Category Archives: DWOTD 1.0

Original DWOTD post 2006 – 2013

Koffiedik kijken

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to try and predict the future, to read the tea leaves
[verb]
[kof-fie-dik kijk-ken]
[keek koffiedik, koffiedik gekeken]

coffee-363941_640‘Koffiedik kijken’ is a form of ‘tasseography‘: fortune-telling based on the interpretation of patterns in coffee grounds. The practice of ‘koffiedik kijken’ is not common in the Netherlands. The expression however is 🙂

‘Het/dat is koffiedik kijken’ is also often used in the meaning of “that’s hard to say”, “that’s difficult to predict” or ‘who knows?’

Examples:
– “Wanneer denkt u de verbouwing van het museum is afgerond?” – “Tja, dat is een beetje koffiedik kijken; er zijn heel veel factoren die van tevoren lastig in te schatten zijn.” 
(“When do you think the renovation of the museum will be finished?” – “Well, there are many factors involved, all of which are difficult to assess up front, so it’s difficult to say really.”)

– “Ik wil graag een weekendje naar Amsterdam in het najaar. Wanneer kan ik het beste gaan?” – “Jeetje, nou, dat is koffiedik kijken hoor; het weer is dan heel wisselvallig!” 
(“I would really like to go to Amsterdam for a weekend in (the) autumn. When is best to go?” – “Gee, well, that’s hard to say; the weather is very unstable in that time of the year.” In Dutch ‘het najaar’ can be used as a synonym for ‘herfst’: autumn. However in daily use it may extend until the end of the year.)

– “Wat kan ik zeggen, ik kan geen koffiedik kijken!” – “Nee, dat snap ik, maar je kunt toch wel een inschatting maken?” 
(“What can I say, I can’t predict the future!” – “No, that I understand, however you can make an educated guess, can you not?”)

– “Hoe zal het nu aflopen met de crisis in Europa?” – “Jongen, daar heb ik een kort antwoord op: het is koffiedik kijken! Zo, nog een biertje?” 
(“How will it (all) end with the crisis in Europe?” – “Mate/man, I have a short answer to that: who knows?! There, another beer?”)

Expressions:
– “Een vooruitziende blik hebben”: to have a foresight/vision.

Related words:
– Toekomst: future [noun] [de toekomst, <no plural>].
– Voorspellen: to predict [verb] [voorspelde, voorspeld].

Example:
– “Als we alles zouden kunnen voorspellen dan zou het leven een stuk makkelijker zijn. Of juist niet, het is maar hoe je het bekijkt!”
(“If we were able to predict everything, then life would be a lot easier. Or not at all, it all depends on how you look at things!”)

– Waarzegster: fortune-teller [noun] [de waarzegster, de waarzegsters]. For some reason the default gender for a fortune-teller in Dutch is female. The male version would be ‘waarzegger’ but you don’t hear that often.
– Voorgevoel: premonition [noun] [het voorgevoel, de voorgevoelens].
– Inschatten: to assess, to judge, to make an educated guess [verb] [schatte in, ingeschat].

Verrassing

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surprise
[noun]
[de ver-ras-sing, de ver-ras-sing-en] 

3203922211_0d55195a4f_zSurprise, the DWOTD is back 🙂 After 2,5 months of chasing building constructors I have almost shooed the last one away (but not without delivering what was agreed 😉 ). And I realized that one shouldn’t wait with starting one’s new life until all external issues have been resolved. So the DWOTD is back. Time to start practicing your Dutch again!!
(Photo: Michelle Tribe (flickr.com) – some rights reserved.)

‘Verrassing’ is often misspelled. Don’t forget: two r’s, and two s’s 🙂

Examples:
– “Ver-ras-sing!” – “Nou, jongens toch, dit had mamma echt niet verwacht!” 
(“Sur-prise!!” – “Guys! No! Your mother really had not expected this!”)

– “Wat een ontzettend leuke verrassing zeg; dit had ik nooit durven dromen!” 
(“What an incredibly nice surprise; I could never had dreamed this would happen!”)

– “Toen ze in het hotel aankwamen, wachtte hen een heel onaangename verrassing: hun kamer bleek niet meer beschikbaar te zijn.” 
(“When they arrived at the hotel they were unpleasantly surprised: (it turned out) their room was no longer available.” Lit. “… a very unpleasant surprise awaited them…)

– “Je gaat me toch niet vertellen dat dit een verrassing voor je is! We hebben al diverse malen aangegeven dat je prestaties onder de maat zijn. Sorry, maar dan rest ons niets anders dan je te ontslaan.” 
(“Surely you are not going to tell me that this comes as a surprise to you! Several times we have indicated that your performance is below standard. We’re sorry, but there’s nothing left for us to do than to fire you.” Lit.: “…that your achievements are below standard.” Note the use of “er rest [reflexive pronoun] niets anders dan…”: there’s nothing left to do to for [object pronoun] than…”)

– “Ik vind dit niet echt een leuke verrassing moet ik eerlijk bekennen. We hadden iets totaal anders afgesproken!” 
(“To be honest I have to admit I do not (really) find this a nice surprise. We agreed on something completely different!”)

