Learn how to use impersonal verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella:Hi everyone, Gabriella here! Welcome to DutchPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Season 1, Lesson 15 – Talking About the Weather in Dutch. |
| Gabriella:Hallo! I'm Jacob. Here is an example of two colleagues standing by the coffee machine at work and making small talk about the weather. |
| Gabriella:In this lesson we’ll learn about some of the standard expressions that people use to talk about the weather. |
| Gabriella:These two people are colleagues, so they’re on a first-name basis and they’re speaking informal Dutch. |
| Gabriella:Do all Dutch people working in the same company use first names? |
| Gabriella:Usually they do. But of course when somebody lower on the ladder addresses the CEO, he or she will say “Sir” or “Madam”. |
| Gabriella:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Henk: Wat een verschrikkelijk weer! Het regent al de hele ochtend! |
| Ingrid: Ja, en het waait ook hard! |
| Henk: Er stonden veel files vanochtend, het kostte mij een uur om op kantoor te komen! |
| Ingrid: Wat vervelend die files. Maar dat gebeurt vaker als het regent. |
| Henk: Kijk, nu onweert het ook! |
| Ingrid: Het spijt mij Henk. Ik denk dat er straks ook files zijn. |
| Gabriella: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Henk: Wat een verschrikkelijk weer! Het regent al de hele ochtend! |
| Ingrid: Ja, en het waait ook hard! |
| Henk: Er stonden veel files vanochtend, het kostte mij een uur om op kantoor te komen! |
| Ingrid: Wat vervelend die files. Maar dat gebeurt vaker als het regent. |
| Henk: Kijk, nu onweert het ook! |
| Ingrid: Het spijt mij Henk. Ik denk dat er straks ook files zijn. |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Henk: Wat een verschrikkelijk weer! Het regent al de hele ochtend! |
| Gabriella: What horrible weather! It has been raining all morning! |
| Ingrid: Ja, en het waait ook hard! |
| Gabriella: Yes, and it's very windy as well! |
| Henk: Er stonden veel files vanochtend, het kostte mij een uur om op kantoor te komen! |
| Gabriella: There were lots of traffic jams this morning; it took me an hour to reach the office! |
| Ingrid: Wat vervelend die files. Maar dat gebeurt vaker als het regent. |
| Gabriella: What a nuisance, these traffic jams! But that happens all the time when it rains. |
| Henk: Kijk, nu onweert het ook! |
| Gabriella: Look, now there's also a thunderstorm raging! |
| Ingrid: Het spijt mij Henk. Ik denk dat er straks ook files zijn. |
| Gabriella: I am sorry, Henk. I think there will be traffic jams this afternoon as well! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella:So, talking about the weather… |
| Gabriella:Why do you think it is that in so many countries, and apparently also in Holland, people talk about the weather? |
| Gabriella:Hard to say. It is a safe subject. That could be one thing. But the weather has a lot of influence on people’s lives. Just think about the millions of kids in the Netherlands that go to school on their bicycles everyday. |
| Gabriella:The Dutch cycle a lot, don't they? |
| Gabriella:Yes, they have a long tradition in cycling. Of course it helps that there aren’t any mountains in Holland. A simple bicycle without gears has always been the standard. |
| Gabriella:Henk is not only complaining about the weather, but also about traffic jams. Is that a big problem in Holland? |
| Gabriella:Yes, it definitely is a problem, especially in larger cities and in the country’s capital, Amsterdam. But lately people have flexible working hours, which eases things a bit. |
| Gabriella:I’m sure that helps! Okay, now let's take a look at the vocabulary and phrases. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jacob: vervelend [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: unpleasant/nuisance |
| Jacob: vervelend [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: vervelend [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: verschrikkelijk [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: horrible |
| Jacob: verschrikkelijk [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: verschrikkelijk [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: gebeuren [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to happen |
| Jacob: gebeuren [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: gebeuren [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: waaien [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to blow (wind) |
| Jacob: waaien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: waaien [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: kantoor [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: office |
| Jacob: kantoor [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: kantoor [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: spijten [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to regret |
| Jacob: spijten [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: spijten [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: ochtend [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: morning |
