Learn how to use the negative to lodge a simple complaint
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to DutchPo d101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 12 - Is There a Problem with Your Dutch Hotel Room? Michael here. |
| Jacob: Hallo. I'm Jacob. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the use of the negative in Dutch to make complaints. This conversation takes place at a hotel reception desk. |
| Jacob: It's between Peter and the hotel receptionist. |
| Michael: The conversation takes place between a receptionist and a customer, so they’ll be using formal Dutch. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Peter: De verwarming in kamer 36 doet het niet. |
| Receptionist: Ik zal iemand naar boven sturen meneer. |
| Peter: En het licht van de badkamer doet het ook niet. En we hebben geen wi-fi. |
| Receptionist: Weet u het zeker? Gisteren was alles nog goed. |
| Peter: Ja, maar vandaag is alles niet goed. |
| Receptionist: We gaan er aan werken meneer. |
| Peter: Dank u wel. |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Peter: De verwarming in kamer 36 doet het niet. |
| Receptionist: Ik zal iemand naar boven sturen meneer. |
| Peter: En het licht van de badkamer doet het ook niet. En we hebben geen wi-fi. |
| Receptionist: Weet u het zeker? Gisteren was alles nog goed. |
| Peter: Ja, maar vandaag is alles niet goed. |
| Receptionist: We gaan er aan werken meneer. |
| Peter: Dank u wel. |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Peter: The heater in room 36 isn't working. |
| Receptionist: I will send somebody up, sir. |
| Peter: The bathroom light doesn't work either. And we don't have a Wi-Fi connection. |
| Receptionist: Are you sure? Yesterday everything was fine. |
| Peter: Yes, but it’s not fine today. |
| Receptionist: We will do something about it, sir. |
| Peter: Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: Jacob, do you have any tips for interacting with people working in the service industry in the Netherlands, so that we can get what we want smoothly? |
| Jacob: Well, first, don’t always expect the best service. Like anywhere else, bureaucracy exists, and so does bad service. Generally speaking, the Dutch are considered very direct, and sometimes it comes off as rude. |
| Michael: But if you treat people respectfully and kindly, they will usually respond in the same way, right? |
| Jacob: Yes, that’s true. |
| Michael: What about when you have to make complaints? How should you approach the staff? |
| Jacob: In general, Dutch people don’t like being pressured, so if you need to lodge a complaint just sit down, ask how the worker is doing, and then say that you want, say, your bathroom light fixed. |
| Michael: That’s a good tip. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Jacob: verwarming [natural native speed] |
| Michael: heating |
| Jacob: verwarming[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: verwarming [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: kamer [natural native speed] |
| Michael: room |
| Jacob: kamer[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: kamer [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: iemand [natural native speed] |
| Michael: someone |
| Jacob: iemand[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: iemand [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: boven [natural native speed] |
| Michael: above |
| Jacob: boven[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: boven [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: badkamer [natural native speed] |
| Michael: bathroom |
| Jacob: badkamer[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: badkamer [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: licht [natural native speed] |
| Michael: light |
| Jacob: licht[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: licht [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: gisteren [natural native speed] |
| Michael: yesterday |
| Jacob: gisteren[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: gisteren [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: vandaag [natural native speed] |
| Michael: today |
| Jacob: vandaag[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: vandaag [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Michael: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Jacob: Doet het niet, |
| Michael: meaning "isn't working." You can use this phrase if you need to ask for someone’s help when something is not working. In Dutch, “the light works” is.. |
| Jacob: Het licht doet het. The literal translation into English would be “The light does it.” Het licht is the word meaning “the light” and doet het means “do work.” |
| Michael: But when it’s not working, what can you say? |
| Jacob: In that case, you just need to add the word niet meaning “not” at the end, by saying.. Het licht doet het niet |
| Michael: “The light doesn't work”, or literally “The light does it not.” Just change the object to whatever it is that isn’t working. |
| Jacob: Right. For example, you can say.. Wat gevaarlijk. De remmen doen het niet! |
| Michael: ..which means "How dangerous. The brakes don't work!" Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Jacob: We hebben geen... |
| Michael: meaning "We don't have..." |
| Jacob: This expression can be used in a sentence like We hebben geen wifi, |
| Michael: which means “We don't have any wi-fi.” |
| Jacob: As you know We hebben... is the phrase meaning “we have..” and we hebben geen... is the phrase meaning “we don't have…” |
| Michael: Can you give us an example? |
| Jacob: For example, you can say.. We hebben bier in de koelkast, |
| Michael: “We have beer in the fridge,” |
| Jacob: as opposed to We hebben geen bier in de koelkast, |
| Michael: “We don't have any beer in the fridge.” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson you’ll learn the use of the negative in Dutch to make complaints. |
| Jacob: When you make complaints, you’ll use these two phrases in most cases. Either Ik ben niet |
| Michael: meaning “I’m not,” |
| Jacob: or Ik heb niet, |
| Michael: meaning "I don't have." Using these phrases, you can make a sentence like “I’m not a student.” |
| Jacob: Ik ben geen student |
| Michael: Or “I don’t have money.” |
| Jacob: Ik heb geen geld. You can see that in both cases, the article is replaced with the word geen which means “not” or “none.” |
| Michael: Usually, when you need to make a complaint it’s because you don’t have something, or something is not working well. That’s why it’s important to understand how to use these phrases correctly. So let’s jump in and make real complaints using these phrases. If I get a room at a hotel but the wi-fi isn’t working, what can I say? |
| Jacob: You can simply say Ik heb geen wi-fi. |
| Michael: meaning “I don’t have wi-fi.” |
| Jacob: Ik heb means “I have” and geen is the word meaning “not” or no” as we said. Then we have the word wifi meaning “wi-fi.” |
| Michael: So I just need to say what I don’t have, right? |
| Jacob: That’s right. That’s the simplest way to make complaints in Dutch. |
| Michael: But what if I want to make it specific and say something like the heating in my room is not working? |
| Jacob: Then you can use the phrase that we learned in the previous section, doet het niet, which means “does not work.” |
| Michael: So “the heating is not working” or “the heating doesn’t work” in Dutch is..? |
| Jacob: De verwarming doet het niet. |
Outro |
| Michael: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Jacob: Tot ziens. |
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