Learn how to use Dutch modal auxiliary verbs
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella:Hi everyone, Gabriella here! Welcome to DutchPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Season 1, Lesson 13 - What’s a Dutch Wedding Like? |
| Jacob:Hallo allemaal! I'm Jacob. in this lesson, we’re going to tell you all about Dutch weddings. |
| Gabriella:With us, you'll learn more about Dutch culture, and how weddings in the Netherlands work. |
| Jacob:By the way, did you know that most Dutch people always talk about Holland, and never about the Netherlands? |
| Gabriella:It’s kind of the same as saying England when you mean the United Kingdom. |
| Jacob:In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say things in the passive form and how to use modal verbs. |
| Gabriella:This conversation takes place in the town hall, during a wedding ceremony. Maloe and Wies are friends. The conversation is in casual Dutch. Maloe seems to know a lot about the traditions. |
| Jacob:Okay. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Maloe: De bruid heeft een prachtige trouwjurk aan! |
| Wies: Ja, inderdaad. |
| Maloe: Het wordt prachtig weer vandaag. |
| Wies: Kunnen we het bruidspaar feliciteren na het burgerlijk huwelijk? |
| Maloe: Nee, ze trouwen ook nog in de kerk. Vervolgens is er een receptie. |
| Wies: Aha, en dan wordt het paar gefeliciteerd! |
| Maloe: Precies! |
| Gabriella: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Maloe: De bruid heeft een prachtige trouwjurk aan! |
| Wies: Ja, inderdaad. |
| Maloe: Het wordt prachtig weer vandaag. |
| Wies: Kunnen we het bruidspaar feliciteren na het burgerlijk huwelijk? |
| Maloe: Nee, ze trouwen ook nog in de kerk. Vervolgens is er een receptie. |
| Wies: Aha, en dan wordt het paar gefeliciteerd! |
| Maloe: Precies! |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Maloe: De bruid heeft een prachtige trouwjurk aan! |
| Gabriella: The bride is wearing a stunning wedding dress. |
| Wies: Ja, inderdaad. |
| Gabriella: Yes, indeed. |
| Maloe: Het wordt prachtig weer vandaag. |
| Gabriella: The weather will be perfect today. |
| Wies: Kunnen we het bruidspaar feliciteren na het burgerlijk huwelijk? |
| Gabriella: Can we congratulate the bridal couple after the civil service? |
| Maloe: Nee, ze trouwen ook nog in de kerk. Vervolgens is er een receptie. |
| Gabriella: No, they will get married in church as well. Afterward, there's a reception. |
| Wies: Aha, en dan wordt het paar gefeliciteerd! |
| Gabriella: Aha, and then the couple will be congratulated! |
| Maloe: Precies! |
| Gabriella: Exactly! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jacob:So let’s talk about traditional values in Holland... |
| Gabriella:Such as marriage! Do the Dutch really value their traditions? |
| Jacob:Yes, I think they do, and much more than thirty or forty years ago anyway. Like most western countries, they went through their “hippy generation”, and then came out of it again. |
| Gabriella:Would you get married in church? |
| Jacob:Yes, I think so, because I believe I would disappoint my mother if I didn’t, but of course I would also have a civil wedding and a wedding party after that. |
| Gabriella:And how about most of your friends? |
| Jacob:Most of them wouldn’t I think, but a significant number of them would definitely find it important. |
| Gabriella:Can you tell us a bit more about moral values in the Netherlands? |
| Jacob:There are many, although they are not always very obvious. Some people may find it old-fashioned, but religious people don’t eat meat on Friday, so for a lot of people Friday is “fish-day”, or visdag as we say in Holland. |
| Gabriella:Ja! Vrijdag is vis-dag! |
| Jacob:“Friday is fish-day!” |
| Gabriella:Now I’m getting hungry for vis! Okay, now let’s take a look at the vocabulary and phrases. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jacob: inderdaad [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: indeed |
| Jacob: inderdaad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: inderdaad [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: vervolgens [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: after that |
| Jacob: vervolgens [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: vervolgens [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: kerk [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: church |
| Jacob: kerk [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: kerk [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: trouwen [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: getting married |
| Jacob: trouwen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: trouwen [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: bruid [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: bride |
| Jacob: bruid [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: bruid [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: trouwjurk [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: wedding dress |
| Jacob: trouwjurk [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: trouwjurk [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: receptie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: reception |
