Learn how to use the simple past tense
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Intro |
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| Peter: Goedendag allemaal mijn naam is Peter! |
| Judith: Judith here! Upper Beginner Season 1 , Lesson 8 - Complaining About Bad Weather in Dutch. Peter what are looking at in this lesson? |
| Peter: In this lesson you'll will learn how to complain about the weather in Dutch, important. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place in a Dutch apartment. The conversation is between Paul and Marleen. |
| Peter: The speakers are neighbours, therefore they will be speaking informal Dutch. |
| Dialogue |
| Paul: Wat een slecht weer! Het regende gisteren ook al. Het regende pijpestelen. |
| Marleen: En het was koud vanmorgen. Mijn vriendin lachte toen ik haar vertelde dat ik klappertandde van de kou. |
| Paul: De regen maakte mijn schoenen zo nat dat ik vreesde dat ze stuk waren. |
| Marleen: Het slechte weer veroorzaakte ook veel problemen. |
| Paul: Ja, het vertraagde ook de trams en natuurlijk de treinen. Veel van mijn collega's waren te laat door het slechte weer. |
| Marleen: Ach kijk de regen komt met bakken uit de hemel vallen. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Paul: Wat een slecht weer! Het regende gisteren ook al. Het regende pijpestelen. |
| Marleen: En het was koud vanmorgen. Mijn vriendin lachte toen ik haar vertelde dat ik klappertandde van de kou. |
| Paul: De regen maakte mijn schoenen zo nat dat ik vreesde dat ze stuk waren. |
| Marleen: Het slechte weer veroorzaakte ook veel problemen. |
| Paul: Ja, het vertraagde ook de trams en natuurlijk de treinen. Veel van mijn collega's waren te laat door het slechte weer. |
| Marleen: Ach kijk de regen komt met bakken uit de hemel vallen. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Paul: Wat een slecht weer! Het regende gisteren ook al. Het regende pijpestelen. |
| Judith: What bad weather! It also rained yesterday. It rained cats and dogs. |
| Marleen: En het was koud vanmorgen. Mijn vriendin lachte toen ik haar vertelde dat ik klappertandde van de kou. |
| Judith: And it was cold this morning. My friend laughed when I told her that I was shivering from the cold. |
| Paul: De regen maakte mijn schoenen zo nat dat ik vreesde dat ze stuk waren. |
| Judith: The rain made my shoes so wet that I was afraid that they were ruined. |
| Marleen: Het slechte weer veroorzaakte ook veel problemen. |
| Judith: The bad weather also caused many problems. |
| Paul: Ja, het vertraagde ook de trams en natuurlijk de treinen. Veel van mijn collega's waren te laat door het slechte weer. |
| Judith: Yes, it also delayed the trams and of course the trains. Many of my colleagues were late because of the bad weather. |
| Marleen: Ach kijk de regen komt met bakken uit de hemel vallen. |
| Judith: Oh look, the rain is coming down in buckets. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: So maybe this a bit surprising to you hearing that all over colleagues are going to work by train or tram. Let’s talk a bit about the public transport in the Netherlands. |
| Peter: As you know Holland is a very small country and all the cities are very well connected. Going from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, the first and the second biggest city, only takes an hour by train. Also the trains go on time. It is true, trams, busses and trains they normally running via the schedule. Normally….because when the weather changes and there is snow, there is a lot of rain, there is strong winds, there is autumn leaves than the trains are often late and everybody complains. |
| Judith: So the new rule..well not all that new but since 2009 The NS ("Nederlandse Spoorwegen", or Dutch Railway) has decided that it will reimburse travelers a portion of the travel expenses if there are significant delays. |
| Peter: Of course that’s only provided if certain conditions are fulfilled. So the delay has to be a big delay. More than 30 minutes than you can receive compensation for your lost time since we all know time is money. Also in the Netherlands. |
| Vocabulary and Phrases |
| Judith: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Peter: slecht [natural native speed] |
| Judith: bad |
| Peter: slecht [slowly] |
| Peter: slecht [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: gisteren [natural native speed] |
| Judith: yesterday |
| Peter: gis-te-ren [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: gisteren [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: vanmorgen [natural native speed] |
| Judith: this morning |
| Peter: van-mor-gen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: vanmorgen [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: vertellen [natural native speed] |
| Judith: to tell |
| Peter: ver-tel-len [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: vertellen [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: klappertanden [natural native speed] |
| Judith: to shiver |
| Peter: klap-per-tan-den [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: klappertanden [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: de kou [natural native speed] |
