Learn how to use possessive pronouns to talk about the weather
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome to DutchPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 1 - How Many Seasons Are There in the Netherlands? Michael here. |
| Jacob: Hallo. I'm Jacob. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use possessive pronouns in Dutch. The conversation takes place in the hall of an office building. |
| Jacob: It’s between Lucas and Brigitte. |
| Michael: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Dutch. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Brigitte: Hoe is het weer, regent het? |
| Lucas: Nee, geen regen, motregen. |
| Brigitte: En is het ook koud? |
| Lucas: Nee het is warm en vochtig. |
| Brigitte: Oh, dan neem ik alleen mijn paraplu mee. |
| Lucas: Ja, ik ook. Kan je de mijne even aangeven? |
| Brigitte: Is deze paraplu van jou? Alsjeblieft. |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Brigitte: Hoe is het weer, regent het? |
| Lucas: Nee, geen regen, motregen. |
| Brigitte: En is het ook koud? |
| Lucas: Nee het is warm en vochtig. |
| Brigitte: Oh, dan neem ik alleen mijn paraplu mee. |
| Lucas: Ja, ik ook. Kan je de mijne even aangeven? |
| Brigitte: Is deze paraplu van jou? Alsjeblieft. |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Brigitte: How is the weather, is it raining? |
| Lucas: No, it's not raining, it's drizzling. |
| Brigitte: Is it cold as well? |
| Lucas: No, it’s warm and sticky. |
| Brigitte: Oh, then I'll just take my umbrella. |
| Lucas: Yes, me too. Could you hand me mine? |
| Brigitte: Is this your umbrella? Here you are. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: Jacob, what’s typical weather in the Netherlands? |
| Jacob: There’s a saying that Holland has only two seasons- the cold rainy season and the very cold rainy season! |
| Michael: They must be exaggerating, at least a little! Still, I hear that the weather is very unstable. |
| Jacob: It’s true. In the Netherlands the winters can be cold and snowy, and often there’s a lot of ice. Since Dutch people love their skating, sometimes schools will even give their students a day off to go skating. It’s called "ijsvrij". |
| Michael: That literally means “ice free.” Sounds fun! But autumn is notorious for its southwesterly storms and rains, right? |
| Jacob: Yes. There’s even a specially designed hat, "de zuidwester" meaning “the southwester” for that type of weather. It’s supposed to protect you against the terrible rains. |
| Michael: Good to know. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Jacob: weer [natural native speed] |
| Michael: weather |
| Jacob: weer[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: weer [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: regen [natural native speed] |
| Michael: rain |
| Jacob: regen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: regen [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: motregen [natural native speed] |
| Michael: drizzle |
| Jacob: motregen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: motregen [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: warm [natural native speed] |
| Michael: warm |
| Jacob: warm[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: warm [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: vochtig [natural native speed] |
| Michael: sticky |
| Jacob: vochtig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: vochtig [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: paraplu [natural native speed] |
| Michael: umbrella |
| Jacob: paraplu[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: paraplu [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: mijne [natural native speed] |
| Michael: mine |
| Jacob: mijne[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: mijne [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: van jou [natural native speed] |
| Michael: from you |
| Jacob: van jou[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: van jou [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Michael: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Jacob: Hoe is het weer? |
| Michael: Which means "How is the weather?". Can you break this down, Jacob? |
| Jacob: Sure. First we have the word hoe. |
| Michael: It’s basically the same as the English “how.” |
| Jacob: Here the real subject is het weer, or “the weather,” and hoe acts as an auxiliary subject. That’s why the phrase "Hoe is het weer?" literally means “What is the state of the weather?”. |
| Michael: What do you say when you’re asking about the weather in the future? |
| Jacob: We say Wat is de weersverwachting? |
| Michael: It literally means “What is the weather expectation?”. Can you give us an example of talking about weather? |
| Jacob: Sure. For example, you can say.. Hallo, ik wil graag ook naar het strand komen. Hoe is het weer daar? |
| Michael: ..which means "Hello, I'd like to come to the beach as well. How's the weather over there?". Okay, what's the next word? |
| Jacob: Van mij, |
| Michael: meaning "mine." Possessive pronouns can be used in different ways, either independently or dependently, in Dutch. |
| Jacob: That’s right. For example, “This is my umbrella” in Dutch is "Dit is mijn paraplu" and “This umbrella is mine” in Dutch is "Deze paraplu is van mij." |
| Michael: These sentences used different words to show possession, right? |
| Jacob: That’s right. The first sentence used Mijn... |
| Michael: ...which is the possessive pronoun meaning “my” |
| Jacob: and the second sentence used van mij |
| Michael: meaning “mine,” or literally, “from me.” We heard this form in the dialogue. |
| Jacob: That’s right. Brigitte said Is deze paraplu van jou? |
| Michael: which means “Is this umbrella yours?” |
| Jacob: She could have also said "Is dit jouw paraplu?". |
| Michael: which means “Is this your umbrella?”. The meaning of the two phrases is exactly the same, but they use different possessive words. But what if you’re speaking to someone older or using formal Dutch? |
| Jacob: Well, instead of van jou and the second person singular, you would use the formal u which is also second person singular. It still means “yours,” but is formal. |
| Michael: Listeners, note that in Dutch the second person singular and the second person plural have two forms, the formal and the informal. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use possessive pronouns in Dutch. Unlike in French or German, where the possessive pronouns change their endings depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine and singular or plural, pronouns in Dutch do not change their endings. But there’s one exception, right? |
| Jacob: Yes, that’s right, which is "ons" and "onze", meaning “our.” This makes them quite simple. However, you need to be aware that a lot of the possessive pronouns can be translated in two ways, depending on the stress. |
| Michael: I see. Before we get into more details, let’s go over the pronouns in Dutch. How do you say “my” in Dutch? |
| Jacob: Mijn [slowly] mijn. But here’s a note for our listeners. “My” is usually "mijn", but it can also be "m'n". This is spelled “m” apostrophe “n”, and it’s the unstressed and more informal way to pronounce it. |
| Michael: Good to know. And what about the singular “your”? |
| Jacob: “Your” is usually "jouw", but it can also be "je". As we said, this is the unstressed and informal pronunciation. |
| Michael: What about “his”? |
| Jacob: “His” (singular) is usually "zijn", but can also be "z’n" when it’s unstressed. This is spelled “z” apostrophe “n” |
| Michael: And “hers” in Dutch will be..? |
| Jacob: “Her” (singular) is usually "haar", but it can also be "d’r", spelled “d” apostrophe “r”. Now let’s look at the exception we just mentioned. The possessive pronoun "ons" is used with the singular neutral nouns, the so-called "het-words", whereas "onze" is used with the "de-words". |
| Michael: I see. Listeners, make sure you check out the lesson notes for more pronouns in Dutch. |
| Jacob: By the way, for a beginner, it's okay to always use the "normal" form, but you should be able to understand the other forms when Dutch people use them. |
| Michael: Now, let’s talk about how to use the possessive pronouns. |
| Jacob: When you use possessive pronouns, you can simply replace the possessive pronouns with the articles. |
| Michael: For example, “my house” in Dutch is.. ? |
| Jacob: Mijn huis. In Dutch, “the house” is "Het huis" and it has "het" as an article. To say “My house” you just need to replace this article with "mijn", meaning “my.” |
| Michael: That’s easy. Listeners, please note that the possessive pronoun doesn't denote gender although the articles can change it. |
Outro |
| Michael: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Jacob: Tot ziens. |
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