All the links are in the description, I especially like the video explaining de and het, so make sure you check them out :) I'm curious to know do you have the same problems as me?? do you have other issues that I didn't mention. Learning to speak another language feels like a never ending task, but also fun. Happy studying :))
Casey, this was a very interesting video. My home language is Afrikaans 🇿🇦, which is a daughter language of Dutch. Luckily we only have "die", instead of de/het, and we only have three tenses, plus virtually no conjugation. I love the word "nog" or "nog steeds". A very nifty little word, like the Afrikaans words "mos", or "nè" (no English translations, but generally adds emphasis or weight to a term or sentence
Please stop giving wrong information about the Dutch language. You've only been learning it for what............two years now. Who are you to teach anyone about Dutch if you continue to make mistakes yourself?
Ik ben zelf in nederland geboren en ik moet toegeven ik vind het erg leuk om jouw point of view te zien van de nederlandse taal. Vooral omdat met veel van je punten ik zelf ook niet de regels weet, en dus alles op gevoel doe. Met betrekking tot 'de' en 'het', heel veel mensen hebben er moeite mee. Mijn moeder was een docent op de basisschool en had dus ook veel te maken met kinderen die waren opgegroeid met een andere taal en ook met stagiaires die er moeite mee hadden. Haar tip was altijd; lees veel boeken die bedoelt zijn voor kinderen. Vaak in die boeken worden de lidwoorden overdreven veel gebruikt om ze zo aan kinderen te leren. En maak je vooral geen zorgen, je nederlands klinkt echt heeel erg goed en ik denk dat veel nederlanders je de grammatica regels niet zouden kunnen vertellen als je erna zal vragen!!! (:
Between 'opeens' and 'ineens' ... Opeens was hij miljonair. = he was earlier not miljonair, suddenly he became miljonair, nobody expected it to happen, nobody know when it would happen. Ineens was hij miljonair = he was earlier not miljonair, suddenly he became instantly miljonair, it was expected to happen, nobody know when it would happen. The distinction to be the 2 is - was it expected or not to happen (regardless when it happened, and regardless that it was a sudden change)
So like opeens was hij miljonair , as example he bought a lottery ticket and forgot about it and by suprise he was overwhelmed by the media he was suddenly miljonair. and second example ineens was hij miljonair, he was checking the stockmarket and had a good feeling he would become miljonair in a matter of time. he waited and suddenly his expectation became true. He was ineens miljonair.
Your definitely not the first person to have said that, I think the small difference goes unnoticed for native speakers but you would all intuitively know when to use the right one I'm sure. Or if not then you've managed to learn something too so mission accomplished haha
Luckely I love learning new things, so that's a bonus! And if I want to or not, I will think about what word to use from now on. So thanks for educating me, haha!
@@evildjinn9 Dat is niet echt eerlijk. Ik woon in Nederland al 19 jaar, en als engelse vrouw vindt ik haar videos heel leerzaam. Ik herken veel foutjes die ikzelf ook vaak maak of vindt moeilijk. En ze geeft veel informatie over waar en hoe ik mijn Nederlands kan verbeteren. En haar uitspraak is geweldig voor iemand wie maar 2 jaar Nederlands heeft geleerd. Zij is mijn inspiratie om dit taal echt te willen verbeteren omdat ze het zo goed doet. Dat wil ik ook! Dus ik vindt je opmerking een beetje lullig.
Ik moet zeggen, je uitspraak is geweldig! Soms kan ik niet horen dat je geen native speaker bent, en je bent altijd perfect te verstaan ^^ Veel succes en veel plezier met het leren van deze frustrerende taal :)
@@caseykilmore Haha, "you made my day" letterlijk vertaald naar het Nederlands bestaat niet. Je zou kunnen zeggen: "Dit maakt mijn dag goed" of "Mijn dag kan niet meer stuk"
I came here to see if she actually knew how to speak Dutch. I was surprised to find that she not only knows many words, she also sounds exactly like a Dutch person. That is something to be proud about. :)
Two years? Wow, that's totally amazing you know! In my flat there are people that moved here maybe 30 or 40 years ago, they can't put three dutch words together, they can't make a sentence. They couldn't speak Dutch to save their lives. The way you speak and understand Ducth is amazing, but of course that has to do with your surroundings and honest interest, and not being isolated in your own (English) bubble. I'm impressed. Oh, and don't worry about "opeens" and "ineens." I'd chose "Opeens" personally.
In Dutch so much is based on “it feels better” and that is hard to capture in rules when a foreigner is trying to learn our beautiful language 😉. Loving the “outside looking in” perspective on our language, very entertaining.
You’re doing well!! “Pas” can be nasty. It can mean: -a short time ago-a step -only-a mountain pass -a bank card -a conjugation of “passen”/to fit - to quit something/ik pas. That’s at least 7 different meanings of “pas” maybe there’s even more..
Pas op, want dit is een valkuil ;-) (dat komt uiteraard van het werkwoord oppassen, maar dan niet op kindjes, maar daar moet je ook mee oppassen, want als je tijdens het oppassen niet oppast, passen ze niet op en doen ze zichzelf pijn. Dan word jij gepasseerd door een nieuwe oppasser en kun je die pas gepaste pastelkleurige rok niet betalen met je pasje van de bank en kun je alleen die passer die je nodig had voor wiskunde betalen. Gelukkig kun je dan nog wel even langs bij de pastoor die je zal vertellen dat je je maar aan moet passen aan de nieuwe situatie. (hehehe lol)
The two easiest categories for de and het: - de is used for all plurals, even of diminutives; - het is used for all singular nouns that end in a diminutive suffix, and as Dutch uses -tje or -je very often, and you can use those on most nouns; it's a workaround for when you don't know if something should be de or het, and can't use the plural. The easy general rule I was taught for nouns where I don't know if it's de or het: concrete/touchable objects are de words; abstract/untouchable/general concepts and ideas are het. It's really not a perfect rule, but if it comes down to pure guesswork for rarely-used words it gives some helpful indication. De tafel, de boom, de wolk, de dans, het heelal, het bos (you can't touch the whole wood, a whole wood is a bit more of an abstract idea than a single tree - but then why is a cloud de, not het? It looks solid from the ground, but it's not really very touchable, rather like the universe which went the opposite way; and what's solid and concrete about a dance?... A book or a house is quite concrete but it's het boek, het huis (the mnemonic for that is that the -t remains in thuis = at home).
About the prepositions, here some good examples: when you have a fly in your soupe, it's "sitting" in your soupe when you have keys in your pocket, they are "sitting" in your pocket when you have water in the cellar, it's "standing" in the cellar when you have a plate on the table, it's "standing" on the table when something is written in a book, it "stands" in a book when there is fluid in a bottle, it "sits" in the bottle when you have air in your tire, it "sits" in the tire when a city is in a country, it "lies" in a country but when a church is in a city it "stands" in a city etc.
This is the confusion exactly, it's almost like you just need to go through and learn them all one for one hahah this is a great example of some sentences though so thanks for sharing :))
In general though when something clearly has a certain height you can say that it "stands" and if it doesn't it "lies". In the case of water in the cellar, a little puddle of water would be lying in the cellar (er ligt water in de kelder) while a larger quantity would have some height and would thus be standing. Sometimes when it is not clear if the object is flat or high you can use both, plates on the table are an example of this. Something "sits" when it is enclosed in something else, like soup or a bag or a tire. Possible ezelsbrug: It sits firmly inside.... But still, it's not perfect
Hi Casey, I love your videos! Bedankt daarvoor! I help out at the Amsterdam library as a volunteer for the Taalcafé, it’s an initiative for people like you, immigrants and expats who want to improve their Dutch by speaking Dutch to one another. I guide those convo’s, “er” and “prepositions” are only a few of my favourites to talk about! You’re movies are an inspiration to help pick topics, in case I run out. It’s funny to see how these topics keep returning and overlap. On prepositions: ive learned that certain figures of speech will help out with this! Achter de ellebogen (being arrogant and sneaky), onder de tafel (verkopen), op tafel brengen, achter het behang plakken, naast je schoenen lopen.
"opeens" and "ineens" are to a certain extent interchangeable. When you dig into that, you are being told a whole set of rules and nuances nobody really knows about. So don't worry too much about that one. When you hate "de" and "het", you would loathe German. It has three definite articles. which are subject to case declension (genitive, dative, accusative). My advice is reading, reading, reading. By the way: Your Dutch accent is really impressive.
ineens - could be suddenly, but the fine semantic is "overnight" and the "surprise element" comes second. opeens - has the "op" like "upon" in "once upon a time". With "opeens" the only thing we are saying is "suddenly" and we leave implicit how fast this came about.
@@MichielvandenBroeke in practice both words are used to mean both though, which was my point. No native speaker is going to notice if you do it the "wrong" way since most people make the same "mistake". I'd also say that instantly is not a good translation of 'ineens'. Instantly would be more akin to 'meteen'. The difference opeens and ineens really is so slight that it makes no practical difference which one you use
@@DavidvdGulik it wasn't meant as a translation. I tried to explain the subtle difference. In my opinion there is difference but it is not a big deal. I'm not a languagenazi 😉
@@caseykilmore You forgot to squeeze in that pesky little "er" here as well ;) "komen er niet zo makkelijk uit".. P.S. Did you learn the word "mierenneuken" already? :P
Hey Casey, leuke video, dat geeft een leuke kijk op je eigen taal! Over de voorzetsels: Er zijn veel verschillende voorzetsels en de grammatica per voorzetsel is ook best wel tricky (qua positie in de zin), dat maakt het lastig. Maar als je de standaard voorzetsels kent dan kan je goed een regelmaat ontdekken. Vaak wordt er in de beslissing van het woord een logische keuze gemaakt op basis van hoe een voorwerp of situatie er(haha!) geografisch en visueel uit ziet. Als voorbeeld: Een telefoon leg je meestal met de lange kant op tafel dus hij 'ligt' op tafel. Een beker staat rechtop op tafel (lange kant omhoog), die 'staat' dus op tafel. De fiets staat aan wat wij de voorkant van het huis noemen(bv waar de voordeur zit), hij staat 'voor' het huis. De groente heb je 'op' de markt gekocht(deze is denk ik niet heel logisch, maar moet je leren). Of als je een weg hebt die langs een school loopt waar de kinderen buiten tegen de muur aan zitten kan je zeggen: De weg loopt 'langs' de school waar kinderen tegen de muur aan zitten. Ik hoop dat het hierdoor een klein beetje duidelijker is geworden! Succes en groetjes uit NL! edit: by the way 'nog' might be easier than its english counterpart(s) yet, still, even, etc. Omdat nog bijna in elke combinatie alleen als 'nog' wordt gebruikt! Wat de andere woorden in combinatie aangeven is bijvoorbeeld de tijd & dat er misschien iets gaat veranderen aan de (tijds)situatie: Nogsteeds (still going on even(nogsteeds, ha gotcha!) now at the present moment), Nog (still), Nog nooit (again a timespan: 'Ik heb dit nog nooit gedaan' - 'i have never done this' ), nog wel (For example: Your friend expects that your bracelet is already gone and he/she wants it back but you still have it. You can respond like: No i still have it or "Nee, ik heb hem nog wel".), Nog eens (Yet again/once more) etc :)
Dan zit je alleen nog steeds met een aantal rare uitzonderingen zoals "achter de computer" / "voor de tv" / "frietje met" / "van tafel" / "aanrijden(dialect!)" waar je het eigenlijk meer hebt over uitdrukkingen dan grammatica volgens mij. Volgens mij is daar niet echt een regel voor. :( Maar over het algemeen heb je het dan wel in de meeste gevallen goed inderdaad.
