Learn how to talk about past events
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to DutchPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 25 - What Did You Do on the Weekend in the Netherlands? Eric here. |
| Jacob: Hallo. I'm Jacob. |
| Eric: In this final lesson of the series, you’ll learn how to talk about past events. The conversation takes place in somebody's living room. |
| Jacob: It's between Bill, who just returned from a trip, and Emily. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they'll be using informal Dutch. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Emily: Hé Bill, hoe was het? |
| Bill: Het was prachtig, en iedereen heeft genoten. |
| Emily: Waren er veel mensen? |
| Bill: Ja, er waren ongeveer twintig jongens en meisjes. |
| Emily: En wat deden jullie zoal? |
| Bill: Meestal studeerden we, maar we hebben ook veel plezier gemaakt. |
| Emily: Dat klinkt leuk. |
| Bill: Er zaten ook mensen uit Azië en Afrika tussen. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Emily: Hi Bill, how was it? |
| Bill: It was wonderful, and everybody enjoyed it. |
| Emily: Were there many people? |
| Bill: Oh yeah, maybe some 20 guys and girls. |
| Emily: And what did you all do? |
| Bill: We mostly studied, but had a lot of fun as well. |
| Emily: Nice to hear that. |
| Bill: There were also people from Asia and Africa among them. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Jacob, do Dutch students take excursions or have workshops to familiarize them with the situations they may encounter in the working world? |
| Jacob: Yes, this is a big part of the education in Holland. Among students, I personally think that geology students are by far the luckiest. |
| Eric: Why is that? |
| Jacob: Since Holland is mostly sand and mud, there's no real practical experience in geological work to be gained, so geology students get to take yearly trips to Belgium, Germany, and Spain as part of their studies. |
| Eric: What a great opportunity! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Jacob: iedereen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: everyone, everybody |
| Jacob: ie-de-reen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: iedereen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: prachtig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: wonderful |
| Jacob: prach-tig [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: prachtig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: meestal [natural native speed] |
| Eric: normally, usually |
| Jacob: mee-stal [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: meestal [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: studeren [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to study |
| Jacob: stu-de-ren [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: studeren [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: plezier [natural native speed] |
| Eric: fun |
| Jacob: ple-zier [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: plezier [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: klinken [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to sound |
| Jacob: klin-ken[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: klinken [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: Azië [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Asia |
| Jacob: A-zië [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: Azië [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: Afrika [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Africa |
| Jacob: A-fri-ka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: Afrika [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And lastly.. |
| Jacob: Europa [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Europe |
| Jacob: Eu-ro-pa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: Europa [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Jacob: Dit is werkelijk prachtig. |
| Eric: which means “This is truly wonderful.” Jacob, let's break down this phrase to see the meaning of each word. |
| Jacob: The Dutch noun werkelijkheid means “reality,” and the adverb werkelijk means “really.” Prachtig means “wonderful” or “beautiful.” |
| Eric: You can use it to refer to any kind of external or internal beauty. It can even be used to describe a meal. |
| Jacob: Right. For example...een prachtige maaltijd means “a wonderful meal” and een prachtige ervaring means “a wonderful experience.” You can also say een prachtige dag, meaning “a wonderful day.” |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Jacob: Ik eet meestal na acht uur. |
| Eric: which means “I usually eat after eight o'clock.” |
| Jacob: The word meest means “most” and the word meestal means “most of the time.” |
| Eric: It can also mean “usually” or “generally.” Jacob, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Jacob: Sure thing! Ik sta meestal om 8 uur op. |
| Eric: This sentence means “I usually get up at 8 o’clock.” What's the next phrase? |
| Jacob: Er is niets mooier dan kinderen die plezier hebben. |
| Eric: This means “There's nothing nicer than kids having fun.” |
| Jacob: Er is one of those words that doesn’t really have a specific meaning. |
| Eric: In this case, it's used as a surrogate subject in a passive sentence. |
| Jacob: The actual subject of the sentence of course is kinderen die plezier hebben, which means “kids having fun,” though from a grammatical point of view it's not the subject in this sentence. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson you'll learn how to talk about past events. In our dialogue, Bill said…. |
| Jacob: Het was prachtig, en iedereen heeft genoten. |
| Eric: This sentence means “It was wonderful, and everybody enjoyed it.” In this sentence, you can see both the simple past and the present perfect tenses, which are used to describe events that happened in the past and are now finished. |
| Jacob: Right. The phrases het was prachtig… |
| Eric: meaning “it was wonderful,” |
| Jacob: and iedereen heeft genoten |
| Eric: “everybody enjoyed it,” |
| Jacob: ...are in different tenses, but can be used in the same sentence. |
| Eric: But of course, as in any language, there are also different ways to describe things from the past. For example, when telling somebody about a holiday or period spent doing something, of course you don’t describe everything minute by minute. |
| Jacob: In this case you can use generalizing words and constructions. |
| Eric: Can you give us some examples of these types of phrases? |
| Jacob: Sure. For example...meestal |
| Eric: “most of the time,” |
| Jacob: over het algemeen |
| Eric: “in general,” |
| Jacob: een enkele keer |
| Eric: “occasionally,” |
| Jacob: maar we hebben ook… |
| Eric: “but, we also…” Great! To sum up this lesson, let's give our listeners some sample sentences. |
| Jacob: The first sentence is...Ik heb in Singapore gewoond |
| Eric: “I have lived in Singapore.” In this sentence, we used the present perfect. |
| Jacob: Right. Here you state the fact that you have lived there, but don't specify when or for how long. |
| Eric: The use of this tense, however, makes it clear that you lived there in the past and that this is no longer the case. |
| Jacob: Here is another example. In 2005 woonde en werkte ik in Hong Kong . |
| Eric: It means “In 2005 I lived and worked in Hong Kong.” This sentence gives more specific information about the period of time, therefore the simple past tense is used. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson and this series. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you in the next series! Bye! |
| Jacob: Tot ziens! |
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