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Lesson Transcript

Hallo allemaal! Ik heet Marleen. Hi everybody! I’m Marleen.
Welcome to DutchPod101.com’s “Nederlands in 3 minuten”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Dutch.
In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb doen, which means "to do" in Dutch.
In this lesson, we will learn how to use houden van, a very delightful Dutch verb, which is also the third verb in our series dedicated to the most common Dutch verbs.
Houden (van) can mean "to like". Laten we beginnen. Let’s go!
Imagine you are in a restaurant with your friend and he or she asks you – Hou je van kaas?
This means "Do you like cheese?"
So supposing you like it you can answer Ja, ik hou van kaas
[slowly] Ja, ik hou van kaas.
In the Netherlands this would be a common question, as the Dutch are extremely proud of their cheese. It’s really good, and I think you should try it!
So let’s break down this answer.
First we had-
Ja, which is simply "Yes."
Then ik which is "I" in Dutch. After that we have hou van, which is the present form of the verb houden. Houden is commonly followed by the preposition van, which means “of”.
Finally, we had kaas which means “cheese”.
So all together it is Ja, ik hou van kaas.
You can use this verb with other verbs in the infinitive form as well, to express that you like performing an action. Let’s say you like climbing. In Dutch, you would say Ik hou van klimmen.
[slowly] Ik hou van klimmen.
Here, klimmen means “to climb”. Make sure your verbs after houden are in the infinitive form with the preposition van in front of them.
Literally, houden van means “to love”. So you can use this verb about a person as well. If you want to say “I love you in Dutch”, you would say Ik hou van jou.
[slowly] Ik hou van jou.
Dutch people would only use this sentence in a very intimate situation though. For instance, you could use it with your significant other or family. If you just want to show some light affection, you could say Ik vind je leuk. That means “I like you”.
[slowly] Ik vind je leuk.
Now it’s time for Gabriella's Insights.
In Dutch, when you use houden van with an object or an activity, for instance “chocolate” - chocolade - or “swimming” - zwemmen, the expression is not very strong. Ik hou van chocolade, or ik hou van zwemmen.
However, when you use houden van with a person, the expression is much stronger. It would mean “to love”, instead of “to like”.
For instance, you could say Ik hou van mijn moeder. “I love my mother”.
[slowly] Ik hou van mijn moeder.
In this lesson, we learned how to use the verb houden van in different contexts. Next time, we’ll learn another very useful verb, komen.
Do you know what this Dutch verb means?
I’ll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Nederlands in 3 minuten lesson.
Tot ziens!

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