Glashelder = Kristalhelder
helder – clear
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Lexical Distance Among the Languages of Europe
This chart shows the lexical distance — that is, the degree of overall vocabulary divergence — among the major languages of Europe.
The size of each circle represents the number of speakers for that language. Circles of the same color belong to the same language group. All the groups except for Finno-Ugric (in yellow) are in turn members of the Indo-European language family.
English is a member of the Germanic group (blue) within the Indo-European family. But thanks to 1066, William of Normandy, and all that, about 75% of the modern English vocabulary comes from French and Latin (ie the Romance languages, in orange) rather than Germanic sources. As a result, English (a Germanic language) and French (a Romance language) are actually closer to each other in lexical terms than Romanian (a Romance language) and French.
So why is English still considered a Germanic language? Two reasons. First, the most frequently used…
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Kinderboekenweek
Quickly looking through http://www.kinderboekenweek.nl/uitgaven.html to begin with the day.
“Tijdens de Kinderboekenweek zijn in boekwinkels, in bibliotheken en op scholen verschillende speciale uitgaven verkrijgbaar bij het thema sport en spel.”
verschillend – various, different
verkrijgbaar – available
Kinderboekenweekgeschenk – wow! 😀
verkrijgen – to receive, to get
“Tijdens de Kinderboekenweek is het boek gratis te verkrijgen in de (kinder)boekwinkel bij aankoop van € 10,- aan kinderboeken.”
de aankoop
het prentenboek – picture book
de prent – print, illustration, (satirisch) cartoon
“KLAAR VOOR DE START! Boeken scoren met sporthelden”
de held – hero
“Voorleesgids”
voorlezen – read aloud, read out loud
de gids – 1. guide 2. handbook, manual
TODO: read the page further.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte presented his vision on the future of the Netherlands.
afkeuren – goedkeuren
A new author on the blog
Great news!
Cactusmuerto — a native Dutch speaker and a language expert, is joining this blog as a co-author! 🙂
I am happily waiting for him to continue with his comments and to answer my questions about the language.
Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions
The coordinating conjunctions are:
en – and
dus – thus, so
maar – but
of – or
want – because, for
The coordinating conjunctions join two clauses (“sentences”) of equal importance:
De hond speelt en de kat slaapt. – The dog is playing and the cat is sleeping.
Rijd je mee of blijf je thuis? – Are you taking a ride with us or are you staying home?
Ik hoor je niet want de muziek is zo luid. – I can’t hear you because the music is so loud.
Subordinating conjunctions
The subordinating conjunctions are:
dat – that
nadat – after
omdat – because (unlike want, it is used to answer the question “why”).
totdat – until
voordat – before
hoewel – although
nu – now that
of – whether
terwijl – while
zoals – as
als – if, when
wanneer – whenever, when
toen – when (points to an event in the past. Used with past simple and past perfect only)
1. als and waneer are used to refer to something what has yet to happen:
als zij komt… = wanneer zij komt… (when she comes …)
2. als and waneer are used to refer to something what happens repeatedly:
als de zon schijnt, voel ik me gelukkig = wanneer de zon schijnt, voel ik me gelukkig (When/whenever the sun shines I feel happy).
