Learn Dutch phrases you can use to understand Dutch better
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| M: Hi everyone, Mies here, and welcome back to Basic Boot Camp Lesson 3: Useful Phrases for Learning Dutch. This is the third in a five-part series that will help you ease your way into Dutch. |
| J: Ik heet Jacob. I’m Jacob! |
| Lesson Details |
| M: In this lesson, you will learn several essential phrases to help you learn Dutch. |
| J: Yep, you can use these phrases when you are at a loss for words or caught in a confusing situation. |
| M: These phrases will help you avoid or resolve misunderstandings whenever and wherever you are in Holland. |
| J: Using Dutch to learn Dutch can help you improve much faster! |
| M: Okay, here we have a little Dutch dream sequence for you. |
| J: Yes, it's a really common situation a learner will find themselves in. |
| M: The case of "the lacking word." |
| J: You want to say something, but don't have the vocabulary word. |
| M: For some of us, it's not just a dream…maybe more like a recurring nightmare. |
| J: But the nightmare is over now! |
| M: So listen to Jacob and try to overcome some language difficulties by asking simple but very useful phrases, and try to keep up! |
| M: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| J: Pardon, hoe zeg ik "Cheese" in het Nederlands? |
| M: Kaas. |
| J: Sorry, ik begrijp het niet. Kunt u het herhalen? |
| M: Kaas. |
| J: Kunt u langzamer spreken? |
| M: Kaas. |
| J: Kunt u het voor mij opschrijven alstublieft? |
| M: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| J: Laten we nog een keer luisteren, langzaam nu. |
| J: Pardon, hoe zeg ik "Cheese" in het Nederlands? |
| M: Kaas. |
| J: Sorry, ik begrijp het niet. Kunt u het herhalen? |
| M: Kaas. |
| J: Kunt u langzamer spreken? |
| M: Kaas. |
| J Kunt u het voor mij opschrijven alstublieft? |
| A: And now with the translation. |
| B: En nu met de vertaling. ! |
| Jacob Pardon, hoe zeg ik "Cheese" in het Nederlands? |
| Mies Excuse me, how do you say "Cheese" in Dutch? |
| M Kaas. |
| Mies Cheese. |
| J Sorry, ik begrijp het niet. Kunt u het herhalen? |
| Mies I'm sorry, I didn't understand. Can you repeat that? |
| M Kaas. |
| Mies Cheese. |
| J Kunt u langzamer spreken? |
| Mies Can you speak more slowly? |
| M Kaas. |
| Mies Che-ese. |
| J Kunt u het voor mij opschrijven alstublieft? |
| Mies Can you write this down for me, please? |
| Banter - Same as the cultural insight (12 lines) |
| J: Now you will never be at a loss for words again. |
| M: That's right. Even if you find yourself in one of the major tourist spots, where people are used to non-Dutch speakers, there is no longer any excuse to not try out these phrases. I guarantee you it will improve your Dutch! |
| J: With these expressions, you can make everyone you meet into a walking, talking dictionary. |
| M: Of course, that shouldn’t be your main reason to learn these phrases. |
| J: But the Dutch you meet will love the fact that you are making an effort by trying to communicate in Dutch. |
| M: Absolutely! Maybe they will even give you a tip on how to find your way to some of the other cultural treats that the Netherlands has to offer. |
| J: Yes, a guidebook can only get you that far, so it is definitely a good idea to ask the locals where to go for that authentic Dutch experience. |
| M: Guidebooks are great, but they will only take you so far. There are just so many hidden spots that you can’t learn about from a book. |
| J: And there’s no experience quite like totally immersing yourself in another culture. |
| M: Now that you’ve learned these important Dutch phrases you will be on your way in no time! |
| J: So, what exactly were all these words? Let's break them down. |
| M: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Vocabulary and Phrases |
| M: Our first word is... |
| Jacob: pardon [natural native speed] |
| Mies: excuse me, I'm sorry |
| Jacob: par-don [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: pardon [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: hoe [natural native speed] |
| Mies: how |
| Jacob: hoe [slowly] |
| Jacob: hoe [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: zeg [natural native speed] |
| Mies: say |
| Jacob: zeg [slowly] |
| Jacob: zeg [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: in [natural native speed] |
| Mies: in |
| Jacob: in [slowly] |
| Jacob: in [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: het [natural native speed] |
| Mies: it |
| Jacob: het [slowly] |
| Jacob: het [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: kaas [natural native speed] |
| Mies: cheese |
| Jacob: ka-as [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: kaas [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: begrijpen [natural native speed] |
| Mies: to understand |
| Jacob: be-grijp-en [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: begrijpen [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: niet [natural native speed] |
| Mies: not |
| Jacob: niet [slowly] |
| Jacob: niet [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: kunnen [natural native speed] |
| Mies: can, to be able to |
| Jacob: kun-nen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: kunnen [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: u [natural native speed] |
| Mies: you |
| Jacob: u [slowly] |
| Jacob: u [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: herhalen [natural native speed] |
| Mies: to repeat |
| Jacob: herhalen [slowly] |
| Jacob: herhalen [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: langzamer [natural native speed] |
| Mies: more slowly |
| Jacob: lang-za-mer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: langzamer [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: spreken [natural native speed] |
