Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hello and welcome to the best words in Dutch. My name is Stella and together, we are going to explore the 15 best Dutch words. So let’s get started with the first word.
1. Dag. "Bye."
Tot morgen, dag! "Till tomorrow, bye!"
You can also say doei, which is more common and informal. Now, dag as a greeting is spelled the same as dag, which is the word for "day". So to make it sound like a greeting, you usually say it a little singsongy. So you say 'Dag!' instead of just dag.
Let’s move on to the next one.
2. Dank je wel. "Thank you!"
Wat een leuk cadeau, dank je wel. "What a nice present, thank you!"
You can also leave wel out and just say dank je. That’s fine too. There’s not a big difference in meaning. It’s just fewer words. Yay!
3. gezellig "cozy"
Dat is een gezellig restaurant. "That's a cozy restaurant."
Now, this word is a big deal for Dutch people but maybe even more so for foreigners because it’s such a multipurpose word. You can say that a restaurant is gezellig, but an evening can also be gezellig, and even a person can be gezellig.
4. Graag gedaan. "It's my pleasure."
All right. So if someone just has said dank je wel "thank you," you could say graag gedaan, “my pleasure.”
Geen probleem en graag gedaan. "No problem and it's my pleasure."
It means you enjoyed doing it but you also say it when you didn’t necessarily enjoy doing it. It’s like saying, you are welcome. It’s just polite.
5. Hallo. "Hello."
Oh now, this is an important one. Hallo. “Hello.”
Hallo, hoe gaat het? "Hello, how are you?"
So as you can see the English and the Dutch word for hello are very much alike. So if you want to say hello in a slightly more informal way, you can also say Hoi which is spelled hoi. Hoi!
6. helaas "unfortunately"
Now, if you want to say that you regret something, you can say helaas, “unfortunately.”
Helaas kan ik niet. "Unfortunately I can't."
If someone is whining about something and you want to make a little fun out of that person, you can also say - helaas pindakaas, which literally means, “unfortunately peanut butter.” I don’t think anyone knows why we say this. It’s typical Dutch thing I guess.
7. leven "life"
Het leven is mooi. "Life is beautiful."
This is both a noun and a verb. So you can also say, de planten leven nog, which means, “the plants are still alive.” So don’t get confused. You can use this word in both ways.
8. liefde "love"
Another very important one, liefde, "love".
Waar komt de liefde vandaan? "Where does love come from?"
Now, please don’t ever use this sentence ever. It’s very cheesy but you might use the word liefde in another context.
For example, there is a Dutch saying that goes - De liefde van de man gaat door de maag, which means, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” It’s not very inspiring but hey.
9. oma "grandmother"
Morgen is mijn oma jarig. "Tomorrow is my grandmother's birthday."
Now, if you want to challenge, you can also say the word grootmoeder, which means the same but it’s much more formal and it’s a little less simple than the easy word oma.
10. respect "respect"
Here is an easy one. Respect, “respect”
Heb respect voor elkaar. "Respect each other."
As you can see, these words are pretty much identical. So, if you’re ever in a situation where you need to remind people to be respectful of one another, you now know what to do.
11. schatje "sweetheart"
Here comes a cute one, schatje “sweetheart”.
Je bent een schatje. "You're a sweetheart."
Now, schatje is the diminutive form. You can also say, schat, which is more like darling. That’s what you would say to your lover, for instance.
12. tussen "among"
Here comes an adverb.
De auto staat tussen de andere auto. "The car is among the other cars."
Tussen also means “between.”
For example, if you got your finger stuck in the door, you can say, mijn vinger zit tussen de deur. That means that it was stuck between the door and the post and it really hurts.
13. vaak "often"
If you want to say that something happens a lot, use this word.
Hij gaat vaak naar de film. "He often goes to the movies."
14. vliegtuig "plane"
Here is a fun one, vliegtuig, "airplane".
Boeing maakt vliegentuigen. "Boeing makes airplanes."
If you were to translate vliegtuig literally, I guess it would mean something like “fly to.” So it’s pretty accurate.
15. familie "family"
And then there is familie, “family”
Ik heb een grote familie. "I have a big family."
Now, you should be careful with this word because the Dutch word familie includes much more than just the – than the English word "family". So if you want to talk about the family that lives in your house with you, for example, your sister and your parents, you could use the word gezin.
If you say familie, you also mean uncles and aunts and cousins as well.
Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of this class and now you have 15 of the best Dutch words in your vocabulary. If you have any questions or if you have something you want to learn next, please let me know in the comments and don’t forget to like and subscribe and if you want to learn more Dutch, go to dutchpod101.com and I will see you next time.

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