– “Je weet dat je vader niet van verrassingen houdt, dus hou het alsjeblieft een beetje bescheiden.” 
(“You know your father doesn’t like surprises, so please keep it a bit modest.”)

Expressions:
– “Die zag ik (niet) aankomen”: I saw (did not see) that one coming / I knew (had no idea) that was going to happen.

Related words:
– Verrassen: to surprise [verb] [verraste, verrast].
– Onverwacht: unexpected(ly) [adjective/adverb].
– Verwachten: to expect [verb] [verwachtte, verwacht].

Example:
– “Ik had dit wel verwacht. Was het voor jou wel een verrassing dan?”
(“I kind of expected this. Are you saying you were surprised?” Lit. “Was it a surprise to you (then)?”)

– Surprise: surprise [noun] [de surprise, de surprises]. Typically only used in the context of the Sinterklaas tradition. Check out the post on Surprise for more information.
– Surpriseparty: surprise party [noun] [de surpriseparty, de surpriseparty’s]. Literally this would be a ‘verrassingsfeestje’ however it is not really a part of our culture, so we both imported the custom and and the word 🙂

Een teken van leven

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a sign of life
[phrase]
[een te-ken van le-ven]

sand-181273_640Hallo allemaal!

I thought I would give you a small sign of life before everybody thinks I decided to quit the DWOTD 🙂 My goal is still to produce 3 posts a week, however the last few months have been completely dominated by major changes in my private life. All positive changes by the way, I started my own business and bought my own place. The latter is being renovated as we speak, and boy it takes a lot of time. And I’m not doing any of the renovation myself, ‘kun je nagaan!’ (‘go figure / imagine that!’).

I’m moving house in a couple of weeks 🙂 I’ll keep the blog alive but it will be a while before I’m able to post more often. And while I’m writing this anyway, I’ll throw in a few example sentences.

Tot snel!

Examples:
– “Lieve schat, we hebben al een tijdje niets van je gehoord. Zou je alsjeblieft een teken van leven willen geven? Veel liefs, mamma.”
(“Darling, we haven’t heard from you for a while. Will you please give us a sign of life? (Lots of) love, mom.” Some people write ‘mama’. It is however always pronounced ‘mamma’.)

– “Het is nu een week geleden dat de overstroming heeft plaatsgevonden en er zijn in het dorp geen tekenen van leven meer waargenomen.”
(“It’s been a week since the flood took place and no signs of life have been detected/recorded anymore in the village.”)

– “Heeft Martijn uiteindelijk nog gereageerd op de e-mail?” – “Nee, geen enkel teken van leven! Dat is niets voor hem, zou er wat aan de hand zijn?”
(“Did Martijn respond to the email after all?” – “No, no sign of life at all! That’s not like him, I wonder if something is wrong.”)

– “Eindelijk een teken van leven van Sarah! Wat een opluchting, we begonnen ons ernstig zorgen te maken!”
(“Finally a sign of life from Sarah! What a relieve, we started to get really worried!” Literally ‘(zich) zorgen maken’ is ‘to make worries’.)

Related words:
– Teken: sign [noun] [het teken, de tekenen/tekens]. ‘Tekenen’ is the plural form for ‘teken’ in the meaning of ‘symptom, phenomenon, evidence’. ‘Tekens’ is the plural form in case of symbols.
– Leven: life [noun] [het leven, de levens].

Example:
– “Hoeveel levens heb je nog?” – “Dit is mijn laatste dus het is bijna ‘game over’.”
(“How many lives do you have left?” – “This is my last so it’s almost ‘game over’!”)

– Bericht: message, notice [noun] [het bericht, de berichten].
– Stil: quiet [adjective].
– Bezorgd: worried [adjective].

Belofte maakt schuld

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when you make a promise, you have to keep it
[phrase]
[be-lof-te maakt schuld]

Literally ‘promise makes debt’ this phrase says that one ought to keep one’s promise. It’s often used during arguments or when emphasizing that it is in fact a promise one is living up to.

Examples:
– “Hoezo heb je geen tijd om mij te helpen? Je zou me helpen behangen, dat heb je beloofd en belofte maakt schuld!” – “Ja, maar…” – “Nee, niks ja maar!”
(“What do you mean you have no time to help me? You are supposed to help me wallpaper, you promised (it) and when you make a promise, you have to keep it!” – “Okay, but…” – “No buts, I don’t want to hear it!”)

