Toying with kids
Maybe “toy” (it could be read “toij” by smaller children, as a “y” is often “ij” in Dutch) is more impressive than “speelgoed”, but “appelmoes” (apple compote) is still more appealing to children in Dutch. Frivolous = English, familiar = Dutch. Food for thought.
May 17th, 2005 at 11:06 am
[…] he planet has elected mayors, but blaming America just sounds better. For the second time, a toy is better than a “speelgoed”. Vote to get “toy” into the Van Dale dictionary: […]
April 8th, 2005 at 9:44 am
This website is reminding me of the movie “Supersize Me”. Maybe you just shouldn’t visit KFC so often! 😉
April 8th, 2005 at 10:03 am
Don’t start any rumours! I haven’t had any junk food from the usual suspects in over three years. That’s a promise I made to myself. I recommend reading Fast Food Nation.
April 8th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
Speaking of y/ij confusion, I’m sure you’ve already encountered the common Dutch mangling of the French word bijoux?
April 8th, 2005 at 5:21 pm
There are many French words that are problematic. Elsevier can’t get “chic” right, they keep writing “chique” (the Dutch version), which is a wad of gum or chewing tabacco in French. Not very chic!
April 8th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
FYI, “appelmoes” is known as “applesauce”, in the U.S. at least…
April 9th, 2005 at 7:40 am
True. Apple compote is the one with the chunks kids don’t like 🙂 Kids in the US usually put ketchup on everything. “Kip met appelmoes” is a children’s classic here.
April 9th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
“Je kan van zoveel vrouwen houden,
Je kunt met zoveel vrouwen trouwen,
Als je er wat in ziet.
Maar liefde is dat niet.”
“Je houdt van kip met appelmoes.”
En toen knikte de prinses, want ze hield ontzettend veel van kip met appelmoes.
April 11th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
Every so often someone will write in to Elsevier (or HP/De Tijd, which also seems to do it) about the ‘chique’ issue. One reason to stick to the Dutchified ‘sjiek/e’, I guess.
April 11th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Ah yes, but if they quote an expression in French, they have to leave all the words in French. That’s my beef. Half om half is only for beef at the store 🙂
April 12th, 2005 at 2:22 pm
There’s a difference, though, between using a French expression like crème de la crème or whatever and words that have passed from French into Dutch and are thus subject to Dutch inflection. ‘Een chic hotel’, fine, but then:
een chic buurt – grammatically wrong
een chique buurt – etymologically wrong
Hence: een sjiek hotel, een sjieke buurt. Problem solved. After all, Dutch words borrowed into French almost never retain their original spelling or pronunciation either!
April 12th, 2005 at 2:27 pm
Oh, and things like this ad must drive at least some parents to despair:
Pappa, wat betekent dat?
– Eh, in feite betekent het niets, schat. Dat is én geen goed Engels én geen goed Nederlands.
April 13th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Are the words ‘frivolous’ and ‘familiar’ somewhere in the ad? If so, I can’t find them; it’s just too small. Maybe you could put bigger pictures online, available by clicking the smaller ones?
April 13th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
The words ‘frivolous’ and ‘familiar’ are just part of my explanation…
May 24th, 2005 at 1:01 am
Hello Natashka, I’ve enjoyed reading so far; now my two (euro) cents:
Not only is chic often misspelt in Dutch, but also used in the wrong context. When I lived in france I remember the expression ‘chic’ being applied to something modern, cool or extremely trendy. Nothing to do with money / snobbery.
May 24th, 2005 at 1:04 am
Oh, by the way that is nothing compared to americans pronouncing lingerie as “laaanjereaahh”.
Funny enough, it (used to) just mean ‘washing’, (linge).
(Vuile was…?LOL)