06.A Dutch Vocabulary.pdf

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A Dutch

Vocabulary

BRUCE DONALDSON

B.A . (Western Australia) Litt. Drs. (Utrecht)

Deportment of Germanic Studies

University of Melbourne

~ Melbourne, 1983

A AEPress

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PREFACE

This little book, although extremely fundamental in approach and intent. is all the

more remarkable by virtue of the fact that no such work has ever been compiled for

the learning of Dutch. Numerous such vocabularies exist for French, German. Italian

and Spanish, but Dutch seems always to have been the Cinderella of the

languoges of Western Europe. I hope hereby to rectify thot situation in some small

way.

This book is intended for the English-speaking students of Dutch wherever they

reside in the world and whatever course being followed; i.e. whether at a

secondary or tertiary educational institution, ottending a private course, or home

study. It is designed to supplement the limited vocabulary that all grammars are

forced by necessity to use. In my opinion it is imperative that formal explanation of

the grammar should be accompanied by some form of systematic vocabulary

learning where a choice has been made by an experienced teacher of Dutch

between basic everyday vocabulary that should be learnt immediately, and that

which can be left to the student to pick up later from his own interactions with

native speakers and from reading. I have made such a choice here, grouping

common vocabulary items under general topics.

By systematically working his way through this book, and at the some time following

a course in the language based on any of the existing grammars or language

laboratory methods. the student should build up a good working vocabulary which

is free of the esoteric, and often difficult items which make dictionaries so

complicated to use for people starting out in a new language. This is no substitute

for a dictionary of course. but a dictionary is not a substitute for a book such as this

either.

The words have been put into groups of ten on overage - sometimes there are as

few as eight and sometimes as many as twelve; to have stuck rigidly to ten would

have forced me at times to leave out useful words or include some not so useful

ones . Such grouping of the items should assist learning; for instance one can set

oneself the task of learning one or two or more units a day and thus get a feeling of

progress . By having grouped the words further under broad general topics. it should

be practical for example for teachers to set essays on those topics in which the

student can attempt to use as many of the given words as possible. A further

advantage of grouping the words under general topics is the avoidance of

ambiguity of meaning. Many words have a variety of meanings depending on

context. but usually the meaning of a particular word is clear in this instance

because of the other words in its ViC inity. On occasions it was necessary. for the

sake of clarity, to footnote individual vocabulary items, but this has been kept to a

minimum.

The choice of words to be incorporated into or leff out of a book such as this is

somewhat arbitrary and Subjective. Even computer compiled frequency lists are

subjective because they are based on arbitrarily chosen newspapers. magazines.

novels eic. lists compiled in that way often grossly distort reality . To toke a

hypothetical example. one could well find that if a frequency list for Dutch were

based on any of the well-known dailies of Holland, one would probably find that

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gosbel (gas bubble) and in ffotie (inflation) would be included while spruifje

(Brussels sprout) and wekker (alarm c lock) would be left out. This list of 2860 words

- my original goal was ± 3000 - is based on fwo Inevitably subjective factors:

firstly my experience as a teacher of Dutch at tertiary level over a period of ten

years and secondly. and more importantly in my opinion, my perception of Dutch

as a non-native-speaker of the language. Non-native-speakers are in a better

position than natives to assess what is necessary vocabulary and what can be left

till later, what one merely needs to know passively and what one must also be able

to use actively .

The subject of choosing items for inclusion or exclusion brings me to a very difficult

and important problem that I was continually confronted with. Certain words are so

important as to be indispensable to the foreigner living and learning Dutch in

Holland e.g. boerenkoOI(curly kole) and BTW(Value Added Tax), whereas such

concepts are Quite possibly unknown to the American, or Australian or South

African who has never been to Europe a nd may never go. On the other hand, a

'mop' Is an everyday cleaning instrument, in Australia anyway, which I felt Inclined

to include, but the Dutch don·t know the implement. The dictionary will tell you that

a 'mop' is a stokdweil, but that is not exactly what we cali a 'mop'. When waShing

floors the Dutch simply use a dweil (floor-Cloth) which is something which I for one

do not possess or have ever used. Most Dutch people would probably translate

'sandwich' with boterham but a Dutch boterhom consists of only one slice of bread,

which, what is more, is usually eaten with a knife and fork . Ten Bruggencate's

dictionary renders sandwich as follows: twee sneetjes broodmet iets ertussen;l thus

the word sandwich wi!! not be found in my corpus. Such problems are of course to

be expected when attempting to equate one culture with another.

