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Wednesday, 04 July 2007 00:00 |
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Motregen! After dry weather earlier this year, it was lovely recently driving home through soft, misty rain. “Motregen” came to mind – literally I guess, ‘moth-rain’ which could suggest something soft with the delicacy of the wings of a moth. My husband, Hans, used to comment on such rain when we were in the Netherlands (The Dutch word ‘motregen’ sounds much nicer than the English ‘drizzle’).
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Tuesday, 03 July 2007 00:00 |
Usually it is a Dutch word, which gets me started on my exploration of things Dutch from the perspective of a learner, but recently the word ‘panjandrum’ has been running around my head. The sound of it appeals but I need to go to the English dictionary to check the meaning (and the spelling) and then to look it up in Dutch.
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Monday, 02 July 2007 00:00 |
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It was interesting recently to read an obituary notice (sterfgevallen) concerning Frits Philips. Before continuing with this piece of writing, it may be useful to mention that, because Dutch is not my first language, my use of Dutch words may not be correct. I try to read the dictionary very carefully to see if I am using the word in the right sense. For example, ‘obituary’ has several entries in the ninth printing (negende druk) of Kramers’ Engelsch Woordenbook and it seemed at first that ‘sterfgevallen’ was an appropriate choice because in brackets was printed ‘(als krantenrubriek)’. |
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