Dutch Course

Dutch Course - Chapter 2

The "Van Gogh Museum" houses the richest collection in the world of works by Vincent van Gogh.
The collection comprises over 200 paintings, 500 sketches and 700 letters from the artist, as well as his collection of Japanese prints.
There are also paintings by Gauguin, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec and other artists from Van Gogh's circle, and also from dutch artists like Mauve, Isrraels and Breitner.
The museum organises regular exhibitions highlighting new aspects of art at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.
(Click on picture to go to the "Van Gogh museum" site.)

Het "Van Gogh Museum" herbergt de rijkste verzameling werken van Vincent van Gogh ter wereld.
De collectie bevat meer dan 200 schilderijen, 500 tekeningen en 700 brieven van de schilder, en ook zijn collectie japanse prenten.
Daarnaast zijn er schilderijen van Gauguin, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec en andere kunstenaars uit Van Gogh's kring, en ook van Nederlandse schilders als Mauve, Israels en Breitner..
Het museum organiseert regelmatig tentoonstellingen die nieuwe aspecten belichten van de kunst van eind 19e en begin 20e eeuw
(Klik op de foto om naar de Van Gogh museum site te gaan).

Spelling

Well, Dutch has all the usual letters of the alphabet, plus one. That is: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz and ĳ (ij) Yep, that new letter "ĳ" is very hard to enter on a normal QWERTY keyboard. That's why we normally use "ij" (an "i" and an "j") in typed documents (in handwritten documents usually the "ĳ" is used). So "ĳ" actually counts as one letter in Dutch (we even have it in Scrabble :-)) Of course, we also have the i and j as separate letters, but I can't come up with a word in which j follows i and isn't used as an "ĳ". So whenever you see "ĳ" in a word it's the ĳ. For example: "hij" {he}, "IJsselmeer" (name of a lake). The capital "ĳ" is written as "Ĳ"; so both letters are capitalized. The "y" is like in English, sometimes vowel, and sometimes a consonant. It is only used in words derived from a foreign language, like Greek, e.g. "hypnose" {hypnosis} or "yoghurt" {yogurt}. As in most languages the first character of a sentence starts with a capital (well almost all of the time). Also names of persons, geographical names start with a capital. Nouns don't normally start with a capital (it does in the German language for instance). Sentences end with a "."

Do you need a dictionary or grammar book ?

Days of the week

maandag - Monday dinsdag - Tuesday woensdag - Wednesday donderdag - Thursday vrijdag - Friday zaterdag - Saturday zondag - Sunday

Telwoorden (Numerals)

een - one
eerste - first

twee - two
tweede - second

drie - three
derde - third

vier - four
vierde - fourth

vijf - five
vijfde - fifth

zes - six
zesde - sixth

zeven - seven
zevende - seventh

acht - eight
achtste - eighth

negen - nine
negende - ninth

tien - ten
tiende - tenth

elf - eleven
elfde - eleventh

twaalf - twelve
twaalfde - twelfth

dertien - thirteen
dertiende - thirteenth

veertien - fourteen
veertiende - fourteenth

vijftien - fifteen
vijftiende - fifteenth

zestien - sixteen
zestiende - sixteenth

zeventien - seventeen
zeventiende - seventeenth

achttien - eighteen
achttiende - eighteenth

negentien - nineteen
negentiende - nineteenth

twintig - twenty
twintigste - twentieth

Meer telwoorden (More numerals):

30 - dertig
40 - veertig
50 - vijftig
60 - zestig
70 - zeventig
80 - tachtig
90 - negentig
100 - honderd
1000 - duizend
1000 000 - miljoen
1000 000 000 - miljard

Examples:
21 - een en twintig
42 - twee en veertig
86 - zes en tachtig
579 - vijfhonderd negen en zeventig

Note that it's not like in English, but first the singles, then the decades.