Vrouw

1. woman, female, lady [noun] [de vrouw, de vrouwen] [‘vrouw‘]

This week we’ll make an effort to provide you with common words to describe or address females. We start with the basic "vrouw".

Examples:
– "Wie is die vrouw in de rode jurk?"
("Who is that woman in the red dress?")

– "Val jij op mannen of op vrouwen?"
("Do you fancy / are you into men or women?")

– "Er zijn gescheiden douches voor mannen en vrouwen."
("There are separate showers for men and women.")

– "Sommige clubs hebben gratis entree voor vrouwen."
("Some clubs offer free entrance to women.")

– "Mijn moeder is jarenlang een alleenstaande vrouw geweest."
("My mother has been an unattached woman / woman on her own for years." Literally "alleenstaand" means "standing alone".)

– "Met betrekking tot de biologie wordt "female" in het Nederlands met het verkleinwoord vertaald: vrouwtje."
("With respect to biology, in Dutch "female" is translated with the diminutive: vrouwtje.")

Expression:
You will sometimes hear the following anti-female expression uttered by the more marginal men:
"Vrouwen? Dan kun je beter kippen hou-en!"
(Lit.: "Women? You had better keep hens!" The verb at the end should be "houden", but is pronounced "hou-wun" in slang.)

Related words:
– "Dame": lady.
– "Mevrouw": Mrs., Ms., Madam.
– "Juffrouw": primary or elementary school teacher, Miss. In the first translation, often abbreviated to "Juf".
– "Vrouwonvriendelijk": anti-woman/female, disadvantageous to women.
– "Buurvrouw": female neighbour.

2. wife, spouse [noun] [de vrouw, de vrouwen] [‘vrouw‘]

Examples:
– "Ik ben Frank Bilbo, en dit is mijn vrouw Lea. Hoe maakt u het?"
("I am Frank Bilbo, and this is my wife Lea. How do you do?")

– "Mijn vrouw kan heel goed kaartlezen! We zijn niet verdwaald in Parijs en de TomTom hebben we niet nodig gehad!"
("My wife is very good at reading maps! We did not get lost in Paris and we had no need for the TomTom!" We only promote the TomTom here because it’s Dutch :-))

Related words:
– "Huisvrouw": housewife.

3. queen [noun] [de vrouw, de vrouwen] [‘vrouw‘]

This translation is only common in the world of card games.

Examples:
– "En hartenvrouw maakt een straat, ik win!"
("And the queen of hearts makes a street, I win!")

One thought on “Vrouw

  1. Ooh, are you going to do rude words for females too? Just in case I get called one of them by a ‘marginal man’! (Lovely expression btw.)

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