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Favourite Dutch Lingo

Being more Dutch than anything else, I naturally want to catalog Dutch things like music, drinking songs, places to visit, and next up, phrases!

Words

Drink abbreviations

Dutch has the best drink abbreviations.

  • esma: espresso martini
  • baco: (Bacardi) rum and (Coca-)cola
  • gito: gin and tonic
    Hear them discussed here:

natafelen

  • na = after
  • tafel = table
  • -en = ing
  • after-table-ing
  • Basically where, after the evening meal, you hang out at the table to socialise and wind down, usually drinking coffee.

slootwater

  • Literally "ditch water"
  • Figuratively coffee that is so weak it looks like such.

woonerf

  • woon = live
  • erf means something like "yard"
  • live/living yard
  • A street designed in such a way that cars are the lowest priority. Not-straight, skinny driving area, often with obstructions, that kind of thing.

zuipavondje

  • zuip = sip
  • avond = evening
  • -je = little
  • little ( sip + evening )
  • A night of drinking

gebakken peren

  • Literally "baked pears"
  • Figuratively "consequences"

Idioms

als een drol in een pispot ronddraaien

  • Literally "like a turd spinning around in urinal"
  • being indecisive

als een ketter

  • "…like a heretic"
  • Used like "swearing like a sailor"

anderhalve man en een paardenkop

  • "One and a half men and a horse's head"
  • The Dutch equivalent of "(just) a man and a dog"

een zondagssteek / houdt geen week

  • (it rhymes)
  • Literally "a Sunday-stitch lasts not a week" or in other words "sewing done on Sunday doesn't last"
  • Figuratively "there's no benefit to working on the Lord's day"

het huishouden van Jan Steen

  • Literally: "the household of Jan Steen"
  • Figuratively: a messy, chaotic scene.
  • Growing up, my dad would call our family this to poke fun at whatever chaos was going on at the moment and it was years before I finally looked up Jan Steen's art. The - Rijksmuseum has a nice little video about it.

opgestaan: plaatsje vergaan

  • or opgestaan is plaats vergaan
  • (it rhymes)
  • Literally "(you) stood up: (your) spot is gone"

wat je zegt ben jezelf

  • "what you say you are yourself"
  • Used towards someone who is calling out someone for doing the same wrong thing they do.

I am: Levi, a dude named ben living north of most Canadians
This is: my digital garden where everything is a working draft