Wablieft? Duidelijke taal!

logo of Wablieft

For those who are learning Dutch, it would be interesting to note that there is a Belgian newspaper, Wablieft, which writes its articles in "easy to understand Dutch": Duidelijke Taal. For more than twenty five years now, they publish a paper version on every Wednesday, and since 2009 they publisch an electronic version as well.

Toekomstige tijd

taken from Nederlands in Uitvoering

Yesterday, Mandy told me: "I have no idea how to write [in the past tense], or the future tense, so I mostly just stick with the present for now".

The past tense in Dutch needs some more explanation, but the future tense is failry easy:

Liedje van de dag: Arme Joe

Another artists who sings in Flemish is the sixty years old Will Tura and he has been bringing out singles since 1957. Every Fleming, young and old, knows his songs and in 2001 he has been knighted by the Belgian king. His voice is very recognizable and he has always made an effort to sing in "clean" Dutch, although he has made some songs in the West-Flemish dialect as well.

'ei' or 'ij'

an egg or an ice cream?

Another confusing beauty in the Dutch language: do I write 'ei' or 'ij'?

Both sound exactly the same, but it is extremely important to use the correct written form in order to avoid confusion. There are no 'rules' or 'mnemonics' for it, you will just have to study it, word for word. Undust does dictionaries and unfold those bookworm-glasses!

Liedje van de dag: Wim

It is probably too soon to post a song with my own name as the title, but I do enjoy this one and want to share it.
Johan Verminnen is a Flemish singer-songwriter. In his song "Wim" he is looking at a picture from his old study friends and wonders wat gebeurde er met Wim.

Again, this is a song with a slight Flemish pronunciation, but it is still "clean" Dutch. Interesting is that most of the text is written in the past tense:

"kunnen" vs "mogen"

Illustration taken from Nandita

Three days ago, Mandy asked: "about the difference between 'kun' and 'kan', and when you use those or when you use 'mag'".

Which is a great question!

geen - niet

Illustration taken
from MathGoodies

Negation in a Dutch sentence can happen in two simple ways: by using the word "niet", or by using the word "geen".

Always use the word "niet", except when it is a noun that you want to negate in the sentence.