Comments on: Big Dutch newspaper double whammy

By: Smack MacDougal

Smack MacDougal — Sat, 02 May 2009 22:39:31 +0000

You write, “The “media-affairs” is because …”.

Any expression containing “is because” fails. All should expect such silliness from a child under the age of six. Yet all should reject such horrible writing from someone who purports to know English.

Instead, try this.

The Dutch write “media-affairs” as a hypenated word to avoid consecutive a’s. However, English speakers write “media affairs” as two words.

By: Natashka

Natashka — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:26:54 +0000

Apples and oranges (or pears, if you’re Dutch

He’s a journalist trying to communicate with the leader of the free world. You’d think getting his message checked would be a top priority.

The LinkedIn thing is LinkedIn’s fault, so to speak.

By: Neil

Neil — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:33:18 +0000

Observing DUNGLISH is cool to the extent it’s educational and entertaining.

But what if it’s criticism for its own sake? I’d hate to have my Dutch language writing skills be subject to this kind of public scrutiny.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:58:08 +0000

Nice to see the positive things are noticed here….and baffled as to why this reporter did not ask anyone to check this. I’ll post on this blog without thinking twice, but when you know it’s gonna turn up in the paper… Or maybe he just knows how few people read papers these days

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:59:18 +0000

Also, it should be ‘reporter at’, not ‘of’. And for some reason the closing quotation mark after ‘De Volkskrant’ is not a real quotation mark.

By: Natashka

Natashka — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:36:54 +0000

@Laurent You’re probably right, but there are grammatical ways around it and they just didn’t bother.

By: Laurent

Laurent — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:45:45 +0000

If only French had more spellings, we could blame our hesitations on it…
That said, I think that “Prime minister AT Netherlands” is automatically generated by the website in an effort to be automatically multilingual. As we all know, automatic translation is still very far from reality…

By: Idealistic Pragmatist

Idealistic Pragmatist — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:39:15 +0000

Canadian spelling looks like a mix of both as well.

In Canadian English, the British spellings are always possible options, while the American ones are sometimes possible alternates (we use both ‘realize’ and ‘realise’, for example), and sometimes incorrect (it’s always ‘colour’, ‘honour’, etc.).

By: Natashka

Natashka — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:08:34 +0000

I only mentioned the US EN, since this person actually put effort into that part of their message, but not the rest. I know the Dutch usually stick to British spelling. Most people manage to mix them up. Canadian spelling looks like a mix of both as well.

I was trying to find something positive to say I guess

By: nanske

nanske — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:04:27 +0000

Why do you think the use of American spelling versus British spelling is a thumbs up in this case? I always stick to (what I think is) British English, for example when I give a reaction on an English spoken weblog, even if the weblog is States Based. If I were a Brit I would do the same, I suppose, and as British English is what I’ve been taught in school (and probably this goes for the reporter as well), I think this is better then mixing things up along the way.

Of course it’s okay if this reporter can easily switch from British to American and back, depending on who they address, but something tells me…