I'm learning Dutch for a year and a half now and what I really struggle with (besides things you mention!) is pronunciation. And I have to say, yours is so perfect!
A Dutch teacher once told me “er” was for her the most difficult Dutch word to explain. We use it all the time and for several uses, but if you ask someone to explain the use if the word you get stuck yourself :)
I think you are doing a great job!! It is a hard language. Your pronunciation is amazing. I meet people who don't speak Dutch after many years. So don't worry :-)
Oh this is good to hear, thanks for the encouragement. I'm still working on my pronunciation some words make me feel tongue tied but it's getting there :))
No worries, you speak the language very well I guess. I have the same "problem" speaking English, but isn't it amazing how we can communicate with each other so easily without doing it perfectly? ;-)
I'm native dutch, and one of my brothers had poor hearing when he was a kid. He still gets de and het wrong occasionally. It's one of those things you learn by osmosis, it'll take time. It's also made harder because we adopt so many foreign words in our language. I'm nearly 40, and still scratch my head sometimes for de or het. Luckily Dutch people don't mind working out together how we should say something. It's like a mini game that you can play with basically anyone
Thanks for the encouragement, my dutch has suffered a lot since being stuck in Aus and not using it no where near as much as I was when we where still in the netherlands. Still trying to watch movies and read books to keep my head in the game 😊😊 so any recommendations are welcome!
The books of Annie m.g. Schmidt. she wrote children's books that are also read by adults because they are good, fun in terms of content, but are very good for learning the language. I likes the books. Maybe a idee? Goed bijhouden zonde anders!
It must be hard to speak Dutch when you're still learning it and not having to speak it every day. Try speaking only Dutch when you're with your partner! And indeed, childrens books are a great way to keep up with it. Trakteer je partner op een verhaal en ga eruit voorlezen 😜. Om gelijk wat Nederlandse cultuur mee te pakken: de boeken van Pinkeltje, de Kameleon en Snuf zijn best leuk nog, ook als volwassene. En je doet het echt goed!! Geen zorgen 😇
@@ZwaEli thanks for the tip, we only speak dutch with each other with only the exception if we are with my friends or family, otherwise my dutch would be far worse off its the only thing still keeping me intact with the language. So this has been a great tip cause I know without it I basically would of lost everything I had learnt while we were living there. Hopefully flight proces drop enough by the end of the year for us to get home 🤞🤞
"de" and "het" always annoy me when people get it wrong, mostly because I used to have these EXTREMELY lazy friends from Amsterdam who just didn't bother. Then the other day my Dad used "het" in a way I was like Wait, what? Because it just didn't FEEL right. That's the main thing, if you get to know the language, start trusting your gut.
What an excellent description of 'my' language! Even after seeing this video I sometimes 'doubt' to say "er" or "opeens" or "ineens". Please remember that Dutch is a rather flexible language. Just say it on your own way.
Videos like this are fascinating to me, hearing a non-native speaker explain things that I inherently understand but never really thought about. Like the difference between opeens and ineens, for example.
You described opeens and ineens really well!! I've lived in The Netherlands for the past 10 years and I notice many native speakers don't even know the difference. That implies to many other things in the Dutch language that we learn while the Dutch don't realise there's "a rule for what". By the way, I'm obsessed with how good your Dutch sounds!! Keep up the good work 💞
@5:48 It has to do with its appearance, if it's flat on the table it lies (phone) and it stands if it's upright (vase). A book can lie but also stand on a table depending on how you put it there.
Hey good to see another Aussie wanting to learn the language, glad to have helped :)) How long have you been learning Dutch for?? There are still so many things that confuse me about Dutch.
@@caseykilmore Yeah, particularly "Nog" ☺ I've been learning since July, I moved over here 4 months ago and have done a few courses. Doing some self learning in between too!
Ik heb net je kanaal ontdekt en ben nu video's aan het bingen! Het is zo interessant om te horen over mijn moedertaal, ik leer zoveel, en dat terwijl ik zelf de taal volledig beheers! Keep it up, love the videos!
I was born here, lived here for almost 30 years. to be honest I guess all the time. A lot of us have no clue.... on the bright side I really like seeing you switch between languages, very fluend
I am Dutch and love your videos. So funny and interesting how foreigners struggle to learn our language. Prepositions: Here is one for you that I myself don't get 😜: Ik zit VOOR de televisie en ik zit ACHTER de computer. Why?? 😂
On 5) Nog is an old way of meaning the opposite. We also sometimes still see it as 'noch'. How many people still use 'nor' in english nowadays? Keep that in mind please. Let's look at your examples in order. a. NOG nooit = never YET (may happen as opposed to never) b. NOG steeds = over and over FOR NOW (until it ceases) c. NOG wel = CURRENTLY possitive (but might change) d. NOG een = not just what you have but one MORE (than expected) e. NOG eens = not just once, ONE MORE TIME f. ook NOG = also SOMETHING WE DIDN'T EVEN DISCUSS YET
Pretty impressive for 2 years of self taught. Also love your accent :) To make things a little weirder with in/on we usually say "De telefoon ligt op tafel", leaving out "de". I have no idea why but it's automatic for me when things are on a table. There's probably more examples for this.
Het is zo 'eye-opening" om te horen ;-) hoe bepaalde Nederlandse woorden lastig te vertalen of te gebruiken zijn. Je uitspraak is trouwens jaw-dropping voor iemand die het pas twee jaar spreekt.
Opeens: all of a sudden. Synonym: plots, plotsklaps. Ineens: in the blink of an eye / in one go. Synonym: in een oogwenk, in een vingerknip. Caution: ineens can also be used to mean "while we're at it". Als we gaan winkelen, kunnen we ineens wat gaan eten. If we go out shopping, we might as well grab something to eat (while we're at it). Hope this helps!
This is fantastic, I definitely feel like I've heard it used in that context which is why I seem to not really understand the usage properly but this was a great explanation :)) thanks heaps 😊😊
@@caseykilmore IF you are interested, I think I can help you out with some of the things you mention in this video (like 'er', for example). I'm an online language coach, charging €15 per hour per informal-style videochat session. If you're not interested, no harm done of course and I wish you the best of luck in your adventure of learning our crazy language.
I learned in school that plotsklaps is a mistake, it is either plotseling or eensklaps... Concerning opeens / ineens : opeens marks a change in the storyline (opeens kwam er een man binnen) where ineens means something sudden: ik moest ineens aan haar denken
I really hope I speak as well as you after two years ! I started 3 months ago . It’s a real real pleasure ! I can’t wait to be able to converse correctly ! Great videos !
I'm a native English speaker but I've been speaking Spanish for a long time now (I majored in it in college, my husband is from Colombia, and my job involves speaking Spanish all day long). What you said about prepositions really resonates with me, I still mess them up all the time. I've always felt like prepositions themselves have no intrinsic meaning when you really put them under a microscope; each language just makes their own little collection to use however it wants. In English you "get married to someone" but in Spanish you "get married with someone;" in English you "dream about someone" but in Spanish you "dream with someone;" in Spanish anytime a person (or important animal) is the direct object of a sentence, you put "at/to" in front of them, so it would be like "I know at/to Katie very well;" and English just has more prepositions in general than Spanish does, so a Spanish speaker always has to wonder if "en" will translate to "in," "on," or something else entirely. Prepositions are possibly the worst part of learning any language!
Thanks for this very good way to explain ‘ineens’ en ‘opeens’. I use opeens too often en ineens not often enough. And that is just one example. That’s what happens when you have so many meanings for different words. By the way, I am Dutch.😂
'De vaas staat op de tafel' en 'de telefoon ligt op de tafel' are chosen like this in reference to the direction of the object. If you take for example a book. If you place it on a table with it's back or front side, it is lying down (ligt op de tafel). If you had put it on the width (bottom side / onderkant) you'd say it was 'standing' on the table. Almost always, if an object is supported on it's smallest side and the longest side is upright, you'd say: het staat op de tafel.
"De" and "Het" have rules though. Here are a few. Plural words have "De". The following applies to singular words: - Loan words have "De". - Diminutives (words ending with -je or -tje) have "Het". If you are dealing with a combined word you look at the last word to find the correct article. Those work as a general rule of thumb. What's left are singular non diminutives or loan words. These are a bit tricky. For you who are interested, here's a link ( onzetaal.nl/taaladvies/de-het-algemene-regels/ ). Be warned, it's all in Dutch.
When it comes to prepositions I think it comes down to the following: We as Dutch use "kast woorden" to describe the condition of something. I.e on, under, next to etc. In English I feel like its more oriented towards the action rather than the item / person. To take your example, you are riding on the bus. On refers to riding, whilest in Dutch it would refer to the bus itself. Hoop dat dat iets helpt! Je video's werden me aangeraden door youtube, super leuk! *note that Dutch people often have issues with English as well, especially when it comes to things like then / than etc.
I've been trying to learn Dutch before probably moving to the Netherlands and you're videos are so so useful girl! Love your contents. Keep it going :)
Thanks so much, it's really awesome to hear things like this cause sometimes I never know if people actually find them helpful or interesting hahaha. So its good to know :)) thanks again
@@caseykilmore I just made my Dutch list on Spotify public. Over 11 hours of music in Dutch. It's called : Nederlandstalig maar dan beter. Maybe you like my taste in music too. Lol
Lol about ligt en staat en rond example picture of the guy sitting in a chair on top of the table. It reminded me of an old max fleischer short cartoon where the bar owner shouts "Drinks are on the house boys!" And all the patrons run up the stairs and climb onto the roof, gulp down their drinks and run back inside..... XD
I think "opeens" and "ineens" differ by how fast they happen primarily because they both happen very surprisingly. When you use "opeens", something is in the process of happening while if something happens "ineens", something happens instantly.
@2:25 opeens and ineens are used interchangably , opeens is more common when used with something that can be expected but doesn't normally happen (opeens viel het licht uit; suddenly the light went out) ineens is more commonly used when it's something you never expected (ineens was hij de slimste van de klas; all of a sudden he was the smartest of the class)
"ER" hm ive been going over this in my head a bit. I think er works best if you see it like "there". that may seem weird but checkit: "ik heb er 3 van" - "i have there 3 of" its kinda what it is, i have something, i have it ~there~ and i have 3 of them. you can also say "er was eens" which basically means "once upon a time" but it makes sense: "there was once". i think thats where it came from. old dutch for "daar" would be "der", as in "her en der" is "hier en daar", but is still used as a bit of an archaic expression. so I think it sort of mutated towards "er"
Yes, this! Although the 'i have it ~there~' is not how i would describe it unless I'm misunderstanding your post. Even though your explanation from the old dutch makes sense. I think nowadays it's just a referal to the subject. One could also say: ik heb 3 stuks. Thereby forgoing the 'er'. Stuks (pieces/parts/units) as referal (or substitute) for the subject. Although if your reading this Casey, forget all this. 'Cause very very rarely would anyone talk like that - 'ik heb 3 stuks'
I so agree with what you said about prepositions being different in different languages! As an American Dutchie who has lived in the NL since I was a kid (for 26 years now) I still get it wrong sometimes😂 And also: I was an English teacher for several years and teaching Dutch kids English - well they had the same problem with prepositions, especially when translating things where the Dutch use 'op'. They'd say things like: "I am on school" (Ik ben op school) and "I am on the airport" (Ik ben op het vliegveld). It's a universal thing this issue with prepositions haha!