Deciding which Dutch words to include wos actually only holf the problem; now

they should be translated turned out to be no mean task. As this book will be

marketed throughout the English-speaking world, it was often difficult, even

impossible, to decide which English translation would be universally acceptable.

Zwembroek, for example, would be translated differently even from state to state

within the Commonwealth of Australia, so it was impossible for me to know exactly

what one says In Britain and America, and even had I known this, space would not

have permitted all alternatives. I thus opted for a neutral descriptive translation,

swimming trunks, although I would not personally ever use that expression . In such

instances the reader will simply have to substitute the word most commonly used

where he or she is living. I have certainly always done my best to avoid peculiarly

Australian expressions where I was aware that our use of English differs from

overseas e.g. snoepje - sweet, piece of candy, whereas in Australia one would

soy 'lolly' . I am reasonably confident that my translations will be generally

acceptable to Britishers, but mv li mited knowledge of American English has

undoubtedly led to some expressions sounoing unfamiliar to inhabitants of that

continent. I have, however, kept American usage in mind wherever possible

e.g. kroan - tap, faucet.

On occasions I also had great difficulty in deciding whether an EngliSh compound

noun should be wri11en as one word, two words or hyphenated, a problem that

does not often arise in Dutch. In my defence, should anyone disagree with my

decisions, I Quote Fowler, generally regarded as the authority among speakers of

British English: '.. . its (Le. use of hyphens) infinite variety defies description. No twa

d ictionaries and no two sets of style rules would be found to give conSistently the

same advice'.2

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In cases where it is not immediately obvious where the stress falls on a word, the

syllable to be stressed Is printed in bold type. I have not for instance indicated stress

In a word like begrijpen, but I have in hengelen, g itaar and p a spoort, because,

although those words do not have on irregular stress like stadhu/s and

burgemeester, they are nevertheless words which the non-native-speaker may be

inclined to stress incorrectly. The stress in verbs such as ultdrukken is always given,

thereby indicating that they are separable.

The symbol ' indicates a strong or irregular verb. It would have been unwieldy to

give the principal ports of all irregular verbs and to indicate whether they toke

hebben, zijn or both in the perfect tense. Such information can usually be quite

easily gleaned from dictionaries and grammars.

Where more than one translation of a Dutch word is g iven. a comma is used to

separate synonyms. Wherever a semi-colon is used. however, what follows is on

alternative meaning of that Dutch word e.g. p aprika-pepper, capsicum;

paprika.

In conclusion, a word about the illustrations. They are intended first and foremost

simply to liven up the pages of this book. Such a book can easily become tedious to

learn from - after all, vocabulary learning is hard work, but the sight of on amusing

sketch with a relevant sub-title is psychologically relieving and at the same time the

expressions being illustrated are all the more likely to stay in the student's mind. AU

the captions which accompany the illustrations attempt to illustrate an important

point of grammar or particular Idiom in addition to using in context some of

the words given on the page. Translations of the Dutch captions are given on

page 6 .

1 Bruggencote. K ten. Engels Woordenboek, Wolters-Noordhoff. Groningen, 1973.

2 Fowler, H.W . A Oictionary of Modem English Usage. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1965

(p.255) .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks are due In the first instance to Peter Dodds of Melbourne for supplying me

with the many charming drawings that will, I hope, help endear this li ttle book to all

who use It . In addition I would like to thank Rolph Martens of Melbourne for his

careful scru tiny of the English translations as well as Paul van derPlank of leiden and

Anita van Leeuwen of Utrecht for the assistance they offered in ensuring that the

corpus of Dutch words is current and correct.

