[Course Forum] 2500 medium frequent Dutch Words ♫ Audio

A “stomerij” is a dry cleaner’s. Does German have a word for such a shop?

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I’ve never ever heard that term, but yes, obviously we do! The Wikipedia article about “Chemische Reinigung” states:
“verdeutlichend spricht man heute eher von Trockenreinigung

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Yes, I did already check that Wikipedia article. Which left me with the question: what does it typically say on a German shop? The article just mentions Putzerei for an Austrian business.

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I’m not an expert in this field, but most (if not all) shops that I’ve seen presented themselves as “Chemische Reinigung”.
And I’ve never heard the Austrian term which sounds more than funny to my German ears! :crazy_face:

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Let me remind you that the German translation is not really the core focus here. However, I’m of course glad about your helpful comments :sunflower:

I’m really not an expert in this field. I guess a stomerij is a dry cleaner = chemische Reinigung indeed. The technical term would be Trockenreinigung. I mean, that’s what the name suggests. I guess, it’s derived from stomen :steam_locomotive: and not from wassen :sweat_drops: for a reason. However, in colloquial German, occasionally, all sorts of cleaning types like Wäscherei, chemische Reinigung and adjunct services/processes/devices like a Heißmangel and so forth are subsumed under the simplified/traditional term Wäscherei. So, if a shop sign reads Wäscherei don’t be surprised to spot some dry cleaners.

The entry reads now:

  • de stomerij
  • the dry cleaner
  • die chemische Reinigung (Wäscherei)
  • noun

PS: In Dutch, there also the term wasserij which I guess equals the word Wäscherei exactly from an etymological standpoint. However, I can’t really comment on whether wasserij is also a popular term in colloquial Dutch that may occasionally also include dry cleaning. Btw. there’s also the term chemisch reinigen in Dutch. They steal our words … That reminds me of one of my favorite Dutch words: wasserette That’s really an astonishing word. It looks half German and half French but is neither French nor German.

I hope that’s good enough.

:+1: Putzerei :laughing: That’s actually cute.

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Het was maar een klein vraagje tussendoor.
It was just a small question, not that important. I consider myself fully informed now.:wink:

Although not technically correct (the steam is not used in the cleaning) the word is indeed derived from “stomen”.
je kleding laten stomen” = having your clothes chemically cleaned

Dutch shops also often combine services like dry cleaning, washing and repair.

A “wasserette” was originally a brand name (the word is an analogue to the English laundrette which borrowed the -ette from French) and it is a self-service laundry.
A “wasserij” usually washes on a bigger scale for companies.

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Hi Robert,

i’m somehow over 2/3 of the course, and the many Mannigfaltigkeit of saying “moron”, or “idiot” or twit or dumbo, or “swindler” in Dutch - or any other language - is a joy to learn through :laughing:. But I get somehow lost in this variety… the are long lists in the brackets - not this or that - so after a while I’m just confused. I’d humbly say that the best solution for disambiguation is such cases would be to give the initial letter in the brackets, or something…

many thanks for your time and kindness…

p.s. also, achterdochtig is verdächtig

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Thank you. I was a bit hesitant to include this strong language. I will look into that and consider your proposal. Plz, give me a couple of days. I’m currently busy.

Thx. Don’t agree. AFAIK this is mißtrauisch, argwöhnisch. It’s the intrinsic inclination (often also triggered by an extrinsic observation) of a person to be suspicious in regard to others. In English suspicious describes both verdächtig (~ acting auspiciously) and mißtrauisch (~ feel suspicion towards someone). Both German and Dutch (AFAIK) have different words for this related notion.

hi there

verkouden = to catch a cold

bedankt!

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I investigated this issue. I was wrong, you were wrong. I was misled by the close resemblance of erkälten and verkouden. False friend! It’s an adjective. Here’s the correct answer:

:cold_face: :netherlands: verkouden (adjective): :arrow_right: :uk: having a cold :de: erkältet

Thx, would never have realized w/o your tireless help. Thx :heart_decoration:

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Dear Robert-Alexander,

Could you please upload courses as .xlsx somewhere, please. When I use memrise to anki addon, i miss sentence examples which are really handy. I have bad eyesight and can not use memrise. So far i have remastered your first course 5000 words. There I have made everything read by TTS so i don;t have to stare at screen, and can use keyboard or BT remote with Anki.

I finished 5000 words course so far and need something new to learn. I can upload my Anki deck if you are interested there is a lot of useful stuff. Thank you for your help.

EDIT: Oh sorry i thought you have also sentences examples but i see now, that there is none. Sorry

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Yepp. No example sentences in that course. Sorry.

If you still need an xls (or an export to Anki) please let me know.

@Robert-Alexander!

So I decided to start trouble here! :grin: Three minor things:

jojo (jojo) : in English, it is spelled yoyo or yo-yo
duikboot (submarine) : I think there are two instances of this word, one with the translation submarine and the other with submarine (boat).
de dode (a deceased person): a deceasedthe deceased to match articles?

