Days of the week, months of the year, and the word "I" in a sentence are not capitalized in Dutch.
Cities, countries and names of people are capitalized in Dutch.
So a sentence might look like this . . .
In december, vertrekken we op een zaterdag op weg naar de Verenigde Staten waar ik zal krijgen om een heleboel mensen die ik lief en missen zien.
in other words . . .
In december, we leave on a saturday headed to the States where i will get to see a lot of people i love and miss.
True story :)
Hi there
ReplyDeleteAs a belgian Americanophile (is there even such a word ?, but you get it, I love the US), I was delighted to discover your blog. I've visited your marvellous country on numerous occasions, and I was always intrigued by the many cultural differences between the Old and the New World. I remember on my first time in L.A., we had to stop for gas, and not familiar with the fact you had to enter the shop to pay in advance for the amount of gas you wanted, I lifted the pump and waited for the attendant to release the gas in my car, since this was the belgian way of doing it at the time (this was the early 90s, pumps in Belgium were not yet equipped with a credit card terminal). Of course, nothing happened, so after a few minutes I went inside and the guy asked me how much gas I wanted. Difficult question since I was not used to gallons (my brain was trained to use litres) and had no idea wat the gas prices were compared to ours (they were much, much lower). So I put a $10 bill on the counter, and finally started pumping. (Prices were $1,10/gallon, which translates to 9,8 BEF or 0,25 EUR/litre, in Belgium you paid 15 BEF or 0,36 EUR in today's money).
Over the years, we made many friends in the US, and adopted many aspects of the Amercian lifestyle, e.g. we now even have access to live American TV channels and enjoy them very much.
If you need any assistance in coping with daily life in Belgium, we'll be happy to assist.
We live in the Antwerp area.
Best regards
Diane & Patrick
Hi from another fan of your blog. I'm an American who lived for 5 years in Holland and am now back in the US. I visited Hasselt and some other places in Belgium and was very impressed. I was surprised by how different Flanders and Holland are, especially in the way Dutch is spoken. I had thought that the difference would be as great as that between American English and Canadian English (hardly noticeable), but wow, it's noticeable.
ReplyDeleteI became pretty fluent in Dutch (took free government lessons and my partner is Dutch, which helped) and while learning I'd sometimes watch the Belgian news because the newscasters talk slower.
Let me try to translate that passage if I may. The one thing I'm sure of is that if a clause begins with 'waar', then you have to put the direct object before the verb. So it would be more like this:
In december vertrekken we op een zaterdag op weg naar de Verenigde Staten, waar ik een heleboel mensen waarvan ik houd en die ik mis zal krijgen te zien.
een heleboel mensen waarvan ik houd = a lot of people I love.
een heleboel mensen die ik mis = a lot of people I miss.
I know that looks complicated . . . .
Anyway, I found that the Dutch will talk to you in Dutch as long as you don't look like you're having trouble getting your words out. :-)
Look forward to more articles and photos of Belgium on your blog!
Best regards, Matthew