Let's have a look at some more conversations with everyday phrases.
Some words will already look familiar. If not hover to see an instant translation. Try to memorize some phrases, particularly the greetings. Use the vocabulary box on the right to practice the individual words until you know them.
Listen to the following audio files and repeat what the speaker says in the pauses.
noicon - Hoe gaat het met je?
Notice how "met" and "je" 'meld' together. This is very common in casual speech.
noicon - Met mij gaat het prima, dank je!
Notice the use of the full pronoun 'mij', because emphasis is put on it. That's why the sentence starts with it. This in turn switches the words "het" and "gaat" into inverse order, much like in the question above.
noicon Ik moet nu gaan, tot ziens!
Did you notice how the z of ziens assimilates from [z] to [s] once it is put behind the -t of tot?. This happens a lot to voiced consonants in initial position. All final obstruents are voiceless automatically and they even infect the next word!
If you are American pay attention to the [u] sound in moet, it is quite a bit more rounded than Americans pronounce a 'u' sound.
We saw that Dutch makes a distinction between jij/je and u and that this has to do with formality and politeness. The same applies to the formulas used to say thank you and please.
Please is alsjeblieft or alstublieft. Both literally mean: "if it pleases you": als het je/u belieft. It is used in a somewhat different way than in English as it can be used both to say "May I please have...": mag ik alstublieft ... hebben, or for the answer "Here you are", "Here it is" as the waiter in the above dialogue. Alsjeblieft is commonly abbreviated to ajb, whereas alstublieft is abbreviated to a.u.b..
"Thank you" can either be dank je or dank u. It is sometimes augmented with -wel: dank je wel, dank u wel.
An even more informal way of thanking is to say bedankt "(you are) thanked". It is mostly used in the negative: "nee, bedankt" and can even sound a little abbrasive, as in thanks, but no thanks.
A formal alternative is hartelijk dank "Cordially (I say) thanks"
The equivalent of "you are welcome" is tot je dienst or tot uw dienst "at your service". An alternative is graag gedaan "done with pleasure" or niets te danken "(there is) nothing to thank for". Expression like these are not used nearly much as their English counterpart, although this strongly depends on the region. Particularly in the northernmost provinces of the Netherlands (Groningen, Friesland e.g.) people tend to economize on politeness expressions, even find them annoying. Being direct is considered polite enough.
noicon - Wilt u iets eten? - Would you like something to eat
Did you notice the /w/? It is produced not between the upper and lower lips as in English or French, but between the upper teeth and the lower lips. At least in the Netherlands it is. In Flanders and in Surinam a bilabial w is more common, so it is not a disaster if you do that one wrong.
noicon - Mag ik alstublieft een kopje koffie - May I have a cup of coffee, please.
Notice that the 'k' sound is without aspiration: not khopje khoffie; it also contains an u-sound and one gutteral spirant. Try to make those light. Often newbies try to show off their gutterals very emphatically. It makes them sound, well, ehm, gutteral? In the bad sense of the word. Dutch speakers only do that when they are mad at someone. Otherwise they are pretty light.
noicon - Ja graag! Ik wil graag een pannenkoek
Of course the latter will test your abilities to produce gutturals... They are quite numerous in Dutch, so that you do need to practise them. As the /r/ is concerned, this speaker still uses the oldfashioned rrolling one, but today (2009) there are many different varieties being used, producing interesting combinations if preceded or followed by a g or ch.
YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 1A • Les 1 & 1A
Translate the following sentences:
De handelaars drinken in het resaturant een biertje
Het andere concert was heel aardig
Meneer, u heeft een buikje!
Buiten op straat komen zij een Nederlander tegen
Het gesprek gaat goed; hij heeft een goede woordenschat
Hij heeft het verkeerd begrepen
Natuurlijk heeft ook de medewerker verplichtingen
Zij heeft geen trek, maar wil naar een mooi concert
SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 1A • Les 1 & 1A
The merchants are having a beer in the resaturant
The other concert was quite nice
Sir, you have a bulge!
Outside in the street they meet a Dutchman
The conversation proceeds well; he has a good vocabulary
He has misunderstood
Of course the collaborator has his duties also
She is not hungry, but want to go to a beautiful concert.
