also "tweede", but confusion really strikes with the letter "e" with stressed and unstressed syllables. Take for example the words "degelijk" and "tegelijk", in the first word you only pronounce the first "e" long, but in the second only the second "e". It also means that there are words that are pronounced differently, but spelled the same, such as "de gevel" and "het gevel". All these problems would be solved if we did away with the open syllable rule. So "het regent op de regent" would become "het reegent op de regent". And words with doubles consonants such as "letter" and "binnen" would become "leter" and "binen". It may look strange, but I'm sure we can get used to it

[@galavandermeer9408]

We also have "sexy fokschaap" as a substitute for kofschip because that one also adds loan words that end with an x. Like faxen which is gefaxt and faxte in the past tense.

[@DJMpro1999]

Another way to make sense of the time think of it like this: In English you say "a half past three" but in Dutch we say "a half before three" (een half voor drie). The before part is just unspoken.

[@boomholymoly]

U rock!!! 4real Im Dutch and u doing so good. Watching your vids puts a smile on my face on monday mornings like this! Keep it up Casey!

[@ninao8460]

11:08 I think you always write them together if the English version is also 1 word (for all the ones I can think of this quick), so for example because=omdat. The thing with teveel vs te veel is that they actually have a different meaning but sound the exact same. te veel = too much, and in a sentence, it can always be replaced by te weinig = too little, and it talks about another word, so there was too much food, but teveel as one word is a word on it's own, meaning something along the lines of the excess. So either it can be replaced by it's opposite or it is a word on it's own, hope that helps :)

[@CasperEgas]

You write it as one word if you say it in one go, without pause. If this would cause a "klinkerbotsing", like e and e, you would add a - in between. The exception is when using brand names, they are usually written apart, but you are allowed to write them together. Like Nikeschoenen, or Nike schoenen.

[@therealdutchidiot]

You'll love living in the north of the Netherlands, where "10 over half" is largely seen as incorrect we say "20 voor". Also, D and T don't actually have the same sound on the end of the word. It's a subtle difference, but it's there.

[@austinpowersfasjer]

Important to note when using t' Kofschip: do not use the 'ik' vorm. The correct way is to use the infinitive, and then remove -en at the end. Then look at the last letter. This is important as some words (especially with a v and f) can change when pluralising - ik werf; wij werven. This works for past tense and past particle. Also pay special attention when conjugating English words using Dutch rules (yes we do that). Some extra rules apply and the vowels in 't Kofschip do not count in deciding -t or -d. Its more about the sound.

[@SIG442]

The half time thing, well allow me to make a attempt on explaining that one. It's actually quite simple really and even more logical. To take the 'half drie' (2:30) example, the Dutch way of thinking is "It's half way towards three" So basically you have a more logical sense of telling time in that way. The Dutch way of counting is far more complicated and yes I would fully agree if you would be confused about that. A few examples: 1. 33 = drie-en-dertig. So instead of telling the 30 first, we read from right to left in this case. 2, 333 = drie-honderd-drie-en-dertig. Now this is getting a lot more confusing as you noticed. We first mention the 3 of the 300 followed by making clear we are talking about 100 and not something else. Then add the first example as follow up. So as you can see from even 2 examples, it gets confusing real fast and even Dutchies get confused at times because of this haha Now imagine writing a Dutch cheque, you not only write the numbers, 333. But you also have a section where you must write in capitol letters driehonderddrieendertig Yes, it's all pasted together so you can get confused even more and make mistakes even faster. I fully agree, makes no sense at all. "droompje" is very rarely used, actually never even did hear anyone use that word before in that way. I guess it could be different for others, no idea really. Just use 'droom' and 'dromen' instead, you will be better off haha For 'd' 't' 'dt' etc. even Dutch people get confused, so I don't think you should worry too much. Koftschip is a very old Dutch word, it's based up on a old Dutch transport ship type. It's very odd that this word is even in the books as it's pretty much never used and obsolete. Also as you can notice, there shouldn't be a 't' in there at all, which makes it even more odd. nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofschip_(schip) I have another word for you that has multiple meanings, "tuig" 1. Rigging of a sailing ship 2. Materials and/or tools in related to war machines. (for example for old style cannons you had several items that would come with it so you could load your cannon, clean it, etc.) 3. Straps used to tension draft animals: the harness of a horse 4. Bad people Another word, "rang" 1. Group of places in an ascending series in a theater, cinema, etc. ("i'm sitting front row" as example) 2. Social position. Position of all walks of life 3. Importance of one position compared to others: raising a soldier in rank

[@andrew_owens7680]

in French you have le tour = tour as in Le Tour de France and la tour = tower as in La Tour d'Argent. weg has the same duel meanings (or more) in German.

