Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Hi everyone, I'm Thomas, hallo dai, ik ben Tomas.
Welcome to another Dutch whiteboard lesson.
In this lesson you'll learn to make basic comparisons in Dutch.
Let's get started.
Ok, let's look at the vocabulary.
First we have the Dutch word for small, which is klein, klein, klein.
Then if you want to make comparisons and turn it into smaller, it becomes kleiner, kleiner,
kleiner.
Got that?
Ok.
Let's go to its opposite, big.
In Dutch, groot, tricky to pronounce, but if you can pronounce this, you'll probably
be able to pronounce anything in Dutch, groot, groot.
And to make comparisons, bigger in Dutch becomes groter, groter, groter. Very good.
Let's move on to nieuw in Dutch, which sounds quite similar, nieuw, nieuw, nieuw.
And if you want to make comparisons, nieuwe, nieuwe, nieuwe, good.
Now let's look at its opposite, old, which in Dutch is oud, oud, oud.
And for comparisons, ouder, ouder, ouder.
Now cold in Dutch sounds quite similar to the previous one, koud, koud, koud.
And then I think you see this coming.
If you want to make comparisons, it becomes kouder, kouder, kouder.
Now finally, let's look at its opposite, warm in English becomes, well, very similar, warm,
warm, warm, and then finally for comparisons, warmer, warmer, warmer.
Let's look at the dialogue.
When I read, I want you to pay attention to the adjectives.
Find the adjective and see how it's used in the dialogue to indicate comparison.
Is Den Haag klein?
Is Den Haag klein in English?
Is The Hague small?
We move to the answer, Den Haag is kleiner dan Amsterdam.
Den Haag is kleiner dan Amsterdam.
The Hague is smaller than Amsterdam.
As you can see, the essential rule is that you add er to the basic adjective to create
a comparison.
This is the same as in English.
In Dutch, klein becomes kleiner, just as in English, small becomes smaller.
English does have many adjectives that require adding the word more to create a comparison.
This also happens in Dutch, but much less often.
For most adjectives, adding er at the end does the trick.
Now let's look at some more examples.
Amsterdam is groter dan Den Haag.
Amsterdam is groter dan Den Haag.
Amsterdam is bigger dan The Hague.
Next one.
Spanje is warmer dan Nederland.
Spanje is warmer dan Nederland.
Spain is warmer dan The Netherlands.
The names of Dutch cities usually remain the same in English, but with a slight change of pronunciation.
For example, in English Amsterdam hardly changes from the Dutch Amsterdam.
The original Dutch pronunciation of Utrecht is Utrecht.
Sounds a little bit different, but the spelling doesn't change.
The Hague is a rare exception.
Its name literally means The Hedge and refers to the aristocratic hunting grounds where
the city originated, more than ten centuries ago.
Since we are on the topic of Dutch cities, here's a fun fact.
Amsterdam is the official capital, but unlike in most countries, the capital city is not the seat of government.
The Dutch government is located in The Hague, as is the main palace of the Dutch royal
family.

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