Grammar: <mandarijn> [noun] [de mandarijn, de mandarijnen].
Translates to: "mandarin (orange)" or "tangerine (orange)"
For some reason, the supply of mandarin oranges in The Netherlands is abundant in the autumn and winter season. They are omnipresent in the supermarkets.
Examples:
1. "Het is weer mandarijnen tijd."
("It’s mandarin orange time again.")
2. "Frank neemt altijd twee mandarijnen mee naar het werk."
("Frank always brings two mandarin oranges to work.")
3. "In een mandarijn zit veel vitamine C."
("There’s a lot of vitamin C in a mandarin orange.")
Related Words:
1. "sinaasappel": orange
2. "appel": apple
3. "fruit": fruit
4. "pellen’: to peel
Example: "Een mandarijntje is makkelijker te pellen dan een sinaasappel."
("It’s easier to peel a little mandarin than an orange.")
How about clementines? Boxes of these pop up in U.S. supermarkets in the winter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine
In Dutch these are also called “clementines” and I think what makes them ‘special’ is that they have no seeds.
Actually, I think that we also have clementines in the Dutch supermarkets, and they’re probably called “clementines” if you would look on the label, but I consider them to be just a slightly larger version of a mandarine orange. And just like mandarines they are peeled easier than oranges…:-)
Now I am confused; I thought clementines were smaller than mandarin oranges!
Clementines in the U.S. are smaller I think. This is more of a produce/supermarket question than a language question now!