Dak

roof [noun] [het dak, de da-ken] Iconspeaker_3

Dak
Examples:

– "Het dak lekt…" 
("The roof is leaking…")

– "Kom van dat dak af!" 
("Get off that roof immediately!" See Extra.)

– "Ons huis heeft een plat dak." 
("Our house has a flat roof.")

– "Zal er dit jaar met Kerst sneeuw op de daken liggen?" 
("Will there be snow on the roofs with Christmas this year? ")

Expressions:
– "Onder één dak wonen": to live in the same house / under the same roof.
– "Het viel me koud op mijn dak": "I was quite unprepared for it".
– "Uit je dak gaan": to go wild.

Example:
– "Hoe was het concert?" – "Man, ik ging helemaal uit mijn dak!!"
("How was the concert?" – "Man, I went completely wild!!")

Related words:
– Dakpan: roof tile [noun] [de pan, de pannen].
– Regenpijp: (d)rain pipe [noun] [de pijp, de pijpen].
– Schoorsteen: chimney [noun] [de steen, de stenen].
– Ladder: ladder [noun] [de ladder, de ladders].

Extra:
In the late 50s, a Dutch rock ‘n’ roll song became very popular and is now one of the Dutch rock ‘n’ roll classics. The song is called "Kom van dat dak af" and was performed by "Peter en zijn Rockets": lead singer Peter Koelewijn and his band "De Rockets". You can listen to the song here, or watch Peter sing his biggest hit again in 2007…

3 thoughts on “Dak

  1. hi Dutch Gurus!
    Got a question on today word “dak”: how does the meaning of it “to go wild” related to “a roof”? I don’t quite understand the relation. Please clarify – if u get a chance.
    Tot,
    Nat
    Los Angeles

  2. hi,
    it’s not quite as easy as i thought it would be to explain why it’s related. i said to a friend that it’s probably related to “dat het dak eraf gaat”
    that means roughly translated that the crowd goes wild on an amazing party.
    in a way that the roof is literally blown off.
    in the same way, when one person goes totally wild, ‘gaat hij uit zijn dak’

  3. Thanks for the clarification – makes a little better sense to me now. Using ‘Dak’ is like saying “[throw your hands up and] raise the roof!”
    Nat

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