Nothing going on but the rent

rental

This can be admired near my house in Amsterdam, in a part of town full of foreigners and Dutch nationals of foreign decent. If this isn’t English influencing people who are struggling with the Dutch language, I don’t know what is. In other words, this has to be a rare mistake. The shop has three identical signs, with the same mistake. It should read ‘te huur’ (for rent). If it read ‘de huur’, I would have said it’s just someone who can’t spell Dutch, but not in this case. The use of ‘the’, which does not exist in Dutch, must have been taken from English.

6 Responses to “Nothing going on but the rent”

  1. Di says:

    Very confusing, indeed! But what about Dutch nationals of foreign DECENT? Now you are confusing Dutch people trying to struggle with the English language! I’m sure they’re all very decent people, but don’t you mean Dutch nationals of foreign DESCENT??

  2. Natashka says:

    Once you’re Dutch, you’re counted as Dutch, passport and all. If not, then this is would not be my favourite place to discuss this topic. A nice example of failed imimgration, who knows 🙂

  3. Larry says:

    Maybe it’s foreshadowing a future Dutch-English hybrid: Don’t vergeet to pay the huur!

  4. Larry says:

    Just to show that the infiltration from the one language into the other isn’t all one-way …

    http://www.te-koop.ca/

  5. Natashka says:

    I’ll see your ‘Te Koop’ and raise you Canadian Dutch cookies:
    Voortman Cookies

    Scroll all the way down:

    “The Voortman family acknowledges the providence of God in our continued success and strives to implement
    Christian beliefs in the conduct of business.

    […]

    Glorify God through our work.”

    Zo!

  6. Larry says:

    Eep. That guy looks like very gereformeerd somehow. I guess it was also God who told them to eliminate trans fats.
    Their speculaas is surprisingly poor and the rest of their cookie assortment wouldn’t get a second glance in the old country.

Powered by WordPress - Copyright © 2005-2021 Oh La La, The Netherlands. All rights reserved.