Learn 10 questions you should know
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| Hi guys, welcome to this next class. I am Stella. I am a native speaker of the Dutch language and today, we are going to focus on 10 Questions You Should Be Able to Ask and Answer in Dutch. We have a lot of ground to cover. So let’s get started. |
| The first one. |
| 1. Hoe heet u? "What's your name?" |
| An answer to this could be, |
| Ik heet Jacob. "My name is Jacob." |
| So this is just your basic introduction but an important thing to remember is that the Dutch word u is very formal. So if you want to ask a co-worker or classmate or someone who has the same age as you what the name is, you should probably say je instead of u. So it would be - Hoe heet je? |
| Next question. |
| 2. Hoe gaat het? "How are you?" |
| And an answer might be, |
| Met mij gaat het goed. "I am doing well." |
| Now, this is a pretty long sentence that you don’t necessarily need to you know, say in full. If someone asks Hoe gaat het, you can just shorten it and say goed. |
| 3. Waar kom je vandaan? "Where are you from?" |
| Sample answer. |
| Ik kom uit Amsterdam. "I am from Amsterdam." |
| Now, if you are just asking this question flat out, then people might consider that to be a little direct. So a more gentle way of asking this is just assuming that someone is from somewhere and then letting them correct you. |
| So you could ask - Kom je uit Amsterdam? which means, “Are you from Amsterdam?” And then someone else could say, “No, actually, I am from Haarlem.” |
| 4. Hoe oud ben je? “How old are you?” |
| Possible answer. |
| Ik ben twintig jaar. “I am 20 years old.” |
| So if you’re answering this question, you may actually leave out jaar. You can just say, Ik ben twintig and leave it at that. That’s more common. |
| 5. Waar werk je? "Where do you work?" |
| Ik werk in Rotterdam. "I work in Rotterdam." |
| Though this sample answer is city, you are more likely to get an answer with something like, “I work in marketing” or “I work at Coolblue” or whatever. |
| So when you are asking someone where they work, usually it’s assumed that you are talking about the job and not the actual location. |
| Here is an opportunity to learn some numbers. |
| 6. Wat is je telefoonnummer? "What's your phone number?" |
| Answer, |
| Mijn telefoonnummer is nul een twee drie vier vijf zes zes zeven acht. "My phone number is zero one two three four five six six seven eight.” |
| So now, you also have an idea of all the numbers from zero to eight. |
| Nul een twee drie vier vijf zes zeven acht negen tien. |
| 7. Hou je van Nederlands eten? "Do you like Dutch food?" |
| A likely answer to this is, |
| Nee, ik hou niet van Nederlands eten. "No, I don't like Dutch food." |
| So some typical Dutch dishes are hutspot which is mashed potatoes with mashed carrots. And beschuit met muisjes, which is like a crispy biscuit with small, pink or blue and white little bows on it and they are made of sugar and aniseed and that’s traditionally eaten at the birth of a child. Well, to celebrate the birth of a child. |
| 8. Heb je broers of zussen? "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" |
| And an answer to this maybe, |
| Ja, ik heb een broer. "Yes, I have one brother." |
| So there is no real Dutch equivalent to the word siblings. So you always have to ask if they have brothers or sisters. It can be a little bit of a pain but there’s just no alternative. So sorry. |
| 9. Ben je wel eens in Nederland geweest? "Have you ever been to the Netherlands?" |
| A likely answer. |
| Nee, ik ben er nog niet geweest. "No, I haven't been there yet." |
| 10. Waar heb je Nederlands geleerd? "Where did you learn Dutch?" It is so grim. |
| Sample answer would be, |
| Ik heb het op school geleerd. "I have learned it at school." |
| I don’t actually know if there’s any country except for the Netherlands where they teach Dutch. We’re not very popular in that sense. |
| Okay guys, that’s all for today. Thanks for watching and great job. You now know how to ask and answer 10 Important Questions in Dutch. |
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