Learn how to express your condolences
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 19 - Offering Your Condolences in Dutch. We’ll be talking about how to express your condolences. |
| Jacob:Hallo! I'm Jacob. In this lesson, the dialogue is between Erik and Paul, who are friends, so their Dutch will be informal. |
| Gabriella:In this lesson, listeners, you’re going to learn how to use the simple past tense. |
| Jacob:It’s understandable that a lot of the conversation is expressed in the simple past tense, as it is about the last years of a person’s life before he died. |
| Gabriella:Can you tell where this conversation takes place? |
| Jacob:Yes, and from the first line you can actually tell that it’s a chance meeting, probably somewhere on the street or in a shop. |
| Gabriella:Okay. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Erik: Hee Paul, leuk je te zien! Hoe gaat het met je? |
| Paul: Niet zo goed. Mijn vader is gisteren overleden. |
| Erik: Echt? Gecondoleerd, Paul. Was hij ziek? |
| Paul: Ja, hij had de ziekte van Parkinson. |
| Erik: Ging je vaak bij hem op bezoek? |
| Paul: Ik bezocht hem vaak 's avonds. Dan aten we samen. |
| Erik: Ik wens je veel sterkte in deze moeilijke tijd! |
| Gabriella: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Erik: Hee Paul, leuk je te zien! Hoe gaat het met je? |
| Paul: Niet zo goed. Mijn vader is gisteren overleden. |
| Erik: Echt? Gecondoleerd, Paul. Was hij ziek? |
| Paul: Ja, hij had de ziekte van Parkinson. |
| Erik: Ging je vaak bij hem op bezoek? |
| Paul: Ik bezocht hem vaak 's avonds. Dan aten we samen. |
| Erik: Ik wens je veel sterkte in deze moeilijke tijd! |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Erik: Hee Paul, leuk je te zien! Hoe gaat het met je? |
| Gabriella: Hi, Paul, good to see you! How are things going? |
| Paul: Niet zo goed. Mijn vader is gisteren overleden. |
| Gabriella: Not so good. My father passed away yesterday. |
| Erik: Echt? Gecondoleerd, Paul. Was hij ziek? |
| Gabriella: Really? I'm so sorry to hear that, Paul. Was he ill? |
| Paul: Ja, hij had de ziekte van Parkinson. |
| Gabriella: Yes, he had Parkinson's disease. |
| Erik: Ging je vaak bij hem op bezoek? |
| Gabriella: Did you visit him regularly? |
| Paul: Ik bezocht hem vaak 's avonds. Dan aten we samen. |
| Gabriella: I often visited him in the evening. Then we had dinner together. |
| Erik: Ik wens je veel sterkte in deze moeilijke tijd! |
| Gabriella: I wish you lots of strength in this difficult time! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella:So, Jacob, it seems Paul is having a hard time. Can you tell us a little about mourning in Holland? |
| Jacob:For most Dutch there isn’t really a period of mourning. Personally, there is of course. People feel broken or extremely sad, but there aren’t any rules such as having to wear black clothes or not being allowed to do certain things. |
| Gabriella:And what about friends and relatives and acquaintances, do they support the people left behind? Do they give presents? |
| Jacob:Well, at the funeral people usually bring flowers and put these on the coffin. Later on these flowers will be arranged around the grave, so people visiting or revisiting the grave will still be able to see the flowers and the floral wreaths, and these may or may not have names on them. |
| Gabriella:And do people get together, let’s say, a year later or something in honor of the deceased? |
| Jacob:No, that’s not really a tradition in Holland, although I’m sure some people may organize something like that. And we don’t have any special days to remember the dead, like in some other cultures. |
| Gabriella:Yeah, it’s more of a personal thing that can be done any time. Okay, now let’s take a look at the vocabulary and phrases. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jacob: bezoeken [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to visit |
| Jacob: bezoeken [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: bezoeken [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: ziek [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: sick, ill |
| Jacob: ziek [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: ziek [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: overlijden [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to die |
| Jacob: overlijden [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: overlijden [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: moeilijk(e) [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: difficult |
| Jacob: moeilijk(e) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: moeilijk(e) [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: ('s) avond(s) [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: (in the) evening |
| Jacob: ('s) avond(s) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: ('s) avond(s) [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: vaak [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: often |
| Jacob: vaak [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: vaak [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: sterkte [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: strength |