I am dutch and make many mistakes in English even though I speak it fluently (with a terrible accent unfortunately), mostly in wordorder and I always mix up if and when. It's impossible for me to keep them apart, I know the difference between if and when in theory, but in practice.... I just keep on mixing them! So in short, it's not the end of the world if /when you keep on always making the same mistakes! It's human! Don't be so severe on yourself😀
Honestly probably some of the best prep I had for learning Dutch was learning German first. Having done that first, all the Dutch grammar was pretty intuitive, minus a little bit here and there. And yes I understand that the vocabulary can be quite different between the two languages at times and you still have to act like you are learning a completely new language, but at least 50% of words in common usage are just a more anglicized version of what the German word was. It's a bit like getting two languages for the learning effort of one and a half.
Although it's wrong, we often also leave 'de' out of the sentence if we speak. "Die vaas staat op tafel" is completely okay if you say it without 'de', like "Die vaas staat op de tafel"... Your video makes me realize we have a really awkward language...
With regards to the phone and the vase, the preposition explains what the object is doing. If something lies on the table, it is in horizontal orientation. If something stands, it is vertical. This means both a vase and phone can lie or stand on the table. If the vase lies, it is probably leaking water. If the phone stands, it is probably leaning against the vase for support :-)
Opeens = Suddenly Ineens = Acutely At least that's how I translate them into English when I need to. Now there's a big area of overlap there as something that suddenly happens can oftentimes be very experienced as acute in which case both would be correct. Either way, people use whichever they prefer for either situation in reality even in native Dutch so it's not a big deal. Even we can't speak our language perfectly :p
Not sure this is actually true, but maybe it's connected with our directness of communication. For transparancy and efficiency we take a lot of things literally. So if you think about it like that: you actually do sit IN the bus and not on it (like upon it). Sort of the same with prepositions. The vase is standing (upright) is it not? - De vaas 'staat' op tafel. Unless you lay it on its side or it got nocked over or something. You could then very accurately describe it as - De vaas 'ligt' op tafel. So i guess it's all about very precise, accurate, efficient communication.
I wouldn't worry about most of these... Many native Dutch speakers (myself included) make the same mistakes on a daily basis. :D Although, I do feel your pain regarding de & het. I studied German for a few years and they have a THIRD option, and it makes even less sense than in Dutch! French articles are also a pain in the ass. If you get the article wrong in Dutch, it usually doesn't really affect the rest of the sentence. Whereas in German or French, a great deal of the rest of the sentence changes depending on the genus of the word. Very confusing and frustrating. :D As a Belgian (Flemish) person, I find it quite funny to hear English native speakers speak Dutch with a Dutch accent! I wonder if it's easier to take on this accent, rather than the Flemish one? You are doing great by the way! :D
I find the most difficult when a verb consist 1 of 2 parts, like : send ( sturen , opsturen). Or : melden, aanmelden. Hangen, ophangen. En so on. It is not easy to know which one to choose.
Right, let me help you out. As far as this Dutchman is concerned, opeens and ineens are synonyms. So you worry for nothing about it! I could recommend the channel Dutchies to be. She has a lot of videos and is still making them. Also on "er". The difference between "liggen" and "staan" is simple. when the height is longer than the width, it stands, use "staan" and when the width is longer than the highth, it lies, use liggen. For big things, there are exceptions, they usually "staan" So, the car is in the garage is "De auto staat in de garage" despite being the width probably greater than the heighth.. "Ergens in zitten" means that you have something on the sides holding you in. "Ergens op zitten" means you don't have something to hold you in. Op een kruk zitten, in een leunstoel zitten. Simple. In bad zitten (because the sides of the bath hold you in), op het dak zitten, nothing is holding you in there. And really "nog" only has one meaning, but English fails you there. There is simply no English translation for it. It just lengthens the past into the present. "Ik heb het nog niet gedaan" just means, I did not do it in the past, and I still have nog done it". A bit less obvious is the (rhetorical) question: Is er nog meer? (is there still more?). Here the assumption is, that there was already a lot in the past, and there is even more now in the present. Therefore "nog meer". Same thing. Or: Ik wil nog meer. (I want more still). There is the assumption that I had in the past, but I want more in the present. "Nog" can also bridge the present to the future. "Ik wil nog (meer) gaan reizen als ik met pensioen ga" (I want to travel (more often) when I retire). Nog is used here to indicate that at the time there is no (not much) traveling, but it will start (to increase) in the future. On de and het, there are rules and only a very few exceptions. Dutchies to be has a good video on it, I think. Hope this helps.
Nice explanation about the prepositions. You're right some of them are easy to figure out by their size. A telephone and a vase may not have been the best example, its starts getting messy when a city lies there? Sometimes I easily forget which preposition belongs to which situation. I like your explanation of things holding you in though that kind of makes sense. Another one that seems weird to me is sitting on school?? 🤔🤔 or that you are sitting on work 😂 they are weird so I remember them but some just seem to go in in one ear and out the other. A massive yes to dutchies to be channel. That was the video I linked in the description for de and het, she has some really good videos on dutch so I hope people learning the language can go and check her out. Yes english has definitely failed me when it comes for a translation for nog, it seems to be everywhere. I specifically never know when to say "nog steeds" and just "steeds" on its own. What does the nog really add? Little tiny things that take years to learn, and perfect, iron out the creases you might say. Learning a language is never a finished job.
@@caseykilmore Apply my tip on "nog". The difference between "steeds" and "nog steeds" is that in the first case you just are in the present and with "nog" you put the past into the present. Ik doe het steeds verkeerd (I presently do it wrong most of the time). Ik doe het nog steeds verkeerd (I did it wrong in the past and I still do it wrong today). I agree that for a foreigner "op het werk zijn/zitten" is strange. But what is the alternative. Sit in your work? That would be bad (overworked??).
@@ronaldderooij1774 Yes this now makes so much more sense!!! Heeeeel erg bedankt for your tip on nog, hopefully I can start to take my Dutch up a notch if I focus on these things. :)
@@caseykilmore "Nog" can be best translated by "yet to be" or "not determind in time" and "steeds" by "still" "nog steeds" and just "steeds" on its own. What does the nog really add? The "nog" adds a sense of urgency. Zoals in "waarom is die kamer nog steeds niet geschilderd verdorie!"
Ineens can be a synonym for opeens, but it can also be used as a word to describe when you do something in one action. So it's not that they have different meanings, it is that one has two meanings, one being a synonym for the other
Hi, I discussed the “opeens, ineens” question with my wife who happens to have taught NT2. I also couldn’t explain the difference, but after a long discussion, we decided that the explanation is that “opeens” has to do with something that has aconnection of some sort with somthing that happened before but “ineens” is used if something happens out of the blue. “We zaten lekker te eten, maar opeens werd Piet misselijk”. “We waren lekker aan het fietsen, toen het ineens begon te regenen.” But we also had problems getting a precise idea of it.
'and make sure you start of on a good foot' Soooo relatable, when you got Dutch on the brain and direct translate a saying, rather then going for the English equivalent 🤣 This side of the language we tend to start of on the right foot. But you got compounding down. I quite like the sound of a goedvoet
Don't worry, Casey: your Dutch will improve! Usually Dutch teachers don't insist very much if you use 'de' instead of 'het' (by the way: not depending on gender, because Dutch words have no gender!!), but you can practice on your own. I remember I wrote a quite complete list of 'het' words, and I had to match with a correct adjective ('Een wit huis') so I could get used to these structures for those particular words. The use of 'er' was something I learned quite easily because there's something really similar in one of my mother languages. But I remember other students struggling with 'er' just like you. Once more: in such situations we need to get used to the structure of the sentence. I'm no longer living in The Netherlands, but I hope I can remember and improve my Dutch in the future. Learning a language is acquiring a superpower!
Slowly slowly its improving, its so different to the beginning when you're improvement goes so quickly. I'm obviously very impatient haha. I usually opt for the default de cause its more common but I like your way to remember and get use to the sounds of the words together. I must start making my own list, this is great! With er there is not really a link with English, but I must be thankful there are loads of other links between the two languages so I'll just have to get use to using it, and you're right this takes time. I've been stuck in australia this year when a trip to visit family turned into 8 months of not being able to get home affordably. My dutch has declined quickly since I'm no longer surrounded by the language but hopefully once we get back home it won't take long to come good. What is your mother tongue if you don't mind me asking? Did you find other sorts of links between the two apart from "er"?
@@caseykilmore Yes, we always feel like improving/stopping/improving/blocked, haha! But it's more a feeling than reality, very often. You did already a great job! I remember now that I worked with my list of 'het' words actually by writing (and reading out loud) a set of sentences with each one: 'Een nieuw boek. Welk nieuw boek? Dit nieuwe boek' so I could connect the 'het' word with 'welk', 'dit' and the proper use of the adjective I chose everytime. I also noticed the links between Dutch and English, but sometimes the uniqueness of the words shoked me. I remember the first time I was told that 'History' was 'Geschiedenis' O.O (By the way, words with '-nis' ending are always 'de': De geschiedenis, De betekenis... The same happens to the '-heid' ending words). A trick I sometimes used was to convert a word I wasn't sure about into a 'het' word by making a diminutive: 'Een kleine(?) plek'... 'Een klein plekje'. My mother language (the one I mentioned) is Catalan. We have a group of words called 'weak pronouns', and one of them is 'En'. We use 'en' almost in the same way that Dutch use 'er'. One of the little differences is that we use 'en' before the verb, instead of after the verb: '-Tens germans? -En tinc dos.'/'-Heb je broers? -Ik heb er twee.' For other use of 'er', we use 'hi': 'Er is kaas - Hi ha formatge'. This 'hi' is another of our weak pronouns, and it is exactly the same as the 'y' that you will find in French ('il y a du fromage'). There are not so many connections,between both languages (Dutch and Catalan), so far I know. But from time to time I found things like: 'Perzik - Préssec'. O.O Then I realized the root of 'préssec' is the same as 'pêche', and even 'peach' and of course 'perzik'. (In Spanish it's 'melocotón', haha!) I really hope you are able yo travel again, I'm sure you will reach your fluency in a couple of days once you get back ;) Good luck and enjoy your practice!
Wow what an amazing response!!! Thanks so much for writing back in such detail. Lots of examples, hi and en super interesting to hear that other languages have these functions. The 'y' in French killed me hahaha but I haven't studied that for years! I love the idea of writing out the whole sentence and different versions of it, some het words I have this too where I've heard it often and it sounds right to say it with dit and welk but with less common words I usually just guess haha. Thanks for the encouragement and the study tips, hopefully when we get back it won't take long at all to get back into the swing of things. :))
Actually: Dutch words do have gender. They can be masculine (male), female or neutral. It's just that it otherwise has no influence except for the pronouns used and de and het (where you use de for male and female words and het for neutral words)
@@RichardRenes Wow, they never explained that to me! Thank you for your explanation. It's fascinating that neutral words change to gendered (masculine or feminine) when used in plural, but gendered words change to neutral when used as diminutive. As a Dutch person would say: Nou, breekt me de klomp!
Great to hear, if you have any questions please, always feel free to send me a DM on instagram and I'll be happy to help you brainstorm some study ideas and answer any questions you might have :)) Very happy that I've been able to help you feel like you can tackle Dutch!!
The hardest things for me to learn in Dutch was the way of saying numbers drieënzestig for 63.. and the R and G... I simply don't hear the difference, like reiger... to me, they both sounds like R. BTW, your Dutch sounds great. I lived in NL for almost 20 years, and I could never hide my French Canadian accent lol
Did you find it difficult to make the distinction between 'hun', 'hen' and 'zij'? I'm a native Dutchy and I notice that a lot of other native Dutch people are breaking the rules here by speaking like "Hun vinden dat niet leuk" etc... I was just wondering if a non-native Dutch speaker has the same issues. Love your videos and I think your pronunciation is very good!