| Jacob: ochtend [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: ochtend [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: weer [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: weather |
| Jacob: weer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: weer [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: onweren [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to thunder |
| Jacob: onweren [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: onweren [natural native speed] |
| Jacob: file [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: traffic jam |
| Jacob: file [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: file [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella:Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. I noticed that at one point Henk says morgen when he talks about the morning. Later on he uses vanochtend. |
| Gabriella:Yes that's right. The words morgen and ochtend both mean “morning”. |
| Gabriella:And what about the prefix van? Does that have a meaning? |
| Gabriella:Yes, morgen and ochtend mean “morning”, but vanmorgen and vanochtend mean “this morning”. |
| Gabriella:And is it the same for the afternoon and evening? |
| Gabriella:Yes, “afternoon” is middag and “this afternoon” is vanmiddag. And the same goes for “evening” and “this evening”; avond and vanavond, respectively. |
| Gabriella:Oh yes, I remember Ingrid says Ik denk dat je vanavond weer in de file staat. |
| Gabriella:Yes, very good. It means “You’ll be in a traffic jam again this evening.” In Dutch we say, In de file staan, which literally means “to stand in a traffic jam.” |
| Gabriella:Well, that makes sense. In a traffic jam you're not moving, so “standing in a traffic jam” is a very logical way to put it. |
| Gabriella:Inderdaad! It’s pretty logical. |
| Gabriella:So, could you tell me something about the word vervelend. What exactly does it mean? |
| Gabriella:Well basically it means something that is “annoying” or “unpleasant”, it could even mean “boring” in some cases. But it always has a negative meaning. Being in a traffic jam is vervelend. It’s a “nuisance”, in other words. When a book is boring you can say that it’s vervelend. An annoying child is also vervelend. There are many ways to use it! |
| Gabriella:So this word stronger than verschrikkelijk, or is it the other way around? |
| Gabriella:No, verschrikkelijk has a much stronger meaning. It’s more like “horrendous” or “terrible”. So when Henk says that the weather is verschrikkelijk, it’s probably an exageration. It’s just his way of expressing it. |
| Gabriella:Well thank you for all the explanations, Jacob. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella:In this lesson, we’re going to learn about impersonal verbs. |
| Gabriella:Aha, well could you start by explaining what an impersonal verb is, exactly? |
| Gabriella:Sure. An impersonal verb is a verb that does not have a real subject. For example, when you say “Mary feeds her cat”, you know that Mary is the subject; she is the one feeding her cat. But if you say “it rains”, there is no subject. You can’t say “Mary rains” or anything like that, so raining is an impersonal verb. |
| Gabriella:I see! So what about the conjugation? Is it always the third person singular, like you would use for he or she? |
| Gabriella:Yes, that's correct. So in Dutch these verbs will usually end with a “t”. |
| Gabriella:Okay! In the dialogue Henk says: het regent, meaning “it rains”. |
| Gabriella:Exactly! And the same goes for a lot of other descriptions of the weather: het sneeuwt for “snowing”, het onweert for “there is a thunderstorm” and het vriest when “it’s freezing”. |
| Gabriella:And are these verbs always used in the third person singular, or are there other forms too? |
| Gabriella:There are other forms such as when you want to say “it’s starting to rain”, you would say het begint te regenen. Regenen is the infinitive or dictionary form like the English “to rain”. |
| Gabriella:So far all the impersonal verbs you have mentioned were about the weather. Are there any others? |
| Gabriella:Yes, there are. In the dialogue between Henk and Ingrid, you can hear Ingrid say: dat gebeurt. This means “that happens”. Here the verb gebeuren is used as an impersonal verb, though sometimes it can be used differently. |
| Gabriella:In all the weather descriptions het is used as the pronoun, but with the verb gebeuren Ingrid uses dat. Why is that? |
| Gabriella:Because dat, the Dutch for “that” refers to something they talked about before, namely the traffic jams. Just like in English when you say “it happens” or “that happens”. |
| Gabriella:I see! Well thank you very much for your explanations! |
| Gabriella:My pleasure! Graag gedaan! |
Outro |
| Gabriella:That’s it for this lesson! Thank you for tuning in and we look forward to your return! |
| Gabriella:Daag! |
| Gabriella:Tot ziens! |
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