– “Ik had niet verwacht dat je nog zou komen…” – “Ach, belofte maakt schuld hè. Bovendien vind ik het leuk om van de partij te zijn.”
(“I didn’t expect you would show…” – “Well, I promised didn’t I… Besides, I enjoy being here.” The phrase ‘van de partij zijn’ is used when you will participate in an activity or be part of an occasion.)

– “Vorige week heb ik beloofd om meer informatie te verschaffen over de toekomst van ons bedrijf. Belofte maakt schuld dus vanmiddag zal ik deze belofte inlossen.”
(“Last week I promised to provide more information on the future of our company. When one makes a promise, one has to keep it so this afternoon I will redeem this promise.”)

Expressions:
– “Beloofd is beloofd”: a more informal alternative to ‘belofte maakt schuld’. Literally: ‘promised is promised’. Often used by children when you are not keeping your promise about candy/sweets or the fun park you were supposed to go to…
– “Een loze belofte”: an empty promise.
– “Zich aan zijn woord houden”: to keep one’s word.
– “Zijn belofte houden/nakomen/inlossen”: to keep/fulfil/redeem one’s promise.

Related words:
– Belofte: promise [noun] [de belofte, de beloftes].
– Beloven: to promise [verb] [beloofde, beloofd].
– Schuldig: guilty [adjective/adverb].

Schoorvoetend

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reluctant / without enthusiasm
[adjective/adverb]
[schoor-voe-tend]

When you are reluctant to do something, in Dutch it is common to say that you do it ‘met tegenzin’ or ‘tegen je zin in’. There is an interesting synonym that you can add to your vocabulary: ‘schoorvoetend’. The verb ‘schoren’ is not used much in the Dutch language. It translates as ‘to shore/prop (up), to buttress/support’ (compare ‘schoorsteen’ (chimney) ). As ‘schoren’ is typicallly done diagonally, doing something ‘schoorvoetend’ is like putting your feet down diagonally, blocking advancement.

Examples:
– “De winkelier gaf schoorvoetend toe dat het product inderdaad defect was.” 
(“The shop owner reluctantly admitted that the goods were in fact defective.”)

– “De regering is schoorvoetend akkoord gegaan met de bezuinigingsmaatregelen.” 
(“The government reluctantly agreed to the spending cuts.” Lit. “budget/spending cut measures”. Note ‘akkoord gaan met’: to agree to.)

– “Sander heeft zich vanochtend schoorvoetend in zijn hardloopoutfit gehesen, maar na afloop had hij toch een voldaan gevoel.” 
(“This morning Sander reluctantly put on his running gear, but when finished he had a satisfied feeling after all.” Note the use of the verb ‘zich hijsen in […] ‘, which is slang for ‘to put [ (piece of) clothing] on’.)

– “Het bedrijf heeft de reorganisatie schoorvoetend doorgevoerd. Het resultaat daarvan is dat niet in alle lagen van de organisatie er voldoende draagvlak is voor de veranderingen.” 
(“The company implemented the reorganization without much enthusiasm. The result of which is that not in all layers of the organization there is sufficient support for the changes.” Literally a ‘draagvlak’ is a ‘bearing surface’.)

Expressions:
– “Je hakken in het zand zetten”: to oppose, to hinder, to refuse. Lit: “to put one’s (shoe) heels in the sand”. Difference with ‘schoorvoetend’ is that in case of ‘je hakken in het zand zetten’ you are really not cooperating.
– “Met tegenzin iets doen”: to do something reluctantly / against one’s will.
– “Iets tegen zijn zin in doen”: to do something against one’s will.

Example:
– “Om van het gezeur af te zijn heb ik uiteindelijk tegen mijn zin in mijn medewerking verleend aan de inspecteur.”
(“In order to be relieved of all the nagging, I eventually agreed to cooperate with the inspector, against my will.” The verb ‘meewerken’ can also be used (‘to cooperate’) instead of ‘zijn medewerking verlenen aan’ which is more like ‘to facilitate / to offer support’.).

Related words:
– Onwillig: unwilling, reluctant [adjective/adverb].
– Tegenstribbelen: to put up a struggle, to resist [verb] [stribbelde tegen, tegengestribbeld].

Example:
– “Heeft jouw dochter ook zwemles?” – “Ja, ze stribbelde eerst enorm tegen, maar nu gaat ze er zelfs met plezier naar toe.”
(“Does your daughter also take swimming lessons?” – “Yes, at first she put up a struggle, but now she actually enjoys going.”)

– Twijfelen: to doubt, to be indecisive [verb] [twijfelde, getwijfeld].
– Weigeren: to refuse, to reject, to turn down [verb] [weigerde, geweigerd].
– Tegendraads: recalcitrant, contrary [adjective/adverb].
– Tegenwerken: to sabotage, to hinder [verb] [werkte tegen, tegengewerkt].
– Voet: foot [noun] [de voet, de voeten].