Gewond

injured, wounded, hurt 
[adjective]
[ge-wond]

Gewond "Gewond" is derived from 'wond': wound. It is used when you are injured as a result of something serious, such as an attack or an accident. When you are injured while playing sports, we say that you are 'geblesseerd'. The related noun is 'gewonde': wounded/injured person.

Examples:
– "Vanmiddag was er een aanrijding op de A10." – "Echt? Is er iemand gewond geraakt?" 
("There was a crash/collision on the A10 this afternoon." – "Really? Was somebody injured?")

– "Gaat het? Ik zag je vallen! Ben je gewond?" 
("Are you ok? I witnessed your fall! Are you hurt?" Lit. "I saw you fall".)

– "De rabiate despoot is dodelijk gewond geraakt bij een luchtaanval." 
("The rabid despot was fatally wounded as a result of the air raid." Lit. "…got fatally wounded during …")

– "Toen het kind van drie hoog naar beneden was gevallen, was het wonder boven wonder slechts lichtgewond." 
("After having fallen three storeys/stories, miracuously, the child was only slightly injured." Lit. "When the child had fallen down from three storeys/stories high, miracle above miracle, it was only slightly injured.")

– "Door het busongeluk waren veel passagiers gewond aan het hoofd." 
("A lot of passengers were injured in the head after the bus accident." Lit. "Due to the bus accident…")

Related words:
Slachtoffer: victim, casualty [noun] [het slachtoffer, de slachtoffers].
– Gewonde: wounded/injured person [noun] [de gewonde, de gewonden].
– Gewond raken: to be/get injured/wounded [verb] [raakte gewond, gewond geraakt].
– Verwonden: to wound (deliberately), to injure (not deliberately) [verb] [verwondde, verwond].

3 thoughts on “Gewond

  1. I think it would be more idiomatic English to say “A lot of passengers suffered head injuries” 🙂

  2. The three stories that made a child fall down must have been really boring 😉
    PS Help! Do you say ‘een gewond lezer’ or ‘een gewonde lezer’?

  3. Hi – I’m not sure whether or not you are hinting that ‘stories’ is misspelled, but in any case, I do typically aim for the British-English spelling, so I’ll add it 🙂
    “Gewond” is an adjective, hence it is declined which in this case means that it is “een gewonde lezer”.
    See our post on Declining Adjectives under ‘Dutch Guru tips’ for more discussion.

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