I may be too late with this comment, but I would say that trying to differentiate between 'ineens' and 'opeens' can be done like this: something that happens in an instant, or instantly is 'ineens' and something that happens suddenly is 'opeens'. If you are not sure which word to use, think of using it in an English sentence where ether instantly or suddenly fits better. For 'opeens', it's something that just unexpectedly appeared into existence, while for 'ineens' it is more related to the time in which it happened.
At primary school there was one girl with turkish parents in my class. So her first language was turkish, but she was born and raised in the Netherlands and spoke Dutch pretty much fluently. When we left primary school at the age of twelve she still made occasional mistakes with de and het. It's pretty much unlearnable I think unless you memorize the correct article with every word.
Yeah "de" and "het" I can understand, especially for people coming from a language where words don't have genders, like English. It's not as complicated as German anymore, female and male words have sort of been unified and you only use "de" for those. However, for genderless words, you use "het". As you'd go with learning German, or the Roman languages which also have gendered words, you should be learning the gender of each word, otherwise it becomes too big of a pile to re-learn them or add it on. It's one of those things that come naturally for people who are native speakers, but is a huge struggle for non-natives. As for prepositions, it's a bit tricky because I'm from Flanders, and even we use them differently than the Dutch. For example, just like in English, we sit "on" the bus, or "on" the train, but we sit "in" our cars. For something that's placed on a surface, like the example with your phone and the vase, you'd have to look how much surface of said object touches the table. Your phone touches the table with most of its surface, the flat side, so that one "lies" on the table. A vase "stands" on the table because it can basically stand upright on its own, which can't be said for something like your phone. Also: you can pretty much assume that smaller objects always lie on the table, and large objects stand on a table, or any other surface, really. Except for objects that cannot stand erect on their own, like bags. Those always lie on a surface, or stand against a wall. That's mainly the jist of it: objects that can stand up on their own stand on a surface, objects that can't lie on a surface. The tricky thing is objects that are flat, but have feet, like for example turntables, game consoles, etc. will also stand on a table, because they stand on their supports. There's a lot of nuance there. As for "nog": that indicates an ongoing state, like the word "still". Heb jij dat nog nodig/do you still need that? Hoeveel heb je er nog van/how many do you still have? Ik heb er nog zoveel van/I still have that many of them. Ik ben er nog mee bezig/I'm still working on it. I'm surprised that you didn't mention "omdat" and "opdat".
If you would push the vase on it's side then ligt de vaas op tafel. You can take Ligt/staat as literal as the object lying flat out on the table or the object standing solid straight up on the table.
Hi Casey, I only found your channel today, it's fun hearing about your experiences with Dutch and The Netherlands :D Your Dutch sounds fantastic! If you don't mind here is some advice about the first part. Just for clarification I'll also add the translation even though you'll probably understand it anyway. Pas - Primarily has to do with time. "Dat is pas gebeurd" / "That has just happened" But! "Dat is maar pas gebeurd" / "That has only just happened" Maar - Often used to diminutize or downplay a thing or situation. "Doe mij er maar eentje" / "I'll have just one" "We doen dit maar al te vaak" / "We're only doing this... all too often!" Alleen - Usually used for emphasis, I think? "Het is alleen zo fijn" - "It's just too nice" Slechts - This is a bit of a buzzword, something you usually hear in commercials. "Toiletpapier voor slechts 99 cent!" Hopefully this helps a bit. I'm actually not so sure anymore if the logic I used here translates well enough to a Dutch learner. Ah well :)
The tendency in Dutch to shift between voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds adds to the confusion between de and het. If the previous word ends in an unvoiced consonant, de may be pronounced "te". Also, het is generally reduced to "t" and depending on the preceding and following words the pronunciation can shift to "d" When listening to Dutch, I often get confused by the shifting between voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds. For example, I may hear a Dutch word that I don't know and try to look it up in the p's and then realize that the word actually begins with a b.
I always, say in many languages you have exeptions to the rule in grammar. But in the Dutch language we have exeptions to the exeptions in the grammar when explaining how it works. It seems that it also has to do with how it sounds on what you use...... have fun learning....
To confuse you even more, Casey: some words can have both de and het, e.g. deksel with exactly the same meaning. Some words can have both, but have a different meaning, e.g. de hof = the garden, het hof = the court. Even Dutch get confused by this last one, because de hof is getting out of use, except in doolhof, which is nowadays often spoken with het instead of de.
Oohhhhh no!!! Hahaha this can get confusing. I really need to start studying de and het. I don't think I knew that some words can have both so thanks for sharing that. I'm sure anyone else learning dutch can hopefully benefit from reading your comment
I've been fascinated by these double words now and have come across a few more. De pad and het pad completely different meanings, along with de golf and het golf. These are kind of fun or maybe that just makes me a nerd hahaha 😅
Meestal denken wij Nederlanders niet na of het 'de' of 'het' moet zijn. We weten het gewoon. Misschien omdat kinderen op de basisschool bij het leren schrijven meteen het bijhorende lidwoord leren. In een heel enkel geval moeten we erbij nadenken of het opzoeken in de 'Woordenlijst der Nederlandse taal' ofwel het groene boekje.
To make it worse, nowadays "de hof" is mostly used in it's diminutive form, "het hofje", which due to the form uses "het", so that's what people get used to. "De hof" genuinely sounds a little alien to me.
ik ben Nederlands, spreek al mn hele leven (18 jaar) nederlands maar ik begrijp het verschil tussen opeens en ineens ook niet heel goed, alsin ik zou het verschil niet zo kunnen uitleggen. ik gebruik het gewoon op gevoel, waarschijnlijk ben ik niet de enige in nederland die dat heeft dus het geeft vast niet dat jij het ook neit altijd goed doet, blijven oefenen en je kunt het echt al heel goed.
@6:10 well excuse me for pointing it out but unless you ride one of those Red london double deckers you arn't sitting ON the bus, but in it :P ... think the lady you met was wrong... de vegadering is bij de tafel (at the table) not op de tafel (on the table) when we in dutch say that the meeting is "op tafel" we mean that it's debatable, it can be discussed and ammended.
Apart from the little words 'er' and 'nog' (not to be confused with 'noch') there are some that are used as modal particles, completely divorced from their standard meaning: 'Hoor', 'maar'... as in "Sorry hoor" and 'Laat maar'
Actually, when you learn grammar by heart, it's gonna be harder to speak, because you're gonna think: Hmmm.. what was the rule again? Whereas when you just try to pick up the language by watching andn reading content of your level, you'd much rather understand something without being able to explain. You would get the feeling. This is what everybody polyglot will tell you and this is also my experience after having failed at spanish and having much more success with portuguese learning the polyglot-way. As a kid you also learn your language by hearing your parents speak the way they do. They get a lot of input. Every single day. They don't get a chance to forget things, because they constantly get these short phrases thrown at them.
The word “dus’. I have lived in the Netherlands almost 19 years and I still sometimes say “zo” (so) when I mean “dus”. Eg: Ik was ziek, dus ik ben thuis gebleven (I was ill, so I stayed home). I think this is a common mistake for English people. It’s something one needs to get right, right from the start or you just get into bad habits.
I was watching this case so many times on UA-cam but you know it was really hard when we come into the real conversation in Dutch community and will be totally confused 😅
5:46 I think that your examples of the phone and the vase are not appropriate for the context of your message. The phone is placed horizontally, so it lays on the table. Whereas the vase is placed vertically, so it stands on the table. Were you to put the vase on its side then it would be laying on the table, similar to the phone.
That's an amazing level of Dutch for just two years of look self-study! I really wouldn't say "er" is like about. In "ik heb er drie van" I'd expect you to have exactly three. It's more like it replaces "those" (or "of those") in the "I have three of those", where in English you can just leave it out, in Dutch you can't and add "er" in its place.
As for the vase standing and the phone lying: als je de vaas omstoot, dan ligt hij op de tafel en als je je telefoon op de onderkant balanceert dan staat hij...
Het leren spreken van de Nederlandse taal door middel van het onthouden van de regels is echt onbegonnen werk, er zijn te veel uitzonderingen, en te veel woorden, de enigste manier is oefenen oefenen. en dan na een paar jaar begint het kwartje te vallen.
If you are in the stadium you go into details like ineens and opeens than youre " good on the way " (goed op weg ) Mix up those minor details when speaking dutch, I think they have their charme " leuk filmpje! !" Groet uit Nederland
Maybe this helps: 'Ligt' is the longer side on the surface and 'staat' is the short side on the surface. So the vase stands tall and the phone lays flat. So if something has a long and a short side the side that lays down makes it liggend of staand. But now i think of it:... een computer staat (a computer stands on the table. No matter if it's a laptop, desktop or tower....pffff never mind...
All the links are in the description, I especially like the video explaining de and het, so make sure you check them out :)
I'm curious to know do you have the same problems as me?? do you have other issues that I didn't mention.
Learning to speak another language feels like a never ending task, but also fun.
Happy studying :))
Casey, this was a very interesting video. My home language is Afrikaans 🇿🇦, which is a daughter language of Dutch. Luckily we only have "die", instead of de/het, and we only have three tenses, plus virtually no conjugation.
I love the word "nog" or "nog steeds". A very nifty little word, like the Afrikaans words "mos", or "nè" (no English translations, but generally adds emphasis or weight to a term or sentence
Please stop giving wrong information about the Dutch language. You've only been learning it for what............two years now. Who are you to teach anyone about Dutch if you continue to make mistakes yourself?
Ik ben zelf in nederland geboren en ik moet toegeven ik vind het erg leuk om jouw point of view te zien van de nederlandse taal. Vooral omdat met veel van je punten ik zelf ook niet de regels weet, en dus alles op gevoel doe. Met betrekking tot 'de' en 'het', heel veel mensen hebben er moeite mee. Mijn moeder was een docent op de basisschool en had dus ook veel te maken met kinderen die waren opgegroeid met een andere taal en ook met stagiaires die er moeite mee hadden. Haar tip was altijd; lees veel boeken die bedoelt zijn voor kinderen. Vaak in die boeken worden de lidwoorden overdreven veel gebruikt om ze zo aan kinderen te leren. En maak je vooral geen zorgen, je nederlands klinkt echt heeel erg goed en ik denk dat veel nederlanders je de grammatica regels niet zouden kunnen vertellen als je erna zal vragen!!! (:
Between 'opeens' and 'ineens' ...
Opeens was hij miljonair. = he was earlier not miljonair, suddenly he became miljonair, nobody expected it to happen, nobody know when it would happen. Ineens was hij miljonair = he was earlier not miljonair, suddenly he became instantly miljonair, it was expected to happen, nobody know when it would happen.
The distinction to be the 2 is - was it expected or not to happen (regardless when it happened, and regardless that it was a sudden change)
So like opeens was hij miljonair , as example he bought a lottery ticket and forgot about it and by suprise he was overwhelmed by the media he was suddenly miljonair. and second example ineens was hij miljonair, he was checking the stockmarket and had a good feeling he would become miljonair in a matter of time. he waited and suddenly his expectation became true. He was ineens miljonair.
I'm a 32 year old Dutch woman and I never knew there was a difference between 'opeens' and 'ineens'. That's so weird! Sorry! 😅
Your definitely not the first person to have said that, I think the small difference goes unnoticed for native speakers but you would all intuitively know when to use the right one I'm sure. Or if not then you've managed to learn something too so mission accomplished haha
Luckely I love learning new things, so that's a bonus! And if I want to or not, I will think about what word to use from now on. So thanks for educating me, haha!
