Tag Archives: voet

Schoorvoetend

Posted on by

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].

Dat heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde

Posted on by

that will take some doing, there is a lot of work involved
[Dutch phrase of the week]
[dat heeft heel wat voe-ten in de aar-de] 

The past few days I spent a lot of time on migrating the blog from dwotd.web-log.nl (which still seems to be unreachable) to www.dwotd.nl. This inspired me to choose ‘dat heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde’ as this week’s phrase 🙂 Literally ‘that has a lot of feet in the earth’ this phrase says that something will be difficult (labour-intensive, but possible) to realize with quite a few hurdles along the way.

You may also hear: “Het heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde.”

Examples:
– “Het heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde om met het openbaar vervoer van Amsterdam naar Barendrecht te reizen.” 
(“Using public transport to travel from Amsterdam to Barendrecht will take some doing.”)

– “Het maken van spekkoek heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde.” 
(“There is a lot of work involved in baking spekkoek.”)

– “Het plannen van een reis naar de maan heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde.” 
(“Planning a trip to the moon takes some doing.”)

– “Ik probeer al maanden een bouwvergunning aan te vragen…” – “Tja, in de bureaucratie die Nederland heet, heeft dat heel wat voeten in de aarde!” 
(“I have been trying for months to obtain a building/construction permit…” – “Well, in the bureaucracy one calls the Netherlands that will take some doing!” Note that ‘vragen’ means ‘to ask’, but ‘aanvragen’ is ‘to request’. In this case the result of the request is implied hence the translation ‘to obtain’.)

– “Het heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde, maar ik zou graag een DWOTD iPhone app maken.” 
(“There is a lot of work involved but I would really like to create a DWOTD iPhone app.”)

– “Mac OS X Lion werkt voor geen meter, ik wil terug naar Snow Leopard maar dat heeft heel wat voeten in de aarde!” 
(“Mac OS X Lion doesn’t work at all, I want to revert to Snow Leopard but that will take some doing!” I made the mistake to blindly upgrade to Lion and now I’m left with a cripple iMac!)

Related words:
– Aarde: earth, ground [noun] [de aarde, <no plural>].
– Voet: foot [noun] [de voet, de voeten].