• join@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      Be careful insulting the Dutch or there might be a “stabbing party“ (Literal Dutch translation for a knife attack).

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        12 days ago

        We can’t have that. I can’t get into americahalla unless I die of gun violence, being stabbed by a.bunch of people just gets you sent to the eternal city, and my Latin sucks

    • JetpackJackson@feddit.orgEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      A friend of mine who was learning German was bouncing off words and phrases onto a dutch friend and after comparing the words, she exclaimed “it’s like talking [German] through jello!”

  • Thorry@feddit.orgEnglish
    1·
    12 days ago

    This doesn’t even scratch the surface of how weird the Dutch are. See this translation isn’t really accurate, “Geef me een klap papa” translates to “Hit me father”. A more accurate translation would be: “Geef me billenkoek pappie”. (Even though this stil isn’t completely accurate, the daddy thing got borrowed from US culture, so would still be daddy even in Dutch)

    Now this might be a bit stranger, but not all that different. However when we zoom in on the word billenkoek it gets real weird. Just like other languages, for example German, the Dutch can just omit spaces and create longer and longer compound words. Billenkoek is one of those words, comprised of two words namely “billen” and “koek”. The first word translates to buttocks, which makes sense, spanking involves hitting the butt. However the second word doesn’t have a direct translation in English, but is a collection term enveloping baked goods such as cookies and certain kinds of cake. So it could be translated into “butt cake” .

    What do spanking and cakes have to do with each other? And what exactly is a butt cake? Who knows, the Dutch are just very very weird.

    (for all my etymology nerds, the term comes from rewarding good children with cookies and bad children with a different sort of cookies, namely corporal punishment)

    • djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      It’s very strange, it seems Dutch is very like, food-based? That’s not a great way to explain it, but stuff like using “lekker”, which is Dutch for tasty, as like “good” or “attractive.” Context seems v important

      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        12 days ago

        American English as well. “Easy as pie” “That’s a piece of cake” “Don’t cry over spilled milk.” “The proof is in the pudding.” “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.” “As American as apple pie.” “Bring home the bacon.” “Spill the beans.” “Selling like hotcakes.” “Pie in the sky.”

      • Thorry@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        12 days ago

        Yes context is very important in Dutch. Which is why translations are almost always off. A Dutch speaker can almost instantly recognize whether a translation was done by someone with a native speaking level, or a machine. That’s why a lot of Dutch folk prefer English on their computers and phones. The Dutch translations are often terrible, or as the Dutch would say “tenenkrommend”.

        Dutch is also a language you can very easily unlearn, even as a native speaker. I’ve experienced this firsthand, where I mostly use English and German every day. My Dutch has gotten terrible over the years.

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          sounds a lot like the swedish experience as well, especially the unlearning thing. So many people these days are effectively starting to talk a new pidgin language with english mixed into it.