Ik denk dat je beide kunt gebruiken, afhankelijk waar je vandaan komt.
@@caseykilmore I use 'opeens' and 'ineens' completely interchangeably. But neither much to be honest.
Here in Antwerp we just use "ineens" for the lot, much easier
We don't know what were doing either lol
hahhahaha your not the first to say this ha leuke reactie hoor
Niet waar. Zij maakt heel veel fouten, zegt ze zelf, dus wie is zij om een ander Nederlands to leren eigenlijk.
@@evildjinn9 om die zin mooi to maken was het beter "Wie is zij eigenlijk om iemand nederlands te leren"
I do.
@@evildjinn9 Dat is niet echt eerlijk. Ik woon in Nederland al 19 jaar, en als engelse vrouw vindt ik haar videos heel leerzaam. Ik herken veel foutjes die ikzelf ook vaak maak of vindt moeilijk. En ze geeft veel informatie over waar en hoe ik mijn Nederlands kan verbeteren. En haar uitspraak is geweldig voor iemand wie maar 2 jaar Nederlands heeft geleerd. Zij is mijn inspiratie om dit taal echt te willen verbeteren omdat ze het zo goed doet. Dat wil ik ook! Dus ik vindt je opmerking een beetje lullig.
Ik moet zeggen, je uitspraak is geweldig! Soms kan ik niet horen dat je geen native speaker bent, en je bent altijd perfect te verstaan ^^ Veel succes en veel plezier met het leren van deze frustrerende taal :)
Nou heeel erg bedankt voor deze reactie :))) soms ben ik best wel onzeker over mijn uitsprak dus je hebt echt mijn dag gemaakt 😊😊
Volledig mee eens! Je doet het echt goed!
Alleen is native geen Nederlands, er is geen letterlijke vertaling maar ik zou zeggen: "Soms kan ik niet horen dat Nederlands niet je moedertaal is."
@@caseykilmore Haha, "you made my day" letterlijk vertaald naar het Nederlands bestaat niet. Je zou kunnen zeggen: "Dit maakt mijn dag goed" of "Mijn dag kan niet meer stuk"
Je spreekt de taal echt goed! De dingen die je hier noemt zijn ook echt lastig.
I came here to see if she actually knew how to speak Dutch. I was surprised to find that she not only knows many words, she also sounds exactly like a Dutch person. That is something to be proud about. :)
Two years? Wow, that's totally amazing you know! In my flat there are people that moved here maybe 30 or 40 years ago, they can't put three dutch words together, they can't make a sentence. They couldn't speak Dutch to save their lives. The way you speak and understand Ducth is amazing, but of course that has to do with your surroundings and honest interest, and not being isolated in your own (English) bubble. I'm impressed. Oh, and don't worry about "opeens" and "ineens." I'd chose "Opeens" personally.
In Dutch so much is based on “it feels better” and that is hard to capture in rules when a foreigner is trying to learn our beautiful language 😉. Loving the “outside looking in” perspective on our language, very entertaining.
You’re doing well!!
“Pas” can be nasty. It can mean: -a short time ago-a step -only-a mountain pass -a bank card -a conjugation of “passen”/to fit - to quit something/ik pas. That’s at least 7 different meanings of “pas” maybe there’s even more..
@Darker Times yes thats the first one
Pas op, want dit is een valkuil ;-) (dat komt uiteraard van het werkwoord oppassen, maar dan niet op kindjes, maar daar moet je ook mee oppassen, want als je tijdens het oppassen niet oppast, passen ze niet op en doen ze zichzelf pijn. Dan word jij gepasseerd door een nieuwe oppasser en kun je die pas gepaste pastelkleurige rok niet betalen met je pasje van de bank en kun je alleen die passer die je nodig had voor wiskunde betalen. Gelukkig kun je dan nog wel even langs bij de pastoor die je zal vertellen dat je je maar aan moet passen aan de nieuwe situatie. (hehehe lol)
@@alcidesforever Pas als op de pas pa’s pas pas past, pas dan pas op.
The two easiest categories for de and het:
- de is used for all plurals, even of diminutives;
- het is used for all singular nouns that end in a diminutive suffix, and as Dutch uses -tje or -je very often, and you can use those on most nouns; it's a workaround for when you don't know if something should be de or het, and can't use the plural.
The easy general rule I was taught for nouns where I don't know if it's de or het: concrete/touchable objects are de words; abstract/untouchable/general concepts and ideas are het.
It's really not a perfect rule, but if it comes down to pure guesswork for rarely-used words it gives some helpful indication.
De tafel, de boom, de wolk, de dans, het heelal, het bos (you can't touch the whole wood, a whole wood is a bit more of an abstract idea than a single tree - but then why is a cloud de, not het? It looks solid from the ground, but it's not really very touchable, rather like the universe which went the opposite way; and what's solid and concrete about a dance?... A book or a house is quite concrete but it's het boek, het huis (the mnemonic for that is that the -t remains in thuis = at home).
I'm learning so much about my own language from you!
About the prepositions, here some good examples:
when you have a fly in your soupe, it's "sitting" in your soupe
when you have keys in your pocket, they are "sitting" in your pocket
when you have water in the cellar, it's "standing" in the cellar
when you have a plate on the table, it's "standing" on the table
when something is written in a book, it "stands" in a book
when there is fluid in a bottle, it "sits" in the bottle
when you have air in your tire, it "sits" in the tire
when a city is in a country, it "lies" in a country but when a church is in a city it "stands" in a city
etc.
This is the confusion exactly, it's almost like you just need to go through and learn them all one for one hahah this is a great example of some sentences though so thanks for sharing :))
In general though when something clearly has a certain height you can say that it "stands" and if it doesn't it "lies". In the case of water in the cellar, a little puddle of water would be lying in the cellar (er ligt water in de kelder) while a larger quantity would have some height and would thus be standing. Sometimes when it is not clear if the object is flat or high you can use both, plates on the table are an example of this. Something "sits" when it is enclosed in something else, like soup or a bag or a tire. Possible ezelsbrug: It sits firmly inside.... But still, it's not perfect
Hi Casey,
I love your videos! Bedankt daarvoor! I help out at the Amsterdam library as a volunteer for the Taalcafé, it’s an initiative for people like you, immigrants and expats who want to improve their Dutch by speaking Dutch to one another. I guide those convo’s, “er” and “prepositions” are only a few of my favourites to talk about! You’re movies are an inspiration to help pick topics, in case I run out. It’s funny to see how these topics keep returning and overlap.
On prepositions: ive learned that certain figures of speech will help out with this! Achter de ellebogen (being arrogant and sneaky), onder de tafel (verkopen), op tafel brengen, achter het behang plakken, naast je schoenen lopen.
"opeens" and "ineens" are to a certain extent interchangeable. When you dig into that, you are being told a whole set of rules and nuances nobody really knows about. So don't worry too much about that one. When you hate "de" and "het", you would loathe German. It has three definite articles. which are subject to case declension (genitive, dative, accusative). My advice is reading, reading, reading. By the way: Your Dutch accent is really impressive.
ineens - could be suddenly, but the fine semantic is "overnight" and the "surprise element" comes second.
opeens - has the "op" like "upon" in "once upon a time". With "opeens" the only thing we are saying is "suddenly" and we leave implicit how fast this came about.
Honestly I don’t even know the differences between opeens en ineens and I’m dutch haha
same. I wouldnt worry about little shit like that
I'am Dutch, but you even confused me about my own language. :-) Don't worry about mistakes. Trying is good enough for us.
opeens and ineens are pretty interchangeable tbh
Yeah pretty interchangeable doesnt matter
Not really. There is a subtle difference. Opeens is like 'out of the blue' and ineens is like 'instantly'
Dutch people Will never say: ineens.
@@MichielvandenBroeke in practice both words are used to mean both though, which was my point. No native speaker is going to notice if you do it the "wrong" way since most people make the same "mistake".
I'd also say that instantly is not a good translation of 'ineens'. Instantly would be more akin to 'meteen'. The difference opeens and ineens really is so slight that it makes no practical difference which one you use
@@DavidvdGulik it wasn't meant as a translation. I tried to explain the subtle difference. In my opinion there is difference but it is not a big deal. I'm not a languagenazi 😉
Dit stond opeens in mijn recommendations. Het is echt maf hoe goed je uitspraak is. Doe je goed!
Nou hartstikke bedankt, hahah sommige woorden komen niet zo makkelijk uit, maar soms blijkbaar wel :)))
@@caseykilmore You forgot to squeeze in that pesky little "er" here as well ;) "komen er niet zo makkelijk uit"..
P.S. Did you learn the word "mierenneuken" already? :P
I'm stunned by your abillity to speak dutch! pronountiation is very good !
Hey Casey, leuke video, dat geeft een leuke kijk op je eigen taal! Over de voorzetsels: Er zijn veel verschillende voorzetsels en de grammatica per voorzetsel is ook best wel tricky (qua positie in de zin), dat maakt het lastig. Maar als je de standaard voorzetsels kent dan kan je goed een regelmaat ontdekken. Vaak wordt er in de beslissing van het woord een logische keuze gemaakt op basis van hoe een voorwerp of situatie er(haha!) geografisch en visueel uit ziet. Als voorbeeld: Een telefoon leg je meestal met de lange kant op tafel dus hij 'ligt' op tafel. Een beker staat rechtop op tafel (lange kant omhoog), die 'staat' dus op tafel. De fiets staat aan wat wij de voorkant van het huis noemen(bv waar de voordeur zit), hij staat 'voor' het huis. De groente heb je 'op' de markt gekocht(deze is denk ik niet heel logisch, maar moet je leren). Of als je een weg hebt die langs een school loopt waar de kinderen buiten tegen de muur aan zitten kan je zeggen: De weg loopt 'langs' de school waar kinderen tegen de muur aan zitten. Ik hoop dat het hierdoor een klein beetje duidelijker is geworden! Succes en groetjes uit NL!
edit: by the way 'nog' might be easier than its english counterpart(s) yet, still, even, etc. Omdat nog bijna in elke combinatie alleen als 'nog' wordt gebruikt! Wat de andere woorden in combinatie aangeven is bijvoorbeeld de tijd & dat er misschien iets gaat veranderen aan de (tijds)situatie: Nogsteeds (still going on even(nogsteeds, ha gotcha!) now at the present moment), Nog (still), Nog nooit (again a timespan: 'Ik heb dit nog nooit gedaan' - 'i have never done this' ), nog wel (For example: Your friend expects that your bracelet is already gone and he/she wants it back but you still have it. You can respond like: No i still have it or "Nee, ik heb hem nog wel".), Nog eens (Yet again/once more) etc :)
Dan zit je alleen nog steeds met een aantal rare uitzonderingen zoals "achter de computer" / "voor de tv" / "frietje met" / "van tafel" / "aanrijden(dialect!)" waar je het eigenlijk meer hebt over uitdrukkingen dan grammatica volgens mij. Volgens mij is daar niet echt een regel voor. :(
Maar over het algemeen heb je het dan wel in de meeste gevallen goed inderdaad.
I'm learning Dutch for a year and a half now and what I really struggle with (besides things you mention!) is pronunciation. And I have to say, yours is so perfect!
