Inburgering with DN: 10 Dutch words every foreigner in NL uses

There are some Dutch words which all foreigners in the Netherlands seem to adopt as soon as they get off the plane, train or ferry. So here’s a list of some of them.

Lesson 63: First words

Lekker: means tasty and is the first Dutch word everyone learns. Lekker describes just about everything which is positive: from a lekker broodje with lekker weer and lekkere sex.

Borrel: For some reason, we don’t go for drinks; we always have a borrel. And if you work in an office you may well have a vrijmibo (vrijdagmiddagborrel) on Friday afternoon.

Btw: Always pronounced bay-tay-vay in the Dutch way and meaning sales tax, not “by the way”.

Belasting: Closely associated with btw is, of course, tax in general. Given that we pay so much of it in NL, it is hardly surprising everyone gets to know the word very quickly.

Gemeente: Perhaps it is because internationals have so much to do with the good folks at the town hall, but everyone talks about the gemeente, never the council or city hall.

Apotheek: Another word that just sneaks in, even though there are plenty of respectable foreign-language equivalents for pharmacy.

Makelaar: Those other good folk who find houses for extortionate fees.

Bel: When you have been in the Netherlands a few weeks, everyone seems to stop phoning. We bel, as in “I’ll bel you tonight”. NB: when the Dutch say “we bellen” it means they will ring you sometime, or never.

Horeca: As in working in the horeca. A terrifically handy term derived from hotel, restaurant, cafe – and one which the rest of the world could easily adopt.

Agenda: Almost instantly, the English diary becomes an agenda – there is no escaping it. You will make appointments in your agenda and you will consult your agenda to see if you can have a meeting in three weeks’ time at 2.30pm.

Wintersport: Once you are settled in the Netherlands you will stop going on skiing holidays. You will go on wintersport instead – even if you spend more time on the après-ski than on the slopes.

Storing: If your train does not arrive, your tram is late, the internet is down and you can’t pay for your groceries with your phone, this is probably due to a storing. If you are a frequent rail user, you will probably get to know it very well.

Gezellig: Cosy, fun, warm, inviting… one of those words which are so crucial to understanding the Dutch that we wrote an entire lesson around it.