Liefie

sweetie, dear, darling [noun, informal diminutive] [de het liefie, de liefies] [lie-fie’]

couple-168191_640“Liefie” is the informal diminutive of the noun “lief” that
translates to “beloved/love/dear”. As a pet name, “liefie” is more
common amongst the younger generations (including people in their
thirtees). Alternatively, the similar “lieveling” can be used.
“Lieveling” has a slightly more poetic or old-fashioned touch to it,
and would be best translated with “darling”, not with “sweetie”.
In general, one who is “lief” is called a “lieverd”.

Examples:
– “Hoi liefie, ik ben even naar de Albert Heijn wat boodschapjes halen.”
(“Sweetie, I’m off to Albert Heijn to get some groceries.”)

– “<sms text message:> Liefie! Kom je vanavond bij me eten? Mis jou…”
(“Sweetie! Would you like to have dinner at my place tonight? Miss you…”)

– “Jij bent mijn allerliefste liefie!!”
(“You are my dearest
sweetie!” In Dutch the superlative of ‘lief’ is ‘liefst’, however you
can go one step higher by adding ‘aller’ 🙂 It means something like
“of all”. It is very common, so put it to practise!)

Related words:
– “Lieveling”: darling, sweetheart, love.
– “Lieverd”: synonym for “lieveling”.

2 thoughts on “Liefie

  1. A belated comment…
    It might be good to point out that the ending -ie is actually the informal version of the normal diminutive ending -je. So, liefie is just liefje, koekie is a koekje etc.
    Furthermore, all words ending in -je are neutral. The same goes for words ending in -ie, so it would be “het liefie”, and not “de liefie”.
    Great site btw 🙂

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