It was bound to happen. Sooner or later the posts about the Dutch language were inevitably going to begin. I had decided not to post on strange pronunciation in words such as ‘uit‘ and ‘alstublieft‘ just yet but a conversation with RC meant I could go no longer without a post.

This evening RC once again decided that I was to learn one or two words a day until I came to Holland. I had managed to delay such lessons by saying I thought it would be better to concentrate on my assignment instead. However with the completion of my assignment just round the corner, RC won this battle.

So tonight we practised a very useful phrase ‘Waar is dat?’ which means ‘where is that?’. Obviously delete out the ‘dat‘ and substitute with whatever you are searching for and you are in business. Until a Cloggie answers back in full speed Dutch of course but it’s a start. So I rattled off ‘Waar is dat‘ six or seven times, spelled it two or three and then RC moved on.

RC: Okay, so ‘Dat is waar‘ means ‘That is true’

Me: I’m sorry what is the last word you are saying?

RC: Waar

Me: Nope sorry one more time

RC: Waar

Me: Can you spell it?

RC: W-A-A-R

Me: Waar?!?!?! As in where? How can where also mean true.

RC: Yes, Dat is waar means that is true as well.

Me: That’s just silly how can it?

Well it appears that the reason why it can be is that in this instance waar is being shortened from the word ‘waarheid‘ which means truth. So making completely no sense? – yes!! Useful – we shall have to wait and see.

Off to convince RC that just because it has gone past midnight in Holland does not mean it is time to learn new words for the day…

Cloggie in Training