A Dutch teacher once told me “er” was for her the most difficult Dutch word to explain. We use it all the time and for several uses, but if you ask someone to explain the use if the word you get stuck yourself :)
I think you are doing a great job!! It is a hard language. Your pronunciation is amazing. I meet people who don't speak Dutch after many years. So don't worry :-)
Oh this is good to hear, thanks for the encouragement. I'm still working on my pronunciation some words make me feel tongue tied but it's getting there :))
No worries, you speak the language very well I guess. I have the same "problem" speaking English, but isn't it amazing how we can communicate with each other so easily without doing it perfectly? ;-)
jes, sjie spieks dutsj ferrie wel, end wie are ferrie prout of it
@@HansS11160 Dat haf joe goed gesed!
(Heerlijk hé dat camping Engels :p)
@@david6054 Ha ha!
Dets de seem es in Inglisj
I'm native dutch, and one of my brothers had poor hearing when he was a kid. He still gets de and het wrong occasionally. It's one of those things you learn by osmosis, it'll take time.
It's also made harder because we adopt so many foreign words in our language. I'm nearly 40, and still scratch my head sometimes for de or het.
Luckily Dutch people don't mind working out together how we should say something. It's like a mini game that you can play with basically anyone
When you speak Dutch its really well, and how you deal with the language make me proud as a Dutchy. Netjes hoor🤗👌
Thanks for the encouragement, my dutch has suffered a lot since being stuck in Aus and not using it no where near as much as I was when we where still in the netherlands. Still trying to watch movies and read books to keep my head in the game 😊😊 so any recommendations are welcome!
The books of Annie m.g. Schmidt. she wrote children's books that are also read by adults because they are good, fun in terms of content, but are very good for learning the language. I likes the books.
Maybe a idee? Goed bijhouden zonde anders!
It must be hard to speak Dutch when you're still learning it and not having to speak it every day. Try speaking only Dutch when you're with your partner! And indeed, childrens books are a great way to keep up with it. Trakteer je partner op een verhaal en ga eruit voorlezen 😜. Om gelijk wat Nederlandse cultuur mee te pakken: de boeken van Pinkeltje, de Kameleon en Snuf zijn best leuk nog, ook als volwassene. En je doet het echt goed!! Geen zorgen 😇
@@ZwaEli thanks for the tip, we only speak dutch with each other with only the exception if we are with my friends or family, otherwise my dutch would be far worse off its the only thing still keeping me intact with the language. So this has been a great tip cause I know without it I basically would of lost everything I had learnt while we were living there. Hopefully flight proces drop enough by the end of the year for us to get home 🤞🤞
"de" and "het" always annoy me when people get it wrong, mostly because I used to have these EXTREMELY lazy friends from Amsterdam who just didn't bother. Then the other day my Dad used "het" in a way I was like Wait, what? Because it just didn't FEEL right. That's the main thing, if you get to know the language, start trusting your gut.
What an excellent description of 'my' language! Even after seeing this video I sometimes 'doubt' to say "er" or "opeens" or "ineens". Please remember that Dutch is a rather flexible language. Just say it on your own way.
Wow, nederlands is mijn moedertaal en I just discovered het verschil tussen opeens en ineens. Je leert elke dag weer iets nieuws hahahah
hahaha alsjeblieft 😂😊
Videos like this are fascinating to me, hearing a non-native speaker explain things that I inherently understand but never really thought about. Like the difference between opeens and ineens, for example.
You described opeens and ineens really well!!
I've lived in The Netherlands for the past 10 years and I notice many native speakers don't even know the difference. That implies to many other things in the Dutch language that we learn while the Dutch don't realise there's "a rule for what". By the way, I'm obsessed with how good your Dutch sounds!! Keep up the good work 💞
@5:48 It has to do with its appearance, if it's flat on the table it lies (phone) and it stands if it's upright (vase).
A book can lie but also stand on a table depending on how you put it there.
A fly or a stain sits ON the table, and a hole or a scratch sits IN the table.
Heyy you're also aussie! Found this video searching how to figure out these crazy expressive words. Thanks for the tips!
Hey good to see another Aussie wanting to learn the language, glad to have helped :)) How long have you been learning Dutch for?? There are still so many things that confuse me about Dutch.
@@caseykilmore Yeah, particularly "Nog" ☺
I've been learning since July, I moved over here 4 months ago and have done a few courses. Doing some self learning in between too!
Ik heb net je kanaal ontdekt en ben nu video's aan het bingen! Het is zo interessant om te horen over mijn moedertaal, ik leer zoveel, en dat terwijl ik zelf de taal volledig beheers! Keep it up, love the videos!
I was born here, lived here for almost 30 years. to be honest I guess all the time. A lot of us have no clue.... on the bright side I really like seeing you switch between languages, very fluend
I am Dutch and love your videos. So funny and interesting how foreigners struggle to learn our language. Prepositions: Here is one for you that I myself don't get 😜: Ik zit VOOR de televisie en ik zit ACHTER de computer. Why?? 😂
😂😂 THIS !!! exactly
On 5) Nog is an old way of meaning the opposite. We also sometimes still see it as 'noch'. How many people still use 'nor' in english nowadays? Keep that in mind please.
Let's look at your examples in order.
a. NOG nooit = never YET (may happen as opposed to never)
b. NOG steeds = over and over FOR NOW (until it ceases)
c. NOG wel = CURRENTLY possitive (but might change)
d. NOG een = not just what you have but one MORE (than expected)
e. NOG eens = not just once, ONE MORE TIME
f. ook NOG = also SOMETHING WE DIDN'T EVEN DISCUSS YET
I really love your content. I have so much to say. You really inspire me as a fellow Aussie self taught learner to keep going!!!
Pretty impressive for 2 years of self taught. Also love your accent :)
To make things a little weirder with in/on we usually say "De telefoon ligt op tafel", leaving out "de". I have no idea why but it's automatic for me when things are on a table. There's probably more examples for this.
Het is zo 'eye-opening" om te horen ;-) hoe bepaalde Nederlandse woorden lastig te vertalen of te gebruiken zijn. Je uitspraak is trouwens jaw-dropping voor iemand die het pas twee jaar spreekt.
Opeens: all of a sudden. Synonym: plots, plotsklaps.
Ineens: in the blink of an eye / in one go. Synonym: in een oogwenk, in een vingerknip.
Caution: ineens can also be used to mean "while we're at it".
Als we gaan winkelen, kunnen we ineens wat gaan eten.
If we go out shopping, we might as well grab something to eat (while we're at it).
Hope this helps!
This is fantastic, I definitely feel like I've heard it used in that context which is why I seem to not really understand the usage properly but this was a great explanation :)) thanks heaps 😊😊
@@caseykilmore IF you are interested, I think I can help you out with some of the things you mention in this video (like 'er', for example). I'm an online language coach, charging €15 per hour per informal-style videochat session. If you're not interested, no harm done of course and I wish you the best of luck in your adventure of learning our crazy language.
I learned in school that plotsklaps is a mistake, it is either plotseling or eensklaps...
Concerning opeens / ineens : opeens marks a change in the storyline (opeens kwam er een man binnen) where ineens means something sudden: ik moest ineens aan haar denken
@@dirkdemeirleir264 I agree. Plotsklaps is something like "opnoteren" (a not allowed combination of "noteren" and "opschrijven."
Love your video’s! I am learning so much about my own language and our habbits, that I know but wasn’t really aware of. Thank you!
I really hope I speak as well as you after two years ! I started 3 months ago . It’s a real real pleasure ! I can’t wait to be able to converse correctly ! Great videos !
You got this!
I'm a native English speaker but I've been speaking Spanish for a long time now (I majored in it in college, my husband is from Colombia, and my job involves speaking Spanish all day long). What you said about prepositions really resonates with me, I still mess them up all the time. I've always felt like prepositions themselves have no intrinsic meaning when you really put them under a microscope; each language just makes their own little collection to use however it wants. In English you "get married to someone" but in Spanish you "get married with someone;" in English you "dream about someone" but in Spanish you "dream with someone;" in Spanish anytime a person (or important animal) is the direct object of a sentence, you put "at/to" in front of them, so it would be like "I know at/to Katie very well;" and English just has more prepositions in general than Spanish does, so a Spanish speaker always has to wonder if "en" will translate to "in," "on," or something else entirely. Prepositions are possibly the worst part of learning any language!
Thanks for this very good way to explain ‘ineens’ en ‘opeens’. I use opeens too often en ineens not often enough. And that is just one example. That’s what happens when you have so many meanings for different words. By the way, I am Dutch.😂
'De vaas staat op de tafel' en 'de telefoon ligt op de tafel' are chosen like this in reference to the direction of the object. If you take for example a book. If you place it on a table with it's back or front side, it is lying down (ligt op de tafel). If you had put it on the width (bottom side / onderkant) you'd say it was 'standing' on the table. Almost always, if an object is supported on it's smallest side and the longest side is upright, you'd say: het staat op de tafel.
"De" and "Het" have rules though.
Here are a few.
Plural words have "De".
The following applies to singular words:
- Loan words have "De".
- Diminutives (words ending with -je or -tje) have "Het".
If you are dealing with a combined word you look at the last word to find the correct article.
Those work as a general rule of thumb. What's left are singular non diminutives or loan words. These are a bit tricky. For you who are interested, here's a link ( onzetaal.nl/taaladvies/de-het-algemene-regels/ ). Be warned, it's all in Dutch.
Heb vandaag jouw UA-cam kanaal ontdekt. Super veel respect dat je de moeite doet om Nederlands te leren. Ik wens je heel veel succes! 😄
2:53 that last must be the 'nair' sound, not 'naar' sound.
There is also a difference between 'nog' and 'noch'.
Very interesting for Dutch people! Thank you for this video.
When it comes to prepositions I think it comes down to the following:
We as Dutch use "kast woorden" to describe the condition of something. I.e on, under, next to etc.
In English I feel like its more oriented towards the action rather than the item / person.
To take your example, you are riding on the bus. On refers to riding, whilest in Dutch it would refer to the bus itself.
Hoop dat dat iets helpt! Je video's werden me aangeraden door youtube, super leuk!
*note that Dutch people often have issues with English as well, especially when it comes to things like then / than etc.
I've been trying to learn Dutch before probably moving to the Netherlands and you're videos are so so useful girl! Love your contents. Keep it going :)
Thanks so much, it's really awesome to hear things like this cause sometimes I never know if people actually find them helpful or interesting hahaha. So its good to know :)) thanks again
OMG. I just looked at your Spotify play list and I didn't recognize any Dutch song!
I am officially old.
Hahahaha I also didn't find all the songs myself, I wouldn't have heard about half of them without my partner and his friends.
@@caseykilmore I just made my Dutch list on Spotify public. Over 11 hours of music in Dutch. It's
called : Nederlandstalig maar dan beter. Maybe you like my taste in music too. Lol
I'll have to check it out thanks for sharing :))
Lol about ligt en staat en rond example picture of the guy sitting in a chair on top of the table.
It reminded me of an old max fleischer short cartoon where the bar owner shouts "Drinks are on the house boys!"
And all the patrons run up the stairs and climb onto the roof, gulp down their drinks and run back inside..... XD
I think "opeens" and "ineens" differ by how fast they happen primarily because they both happen very surprisingly. When you use "opeens", something is in the process of happening while if something happens "ineens", something happens instantly.
