07
dec
When referring to Christmas, Easter and New Year, English speakers use ‘at’and not ‘with’. We look forward to seeing you at Christmas (not with Christmas). Be careful, however, of the difference between the following: See you at New Year & See you on New Year’s eve Laura
15
jan
Feeling blue means feeling sad. In reality, the phrase feeling blue was coined from a custom among many old deepwater sailing ships. If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port. This blog […]
31
aug
This sign should read: Ladies’ toilets The plural of lady is ladies. You add an apostrophe after the ‘s’ to show that the toilets belong to all of the ladies. To summarise the rule for general plurals: When the possessor is a regular plural (i.e. ends in an ‘s’), the apostrophe comes after that ‘s’. Hope […]
03
jun
When conjugating the present tense in English, many people forget to add an ‘s’ for the pronouns she, he & it. This is where the ‘shit’ rule comes in.The shit rule stands for “she, he & it + ‘s’” Here are some examples: I hope it helps, she loves chocolate, he drives a blue car, […]
06
apr
Iets aan iemand vragen = to ask somebody something I asked her = correct I asked to her = incorrect Hope it helps, Laura
10
mrt
The correct answer for the translation of ‘we gingen met z’n drieën de stad in‘ is B: Three of us went into town. You can also say: The three of us went into town. Translating it literally from Dutch is wrong. You would never say: We went with the three of us. It implies that there are […]
28
jan
There = daar of er, bijvoorbeeld: Ben jij er al ooit geweest? Have you ever been there? Their = hun, bijvoorbeeld: Heb jij hun huis gezien? Have you seen their house? They’re = zij zijn (een verkorting van they are), bijvoorbeeld: Ze zijn de beste band ter wereld. They’re the best band in the world. ——— Plural nouns have no apostrophe in English. […]
20
jan
Of course means : ‘natuurlijk’. Note that the ‘f’ in ‘of’ is spoken with a soft English ‘v’ sound. Off course means: ‘niet naar aanleiding van de geplande, of bestemd, route’. Not only do they mean completely different things, they are also pronounced differently. Hope it helps, Laura
06
nov
The word ‘hoor’ is incredibly versatile. I just love it. Like the word ‘gezellig’, it cannot be translated directly. Here are some examples of the use of ‘hoor’ in Dutch and their corresponding English translations. Thanks to its strong resemblance to the English word ‘whore’, native English speakers are usually quite surprised when they hear the word ‘hoor’ […]
24
sep
The correct answer to the Deane’s English Facebook quiz question is, of course, reserve and not ‘reservate’. The Dutch words ‘reserveren’ and ‘converseren’ sound very similar to the English words ‘reserve’ and ‘converse’, but this is where it stops! In English, you reserve something and you converse (or have a conversation) about something. Hope it helps! Laura