Dear linguaphiles ( Read more... )

Hi ( Read more... )

I've spontaneously decided to go to Belgium for a few days next week. My French is rusty but should be sufficient for the French areas and will likely improve once I'm using it. Anything complex I hope I will be able to do in English and/or German. However, I'd like to at least have polite basics in Dutch so I can, say, say "good morning" when ( Read more... )

Hi everyone,

I'm an MA student in Linguistics doing a survey on attitudes towards the construction (zo)(iets) van in Dutch. A few studies have been done on this construction (syntax, pragmatics, development), but to my knowledge no one has looked at speakers' attitudes towards it. I'm looking for both L1 and L2 (in fact I'm especially interested ( Read more... )

Can anyone decipher the Dutch part of the text below (I can only understand cordial greetings and the request for Hubert's address in Rome)?


( Read more... )

Hi. I have a question concerning this Dutch sentence. Well, actually it's about the double infinitive.
There are sentences like these in my book:

1. Ik wil naar het centrum kunnen fietsen.
2. Ze moet in het zonnetje kunnen zitten.
3. Hij wil een vraag mogen stellen.

And I just can't understand what they mean. Can someone help me out? How should I translate these ( Read more... )

Just curious...

Which language do you think you can learn faster?
Dutch or French?

Which language gives you more skills to learn a wider variety of other languages?
Dutch or French?

Which language's pronunciation is the easiest to perfect for someone who can perfectly speak American English and German ( Read more... )

I'm trying to translate the following sentence, but I'm confused by the separation of er, the verbs and the prepostions. Could someone please point me in the right direction?

Een goede vooral ook een indringende, voorlichting over de aspirant houders kan er naar het oordeel van de Commissie toe leiden, dat het besluit een hond of kat in het gezin op ( Read more... )

Yes, the title sounds cheesy, but this is actually nice to play with. Bodo Wartke (warning: site may play a welcome song, which includes a spelled-out URL) is a German comedian of the "classical" type who plays the piano, sings, and does all kinds of additional things (such as a full-length theater version of King Oedipus in which he plays fourteen ( Read more... )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17101370