@2:25 opeens and ineens are used interchangably , opeens is more common when used with something that can be expected but doesn't normally happen (opeens viel het licht uit; suddenly the light went out) ineens is more commonly used when it's something you never expected (ineens was hij de slimste van de klas; all of a sudden he was the smartest of the class)
"ER" hm ive been going over this in my head a bit. I think er works best if you see it like "there".
that may seem weird but checkit: "ik heb er 3 van" - "i have there 3 of"
its kinda what it is, i have something, i have it ~there~ and i have 3 of them.
you can also say "er was eens" which basically means "once upon a time"
but it makes sense: "there was once".
i think thats where it came from. old dutch for "daar" would be "der", as in "her en der" is "hier en daar", but is still used as a bit of an archaic expression. so I think it sort of mutated towards "er"
"er staat een paard in de gang"
"there stands a horse in the hallway"
hmm xD
Yes, this! Although the 'i have it ~there~' is not how i would describe it unless I'm misunderstanding your post. Even though your explanation from the old dutch makes sense. I think nowadays it's just a referal to the subject.
One could also say: ik heb 3 stuks. Thereby forgoing the 'er'. Stuks (pieces/parts/units) as referal (or substitute) for the subject. Although if your reading this Casey, forget all this. 'Cause very very rarely would anyone talk like that - 'ik heb 3 stuks'
I so agree with what you said about prepositions being different in different languages! As an American Dutchie who has lived in the NL since I was a kid (for 26 years now) I still get it wrong sometimes😂
And also: I was an English teacher for several years and teaching Dutch kids English - well they had the same problem with prepositions, especially when translating things where the Dutch use 'op'. They'd say things like: "I am on school" (Ik ben op school) and "I am on the airport" (Ik ben op het vliegveld). It's a universal thing this issue with prepositions haha!
I am dutch and make many mistakes in English even though I speak it fluently (with a terrible accent unfortunately), mostly in wordorder and I always mix up if and when. It's impossible for me to keep them apart, I know the difference between if and when in theory, but in practice.... I just keep on mixing them!
So in short, it's not the end of the world if /when you keep on always making the same mistakes! It's human! Don't be so severe on yourself😀
Honestly probably some of the best prep I had for learning Dutch was learning German first. Having done that first, all the Dutch grammar was pretty intuitive, minus a little bit here and there. And yes I understand that the vocabulary can be quite different between the two languages at times and you still have to act like you are learning a completely new language, but at least 50% of words in common usage are just a more anglicized version of what the German word was. It's a bit like getting two languages for the learning effort of one and a half.
Although it's wrong, we often also leave 'de' out of the sentence if we speak. "Die vaas staat op tafel" is completely okay if you say it without 'de', like "Die vaas staat op de tafel"... Your video makes me realize we have a really awkward language...
With regards to the phone and the vase, the preposition explains what the object is doing. If something lies on the table, it is in horizontal orientation. If something stands, it is vertical. This means both a vase and phone can lie or stand on the table. If the vase lies, it is probably leaking water. If the phone stands, it is probably leaning against the vase for support :-)
Opeens = Suddenly
Ineens = Acutely
At least that's how I translate them into English when I need to. Now there's a big area of overlap there as something that suddenly happens can oftentimes be very experienced as acute in which case both would be correct. Either way, people use whichever they prefer for either situation in reality even in native Dutch so it's not a big deal. Even we can't speak our language perfectly :p
Not sure this is actually true, but maybe it's connected with our directness of communication.
For transparancy and efficiency we take a lot of things literally.
So if you think about it like that: you actually do sit IN the bus and not on it (like upon it). Sort of the same with prepositions. The vase is standing (upright) is it not? - De vaas 'staat' op tafel. Unless you lay it on its side or it got nocked over or something. You could then very accurately describe it as - De vaas 'ligt' op tafel.
So i guess it's all about very precise, accurate, efficient communication.
Toch! Toch? Exclamation, surprise, still, surely. I love this word!!
I wouldn't worry about most of these... Many native Dutch speakers (myself included) make the same mistakes on a daily basis. :D
Although, I do feel your pain regarding de & het. I studied German for a few years and they have a THIRD option, and it makes even less sense than in Dutch! French articles are also a pain in the ass. If you get the article wrong in Dutch, it usually doesn't really affect the rest of the sentence. Whereas in German or French, a great deal of the rest of the sentence changes depending on the genus of the word. Very confusing and frustrating. :D
As a Belgian (Flemish) person, I find it quite funny to hear English native speakers speak Dutch with a Dutch accent! I wonder if it's easier to take on this accent, rather than the Flemish one?
You are doing great by the way! :D
I find the most difficult when a verb consist 1 of 2 parts, like : send ( sturen , opsturen). Or : melden, aanmelden. Hangen, ophangen. En so on. It is not easy to know which one to choose.
Yes I have this too, the prepositions of werkwoorden. This is literally the worst and then when words become one word when writing?? Who knows hahaha
Right, let me help you out. As far as this Dutchman is concerned, opeens and ineens are synonyms. So you worry for nothing about it! I could recommend the channel Dutchies to be. She has a lot of videos and is still making them. Also on "er". The difference between "liggen" and "staan" is simple. when the height is longer than the width, it stands, use "staan" and when the width is longer than the highth, it lies, use liggen. For big things, there are exceptions, they usually "staan" So, the car is in the garage is "De auto staat in de garage" despite being the width probably greater than the heighth.. "Ergens in zitten" means that you have something on the sides holding you in. "Ergens op zitten" means you don't have something to hold you in. Op een kruk zitten, in een leunstoel zitten. Simple. In bad zitten (because the sides of the bath hold you in), op het dak zitten, nothing is holding you in there. And really "nog" only has one meaning, but English fails you there. There is simply no English translation for it. It just lengthens the past into the present. "Ik heb het nog niet gedaan" just means, I did not do it in the past, and I still have nog done it". A bit less obvious is the (rhetorical) question: Is er nog meer? (is there still more?). Here the assumption is, that there was already a lot in the past, and there is even more now in the present. Therefore "nog meer". Same thing. Or: Ik wil nog meer. (I want more still). There is the assumption that I had in the past, but I want more in the present. "Nog" can also bridge the present to the future. "Ik wil nog (meer) gaan reizen als ik met pensioen ga" (I want to travel (more often) when I retire). Nog is used here to indicate that at the time there is no (not much) traveling, but it will start (to increase) in the future. On de and het, there are rules and only a very few exceptions. Dutchies to be has a good video on it, I think. Hope this helps.
Nice explanation about the prepositions. You're right some of them are easy to figure out by their size. A telephone and a vase may not have been the best example, its starts getting messy when a city lies there? Sometimes I easily forget which preposition belongs to which situation. I like your explanation of things holding you in though that kind of makes sense. Another one that seems weird to me is sitting on school?? 🤔🤔 or that you are sitting on work 😂 they are weird so I remember them but some just seem to go in in one ear and out the other.
A massive yes to dutchies to be channel. That was the video I linked in the description for de and het, she has some really good videos on dutch so I hope people learning the language can go and check her out.
Yes english has definitely failed me when it comes for a translation for nog, it seems to be everywhere. I specifically never know when to say "nog steeds" and just "steeds" on its own. What does the nog really add?
Little tiny things that take years to learn, and perfect, iron out the creases you might say. Learning a language is never a finished job.
@@caseykilmore Apply my tip on "nog". The difference between "steeds" and "nog steeds" is that in the first case you just are in the present and with "nog" you put the past into the present. Ik doe het steeds verkeerd (I presently do it wrong most of the time). Ik doe het nog steeds verkeerd (I did it wrong in the past and I still do it wrong today). I agree that for a foreigner "op het werk zijn/zitten" is strange. But what is the alternative. Sit in your work? That would be bad (overworked??).
@@ronaldderooij1774 Yes this now makes so much more sense!!! Heeeeel erg bedankt for your tip on nog, hopefully I can start to take my Dutch up a notch if I focus on these things. :)
@@caseykilmore "Nog" can be best translated by "yet to be" or "not determind in time" and "steeds" by "still"
"nog steeds" and just "steeds" on its own. What does the nog really add?
The "nog" adds a sense of urgency.
Zoals in "waarom is die kamer nog steeds niet geschilderd verdorie!"
Ineens can be a synonym for opeens, but it can also be used as a word to describe when you do something in one action. So it's not that they have different meanings, it is that one has two meanings, one being a synonym for the other
Hi, I discussed the “opeens, ineens” question with my wife who happens to have taught NT2. I also couldn’t explain the difference, but after a long discussion, we decided that the explanation is that “opeens” has to do with something that has aconnection of some sort with somthing that happened before but “ineens” is used if something happens out of the blue. “We zaten lekker te eten, maar opeens werd Piet misselijk”. “We waren lekker aan het fietsen, toen het ineens begon te regenen.” But we also had problems getting a precise idea of it.
'and make sure you start of on a good foot'
Soooo relatable, when you got Dutch on the brain and direct translate a saying, rather then going for the English equivalent 🤣
This side of the language we tend to start of on the right foot.
But you got compounding down. I quite like the sound of a goedvoet
Don't worry, Casey: your Dutch will improve! Usually Dutch teachers don't insist very much if you use 'de' instead of 'het' (by the way: not depending on gender, because Dutch words have no gender!!), but you can practice on your own. I remember I wrote a quite complete list of 'het' words, and I had to match with a correct adjective ('Een wit huis') so I could get used to these structures for those particular words.
The use of 'er' was something I learned quite easily because there's something really similar in one of my mother languages. But I remember other students struggling with 'er' just like you. Once more: in such situations we need to get used to the structure of the sentence. I'm no longer living in The Netherlands, but I hope I can remember and improve my Dutch in the future. Learning a language is acquiring a superpower!
Slowly slowly its improving, its so different to the beginning when you're improvement goes so quickly. I'm obviously very impatient haha.
I usually opt for the default de cause its more common but I like your way to remember and get use to the sounds of the words together. I must start making my own list, this is great!
With er there is not really a link with English, but I must be thankful there are loads of other links between the two languages so I'll just have to get use to using it, and you're right this takes time.
I've been stuck in australia this year when a trip to visit family turned into 8 months of not being able to get home affordably. My dutch has declined quickly since I'm no longer surrounded by the language but hopefully once we get back home it won't take long to come good. What is your mother tongue if you don't mind me asking? Did you find other sorts of links between the two apart from "er"?
@@caseykilmore Yes, we always feel like improving/stopping/improving/blocked, haha!
But it's more a feeling than reality, very often. You did already a great job!
I remember now that I worked with my list of 'het' words actually by writing (and reading out loud) a set of sentences with each one:
'Een nieuw boek. Welk nieuw boek? Dit nieuwe boek' so I could connect the 'het' word with 'welk', 'dit' and the proper use of the adjective I chose everytime.
I also noticed the links between Dutch and English, but sometimes the uniqueness of the words shoked me.
I remember the first time I was told that 'History' was 'Geschiedenis' O.O (By the way, words with '-nis' ending are always 'de': De geschiedenis, De betekenis... The same happens to the '-heid' ending words). A trick I sometimes used was to convert a word I wasn't sure about into a 'het' word by making a diminutive: 'Een kleine(?) plek'... 'Een klein plekje'.
My mother language (the one I mentioned) is Catalan.
We have a group of words called 'weak pronouns', and one of them is 'En'. We use 'en' almost in the same way that Dutch use 'er'. One of the little differences is that we use 'en' before the verb, instead of after the verb: '-Tens germans? -En tinc dos.'/'-Heb je broers? -Ik heb er twee.'
For other use of 'er', we use 'hi': 'Er is kaas - Hi ha formatge'.
This 'hi' is another of our weak pronouns, and it is exactly the same as the 'y' that you will find in French ('il y a du fromage'). There are not so many connections,between both languages (Dutch and Catalan), so far I know. But from time to time I found things like: 'Perzik - Préssec'. O.O
Then I realized the root of 'préssec' is the same as 'pêche', and even 'peach' and of course 'perzik'.
