Let me fall with the door into the house 🏚️, this newsletter is dope 🥣, everything for stuffing your... what?!🐈
Let me fall with the door into the house 🏚️, this newsletter is dope 🥣, everything for stuffing your... what?!🐈
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 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
Below are five phrases that sound much too Dutch. However, two of them are fine in English. Which two? And what is the correct English “translation” for the three Dunglish expressions?
To hang on someone’s lips
To be the one who pulls the cart
To be born with a silver spoon in the mouth
To annoy yourself green and yellow
To make thankful use of something
The Dutch in English
Dope
The English word “dope” can refer to drugs, usually cannabis, or to a stupid person. Both these meanings come from the Dutch, but we don’t recognise it, because it is a Dutch word that we no longer use.
Dutch used to have the word “doop” to refer to a thick sauce. A sauce you might dip (=dopen) your food into. As proof I present to you this excerpt from a book from 1920.
In the 19th century, Americans also referred to thick dipping sauces like gravy as “dope”; a word brought in by Dutch migrants just like “cookie” and “boss”. The drug meaning came about in the late 19th century, because opium is semi-liquid when you smoke it, and looks like a thick sauce.
Nowadays, the “sauce” meaning of “dope” is no longer known, except in Ohio, where dope is still heard as the term for a topping for ice cream, such as chocolate syrup or fruit sauce. In South Carolina “dope” can refer to cola, because the thick cola mixture that you add water to also looks like “dope”.
You might think that the stupid-person meaning of “dope” comes from the drug meaning; someone who has smoked a lot of dope can come across as rather stupid, after all. But the stupid-person meaning is in fact older, it has been in use since about 1850. The theory is that it is related to a word like “thick-headed”; someone who is slow in the head, perhaps because it is filled with gravy?
Nobody is quite sure why “dope” also became a way of describing something as good or excellent in the 1980s. (“That music is dope!”) We know it started with African-American rappers, but if they were referring to drugs, stupid people, or something else entirely, is unclear.
Dutch/English in the news
The top 3 of the Netherlands’ worst slogans for 2023 are all in English
The top 3: “Put the fun between your legs” (Tuut-tuut fietsverhuur), “Have a naai’s day!” (Rijkers Naaimachinespecialist), “Everything for stuffing your pussy!” (kattenspeciaalzaak 4Cats). The article lists the top 10 and adds that most shops are quite happy to be nominated, as it brings them a lot of publicity.
Dutch crowned as best non-native English speakers for fifth time in a row
Education First’s annual English Proficiency Index compares 113 countries on their inhabitants’ English proficiency and is the largest English proficiency study in the world. It is published once a year and the Netherlands is celebrating its fifth consecutive victory after overtaking Sweden in 2019. Belgium ranks number 7.
The Dutch, and their Golden-Age art, through the eyes of an American
Benjamin Moser, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author of The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters, is interviewed in this sobering piece. “The Netherlands Moser encountered at the turn of the Millennium was completely different from the one that has been preserved in museums. While still a wealthy and powerful nation, the ambition of the Republic has long given way to complacency, even a certain kind of narrow-mindedness.”
The UnDutchables publishes 9th edition, still going strong after nearly 35 years
In 1989, Briton Colin White and American Laurie Boucke first published The UnDutchables, their humorous look at Dutch daily life, its culture and inhabitants. Some things I learned from this piece: this book was the first in what is now a well-known genre of humorous, gentle country-bashing; the authors had no idea it would be such a success, and the proceeds have allowed them to buy a house.
Recent translations
Graaiflatie
“Graaiflatie” was chosen as dictionary Van Dale’s word of the year 2023 in both the Netherlands and Flanders. Its translation is clear, for the simple reason that “graaiflatie” was introduced into the Dutch language in February 2023 as a translation for the English greedflation.
It must be noted, however, that “graaien” and “greed” are not the same. “Greed” means “hebzucht”, whereas “graaien” means something like “to grab as much as you can and probably more than you deserve”. Another possible translation for “graaiflatie” might therefore be “grabflation”. More here.
Graaien
This led me to realise that there is no good English translation for “graaien”. The Dutch sentence “niet zo graaien, kinderen!” brings to mind a group of children greedily grabbing at a bowl of sweets. But you can’t say “stop greedily grabbing, children!” Well, you can, but it sounds funny. So you are left with “stop being so greedy, children!”, which doesn’t include the movement, or “stop grabbing, children” which doesn’t include the greed. In the end, I was most happy with my option “stop sticking your greedy paws into that bowl, children!” More here.
Dressing
Thanks to Miet Ooms, who specialises in the differences between Belgian Dutch and Dutch Dutch, I learned that Belgians call a walk-in closet a “dressing”. Yay, I thought, another word for my list of pseudo-anglicisms; Dutch words that sound English, but aren’t.
(If you are interested in Miet’s work, you can sign up for her newsletter here, or fill in her latest survey on the differences between the two Dutches here.)
Met de deur in huis vallen
An oldie but goodie: when a Dutch speaker falls with the door into the house it means they get straight to the point, they don’t mince words, they don’t beat about the bush, they just get right to it and give it to you straight. More here.
Answers quiz
“To hang on someone’s lips” (aan iemands lippen hangen) and “to be born with a silver spoon in the mouth” (met een zilveren lepel in de mond geboren zijn) are fine in both Dutch and English.
To be the one who pulls the cart (degene zijn die de kar trekt) is not English, though many Dutch speakers would like it to be, because finding a good translation can be tricky. “To be the one to take the lead” often works, but not always. “To be the one who holds everything together” is a stronger, but sometimes more accurate, translation. More here.
To annoy yourself green and yellow (je groen en geel ergeren) is not English. Correct translations of “ik erger me er groen en geel aan” might be “it drives me up the wall” or “it really gets on my nerves”. More here.
To make thankful use of something (dankbaar gebruik maken van iets) is not English. An English speaker might understand you, but only if you mean you are truly grateful. And they would still feel that it sounded weird. A simple sentence like “I gratefully accept your offer” is a lot easier to understand. If the Dutch person means that they use something a lot (“Ik maak dankbaar gebruik van deze app”) or is being lazy or naughty (“Ik maak dankbaar gebruik van de onoplettendheid van de docent”) then the translation needs to be quite different. More here.
And finally…
And finally, a silly joke or video that I found on the Internet, that has something to do with Dutch and English.
Today:
(This might potentially only be funny if you come from Noord Brabant, like me, and you have watched Game of Thrones, like me. In case you don’t get it: the female character is a queen, and says “bend the knee” rather a lot. Read it as if it is a Brabant-Dutch sentence. I’ll put the “solution” at the bottom of the newsletter.)
Happy holidays! At the Christmas dinner table, or while waiting around for midnight on the 31st, don’t forget to tell your family and friends about this cool new newsletter you have been reading that is about how Dutch people speak English. It may sound a bit boring, but it’s actually quite fun, really it is, you should take a look, go to Substack.com and then search for “English and the Dutch”, you’ll see.
The number of mistakes in this newsletter is directly proportionate to the number of times my three-year-old woke me up last night.
(“Solution”: Bend the knee sounds like “Ben de nie” which is Brabants for “ben je niet”)