Questions about Dutch sentences

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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:20 pm

"De beelden onthullen weer ietsje meer over een walvisachtige die zich bijna nooit laat zien."
The images reveal a little more about a cetacean that almost never appears.

The "weer" suggests that an "again" should be added to the translation. However, I don't think the sentence actually means "again". Rather it is talking about the first time. So does "weer" here imply something like "a tiny bit more", or "just a little bit more"?

Source: Scientias article
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:13 am

"En die temperatuurstijging ging – net als vandaag de dag – hand in hand met stijgende CO2-concentraties."
And this temperature increase goes, just as today, hand in hand with increasing CO2 concentrations.

"vandaag de dag" can also be translated as now, these days, nowadays, currently, at the present time, presently, etc. It gives the impression of being redundant. I see "vandaag de dag" fairly often in writing. Is it a common expression in everyday conversation?

Source: Scientias article
Last edited by tommus on Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:45 am

"Volgens berekeningen van Green en zijn collega’s kan een zevende van het Marsoppervlak blank komen te staan."
According to Green and his friends' calculations, one seventh of the surface of Mars becomes white.

I don't think this implies that the surface literally becomes white (perhaps like the poles, with water ice or CO2 ice). Rather, I think it implies that 1/7th of the surface becomes suitable it some way. But I'm not sure. What does "blank" really mean in this sentence?

Source: Scientias article
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tarvos » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:30 pm

Blank staan means something totally different - it means that it can be submerged. Blank staan - onder water staan

The weer does mean again and it means that the new images, again, reveal a little more as opposed to before.

Vandaag de dag = 100% normal
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tarvos » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:33 pm

Also, zich bijna nooit laten zien is more like "that almost never shows itself", due to being rare or shy
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:47 pm

Tarvos, I certainly appreciate all your excellent answers regarding Dutch sentences and expressions.

I had no idea when I began posting these sentences and questions that you would be the only native-Dutch speaker who would be responding. I know there are other native-Dutch speakers and Dutch learners on the Forum. But I guess they are not very active. It sure would be good if there was more Dutch activity. It is kind of lonely.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tarvos » Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:17 pm

My impression is that not all of them have the time to answer these. Nor do all native speakers really know the answers to these questions because it's not something commonly thought about, also because most people learning Dutch don't get that far (and those that do are so stubborn that they are normally very competent themselves). I also think the forum split didn't quite help in that regard.

Anyway, I teach Dutch for a living so it's my job to take note of these things. I should remind you that I am only one native speaker and that, of course, the dialectal variation and differing education of other speakers is going to influence any other answers, especially so if they are Flemish.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:30 pm

"Het ontstaan van leven is een van de biologische mysteries van de die wetenschappers nog steeds niet hebben weten te verklaren – ondanks vele verwoede pogingen."
The origin of life is one of the biological mysteries of which scientists still have not been able to explain - despite numerous frantic attempts.

My interest is in the "van de die" meaning "of which" or "over which" or "about which". This is the first time that I have noticed "van de die" but a quick look on Google shows that it is reasonably common. I think a non-native-Dutch person would just use "van die". I wonder if most native writers would use "van de die"? And what about native speakers?

"verwoede pogingen" is literally "frantic attempts" but I think in this case "frantic' is not quite right. It seems that some combination of "serious" or "best" or "earnest" with an overtone of "in vain" might better describe the scientific attempts.

Source: NewScientist.nl
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tarvos » Tue Mar 14, 2017 3:49 pm

It sounds like terrible grammar to me. I would simply say "die" without van de.

Frantic is correct. Verwoede really implies more intense attempts than serious or earnest.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:45 pm

tarvos wrote:It sounds like terrible grammar to me.

If that is the case, then there are many people using the same terrible grammar. You got me curious so I did some Googling, using the search term:

intext:"van de die"

to try to force Google to look for this exact term. I got many, many hits. Here are some examples:

Met samenvattingen van de die dag in de Eredivisie gespeelde duels.
Source

Ik moest het hebben blessures of schorsingen van een van de die twee.
Source

Dat gaat nu verder, want AMD zou tijdens zijn bijeenkomst voor aandeelhouders een afbeelding getoond hebben van de die van een aantal Zen CPU's.
Source

Bij een aansterkende munt profiteert iedereen die geld gebruikt dan van de die koopkracht.
Source

In dit artikel zijn drie scenario's besproken die de aanwezigheid van de die bouwstenen op aarde kunnen verklaren.
Source

Echter, als ik zou vinden dat mijn geneesmiddel een van de die middelen is die zodanig werden verdund dat er geen molecules meer inzitten van de originele actieve stof,...
Source
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