Colloquial Dutch

A Complete Language Course

Bruce Donaldson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317300519
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Colloquial Dutch provides a step-by-step course in Dutch as it is written and spoken today.

Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Dutch in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Key features include:

• A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
• Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar
• An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises
• Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations
• Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in The Netherlands
• An overview of the sounds of Dutch.

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Dutch is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Dutch.

Colloquials are now supported by FREE AUDIO available online. All audio tracks referenced within the text are free to stream or download from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio complements the book and will help enhance learners' listening and speaking skills.

Unit One
Piet en Pauline en hun kinderen

Piet and Pauline and their children

In this unit you will learn about:

• personal pronouns
• expressing nationality and occupation
• the present tense of verbs
• saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
• beginning a conversation
• asking ‘how are you?’
• saying ‘goodbye’

Reading text 1 (Audio 1.12)

You will find many Dutch words easily recognisable. See if you can make sense of the following text, in which a Dutchman, Piet, talks about himself and his family. Don’t worry about understanding every word, just the general sense. If you’re really stuck, there’s a translation in the key to the exercises at the back of the book (see p. 247). Here are some of the words.

Vocabulary

ik heet	I’m called, my name is
woon	live
getrouwd	married
Nederlands	Dutch
een leraar	a teacher
middelbare	secondary
maar	but
gaat	goes, travels
bij	at, in
een reisbureau	travel agency

Piet talks about his family

Ik heet Piet en ik woon in Amsterdam. Ik ben getrouwd met Pauline. Zij is Engels, maar ze spreekt Nederlands. Ik ben leraar op een middelbare school in Amsterdam maar Pauline werkt in Den Haag. Ze gaat elke dag met de trein naar haar werk. Zij is secretaresse bij een reisbureau. Wij hebben twee kinderen, een zoon en een dochter. Hij heet Marius en zij heet Charlotte.

Language points

Personal pronouns as subjects

Personal subject pronoun: He is a teacher.

Singular		Plural
ik	I	wij/we	we
jij/je	you	jullie	you
u	you	u	you
hij	he	zij/ze	they
zij/ze	she
het	it

Where two forms are given, e.g. jij/je, zij/ze and wij/we, the former is the emphatic form and the latter the unemphatic form; compare English ‘you/ya’, but Dutch makes this distinction in writing too. Notice how zij and ze alternate in the reading text above.

In both the singular and the plural, Dutch has two words for ‘you’. Jij/jullie are more familiar than u, which is only used towards adult strangers as well as people one needs to show respect towards, e.g. your boss. Generally speaking, anyone you call by their first name is addressed as jij (and jullie if there is more than one person), and anyone you call by their surname is addressed as u, e.g.

Piet, waar woon jij?

Waar woont u, meneer Van den Berg?

Piet ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface to the third edition
• Introduction
• 1 Piet en Pauline en hun kinderen Piet and Pauline and their children
• 2 Nederland en België The Netherlands and Belgium
• 3 Bij de groenteboer At the greengrocer’s
• 4 Telefoneren Telephoning
• 5 Bij Piet en Pauline At Piet and Pauline’s
• 6 Fietsen Cycling
• 7 Pannenkoeken Pancakes
• 8 Piets ouders zijn op visite Piet’s parents are visiting
• 9 Na het ontbijt After breakfast
• 10 Pauline is haar horloge kwijt Pauline can’t find her watch
• 11 Het openbaar vervoer Public transport
• 12 Paulines ouders komen naar Nederland Pauline’s parents come to the Netherlands
• 13 Pauline doet de was Pauline is doing the washing
• 14 Er zijn eekhoorns in de tuin There are squirrels in the garden
• 15 Wat heb je met de kerstkaarten gedaan? What have you done with the Christmas cards?
• 16 Piet is op school Piet is at school
• 17 Marius wil gaan spelen Marius wants to go and play
• Translations of the dialogues in units 6 to 17
• Key to exercises
• Phonetic symbols of the sounds of Dutch
• Alphabetical list of irregular verbs
• Glossary of grammatical terms
• English-Dutch glossary
• Dutch-English glossary
• Index
• Audio track listing