[@johnsilverstein9862]

Not an expert opinion, but regarding composite words; In English you have the freedom to use any word as verb, noun or adjective, as you like. For example "office" might be a noun, but I can also use it as an adjective, in "office chair", for example. So you basically make up an adjective, "office", which happens to be the same as the noun office, and hence people will understand it's meaning automatically. In Dutch you don't get to do this; If it's a noun, it's always a noun, and you can't use the same word as an adjective. "Bureau" is a noun, not an adjective you can use to describe a "stoel". Instead, you're OK to make up a new noun "bureaustoel", and people will also automatically understand the meaning because they understand the parts. So to my mind the rule is; you can only keep words separate if they really are separate nouns or adjectives on their own; You'd be OK to write "meervoudige persoonlijkheid", as meervoudig is an adjective. "persoonlijkheid stoornis" is not OK, as persoonlijkheid is not an adjective. "meervoudige persoonlijkheidstoornis" would be OK, but wouldn't have the same meaning you intended (multiple distinct personality disorders, rather than the disorder of having multiple distinct personalities) It's always interesting to me people get so worked up about this difference, especially since in speech you can't really tell ...

[@latronemastrucato7288]

On the time thing, the issue here is that in Dutch, half drie means it's halfway between 2 and 3. In English when you're saying it's half three, you're actually saying it's half *past* three. However in spoken language the past is dropped. So the way we use half is different, in Dutch we use it as an in between point of the hour which we say and the previous hour, which remains unsaid. Whereas in English it's used as the halfway point between the hour you say and the hour which you don't say, which is in the future. Tldr; We use half differently, just add or subtract an hour depending on your native language.

[@jorianboelen4896]

In some dialects they say ‘twintig over drie’ or ‘twintig voor twee’. Usually in the northern provinces

[@jv.g1589]

Het kan beide twintig over drie = tien voor half vier = 03.20 of 15.20

[@moladiver6817]

The northern provinces? Really? Belgians say it all the time. I'm from the west and we definitely say 10 voor half 4.

[@estherfol]

Love you videos! But just a quick heads up; “kofschip” is somewhat outdated normally in schools they now teach children “‘t ex-kofschip” or “xtc koffieshop”. We use these new versions because it accounts for the loan words ending in the letter “x” and the phoneme “ʃ”. Hope this helps!

[@tomasoionnaigh4855]

Here one for you, lived in the Nederland for 8 years, understood Dutch no problems went home to Ireland with my Dutch Wife in Ireland we spoke only English, now when we go back to the Nederlands my Dutch has not only improved vastly I even think in Dutch

[@demi3115]

The +t rules are easy, just have to use switch the verb with lopen or smurfen. There's no such thing as 'dt', but Dutch people still call it that for some reason. But these are things anyone has to learn when learning any language, and you'll eventually get the hang of it. :)

[@Doeff8]

Time: depending on the type of friends, but just saying the time like "veertien uur 20", so like in english, will often work and not be regarded as super strange.

[@Species6079]

Funny thing is that when someone says to me, "Ik kom om half drie." (I'll arrive at half past two) that I translate that to "Oh, hij komt om veertien uur dertig." (Oh, he'll be arriving at 14:30). I'm Dutch, but I'll always use military time. Also because a.m. and p.m. is very confusing for me!

[@Eis_Bear]

In the case of 'te' in 'te veel', if you can leave out the 'te' in the sentence and it remains grammatically correct you need to use a space to seperate it with word that follows.

[@indyola1]

Just an observation on the long words: in English, we have no problem using a noun as an adjective with no extra ending to show it. And sometimes we jam two together, as in houseboat, baseball, scorecard. And we get a new compound word. But if you have stickers that go on bags made to hold fishing poles, you could say "have you seen my fishing pole bag stickers?" and just understand that all but the last noun are really adjectives. In dutch the same is comminicated by just jamming together. Instead of a two persons bed hotel prohibition law (keeping hotels from having double beds?) You just smash up: tweepersoonsbedhotelverbodswet maybe. It makes it hard to look up in a dictionary, for sure. Even for computers that use "stemming" algorithms to chop off endings.

[@Freeze014]

keep in mind that 't kofschip rule applies to the plural form of the verb minus -en. so "ik verhuis" becomes "ik verhuisde" in the past tense, because the plural form of verhuis is verhuizen so when you remove the -en it becomes verhuiz and z is not in 't kofschip.

[@josbogers]

The rule is you always link nouns together but you don't do that with for example adjectives, except when they are part of a bigger subject. Like the meervoudigepersoonlijkheidsstoornis or langetermijngeheugen: long term memory.