This course has a lot of useful and new words, especially after the first couple lessons! Thanks for building it!

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Good. Im looking forward to it.

yep, there’s a de onderzeeër and de duikboot

According to them, and they are my most beloved teachers, that’s an onderzeeër:

I assume that only “real” self-propelled military-style submarine, which are also suitable to operate above the surface like a boat, are called duikboot then, while onderzeeër is perhaps a more general word that includes things like glorified diving bells similar to the one depicted in the video. To make things even more difficult, there’s also the the term onderzeeboot (not in this course though). The Dutch Wikipedia discusses the difference briefly (Onderzeeboot - Wikipedia) but doesn’t provide a definition for onderzeeër either. It’s a sea-faring nation after all - they are perhaps like Inuits who (allegedly) have dozens of words for snow which we regular people will never understand … I will add my trusted [not xy] to both entries (and remove boat from the definition). Now, the definition is the same but you can tell the entries apart. That will do the trick. PS: duikboot / onderzeeboot (onderzeer) says that onderzeeër is just a short version of onderzeeboot. But even they seem to admit that words are exchangeable although there might be a technical difference.

Sure. According to wikipedia, that’s a transcription from one of the regional languages found in the Philippines btw. :ok: :white_check_mark:

Yes. Makes sense. :white_check_mark: Shows that this course is derived from TV and movie subtitles. A detective would call a dead person de dode (:de: der Tote) while a doctor would probably call the dead body a lijk (:de: Leiche). But never confuse :belgium: :netherlands: lichaam (the living body) with :de: Leichnam (a solemn word for a [dead] corpse). Allegedly, according to my dictionary, there’s also the related word likam in :uk: but I have never heard anyone using this word.

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Hi @Robert-Alexander,

First, there are many types of snow: hard-packed snow, new snow, wet snow, snowman snow (great for building things), large snowflakes, flurries, dirty snow (old snow). Clearly you never lived in a snowy place :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the updates and treatise on onderzeetuigen. :wink:

I have a new collection based on the past week or so. Many are just suggestions:

de uitvinder: the audio file does not seem to match
de ra: the audio file is quite soft / hard to hear (but maybe this is just me!)
de verkenner and de scout: is it possible to add the usual [not …] to the translations?
de nummerplaat and het kenteken: ditto
de blanke (the white person, a caucasian): is it possible to add [outdated / offensive] to make clear that (a) this not a word used in everyday conversation and (b) is now considered a slur of some sort?
de strop (the strop (similar to a strap); loss): thoughts on adding noose to the translation?
godverdomme (damn! fuck! (vulgar)): I do not have a strong opinion about this but i feel like goddammit is such a better translation. thoughts?

cheers

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It’s primarily to promote the show … I’m obesessed with it. I always was.

sure :white_check_mark:

It’s not just you :white_check_mark: (PS: Is it just me I? :rofl: )

sure :white_check_mark:

:arrow_up::arrow_up::arrow_up: This proves all my points: this :duck: show teaches all the vocab, even obscure words like verkenner, and they are a seafaring people indeed so that they need :anchor: zeeverkenners.

Yes. Added the [brackets]. There’s also kentekenplaat (not in this course though). As I understand it the kenteken is technically only the code on the licence plate but is also short for kentekenplaat which technically refers to the physical license plate. It’s like what nummer is to nummerplaat. But I guess all terms often mean the same. :white_check_mark:

Good idea. That’s exactly what it means. Let’s add some blasphemy :imp: (:de: gottverdammt) :white_check_mark:

Changed this: it’s now the noose, loop (figuratively: bad luck, loss). That’s much more straightforward. :white_check_mark:.

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Interesting. Didn’t know. Thx for bringing this up. Not sure if that’s really a word that is totally banned from daily conversations but there’s some controversy for sure (cf. Blank en wit in het racismedebat - Wikipedia). Many people see a connection to the terminology of apartheid in Afrikaans I believe. Even Alfred confirms this:

I added (often perceived offensive). That’s warning enough. Whoever wants to learn more can do his own research. :white_check_mark:

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Hi @Robert-Alexander,
Thanks for going through the list and the extra attention to detail! Also, apologies for the slow update; things have just been a bit busy on my end. I have a new list for you:

de blanke (… often perceived offensive) → how about writing instead pejorative or often pejorative? I dawned me a few days ago that pejorative precisely encapsulates what we both have in mind.
jazeker (hell yes! for sure!) → why not translating as just: yeah sure(!) [this is a style suggestion]
de kerstman (Santa Claus) → … ([the] Santa Claus)
welnee (nay! never! [not nen]) → neen is misspelled :wink:
de ondertiteling (the subtitle) → … [not ondertitel] (the subtitling (mass noun))
de ondertitel (the subtitle) → … [not ondertiteling] …
de schoft (the bastard, trash, person w/o moral) → replace person with man (just a suggestion but I think that there is an inference of being a dude)
de hufter (the hufter (vulgar)) → … ((male) jerk, asshole) :wink: hufter - Wiktionary
de quark (the quark) → question: is quark that frequent of a word in Dutch? (asking as a particle physicist) :smiley:
de doofpot → lots of ~ in the translation that can probably be removed for consistency
het uitstapje → … [not het uitje]
het uitje → … [not het uitstapje]

cheers

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You are apologizing? That’s my course. You’re my “customer”. I work for you and I’m tankful for all the feedback no matter how fast you’re learning the vocab in this course … :rofl:

