Awkward misunderstandings while learning Dutch

Ja hoor, nee hoor!

Language is a collection of sounds to express our thoughts and emotions. The same sound can have a completely different meaning and impact in different languages, which can cause an emotional reaction. It can be embarrassing or even shocking. This should always be kept in mind, as your personal interpretation is not necessarily correct! Please find an example of a conversation between two colleagues below:

‘Wil je ook een koffie?’  –  Would you also like a coffee?
‘Ja hoor, lekker!’  –  Sure, thanks, nice!
‘Wil je er suiker in?’  –  Do you want sugar?
‘Nee, hoor, dank je.’  –  No, thanks.

Is someone making fun of you? Not at all, there is nothing to worry about! For the Dutch, ‘hoor’ is a word to express positive or negative confirmation, but it can also be used to soften a question. Other than that, it can also be used as a polite statement or it can simply mean ‘please’. How do you pronounce this loaded word? It’s like the English ‘door’, starting with the ‘h’. As long as you are speaking Dutch, there is no need to feel uncomfortable about using this word. When someone says to you ‘je spreekt al goed Nederlands, hoor!’, this person is giving you a compliment by saying ‘you speak Dutch very well!’

An African ‘hoer’

A certain word in Dutch could potentially make you feel very uncomfortable or offended. Our sister-language Afrikaans, spread by the Dutch ‘boeren’ (farmers) in the country of the San-people, has developed a few funny vowel variations. The Dutch ‘eeee’ is pronounced as ‘ie-u’. This makes the Dutch ‘veel’, pronounced as the English ‘feel’, at the end of the vowel going to ‘ul’. The Dutch ‘oooo’, is pronounced as ‘oe-u’. So ‘hoor’ changes into ‘hoer’, which refers to a lady from a certain district in town. Imagine the reaction of the bartender, when she asked a group of South-Africans ‘kan ik nog iets voor u inschenken?’ and they replied with ‘ja hoer!’.

More false friends at the bar

Curious and direct, that’s how the Dutch communicate. Imagine you’re at a bar and you’ve just met a Dutch person. After you’ve exchanged names your collocutor asks ‘wat is je vak?’. Your first reaction: ‘What the F*?’. Breath in, breath out, your new friend is just asking about your occupation. You also need to inform your kids about this question, as a Dutch can ask your child ‘wat is je favoriete vak op school?’. In doing this, they’re showing an interest in your child’s favourite school subject. Please note, not all Dutch people are aware of these ‘false friends’. A false friend is a word or expression that has a similar but different meaning to a word or expression in that person’s native language. For example, an English magazine (journal) and a French magasin (shop).

Who is it at the bar?

One week later, you’re at the bar again, bumping into the same Dutch person. This time they’re asking you ‘hey, hoe is het?’. Is your Dutch friend referring to last week’s conversation by any chance? Are they wondering how it’s going with last week’s ‘vak’? No, no, your smiling Dutch friend is asking you ‘how are you?’ or ‘how is it going?’. What may help you avoid these types of situations is to ‘download’ some phrases to your ‘hard disk’.

Hoe (Dutch) = How (English)
Who (English) = Wie (Dutch) pronounced as the English ‘we’
(don’t confuse this with the Dutch ‘wij/we’)

Next time you’re at the bar and see your Dutch friend you can open the conversation with ‘hoe is ‘t?’ which means: ‘Hoe is het, hoe gaat het?’. ‘Goed, en met jou?’. ‘Uitstekend!’. ‘Cheers!’. ‘Proost!’.

Published by: Flowently

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