Questions about Dutch sentences

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smallwhite
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby smallwhite » Mon Apr 16, 2018 12:28 am

What alternatives does the writer have? I think the usual alternative is:

... en zo verliest de machtige ijskap massa, waar het ooit deel van uitmaakte.

but it is confusing in this case as "waar xxx" seems to go with "massa" if you word it this way.

In English, I usually see this:
The girl who is pretty laughs.

But once in a long while I see this:
The girl laughs, who is pretty.

Which wouldn't work so well in this case:
The girls kicks her brother, who is pretty.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:39 am

smallwhite wrote:What alternatives does the writer have?

When Dutch word order is different, especially when verbs are forced to the end of a sentence, or because of the reversal of the subject-verb order, it sometimes produces separated words and phrases that are somewhat difficult to mentally connect. I agree that, in this case, there wasn't much choice but to use a comma to try to rescue the correct meaning. I guess my main point was that it was unusual, in that the Dutch use so few commas.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tarvos » Mon Apr 16, 2018 12:32 pm

tommus wrote:Een groot deel van dat smeltwater weet zijn weg te vinden naar de oceaan en zo verliest de machtige ijskap waar het ooit deel van uitmaakte, massa.

Source: scientas.nl article

A large part of that melt water is able to find its way to the ocean and so the mighty ice cap of which it was once a part loses mass.

Because of the required word order and the extended subject (de machtige ijskap waar het ooit deel van uitmaakte), "massa" gets pushed to the end of the sentence. The comma then appears to help set massa off from the long subject. However, I think this is the first time I have ever seen a comma in Dutch used in this somewhat awkward way. Is this unusual? The Dutch generally don't like using commas.


it's also a nice way to render emphasis.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Sat Jun 09, 2018 10:57 am

We moeten meters maken.
We need to hit the ground running.

Source: Reverso Context

Hij heeft een extra dag ingelast om meters te kunnen maken.
He added an extra day to get some work done.

I couldn't find a very good explanation of this Dutch expression (meters maken). Are these translations correct? Comments?
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Sat Jun 09, 2018 11:14 am

Een treffende illustratie van de correctheid van deze claims wordt geleverd.
A striking illustration of the correctness of these claims is provided.

Source: Daily email from http://www.neerlandistiek.nl/

Are 'correctheid" and "claims" loanwords from English or are they native to Dutch?
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tarvos » Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:25 pm

Claim is definitely a loanword, but a very common one and no one would split hairs over that one. This one is probably quite a recent adoption from English, although I see it used everywhere.

Correct is probably a Latin loanword through French. This one is definitely a native word. But there are many Latinate loanwords that don't necessarily have anything to do with English, really. If you see a word spelled with "c", your first thought should be Latin or French, as that's most likely to be the culprit.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby Christi » Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:31 pm

tommus wrote:We moeten meters maken.
We need to hit the ground running.

Source: Reverso Context

Hij heeft een extra dag ingelast om meters te kunnen maken.
He added an extra day to get some work done.

I couldn't find a very good explanation of this Dutch expression (meters maken). Are these translations correct? Comments?


Hi, I think these expressions are translated correctly. Meters maken basically means to work hard and make progress on something. It's often used by people in managerial or policy officers.
Recently this expression has been used a lot when talking about the issue of Groning's gas ''We moeten meters maken om van het Groningse gas af te stappen.'' -> we really need to work hard and find a solution so we can stop using Groning's gas.

Meters maken voor het klimaat. Meters maken met innovatieve concepten.

I found a site with several other expressions that are often used by people in managerial functions-> https://www.heinpragt.com/communicatie/ ... nttaal.php
There's a little table in the middle of the page. I've heard quite a lot of them being used at offices :)
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tommus » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:08 am

"... stop je geld waar je mond is, om er ook eens een anglicisme tegenaan te gooien."
Put your money where your mouth is, to also throw an anglicism against it. ???

Source: Article

What does " een anglicisme tegenaan te gooien" mean? It occurs quite a bit.
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby brilliantyears » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:16 am

It means "to use an anglicism for a change" in a sort of mocking way (probably because a lot of anglicisms were already being used in the conversation/situation). 'Anglicisme' in Dutch refers to an expression or a word that is copied from English but Dutchified. In this case, "stop je geld waar je mond is", put your money where your mouth is, probably because there is no Dutch expression for that or the person saying this didn't know the Dutch expression (or they do - maar wilde er gewoon eens een anglicisme tegenaan gooien ;) ).
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Re: Questions about Dutch sentences

Postby tarvos » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:26 am

Er een anglicisme tegenaan gooien is what happens when I decide to be funny and literally translate an idiom from English or use an English word, Dutchify it in a way that doesn't really exist and pass it off as Dutch.

So, half the conversations of the Dutch population by now?
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