(In Spanish it's 'melocotón', haha!)
I really hope you are able yo travel again, I'm sure you will reach your fluency in a couple of days once you get back ;)
Good luck and enjoy your practice!
Wow what an amazing response!!!
Thanks so much for writing back in such detail.
Lots of examples, hi and en super interesting to hear that other languages have these functions. The 'y' in French killed me hahaha but I haven't studied that for years! I love the idea of writing out the whole sentence and different versions of it, some het words I have this too where I've heard it often and it sounds right to say it with dit and welk but with less common words I usually just guess haha.
Thanks for the encouragement and the study tips, hopefully when we get back it won't take long at all to get back into the swing of things.
:))
Actually: Dutch words do have gender. They can be masculine (male), female or neutral. It's just that it otherwise has no influence except for the pronouns used and de and het (where you use de for male and female words and het for neutral words)
@@RichardRenes Wow, they never explained that to me! Thank you for your explanation. It's fascinating that neutral words change to gendered (masculine or feminine) when used in plural, but gendered words change to neutral when used as diminutive. As a Dutch person would say: Nou, breekt me de klomp!
Thank you. I feel braver since finding your channel.
Great to hear, if you have any questions please, always feel free to send me a DM on instagram and I'll be happy to help you brainstorm some study ideas and answer any questions you might have :)) Very happy that I've been able to help you feel like you can tackle Dutch!!
The hardest things for me to learn in Dutch was the way of saying numbers drieënzestig for 63.. and the R and G... I simply don't hear the difference, like reiger... to me, they both sounds like R. BTW, your Dutch sounds great. I lived in NL for almost 20 years, and I could never hide my French Canadian accent lol
Did you find it difficult to make the distinction between 'hun', 'hen' and 'zij'? I'm a native Dutchy and I notice that a lot of other native Dutch people are breaking the rules here by speaking like "Hun vinden dat niet leuk" etc... I was just wondering if a non-native Dutch speaker has the same issues. Love your videos and I think your pronunciation is very good!
I may be too late with this comment, but I would say that trying to differentiate between 'ineens' and 'opeens' can be done like this: something that happens in an instant, or instantly is 'ineens' and something that happens suddenly is 'opeens'. If you are not sure which word to use, think of using it in an English sentence where ether instantly or suddenly fits better. For 'opeens', it's something that just unexpectedly appeared into existence, while for 'ineens' it is more related to the time in which it happened.
At primary school there was one girl with turkish parents in my class. So her first language was turkish, but she was born and raised in the Netherlands and spoke Dutch pretty much fluently. When we left primary school at the age of twelve she still made occasional mistakes with de and het. It's pretty much unlearnable I think unless you memorize the correct article with every word.
Yeah "de" and "het" I can understand, especially for people coming from a language where words don't have genders, like English. It's not as complicated as German anymore, female and male words have sort of been unified and you only use "de" for those. However, for genderless words, you use "het". As you'd go with learning German, or the Roman languages which also have gendered words, you should be learning the gender of each word, otherwise it becomes too big of a pile to re-learn them or add it on. It's one of those things that come naturally for people who are native speakers, but is a huge struggle for non-natives.
As for prepositions, it's a bit tricky because I'm from Flanders, and even we use them differently than the Dutch. For example, just like in English, we sit "on" the bus, or "on" the train, but we sit "in" our cars. For something that's placed on a surface, like the example with your phone and the vase, you'd have to look how much surface of said object touches the table. Your phone touches the table with most of its surface, the flat side, so that one "lies" on the table. A vase "stands" on the table because it can basically stand upright on its own, which can't be said for something like your phone. Also: you can pretty much assume that smaller objects always lie on the table, and large objects stand on a table, or any other surface, really. Except for objects that cannot stand erect on their own, like bags. Those always lie on a surface, or stand against a wall. That's mainly the jist of it: objects that can stand up on their own stand on a surface, objects that can't lie on a surface. The tricky thing is objects that are flat, but have feet, like for example turntables, game consoles, etc. will also stand on a table, because they stand on their supports. There's a lot of nuance there.
As for "nog": that indicates an ongoing state, like the word "still". Heb jij dat nog nodig/do you still need that? Hoeveel heb je er nog van/how many do you still have? Ik heb er nog zoveel van/I still have that many of them. Ik ben er nog mee bezig/I'm still working on it.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention "omdat" and "opdat".
If you would push the vase on it's side then ligt de vaas op tafel. You can take Ligt/staat as literal as the object lying flat out on the table or the object standing solid straight up on the table.
The ‘de’ and the ‘het’ are mostly a feeling for me when i use them or how I often hear it haha
Hi Casey, I only found your channel today, it's fun hearing about your experiences with Dutch and The Netherlands :D
Your Dutch sounds fantastic! If you don't mind here is some advice about the first part. Just for clarification I'll also add the translation even though you'll probably understand it anyway.
Pas - Primarily has to do with time.
"Dat is pas gebeurd" / "That has just happened"
But! "Dat is maar pas gebeurd" / "That has only just happened"
Maar - Often used to diminutize or downplay a thing or situation.
"Doe mij er maar eentje" / "I'll have just one"
"We doen dit maar al te vaak" / "We're only doing this... all too often!"
Alleen - Usually used for emphasis, I think?
"Het is alleen zo fijn" - "It's just too nice"
Slechts - This is a bit of a buzzword, something you usually hear in commercials.
"Toiletpapier voor slechts 99 cent!"
Hopefully this helps a bit. I'm actually not so sure anymore if the logic I used here translates well enough to a Dutch learner. Ah well :)
Thanks for such a detailed answer, I think it does makes sense just getting use to the patterns but this is a good explanation 😁👍
@@caseykilmore No problem, at all! I'm glad it makes sense to you as well :D
The tendency in Dutch to shift between voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds adds to the confusion between de and het. If the previous word ends in an unvoiced consonant, de may be pronounced "te". Also, het is generally reduced to "t" and depending on the preceding and following words the pronunciation can shift to "d" When listening to Dutch, I often get confused by the shifting between voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds. For example, I may hear a Dutch word that I don't know and try to look it up in the p's and then realize that the word actually begins with a b.
By the way: so nice of you to be so interested in our language.
I always, say in many languages you have exeptions to the rule in grammar. But in the Dutch language we have exeptions to the exeptions in the grammar when explaining how it works. It seems that it also has to do with how it sounds on what you use...... have fun learning....
I'm just starting to learn and I'm having trouble with geen and niet. I don't know which one to use!
To confuse you even more, Casey: some words can have both de and het, e.g. deksel with exactly the same meaning. Some words can have both, but have a different meaning, e.g. de hof = the garden, het hof = the court. Even Dutch get confused by this last one, because de hof is getting out of use, except in doolhof, which is nowadays often spoken with het instead of de.
Oohhhhh no!!! Hahaha this can get confusing. I really need to start studying de and het. I don't think I knew that some words can have both so thanks for sharing that. I'm sure anyone else learning dutch can hopefully benefit from reading your comment
Ook zo'n woord: mens. Dat is mannelijk (de mens) en soms vrouwelijk, maar dan is het onzijdig (het mens).
I've been fascinated by these double words now and have come across a few more. De pad and het pad completely different meanings, along with de golf and het golf. These are kind of fun or maybe that just makes me a nerd hahaha 😅
Meestal denken wij Nederlanders niet na of het 'de' of 'het' moet zijn. We weten het gewoon. Misschien omdat kinderen op de basisschool bij het leren schrijven meteen het bijhorende lidwoord leren. In een heel enkel geval moeten we erbij nadenken of het opzoeken in de 'Woordenlijst der Nederlandse taal' ofwel het groene boekje.
To make it worse, nowadays "de hof" is mostly used in it's diminutive form, "het hofje", which due to the form uses "het", so that's what people get used to. "De hof" genuinely sounds a little alien to me.
ik ben Nederlands, spreek al mn hele leven (18 jaar) nederlands maar ik begrijp het verschil tussen opeens en ineens ook niet heel goed, alsin ik zou het verschil niet zo kunnen uitleggen. ik gebruik het gewoon op gevoel, waarschijnlijk ben ik niet de enige in nederland die dat heeft dus het geeft vast niet dat jij het ook neit altijd goed doet, blijven oefenen en je kunt het echt al heel goed.
You’re doing so well!!!
@6:10 well excuse me for pointing it out but unless you ride one of those Red london double deckers you arn't sitting ON the bus, but in it :P ... think the lady you met was wrong... de vegadering is bij de tafel (at the table) not op de tafel (on the table)
when we in dutch say that the meeting is "op tafel" we mean that it's debatable, it can be discussed and ammended.
You’ve got a good pronounciation of the Dutch words!👍🏻 the biggest problem is that Dutch has like 22 inviseble rules..
Apart from the little words 'er' and 'nog' (not to be confused with 'noch') there are some that are used as modal particles, completely divorced from their standard meaning: 'Hoor', 'maar'... as in "Sorry hoor" and 'Laat maar'
Actually, when you learn grammar by heart, it's gonna be harder to speak, because you're gonna think: Hmmm.. what was the rule again? Whereas when you just try to pick up the language by watching andn reading content of your level, you'd much rather understand something without being able to explain. You would get the feeling.
This is what everybody polyglot will tell you and this is also my experience after having failed at spanish and having much more success with portuguese learning the polyglot-way. As a kid you also learn your language by hearing your parents speak the way they do. They get a lot of input. Every single day. They don't get a chance to forget things, because they constantly get these short phrases thrown at them.
The word “dus’. I have lived in the Netherlands almost 19 years and I still sometimes say “zo” (so) when I mean “dus”. Eg: Ik was ziek, dus ik ben thuis gebleven (I was ill, so I stayed home). I think this is a common mistake for English people. It’s something one needs to get right, right from the start or you just get into bad habits.
I was watching this case so many times on UA-cam but you know it was really hard when we come into the real conversation in Dutch community and will be totally confused 😅
5:46 I think that your examples of the phone and the vase are not appropriate for the context of your message. The phone is placed horizontally, so it lays on the table. Whereas the vase is placed vertically, so it stands on the table. Were you to put the vase on its side then it would be laying on the table, similar to the phone.
That's an amazing level of Dutch for just two years of look self-study!
I really wouldn't say "er" is like about. In "ik heb er drie van" I'd expect you to have exactly three. It's more like it replaces "those" (or "of those") in the "I have three of those", where in English you can just leave it out, in Dutch you can't and add "er" in its place.
As for the vase standing and the phone lying: als je de vaas omstoot, dan ligt hij op de tafel en als je je telefoon op de onderkant balanceert dan staat hij...
Het leren spreken van de Nederlandse taal door middel van het onthouden van de regels is echt onbegonnen werk, er zijn te veel uitzonderingen, en te veel woorden, de enigste manier is oefenen oefenen. en dan na een paar jaar begint het kwartje te vallen.
If you are in the stadium you go into details like ineens and opeens than youre " good on the way " (goed op weg )
Mix up those minor details when speaking dutch, I think they have their charme
" leuk filmpje! !"
Groet uit Nederland
I just want to say you’re a hero! Nederlands is gewoon niet makkelijk ;)
Maybe this helps: 'Ligt' is the longer side on the surface and 'staat' is the short side on the surface. So the vase stands tall and the phone lays flat. So if something has a long and a short side the side that lays down makes it liggend of staand.
But now i think of it:... een computer staat (a computer stands on the table. No matter if it's a laptop, desktop or tower....pffff never mind...