Worldly Chatter

A moment with you to talk about the Dutch language if you don’t mind. People often ask how I am getting on with it, I tell them of my progress, and I get that it must be so hard. Well of course they ask how is it such a challenge and I tell them little problems I have and that sort of thing. Here I will teach you a word that I learned today by watching one of the Dutch television games where you phone in with the answer to win money. It was a word game and the word needed was huis. Huis is Dutch for House. Here is how it works. ….muis (mouse) ….vrouw (woman) ….houdster (keeper) and the final was klok…. The dots indicate the number of letters and huis would be the answer to all of them. House mouse, housewife, housekeeper and the final… This is where I got really confused and learned a new word.

Klok is clock in Dutch. Huis is House. My brain, understanding these two things, thought that clock house was the answer, though it sounded strange to me. Dutchie informed me that was not correct. Why not, I know what klok and huis is so yeah, this makes sense. Not all things make sense in the Dutch language.

Klokhuis is actually Apple Core. I kid you not! Appel is apple so you know. Core is Kern in Dutch… So why not appel
kern or appelkern. (They like to slap words together) I sat there looking at the television screen and back to Dutchie and asked her point blank are you serious? This makes no sense to me! How can clock house turn into apple core? Can someone explain this to me? No, I didn’t think anyone could.

Sometimes a word can sound like an English word, there are words that look like an English word but don’t sound it. It is sort of a helpful tip to learning Dutch. Since they have a common history there are similarities abound. Now it doesn’t always work it does come in handy. I took Latin etymology in high school and learned how to break words up and figure out their core. All the fun stuff one needed for their SATs. This also helps me a bit. Take for example, Ridderkerk, it is a town here in Holland that literally turns into Knights Church. Ridder is knight and kerk is church. Simple enough and that is why I took klok and huis and turned it into klokhuis or clock house.

Welcome to Dutch! I am glad I am getting better at it and enjoy the fact that I can order for myself and go out and about with my basic stuff but I tell you, it is a confusing mess sometimes!

Netherlands, Dutch Language, Learning Dutch, worldly chatter