:white_check_mark: Good idea. Settled for (often pejorative)

:white_check_mark: :arrow_right: “yeah sure!” it is. I guess I just adopted translations from my sources. “Yeah sure!” makes much sense.

:white_check_mark: (Note: you’re by now conditioned to expect my syntax style :rofl: … although the article is rarely used in English, I presume…for the sake of consistency I added the “the”)

Arggh. Thx. :white_check_mark:

:white_check_mark: That’s now :arrow_right: the subtitling (mass noun), the act of adding subtitles [not de ondertitel]. AFAIK, it can be both. The collection of subtitles for the various languages of one or even multiple movies; but it can also refer to the process of creating and adding a specific subtitle to an audiovisual work. It’s a broader colelctive/mass term while ondertitel often refers to the one line you read below a picture. Often, I guess, both can be also used interchangeably. in :de: there’s also the rarely used die Untertitelung und der Untertitel which differentiate along the same lines.

:white_check_mark: :arrow_up::arrow_up::arrow_up::arrow_up:

:white_check_mark: Did so. It’s very likely that this is used exclusively for man. In :de: I would virtually never use der Schuft in order to refer to a woman. In :de: there’s also apparently the female version die Schuftin. Which I have never heard before in German and that I would not use. I guess I wouldn’t use either Schuft or Schuftin in order to describe women. Since Dutch doesn’t evenbother to have a female version (like “schoftares” or something), I’d assume that de schoft is virtually always used for men in Dutch, too.

:white_check_mark: It’s now :arrow_right: the (male) jerk, asshole (vulgar, derogatory) (I guess I felt ashamed to enter such nasty words :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth: )

Interesting question. The word is pretty much nerdstuff, right? Can’t be that frequent, can it? I checked other similar words but neutron or proton and similar words didn’t make it onto this frequency list. Beware: The data comes from subtitles. Either that’s a popular topic in movies (like in the Big Bang theory), or it’s perhaps falsely counting in the Ferengi (Quark from DS9), or it’s simply a wrong data point … Can’t really explain this. Maybe, just maybe, it’s also referring to “de kwark” (:de: der Quark). Kwark is like yoghurt (except that it’s technically cheese). It’s kind of popular in the Netherlands and Germany. I believe it’s also called sometimes quark in :us: but usually most Americans would call it “cottage cheese” or “cream cheese” I believe. Cottage cheese and :netherlands: kwark or :de: der Quark taste very different though. Interestingly enough, masculine :de: der Quark refers to the dairy product in :de: while neuter das Quark refers to the particle in quantum physics (pay attention when visiting your fellow German scientists). How both are related is beyond me. I guess the edible :de:der Quark, :netherlands: kwark, :us:quark is from Eastern Europe and has nothing to do with the origin of the name of the particle. Wikipedia tells me that the latter comes from an obscure verb to quark from a work by James Joyce. Wikipedia tells me it refers to a sound certain birds, often ravens, make. Most likely that’s what regular people (other people than Joyce) spell to croak if they would ever feel the need to use this word. In :de: that sound is described as krächzen. Another nice onomatopoeia for the song of a raven. Interestingly though, the sound ducks make is described as quaken in :de: and kwaken in Dutch and to quack in :us:. Full circle! You might ask, why I’m reporting about this rabbit hole? Well, my theory is, that maybe Dutchmen watch German TV shows and when they are supposed to translate :de: der Quark (which is really a quite frequent work in German) into :netherlands: de kwark they somehow don’t translate it correctly and falsely spell it quark in the subtitle. That maybe especially true for older TV shows. Wiktionary tells me that :de: Quark was adopted by the Dutch in the 1960’s and often replaced their native :netherlands: word wrongel. During this transition phase they might even have not settled upon the now official spelling kwark and maybe often used the Geman spelling quark. And that’s why this word made it onto this frequency list, because when all factored in (misspellings, incorrect translations, misappropriations) it’s perhaps slightly more frequent than other similar words.

:white_check_mark: changed this. It’s now :arrow_right: the hiding place, the place where to put facts in order to cover sth up. I think it can really only be used in such a metaphorical sense. Tip: don’t use this word, but remember it when someone says something like de onderzoeksresultaten eindigden in de doofpot.

sure :white_check_mark:

sure :white_check_mark:

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I’m afraid I disagree.
“yeah sure” sounds to weak to me. I think “for sure” or certainly or indeed would be better.

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