| Judith: the cold |
| Peter: de kou [slowly] |
| Peter: de kou [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: schoenen [natural native speed] |
| Judith: shoes |
| Peter: schoe-nen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: schoenen [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: nat [natural native speed] |
| Judith: wet |
| Peter: nat [slowly] |
| Peter: nat [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: vrezen [natural native speed] |
| Judith: to fear |
| Peter: vre-zen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: vrezen [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: stuk [natural native speed] |
| Judith: damaged, ruined |
| Peter: stuk [slowly] |
| Peter: stuk [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: veroorzaken [natural native speed] |
| Judith: to cause |
| Peter: ver-oor-za-ken [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: veroorzaken [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: vertragen [natural native speed] |
| Judith: to delay |
| Peter: ver-tra-gen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: vertragen [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: trein [natural native speed] |
| Judith: train |
| Peter: trein [slowly] |
| Peter: trein [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Peter: te laat [natural native speed] |
| Judith: too late |
| Peter: te laat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Peter: te laat [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Judith: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Peter: The first phrase we’ll look at is.... |
| 1. "Het regent pijpenstelen". Yes it rains a lot in the Netherlands, that’s why there are so many sayings regarding the rain. “Het regent pijpenstelen” literally means “it’s raining pipe stems”, or when it rains so hard that it looks like pipe stems of water. This is a reference to the long, thin, white pipes that people used to smoke in the past. |
| 2. “Het komt met bakken uit de hemel vallen” literally means “it’s falling down from heaven in large buckets”. This is used to complain about the rain that soaks you to the bone in no time. |
| Grammar Point (running time 3:00, preparation time 30 min) |
| Grammar: The focus of this lesson is the simple past tense. |
| Peter: The Dutch simple past tense is used to talk about a recurrent event or a series of events in the past. The simple past tense of regular verbs is formed by adding -te or -de to the verb stem. |
| Judith: To put a verb into the simple past, we first take off the -en from the infinitive in order to get the stem. Then, if the stem ends in one of the letters from the words "SOFT KETCHUP", that is, if the stem ends in S, F, T, K, C, H or P, we add the ending -te to the stem. If it ends in a different consonant, we add -de instead. |
| Peter: Of course an example. Take "lachen" (to laugh) as an example. Without the -en it's "lach", so "lach" is the stem. "Lach" ends in an H, and if we remember the words “SOFT KETCHUP” there is an H in it, so the past tense ending is -te. Actually, it's -te for singular (ik lachte) and -ten (wij lachten) for plural. |
| Judith: Can you tell us all the forms? |
| Peter: Ik lachte, jij lachte, hij lachte, wij lachten, jullie lachten, zij lachten. So it's always "lachte" in singular and always "lachten" in plural. |
| Judith: Much easier than in German. |
| Peter: Oh yeah. |
| Judith: If the last letter of the stem is not found in the words “soft ketchup”, the past tense ending is -de instead, and -den for plural. |
| Peter: For example “huren” (to rent), the stem is "hur" (change the spelling to "huur" in order to preserve the long vowel). The last letter of "huur" is an R, which is not part of "soft ketchup", so the past tense endings are -de and -den. ik huurde, jij huurde, hij huurde, wij huurden, jullie huurden, zij huurden. |
| Judith: Okay, the conjugation is really easy. How about some more examples of when to use -te or -de? |
| Peter: Well there we go. “Maken, the stem of "maken" is "maak". The last letter of the stem is a K. Back to "SOFT KETCHUP" - there is a K in “SOFT KETCHUP”, so "maak" gets in the past tense the ending -te, "maakte". |
| Judith: Another word: “Vertragen”, the stem is “vertraag” which ends in a G - which is not part of “SOFT KECHTUP” so the past tense is “vertraagde” |
Outro |
| Judith: That just about does it for today. |
| Peter: Want a free way to build your Dutch vocabulary? |
| Judith: Follow our Dutch Word of the Day at Dutch.com! |
| Peter: See and hear the word of the day... |
| Judith: ...plus sample phrases and sentences! |
| Peter: Get these daily vocabulary alerts on Facebook, Twitter and the DutchPod101.com Blog! |
| Judith: And add this widget to your own website or blog! They're available in 35 languages. |
| Peter: Get these easy instructions at Dutch.com/Dutch-phrases |
| Judith: Alright, see you next time! |
| Peter: Tot volgende week, doei!! |
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