| Jacob: sterkte [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: sterkte [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: eten [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to eat |
| Jacob: eten [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: eten [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: ziekte (van Parkinson) [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: (Parkinson’s) disease |
| Jacob: ziekte (van Parkinson) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: ziekte (van Parkinson) [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: condoleren [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to offer condolences |
| Jacob: condoleren [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: condoleren [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella:Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. For example, when they meet Erik says Hee Paul, leuk je te zien. Is that a standard way of greeting someone? What does it mean? |
| Jacob:Well, there are many ways to greet somebody. Hee Paul of course means “Hi Paul”, and leuk je te zien is “nice to see you.” Then immediately after that, he says Hoe gaat het met je? which means “How are you?” |
| Gabriella:Is that informal? And are there any other greetings? |
| Jacob:Yes, that’s informal but polite, and yes there are more ways. Hoe is het?’is one way. It means “How is it?” Or you could ask Alles goed?, meaning “Everything OK?” |
| Gabriella:What about the more formal greetings? |
| Jacob:Well, after being introduced or having introduced yourself, you could say Hoe maakt u het?, which is the polite form of Hoe gaat het met je.’ |
| Gabriella:So, the informal je is replaced by the formal u? But the basic construction is more or less the same. |
| Jacob:You’ve got it, Gabriella:! And then some may also add Leuk u te ontmoeten, meaning “Nice to meet you.” |
| Gabriella:So after Paul has explained that his father has died, Erik says Echt? Gecondoleerd, Paul. Is that formal or very informal? |
| Jacob:Actually, it’s both. Whether you talk to a close friend or to someone older than you, in both cases you can use gecondoleerd. It could be translated as “Please accept my condolences,” but in a more informal way it may just mean “I’m sorry to hear that.” |
| Gabriella:I see. But he starts with the word echt. Does that have a meaning? |
| Jacob:Well it means “really”, so it’s used to express surprise. But often it’s a stopgap, a word that people use all the time, without thinking. It’s the same as when some people say “you know.” |
| Gabriella:Thanks for explaining! Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella:The focus of this lesson is the use of the simple past. In the dialogue, nearly all verbs seem to be in the past. |
| Jacob:Yes, the conversation is mostly about the fact that Paul’s father died and about the time just before that, when he was ill. So naturally, most verbs will be in the simple past. |
| Gabriella:So it’s all about things that started in the past and have also ended in the past, right? |
| Jacob:Yes, but also for other things like regular occurrences in the past. |
| Gabriella:Let’s look at all of the verbs in the dialogue and see how they are used. |
| Jacob:OK. Well, the first line we can skip. Both verbs are in the present tense. We talked about that in the vocabulary section. |
| Gabriella:Yes, I remember, Leuk je te zien meaning “nice to see you” and Hoe gaat het?, meaning “How are you”. Both are in the present tense. |
| Jacob:In the next line, Paul says Mijn vader is gisteren overleden, which means “my father died yesterday”. Here the present perfect is used to describe a past event, but after that everything will be in the simple past. |
| Gabriella:I see. So let’s move on to the next one. Paul’s friend Erik asks Was hij ziek?, meaning “Was he ill?” |
| Jacob:This is a somewhat different situation. Here, the simple past is used to describe a certain state that existed in the past, but does not exist anymore. But no specific time or duration is given. |
| Gabriella:And it’s the same in the answer “Yes, he had Parkinson’s disease.” So, we don’t know for how long he had the disease. |
| Jacob:Correct! |
| Gabriella:So in some cases you give a very specific time, like when you say “My father died yesterday,” and in other cases you just know it’s something from the past but nothing more. |
| Jacob:Exactly, but there’s more. When Erik asks Ging je vaak bij hem op bezoek?, meaning “Did you visit him regularly?” Paul answers “I often visited him in the evening. Then we would eat together.” |
| So here the simple past is used to describe a regular habit, something that happened on a regular basis. |
| Gabriella:Well thank you for explaining all of that. And listeners, have another good look at the lesson notes. Until the next lesson! |
Outro |
| Gabriella:Okay, that’s it for this leson. |
| Jacob:Yes, tot de volgende keer! |
| Gabriella:Tot ziens allemaal! |
Comments
Hide