| Jacob: receptie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: receptie [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: (burgerlijk) huwelijk [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: (civil) wedding / marriage |
| Jacob: (burgerlijk) huwelijk [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: (burgerlijk) huwelijk [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: prachtige [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: wonderful |
| Jacob: prachtige [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: prachtige [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella:Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Jacob:Maloe says vervolgens. Did you hear this? |
| Gabriella:Yes, it’s supposed to mean “after that” or “then” in English, isn’t it? |
| Jacob:Yes, you’re right. But it’s funny, because it’s a word that you would expect in a written text and not in a conversation between close friends. There’s nothing particuarly wrong with it, but it’s just not a very casual word. |
| Gabriella:So what would I use in a more casual situation? |
| Jacob:You could use daarna instead. |
| Gabriella:And why does Maloe suddenly say het wordt prachtig weer vandaag? It’s not exactly an response to the comment about the wedding dress. |
| Jacob:Yes, but saying something about the weather, is always safe and it’s a very Dutch way to fill uncomfortable silences. Dutch people will often greet each other with remarks like Weertje! meaning “Nice day isn’t it?” or t’Is weer winter, meaning “It’s winter again!” |
| Gabriella:Weertje is a shortened form of the phrase Lekker weertje! which means, “nice little weather, isn’t it?” he is a tag in Dutch sentences equivalent to “isn’t it”, and the shortened form weertje literally means “little weather, isn’t it”. It’s one of those colloquial sentences that you just have to learn, and it’s a fun one to use! Another thing I forgot to mention, Jacob, is that like in Africa and maybe in other cultures people will greet each other with “Have you eaten yet?” |
| Jacob:Yes, it’s a traditional thing and perhaps meaningless, but it’s also meant to show friendliness, something you say to the other person in the elevator, for example. |
| Gabriella:And what about het bruidspaar? |
| Jacob:It literally means the “bride couple”. The bride is called the bruid and the groom is bruidegom, but on their wedding day they are called het bruidspaar. The day after, however, they’ll be called the newlywed couple. |
| Gabriella:And that would be pasgetrouwd paar in Dutch? |
| Jacob:Yes! You sure know your languages. |
| Gabriella:[Haha] Thanks! Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Jacob:In this lesson, we're going to learn a bit more about auxiliary and modal verbs, and verbs in general. |
| Gabriella:In the dialogue, Maloe says the bride is wearing a stunning wedding dress, which in Dutch is ze heeft een prachtige trouwjurk aan. |
| Jacob:Yes. The infinitive of the verb is aanhebben. This means she is wearing it. However in Dutch some verbs will be split, so it becomes ze heeft een prachtige trouwjurk aan, which, translated literally into English, would be “She has a stunning wedding dress on.” |
| Gabriella:I see. So now, what about the verb worden? |
| Jacob:Literally, it means “to become” or to get. As you can see in the conversation, Maloe says ‘het wordt prachtig weer vandaag’ (The weather will be perfect today), but the more literal translation would be, ‘The weather will become perfect today. |
| Gabriella:How else is this verb used? |
| Jacob:The verb ‘worden’ is used to make a passive sentence. You use the verb ‘worden’ + the past participle. |
| As you’ll remember from the dialogue, Wies says ‘Aha, en dan wordt het paar gefeliciteerd’, meaning the couple will be congratulated. |
| Gabriella:So, how would you say this in the active? |
| Jacob:You would say ‘Aha, en dan kunnen we het paar feliciteren’, which translates to ‘Aha, and then we can congratulate the couple. |
| Gabriella:Yes! So ‘worden’ + a past participle, makes a passive sentence? |
| Jacob:Correct! |
| Gabriella:And what about the verb ‘kunnen’? |
| Jacob:That’s a difficult one. It is usually an auxiliary verb, meaning ‘to be able to’ or ‘can’. You use it to express a possibility, a capability or an ability, among others. When Wies asks ‘Kunnen we het bruidspaar feliciteren?’ she means ‘will we be able to congratulate the bridal couple or ‘will we be allowed to congratulate the couple?’. |
| This verb is used in many different ways: for example when asking somebody if he can drive a car, you’ll say ‘Kun je autorijden?’ |
| If you want to know the time, you’ll ask ‘Kun je mij zeggen hoe laat het is?’ |
| Gabriella:I see, but couldn’t you just say ‘Hoe laat is het?’ |
| Jacob:Yes, you could, but just remember that it is an informal way of saying it. It would be ok between friends, but don’t ask it that way to a person you don’t know, or to someone who is your boss. It is the same as in English: ‘What time is it?’ instead of ‘Could you please tell me what time it is?’ |
Outro |
|---|
| Gabriella:Okay, well that’s it for this lesson. And listeners, don’t forget to check the lesson notes for more Dutch phrases! |
| Jacob:Thanks for listening, we’ll be waiting for you in the next lesson. See you next time! |
| Gabriella:Tot ziens! |
| Jacob:Daag! |
Comments
Hide