| Mies: speak |
| Jacob: spre-ken [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: spreken [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: voor [natural native speed] |
| Mies: for |
| Jacob: voor [slowly] |
| Jacob: voor [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: opschrijven [natural native speed] |
| Mies: write down |
| Jacob: op-schrij-ven [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: opschrijven [natural native speed] |
| Mies: Next: |
| Jacob: alstublieft [natural native speed] |
| Mies: please |
| Jacob: al-stu-blieft [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: alstublieft [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| M: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| M: Well, we covered all the words, and now we are supposed to explain their usage. |
| J: But that’s going to be easy. |
| M: Because most of them have the same usage in English! |
| J: With small exceptions,”Pardon” can used as "Excuse me" and "I'm sorry." |
| M: Could you say that one more time slowly? |
| J: Par-don |
| M: And one more time fast? |
| J: Pardon. |
| M. When you make a request or you hand someone something, you use the word “alstublieft” like “please” or “here you are.” |
| J: I think I am gonna need that word!. |
| M. I’m sure you will. So what will they say at customs when they ask for your passport? |
| J. “Uw paspoort alstublieft”, “your passport please” |
| M. And what will you say when you hand it over? |
| J. “alstublieft”, “here you are” |
| M. That’s correct! |
| J: That’s a very useful expression. With it, and the other vocabulary words, we’ve equipped you with everything you need to resolve misunderstandings. |
Lesson focus |
| M: The focus of this lesson is using Dutch phrases to learn more Dutch. The first phrase we had was, “Pardon, hoe zeg ik “Cheese” in het Nederlands?” |
| J: "Excuse me, how do we say Cheese in Dutch?" |
| M: The first word is “Pardon” which means "Excuse me" if you put it at the beginning of the question sentence. It can also mean "I'm sorry" if you use it in the context of the English "Sorry." |
| J: So, the first phrase we have expresses the request for help; therefore, we use “pardon”, in the meaning of "excuse me." |
| M: The next word is “hoe” Which means "how." |
| J: We've mentioned this word before in the first Basic Boot Camp lesson in the phrase Hoe heet jij?. ("What's your name?") Remember? |
| M: Oh, that's right. Well, the good news is that this word hasn't changed its meaning since. And it never will! |
| J: Easy, hmm? ! |
| M: Okay, and the next word we have is “zeg” |
| J: zeg, zeg, zeg, |
| M:This means "to say." So here, we have, “Hoe zeg” add “ik”, “I” , Hoe zeg ik, which literally means "how do I say." And then, just add the word you want to know, followed by “in het Nederlands.“ |
| J: “in het Nederlands” |
| M: We can translate this as "in Dutch," and it refers to the language in our case. All you need here is hope that your companion speaks English enough to understand and say it in Dutch for you! So in the dialogue we heard... |
| J: “Pardon, hoe zeg ik “Cheese” in het Nederlands?” |
| M: Right. How would we use the same phrase, but change “cheese” for “ticket”? |
| J: “Pardon, hoe zeg ik “ticket” in het Nederlands?” |
| M: Great. Listeners, listen and repeat: |
| J: “Pardon, hoe zeg ik “ticket” in het Nederlands?” |
| {pause} |
| M: Here we go! Okay, let's move to the second phrase. |
| J: “Sorry, ik begrijp het niet. Kunt u het herhalen?” |
| M.The first word is “Sorry” which has the same meaning as the English “Sorry.” |
| J. Sorry, sorry.. sorry |
| M: Haha yeah that's enough. Then we have ‘Ik’, in English “I” |
| J: Ik, ik ik |
| M: Begrijp literally means "understand,". |
| J: Begrijp, begrijp |
| M: And the next word is “het”, meaning “it”, if you would say;” Ik begrijp het” what would it mean? |
| J:It would mean, I understand. |
| M: Yes, that is correct but we are adding the word "Niet" which is like the English word “not” and is used to make the sentence negative. “Sorry ik begrijp het niet!” |
| M:The next three questions start with “Kunt u” meaning “Can you”, |
| J: Kunt u, kunt u (slow), kunt u |
| M: We want the person to repeat it and say “ herhalen” |
| J: herhalen, herhalen, herhalen. |
| M: So literally, we are saying "Can you it repeat?" Great! Let's repeat the whole phrase again. Listeners, listen carefully, and repeat. |
| J: “Kunt u het herhalen?” |
| “Kunt u het herhalen?” (slow). {pause} |
| M: Let's move to sentence number three. “Kunt u langzamer spreken?” We start again with, “Kunt u”. |
| J: The next word is “langzamer”, which means "slower." In case you are wondering how to say "slow" in Dutch, it is “langzaam”. |
| M: So “langzamer” is a comparative adjective and it means "slower." Let's say phrase one again. Listeners, pay close attention, and repeat. |
| J: “Kunt u langzamer spreken?” {pause} |
| M: And finally, the last phrase for this lesson.Kunt u het voor mij opschrijven alstublieft? |
| J: Again we start the question, with “ Kunt u” "Can you?" |
| M:. Followed by “het”, it and “voor mij”, literally “for me” in English. |
| J: het voor mij, het voor my (slow). |
| M: Next, we have opschrijven which literally means "write down." |
| J: Opschrijven, opschrijven, opschrijven. |
| M: And last but definitely not least, we have "Alstublieft," which means “Please"in Dutch |
| J: Alstublieft Al-stu-blieft (slow) Alstublieft |
| M: Listeners, listen to the whole phrase again, and repeat out loud. |
| J: “Kunt u het voor mij opschrijven alstublieft?”{pause} |
| M: Very easy and useful! |
Outro |
| J: That’s it for this lesson. |
| M: Thanks for listening. Dag! |
| J: See you! |
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