I'm a translator from home out 🏠, unmarried wives exist 👰, Dutch stage directions are confusing ↔️
Welcome to the latest instalment of English and the Dutch, the newsletter with tips and tricks, fun facts, new translations and other good stuff about how Dutch speakers speak English. In your inbox every third (or, you know, fourth) Wednesday of the month.
The newsletter is written by me, Heddwen Newton. I’m half Dutch, half British, and I work as a translator, teacher, and linguist. I am the owner of the website www.hoezegjeinhetEngels.nl, and the newsletter English in Progress.
Quiz
This Dutch speaker isn’t saying what they want to say with these sentences. What are they trying to say? What does the English speaker understand? How should they have worded it?
Does this restaurant serve biological food?
No, and it doesn’t even have a terrace.
You know what, let’s just get some fries at the nearest cafetaria.
The Dutch in English
Wife - The word “wife” used to simply mean “woman”, as did the Dutch word “wijf”. You may think this means the two languages went in two very different directions with their wife-words, but scholars actually think something similar happened in both.
In both languages, the word “wife” or “wijf” became a derogatory (= denigrerend) term and was therefore no longer seen fit to serve as the general word for “woman”.
English added the word “man” to what was then still “wif”, creating “wifman” (man here referring to humans in general rather than men in particular, so it’s “vrouwmens”, not “vrouwman” - angry feminists take note!) which later became “woman”.
The Dutch did something different; they turned to the word that they had for a noblewoman, which we still know today as “vrouwe”, and started calling every woman “vrouw”.
“Vrouw” has a counterpart in Old English, “frēa”, which didn’t make it to modern English. English speakers can, however, recognise this word for woman in the Germanic goddess Frigg, also known as Freya, who gave her name to the best day of the working week: Friday.
(Preliminary conclusion: Dutch women are goddesses.)
Speakers of both languages, in other words, wanted to remain respectful to women. Quite a nice sentiment if you think about it.
Calling the woman you were married to your woman with the old word for woman was apparently not seen as derogatory in English, and so “wife” was, I assume, kept as the word for that particular usage. In Dutch, we also refer to the woman you are married to as your woman, we just chose that new form: vrouw.
Nowadays, English-speakers snigger (= giechelen) at the common Dutch and German mistake of saying “My name is Jan, and this is my woman, Angela.” But actually, their word “wife” means just the same thing!
You still see the “woman” meaning of “wife” preserved in terms like “housewife”, “old wives’ tales”, “fishwife” and “midwife”.
After all, a “housewife” does not need to be married to be a housewife, and an “old wives’ tale” cannot only be told by married women. And “fishwife” is completely clear to Dutch speakers, as it means just the same thing as their “viswijf”. A coarse-mannered, vulgar-tongued woman.
In the word “midwife” (= vroedvrouw, verloskundige), the “mid” comes from the old English word for “with” (compare the Dutch word “met”), so this is thought to have meant “a woman who is with/ assists the future mother”.
As an aside, something that often surprises Dutch speakers about English is that a man who has studied midwifery is also called a “midwife” in English (though we will often say “male midwife” for clarification).
Another reason for feminists to be happy with the English language! We’re on a roll!
Recent translations
ver te zoeken
If something is “niet ver te zoeken”, then you can translate it with “it isn’t hard to find” or “I didn’t have to look far”. But if something is “ver te zoeken”, then the English terms “hard to find” or “I had to look far” don’t work. They have a more literal meaning (“a good man is hard to find”), and don’t work as a translation for the slightly sarcastic Dutch “ver te zoeken”. Instead, when good lexicography is “ver te zoeken”, a correct translation might be that it is “in short supply”, “notably lacking”, “sorely missing”, “nowhere to be found” or, quite simply, “non-existent”. More here.
van huis uit
In its classic meaning, “dat doe ik van huis uit” can be translated as “I was raised that way”, “it is a product of my upbringing”, “it was instilled in me by my parents”, or a number of other options. But what about “van huis uit ben ik advocaat”? I guess that simply means “I’m a lawyer by profession”. En “van huis uit ben ik een harde werker” might be best translated as “I’m a hard worker by nature”. In total, I found four different meanings for “van huis uit”, and only one of them has the word “home” in its English translation - “working from home”. Read all four here.
zich blindstaren op
Though English has “to get fixated on something”, “to focus exclusively on something” or “to be overly preoccupied by something”, it is lacking a term that encompasses the staring and the being blinded to all other matters that the Dutch word embodies so nicely. When the matter being fixated on is something negative, you can say “to get hung up on something”, but this only works in certain circumstances. More here.
spannend
As a newbie translator, many years ago, some of my first assignments were translating primary school reports for Dutch children who were moving abroad with their families. One sentence that I would often come across would be something like “Tim vindt iets vertellen in de kring nog erg spannend.” That was when I realised “spannend” isn’t always exciting. In this case, it is “nervous-making”, but that’s not good English, so I had to swap the sentence around to “Tim is still sometimes a little nervous about speaking during circle time.”
I sometimes saw other translators incorrectly choose the translation “exciting” in these contexts, and when I started my website, “spannend” was one of my first articles.
Last week I came across a sentence online that read “Leeftijd is maar een getal, ik vind ouder worden niet zo spannend.” Hey, I thought, that’s not “nervous-making”, that’s not “exciting”, that’s another meaning again! Time to republish that article!
You only ever encounter it in the negative (“dat vind ik niet zo spannend”) and I’ve decided that the best translation is “I’m not overly concerned about that.” More here.
Answers quiz
Does this restaurant serve biological food?
What are they trying to say? - Serveert dit restaurant biologisch eten? (= verkregen uit landbouw die rekening houdt met dierenwelzijn en milieu)
What does the English speaker understand? - Serveert dit restaurant eten dat bestaat uit organische materie?
How should they have worded it? - Does this restaurant serve organic food.
“Biological”, to an English speaker, just means “pertaining to biology”. The processes and states that occur in the bodies and cells of living things. To say “biological food” makes little sense to an English speaker. More here.
No, and it doesn’t even have a terrace.
What are they trying to say? - Nee, en er is ook nog eens geen terras.
What does the English speaker understand? - Nee, en er is ook nog eens geen opgehoogde, betegelde buitenplaats.
How should they have worded it? - No, and they don’t even have any outdoor seating.
To an English speaker, a “terrace” refers to a part of the garden or outdoor space that is usually a bit higher than the surrounding area and has tiles. Sometimes there are seats on the terrace, sometimes not. It’s a tricky distinction, which is why I used about a thousand pictures to explain it in my article a year or two ago.
You know what, let’s just get some fries at the nearest cafetaria.
What are they trying to say? - Laten we friet halen bij de dichstbijzijnde cafetaria.
What does the English speaker understand? - laten we friet gaan halen bij de dichstbijzijnde (school)kantine.
How should they have worded it? - Let’s just get some fries at the nearest fast food place.
Also: if you are going to use the word “cafeteria” in English (and in any other language than Dutch!), remember to turn the “a” into an “e”!
And finally…
And finally, a silly joke, funny video or interesting picture that I found on the Internet, that has something to do with Dutch and English.
Explanation: Actors need to know which side of stage they are heading to, so you will see these kinds of signs backstage at theatres. The Dutch theatre tradition is to refer to “left” and “right” from the perspective of the audience looking up at the stage. The English tradition is to think of the actor, looking down at the audience. Because of this, funny signs like the above are a common sight in Dutch theatres!
The number of mistakes in this newsletter is directly proportionate to the number of times my three-year-old woke me up last night.