Learn how to ask where you can buy something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Hallo! Hello and welcome to Dutch Survival Phrases brought to you by DutchPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to the Netherlands. You will be surprised at how far a little Dutch will go. |
| Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by DutchPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
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| Have you ever been in a city you don't know at all and you are desperately looking for something you need and cannot find? It's happened so many times to me! I wandered around without knowing where to go to reach, for example, a bar, a phone, or a restroom! Don't worry. Thanks to this Survival Phrases lesson, if you go to the Netherlands, you will always be able to ask for information and help. |
| In this lesson, we would like to introduce you to a phrase that will help you track down that specific something you're looking for. "Excuse me, where is ... ?" and then mention the place. |
| In Dutch, this is Pardon, waar is...? |
| Then, you add the name of the specific place or thing you're looking for. |
| You can use the basic structure, Pardon, waar is....? in any situation in which you need to get somewhere. |
| This structure is made up of pardon, which is, "excuse me," then the pronoun waar ("where"), followed by is, which means, "is." |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Waar is... |
| Now Let's hear it once again: Pardon waar is...? |
| Now let's see what kind of places or things you might need if you're traveling abroad. |
| Let's imagine you're walking around one of Netherlands' many beautiful historical cities, you're tired, and you need to eat something. |
| Let's go and ask where you can find a restaurant! |
| "Excuse me, where is a restaurant?" in Dutch is Pardon, waar is een restaurant? |
| As you can easily notice, you have the structure you have just seen, Pardon, waar is, followed by the place you're looking for, restaurant ("restaurant"). |
| Restaurant is a very easy noun. |
| Let's break it down by syllable and hear it one more time: |
| Re-stau-rant. |
| Re-stau-rant. |
| Now let's break down this sentence. Par-don, waar is een re-stau-rant? |
| Now let's hear it one more time: Pardon, waar is een restaurant? |
| In Dutch, there is another way of asking where something is. It's the phrase, Pardon, waar bevind zich...? |
| In English, this means, "Excuse me, where is... |
| The item or place you are looking for... located?" |
| As you have probably noticed, in this phrase we used the verb bevinden, which means, "is located." |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Be-vin-den. |
| Let's say it once again. Bevinden. After the verb bevinden we have to put the name of the place we're looking for. |
| Let's also use restaurant as our example. |
| So the phrase, "Excuse me, where is the restaurant located?" in Dutch is Pardon, waar bevind zich het restaurant? |
| Let's break this phrase down by syllable: Par-don, waar be-vind zich het re-stau-rant? |
| Let's see this sentence one more time: Pardon, waar bevind zich het restaurant? |
| With these forms, you can go anywhere you need, to ask for anything you are looking for. You could use another form if you wanted to be more polite and wanted to use a different expression. |
| Let's imagine you're looking for a phone booth this time. |
| "Excuse me sir, can you tell me where the phone booth is?" Pardon meneer, kunt me vertellen waar de telefooncel is? |
| Don't you think this is more formal? Of course it is! |
| So what do we have here? Again, we have pardon ("excuse me") and meneer ("sir"), then we have kunt u meaning, "can you," used in the formal way of speech. |
| Next, we have me ("me"). |
| The next component is the infinitive vertellen, meaning, "to tell." After we have said, Pardon meneer, kunt u me vertellen ("Excuse me sir, can you tell me"), we have to ask what we want to be told! In this case, we want to find a phone booth, which is waar de telefooncel is? |
| Let's look at the different parts. Waar, as we have previously seen, means "where." |
| Then we have is ("is"). |
| This is followed by what we want to find, telefooncel, a "phone booth." |
| Te-le-foon-cel. |
| Telefooncel. |
| There you have it! Let's hear the phrase one more time! |
| Pardon meneer, kunt me vertellen waar de telefooncel is? |
| If you're asking a woman, remember to change meneer ("sir") into mevrouw ("ma'am"). |
| Pardon mevrouw, kunt me vertellen waar de telefooncel is? |
| To ask for any other item, we can just replace restaurant or telefooncel with any other word and the introduced phrases will work brilliantly! Let's try with "pharmacy," which in Dutch is apotheek. |
| Let's break this word down. A-po-theek. |
| Now Let's hear it once again: Apotheek. |
| "Excuse me ma'am, can you tell me where the pharmacy is?" in Dutch is: Pardon mevrouw, kunt me vertellen waar de apotheek is? |
| Now let's try the same phrase but let's use "is located." |
| In Dutch, "Excuse me, can you tell me, sir, where the pharmacy is located?" is Pardon meneer, kunt u me vertellen waar de apotheek zich bevind? |
| These phrases will come in handy before leaving the hotel and when talking with the taxi driver or other people trying to help you locate a desired place or item. |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so good luck, that also means “good luck” in Dutch. |
| "Excuse me, where is (item or place you're looking for)?" - Pardon, waar is...? |
| Pardon, waar is...? |
| Pardon, waar is...? |
| "Excuse me, where is a restaurant?" - Pardon, waar is een restaurant? |
| Pardon, waar is een restaurant? |
| Pardon, waar is een restaurant? |
| "Excuse me, where is (item or place you're looking for) located?" - Pardon, waar bevindt zich...? |
| Pardon, waar bevindt zich...? |
| Pardon, waar bevindt zich...? |
| "Excuse me, where is the restaurant located?" - Pardon, waar bevindt zich het restaurant? |
| Pardon, waar bevindt zich het restaurant? |
| Pardon, waar bevindt zich het restaurant? |
| "Excuse me sir, can you tell me where the phone booth is?" - Pardon meneer, kunt u me vertellen waar de telefooncel is? |
| Pardon meneer, kunt u me vertellen waar de telefooncel is? |
| Pardon meneer, kunt u me vertellen waar de telefooncel is? |
| "Excuse me ma'am, can you tell me where the pharmacy is located?" - Pardon mevrouw, kunt u me vertellen waar de apotheek zich bevindt? |
| Pardon mevrouw, kunt u me vertellen waar de apotheek zich bevindt? |
| Pardon mevrouw, kunt u me vertellen waar de apotheek zich bevindt? |
| All right, that's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by DutchPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Tot ziens! |
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