Beginner’s Dutch with Online Audio

BEGINNER’S

DUTCH

WITH ONLINE AUDIO

BEGINNER’S

DUTCH

WITH ONLINE AUDIO

Antoinette van Horn

Hippocrene Books, Inc.

New York

Online audio edition, 2019.

Text copyright © 2013 Antoinette van Horn

Audio copyright © 2013 Hippocrene Books, Inc.

All rights reserved.

For information, address:

HIPPOCRENE BOOKS, INC.

171 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10016

www.hippocrenebooks.com

ISBN 978-0-7818-1399-0

Previous edition ISBN: 978-0-7818-1283-2

Printed in the United States of America

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who provided support, offered comments, and assisted in the editing, proofreading, recording, and printing of Beginner’s Dutch. I would like to thank Hippocrene Books for enabling me to publish this book. Many thanks to the editors who worked with me, in particular to Colette Laroya for her invaluable assistance and contributions. I would also like to thank all my students for providing me with inspiration. Last but not least, thanks to my daughter, Marguerite Richards, who made it all happen.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

About the Netherlands

The Dutch Language

Dutch Alphabet & Pronunciation Guide

LESSON 1: Prettig kennis te maken / Nice to meet you

Conversation 1.1

Vocabulary

Expressions: Formal introductions

Grammar: Definite articles: de, het

Personal pronouns

ik, jij, u, hij, zij, het, wij, jullie, u, zij

Present tense of zijn to be

Word order

Tutoyeren / When to use u or jij?

Exercises

LESSON 2: In het café / At the café

Conversation 2.1

Vocabulary

Expressions

Informal greetings

The word hoor

Grammar: Present tense hebben to have

The present tense, finding the stem of a verb

Present tense je/jij and u in questions

Indefinite article een

Cardinal numbers 0-19

Countries, languages and nationalities

Exercises

LESSON 3: In de winkel / At the store

Conversation 3.1

Vocabulary

Expressions

Greetings

Weight, measures, and amounts

Popular expressions

Being polite: alstublieft, alsjeblieft

Grammar: Plural of nouns

Cardinal numbers: from 20 to 1.000.000.000

Adjectives

Exercises

LESSON 4: Een afspraak maken per telefoon / Making an appointment by phone

Conversation 4.1

Vocabulary

Expressions: Telephone calls

What time is it?

Grammar: Modal auxiliary verbs

moeten to have to, must, mogen to be allowed to, may,

kunnen to be able to, can, willen to want

Adverbs

Negation: geen, niet

Affirmation: wel

Exercises

LESSON 5: Uit eten / Eating out

Conversation 5.1

Vocabulary

Expressions: The word gezellig cozy

liever

Grammar: Comparisons

comparatives and superlatives, expressing preference

Prepositions: aan at, op on, in in

Phrasal verbs

zeggen tegen to say to, denken aan to think of

Separable verbs

opbellen to call, meegaan to come along

Inseparable verbs: ondertekenen to sign

Diminutives

Word order after expression of time or place

Exercises

LESSON 6: Een vrije dag / A day off

Conversation 6.1

Vocabulary

Expressions

Grammar: Present perfect tense

Past participles

weak or irregular verbs

The English progressive form of present perfect

strong verbs

very irregular verbs

zijn, hebben, doen, brengen, gaan

verhuizen and leven

separable and inseparable verbs

When to use hebben or zijn with past participles

Past participles as adjectives

Exercises

LESSON 7: Een verjaardag / A birthday

Conversation 7.1

Vocabulary

Expressions: Congratulations and condolences

Personal Questions

Days of the week, months of the year, dates

Grammar: Personal pronouns as indirect or direct object

The word er

Third person singular

replacing de-words and het-words with hij, zij, het

Possessive pronouns

The word van

Exercises

LESSON 8: Op huizenjacht / House hunting

Conversation 8.1

Vocabulary

Expressions: Buying and renting a place

Grammar: Simple past tense

Regular verbs

Irregular verbs

Very irregular verbs

zijn, hebben, kunnen, mogen, willen

Past perfect tense

Relative pronouns and clauses

die, dat, wie, waar, wat

Demonstrative pronouns

dit, deze, dat, die

Exercises

LESSON 9: Het weerbericht / The weather report Een schoolreünie / A school reunion

Conversation 9.1: The weather report

Expressions: Talking about the weather

Celcius and Fahrenheit

Seasons

Wind direction

Conversation 9.2: A school reunion

Vocabulary

Ordinal numbers

Grammar: Future tense

Conditional verbs

als/wanneer if, when

Indefinite pronoun men

Exercises

LESSON 10: Op het politiebureau / At the police station

Conversation 10.1

Vocabulary

Expressions

Grammar: The passive voice

worden to become

Present participles

Infinitives as nouns

The English progressive form in Dutch

te + infinitive

om + te + infinitive

Imperatives

Indirect statements and questions

Question Words

wie, wat, waarom, hoe, welk, wanneer

Exercises

LESSON 11: Bij de dokter / At the doctor’s

Conversation 11.1

Vocabulary

Expressions: A doctor’s visit

Grammar: Reflexive pronouns and verbs

elkaar each other

beide, beiden, allebei, noch

both, either, the two of us, neither/nor

laten to allow, to let, to leave

Conjunctions: en, maar, omdat, want, toen

Exercises

LESSON 12: Een brief / A letter

Conversation 12.1

Vocabulary

Expressions: Used in a letter

Opening and closing lines in letters

Grammar: English verbs used in Dutch

Abbreviations

Exercises

Answer Key for Exercises

Dutch-English Glossary

English-Dutch Glossary

Bibliography

Audio Track Lists

ABOUT THE NETHERLANDS

HOLLAND OR NEDERLAND?