Bruce Donaldson

ABBREVIATIONS

(adj.)

(c.)

( fern.)

(fig.)

(Intr.)

(li t .)

(masc.)

adjective

common gender noun

feminine, female

figurative

intransitive verb

literally

masculine

(n.)

(pl.)

(pron.)

(s.o.)

(s.t.)

(tr.)

neuter noun

plural

pronounced

someone

something

transitive verb

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i ,

TRANSLATIONS OF CAPTIONS

Numbers refer to the first section 01 the page.

130 A deserted island with coconut palms

133 The stream meanders through the

country-side

136 There's a thunder-storm

139 A rainbow has just appeared

142 The doctor is examining a patient

145 The priest has caught a cold

148 One can change foreign curencies at

this bonk

151 He put a coin in his money-box

154 This piOUS monk is praying

157 The Christmas tree haS been nicely

decorated

160 Tulips bloom in spring

163 These three indoor plants are on the

w indow sill

166 A wreath for a dead person

169 The Easter Bunny carries his eggs in a

basket

172 He's crying because he has foiled on

exam

175 The teacher is writing something on the

board

178 The professor is somew hat absent-

minded

181 The Greek alphabet is very difficult, isn't

it?

184 This Jew speaks Hebrew and lives in

Israel

187 The typist can type very well

190 On this shelf are two copies o f the same

bOOk

193 The king is the Mod of state

196 The politician is g iving a speech

199 He's driving much toa fast

202 A brand new racing cor

205 This boy is hitch-hiking

208 The train is about to cross the bridge

211 The cow is grazing in the meadow

214 The wheat must be harvested now

217 The thief has been caught red-handed

and is being arrested

220 A pleasant lillie square with a monu-

ment

223 A nice little shopping street

226 A well-known Itatian chef

229 A tremendously tall building

232 He IS in the a rmy

235 A bomb has exploded here

238 He's learnt to swim well

2.:11 This lady has been waiting for the bus for

Quite a while

244 The chil d has sat down on its potty

247 This nice mill is situated behind a high

dyke

250 Kees is terrib ly proud of his new kennel

253 This lad has been awfully naughty

256 Belween the trees you'll find some

mushrooms

259 The post-office is on the square

opposite the bank

262 The puppy runs outside

265 She weighs much 100 much

1 A rolled-up sleeve

4 The Scots wear such a skirt

7 Formers wear clogs

10 A small chest full of fabulous jewels

13 The woiter is serving a customer

16 Somebody who sells used cars

19 This old couple hove been marr ied for

forty-two years

22 A very old man with a walking sl ick in his

hond

25 The toddler is crowling on the tloor

28 The two young people are very mUCh in

love with each other

31 The kiddies have finally fallen asleep

34 This labourer hos a hoiry chest

37 He has a blister on his heel

40 English judges always wear wigs

43 lOOk whOI you con do with chewing

g,m

46 The cake tastes really delicious

4Q He's hoving a sip of apple juice

52 He's full ; he's eaten too many vege-

tables

55 A caterpillar feels at home in a pear

58 Please give me real coffee, not instant

coffee

61 Delicious cheese from Sw itzerland

6A A slice of bread w ith raspberry jom on

67 This box of confectionery has been

opened by someone

70 This little mouse has eaten and has then

gone to sleep in the corner

73 The cat has just g iven birth , she has only

three kittens

76 The roosler crows 01 live o'clock every

morning: cock-a-doodle-doo

79 Snails like green leaves

82 Pearls are found in oyslers

85 He is in the attiC

88 The curtains are still closed

91 There is now 0 p icture on the wall

94 Here is on old fashioned bath tub w ith

hot water in it

97 The housewif e has just vacuumed

100 The kettle is boiling

103 She's putting something in the fridge

106 The lable has been set

109 That tree was unfortunately chopped

down

112 This television isn't working any more

115 Boy, how well she can sing

118 This sock has already been darned a

few times

121 He likes the smell Of Ihat man's cigar

124 The photographer is taking a photo of

this couple

127 The passport must be stamped by the

customs officer

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