Learn all you need to know about greetings in Dutch
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| Michael: How do you greet someone at different times of the day? |
| Atie: And are there any alternatives? |
| Michael: At DutchPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Ben Lee is greeting his friend, but he hasn't noticed how late it is. Ben says, "Good morning!" |
| Ben Lee: Goedemorgen! |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Goedemorgen! |
| Sam Swinkels: Het is al één uur. Goedemiddag! |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Goedemorgen! |
| Michael: "Good morning!" |
| Sam Swinkels: Het is al één uur. Goedemiddag! |
| Michael: "It's already one o'clock. Good afternoon!" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be looking at how to greet someone at different times of the day, in Dutch. We will also check out some alternatives to these time-based greetings. Let's begin at the beginning with how to say "good morning" in Dutch: |
| Atie: goedemorgen |
| Michael: This word is composed of two others: |
| Atie: goede |
| Michael: meaning "good," and |
| Atie: morgen |
| Michael: meaning "morning." |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben Lee says "Good morning?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Atie as Ben Lee: Goedemorgen! |
| Michael: Naturally, one uses it in the morning. But, as it turns out, it's later than that so his friend responds in the following way: |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sam Swinkels says "It's already one o'clock. Good afternoon?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Atie as Sam Swinkels: Het is al één uur. Goedemiddag! |
| Michael: After midday, or noon, one can use the greeting: |
| Atie: goedemiddag |
| Michael: This is composed of the words: |
| Atie: goede |
| Michael: which, as we've already mentioned, means "good," and |
| Atie: middag |
| Michael: which means "afternoon." Combined into one word, they mean the same as the English "good afternoon." This expression is used between noon and six in the evening. As you will have guessed, the next greeting means "good evening" and it sounds like this: |
| Atie: goedenavond |
| Michael: By now, you will recognise the word meaning "good" and you will have guessed that |
| Atie: avond |
| Michael: means "evening." Dutch people use this greeting from about 6:00 p.m. onwards. |
| The next logical greeting to discuss is the one that means "good night," but, before we get to that, I must point out that, up to this point, all the greetings we've discussed are ways of saying "hello." When one says "good night" in English, it is invariably in the context of a farewell, a form of "goodbye." It is the same in Dutch, but one can also use it as a form of "hello" if you are greeting someone during the hours between midnight and six in the morning. For these reasons, it stands out from the other greetings I have mentioned thus far. One says "good night" in Dutch, like this: |
| Atie: goedenacht |
| Michael: The word for "night" is: |
| Atie: nacht |
| Michael: We will discuss other greetings that are used exclusively for farewells in a moment. Before we get to that, let's have a look at a time-based greeting that is less specific than those we have discussed until now. It sounds like this: |
| Atie: goedendag |
| Michael: This greeting means "good day" and is generally used between mid-morning and early evening. It would seem a little odd to use when it is already dark in the evening, or during the early hours of the morning. A similar greeting is the simple: |
| Atie: dag |
| Michael: This literally means "day" and, conveniently, it can be used as both a form of "hello" and a form of "goodbye." It is not commonly used in formal situations. Speaking of formal and informal, there are alternatives to some of the greetings we have discussed that are slightly less formal but quite commonly used. An alternative "good morning" is this one: |
| Atie: goeiemorgen |
| Michael: As you can hear, the part of the word that refers to the time has not changed, but the word meaning "good" is now: |
| Atie: goeie |
| Michael: Instead of: |
| Atie: goede |
| Michael: Similarly, another way of saying "good afternoon" is like this: |
| Atie: goeiemiddag |
| Michael: Then, there is "good evening": |
| Atie: goeienavond |
| Michael: and finally "good night": |
| Atie: goeienacht |
| Michael: As I mentioned, these are more informal than the first time-based greetings I talked about. Let's now look at some greetings that are not time-based. One of the most common of these is quite easy to remember because it is so similar to the English "hello." It sounds like this: |
| Atie: hallo |
| Michael: You can use this greeting at any time of the day, and in the same way that the English "hello" is used. Another common greeting is: |
| Atie: hoi |
| Michael: This is similar to the word "hi" in English and is quite a casual, informal greeting. Another casual greeting that you can use is the word: |
| Atie: hé |
| Michael: It is the Dutch way of saying: |
| Atie: hey |
| Michael: which is also often used instead of a time-based greeting and means the same as "hi" or "hello." That means we have now looked at four different ways to say "hello," but what about when we want to say "goodbye" to someone? As I mentioned before, one of your options is to say: |
| Atie: dag |
| Michael: and another is to say: |
| Atie: goedenacht |
| Michael: but there are other greetings which are not so time-bound. A common way to say "goodbye" in an informal setting is to say: |
| Atie: doei |
| Michael: You could, for instance, use it when saying goodbye to colleagues at the end of a day at work. Consider this example: |
| Atie: Doei! Heb een goede avond. |
| Michael: which means "Bye! Have a good evening!" If you want to be safe in both formal and informal situations, perhaps your best option for saying goodbye is: |
| Atie: tot ziens |
| Michael: This means "goodbye" but a direct translation would be "Till see," which means "Till we see each other again." If you are likely to see the person later in the same day again, you could say: |
| Atie: tot straks |
| Michael: This means "see you later." If you are going to see them soon, but you're not sure when exactly, you could say: |
| Atie: tot zo |
| Michael: This means "see you soon." This and the other greetings we have discussed thus far are used all over the Netherlands. You will have no problem using them in any region of the country. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we learned that there are several time-based greetings which are polite and can be used anywhere in the Netherlands. These are: |
| Atie: goedemorgen |
| Michael: meaning "good morning" and which, naturally, is used in the morning, |
| Atie: goedemiddag |
| Michael: which means "good afternoon" and, |
| Atie: goedenavond |
| Michael: meaning "good evening." The greeting: |
| Atie: goedenacht |
| Michael: is generally only used as a form of "goodbye." Two common greetings which are not time-based are: |
| Atie: hoi |
| Michael: which is similar to the English "hi" and |
| Atie: hallo |
| Michael: which is similar to the English "hello." |
| You can use these greetings anywhere in the Netherlands. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: We've discussed greetings that can be used anywhere in the Netherlands but some greetings are specific to certain regions. For instance, in the province of North Holland, people use the greeting: |
| Atie: morrie |
| Michael: to mean "good morning," "good afternoon," and even "hello." However, if you are travelling in Groningen and it is morning, you might hear people greeting each other with: |
| Atie: moi |
| Michael: Some greetings might seem more strange than others to a foreigner. For instance, in Brabant, you might hear people greeting each other with the word: |
| Atie: euuuj |
| Michael: The spelling of this word is so unusual that I really want to share it with you. It's spelled: E-U-U-U-J. That's definitely not the kind of spelling you see every day! It is spelled this way to make it clear that the pronunciation is very long. Here's another one that's also spelled quite strangely. You might hear it if you are in the southwest part of the Netherlands. It sounds like this: |
| Atie: huijj |
| Michael: And it is spelled: H-U-I-J-J—not as unusual as that last one, but still worth mentioning. Another rather unusual-sounding greeting is this one: |
| Atie: Goojendaag |
| Michael: It is not uncommon to hear it in the areas around Maastricht and it means "good day, hey." Let's end with a greeting that doesn't sound quite so unusual: |
| Atie: alo |
| Michael: You might be greeted with this by people using the regional dialect in the city of Tilburg. |
| It is good to know these regional variations so that, if you hear them, you aren't confused. But, don't worry, wherever you go in the Netherlands, you will be able to use the first few greetings we discussed and you will be understood. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Atie: Doei! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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