Nederland the Netherlands means low countries or lowlands and refers to the country’s official name: Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden The Kingdom of the Netherlands. Holland is often used as a common synonym for the Netherlands as a whole, but strictly speaking, it refers only to two of the country’s twelve provinces: Noord-Holland North Holland and Zuid-Holland South Holland. To add to the confusion, in English we refer to the people and the language of the Netherlands as Dutch.

HISTORY

Early history. The Franks controlled the region from the 4th to the 8th centuries, and it became part of Charlemagne’s empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. The area later passed into the hands of Burgundy and the Austrian Hapsburgs and finally, in the 16th century, came under Spanish rule.

1579 – 1939. The Prince van Oranje, Willem de Zwijger William the Silent led the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule. In 1579, representatives from the seven northern (predominantly Protestant) provinces signed the Union of Utrecht, under which they agreed to unite against Spain. This anti-Spanish alliance became known as the Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, the basis for the Netherlands we know today.

In the late 16th century, a period known as de Gouden Eeuw the Golden Age began. It was a time of remarkable cultural and economic progress. The merchant fleet known as the VOC Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602. It quickly monopolized key shipping and trade routes including the Indian Ocean. The Dutch East India Company was almost as powerful as a sovereign state – it could raise its own armed forces and establish colonies. The West-Indische Compagnie Dutch West India Company, founded in 1621, traded with Africa and the Americas. The companies discovered or conquered many countries, including Tasmania, New Zealand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Mauritius.

The English captain Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island (New York), and Dutch settlers named it New Amsterdam. England tried to claim hegemony over the North Sea and went to war with the United Provinces in 1652. Their competing interests led to four Anglo-Dutch wars between 1652 and 1780.

France invaded the Netherlands in 1672. Prince Willem III created the Grand Alliance that joined England, the United Provinces, Sweden, Spain, and several German states to fight France’s Louis XIV. The French invaded again in 1795. Napoleon Bonaparte appointed his brother Louis king of the Netherlands. However, in 1813, Prince Willem IV was named prince sovereign of the Netherlands. After Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815, the independence of the Netherlands was restored at the Congress of Vienna. The Netherlands in the north and Belgium in the south were joined into a United Kingdom of the Netherlands and Prince Willem IV was crowned King Willem I. The southern states revolted in 1830 and declared independence. Nine years later, Belgium’s independence and neutrality was recognized.

King Willem II, who succeeded his father in 1840, granted a new and more liberal constitution to the Netherlands in 1848. Constitutional monarchy was here to stay. When Willem III died in 1890, his wife Emma became regent for her underage daughter, Wilhelmina, the late king’s only surviving child. She would remain queen regent until Wilhelmina’s eighteenth birthday in 1898.

World War II and its aftermath. The Netherlands maintained a policy of strict neutrality from 1815 to 1939, including during World War I. The Dutch wished to continue their neutrality during World War II but Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940. Thousands of Dutch men were taken to Germany and forced to work in factories. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews did not survive the war. One who perished was Anne Frank who would gain posthumous worldwide fame when her diary, written in the Achterhuis Backhouse while hiding from the Nazis, was found.

Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942. Dutch citizens were captured and put to work in labor camps. The Netherlands was not liberated until just a few days before the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. Japan surrendered in August 1945.

After World War II, the Dutch colonies overseas claimed their independence. The Dutch East Indies declared itself independent in 1945. Surinam became an independent republic in 1975. In 1986, Aruba, until then part of the Netherlands Antilles, acquired separate status within the Kingdom. On October 10, 2010, the rest of the Netherlands Antilles dissolved, resulting in two new constituent countries: Curaçao and St. Maarten. The other islands, Bonaire, Saba, and St. Eustatius, joined the Kingdom as special municipalities and are now sometimes referred to as the Dutch Caribbean islands.

The Marshall Plan, announced in 1947, pledged massive U.S. aid to rebuild Europe, provided a significant morale boost to a war-torn continent, and helped lay the groundwork for European unity. In 1949, the Netherlands joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The Dutch were among the founders of the European Economic Community, now known as the EU (European Union).

THE ROYAL HOUSE

In 1948, Queen Wilhelmina was succeeded by her daughter, Queen Juliana. Queen Beatrix, daughter of Queen Juliana, ascended the throne in 1980. On April 30, 2013, Queen