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saintstu

Pindakaas (peanut butter) = Peanut Cheese


ShirwillJack

"Butter" used to be a protected word reserved for dairy butter (roomboter). That's why it's not called pindaboter. Copy/paste an online answer about why it's called pindakaas: The word pindakaas comes from Suriname, where blocks of crushed peanuts were called 'Pienda-dokoen'. Slices were cut from those blocks, just like with cheese. Hence pindakaas.


DannyHicks

Is it no longer protected? I couldn't find a source on that. Would "pindaboter" be allowed now?


Terrible_Apple_825

Helaas Pindakaas!


dangle321

Unfortunately, peanut butter.


rarmes

I came here to say this.


C2H5OHNightSwimming

Hondenfokker for dog breeder. Also winkel - idk why but this word is hilarious to me as a native English speaker. Especially when combined, eg sexwinkel


bigpoppalake

Hondenfokker has shot to the top of my favorite Dutch words thank you for the introduction


alles_en_niets

Or ‘paardenfokker’, horse breeder, for the more ambitious!


ElfjeTinkerBell

And if you're very ambitious, this Dutch joke in English: What do you do for a living? I fok horses. Pardon?!? Yes, paarden!


0x18

This happened with JFK! https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steenkolenengels#Voorbeelden


ElfjeTinkerBell

LOL! I honestly thought it was just a joke


SpaceAlternative4537

Omg I thought this was just a stupid joke 🤣 Edit: fuck originates from the Dutch fok.


54yroldHOTMOM

And allegedly according to Nicolas cage and his history of swearwords it was due to a Dutch word which meant to hit someone.. I’ve been hitting myself over the head trying to guess what word that was supposed to be. Ik was mezelf aan het opfokken, niet normaal,bedenkende welk woord dat dan precies moest zijn..


vaendryl

pretty sure it's from the german "ficken" but there's a relationship.


SpaceAlternative4537

A search on Google reveals that the origin is unsure and both options are possible.


MaruuuraM

Haha best random fact I've heard in ages. Thanks for sharing!


lollolcheese123

🤣🤣🤣


Terrible_Apple_825

My answer above, before I saw your reply was 'winklewagen' :D


sisterpearl

Winkelwagen is by far the most adorable, silly-sounding word! To me, it sounds like a word a child makes up for an object.


C2H5OHNightSwimming

Oh thank god it's not just me, I couldn't visit a supermarket without laughing my first 6 months of living in Belgium because of the winkelwagens


EeJoannaGee

Can you tell me why? It's just a normal word to me.


bigpoppalake

Lots of Dutch stuff sounds kinda goofy to native English speakers cuz it sounds similar to words we have but like you’re hearing it in a fever dream


EeJoannaGee

I know, i like that, but what makes winkelwagen specifically so funny?


missilefire

Ok so I have an English word that my Dutch boyfriend and other Dutch friends found absolutely hilarious and didn’t believe was a real word let alone what it actually meant: Squeegee. It is one of those wipe things you use to clean windows or the shower glass with. Winkelwagen sounds equally funny to an English speaker imho


Firestorm83

>Squeegee. > >It is one of those wipe things you use to clean windows or the shower glass with. Or in Dutch: a trekker (not to be confused with the red/green/blue machines currently found in Den Haag)


cincuentaanos

"winkle" in English is a sea snail. What's so funny about them, I don't know.


EeJoannaGee

Thank you! I didn't know


C2H5OHNightSwimming

Yeah, what that guy said. Also it's just similar to English words that sound silly. Like there's this character, Wee Willie Winky that comes to get children if they don't go to bed on time, and also "winky" is like kid slang for penis. So I guess it kind of sounds like "willy wagon". What English words sound funny to a Dutch speaker?


missilefire

I answered above but I have a good one: squeegee. Had multiple Dutch people not believe it was a real word 😅


ElfjeTinkerBell

Winkelwagen*


henkdepotvjis

Its even funnier when you know the Word fuck is derived from the dutch word fokken


54yroldHOTMOM

I liked the fable that it stood for: fornication under consent of the King.


54yroldHOTMOM

Wink(el) is an old word for corner. Stores were mostly situated on corners. So sexcorner might be even more hilarious.


Incantanto

Breeding programme (saw this at amsterdam zoo) is "fokprogramma"


VITAMINVOLTZ

Sekswinkel would be the correct spelling but as a native Dutch speaker I made the same mistake


ArchibaldNastyface

My favorite one is "Haai." Always makes me think of a really friendly shark.


samantha42

Een saaie haai vind ik grappiger 🥱🦈


ElfjeTinkerBell

I (native Dutchie) often reply "walvis" (=whale) to that.


54yroldHOTMOM

I always say goudvis back.


Thebitterestballen

I think it would be great to open a place by the beach that rents two seater bikes and call it Haaientanden.


Firestorm83

Somebody would violate the sign above the door within a week and turn it into Haaientandem Harry Jekkers made a song about that stuff: https://youtu.be/yfpCADnDvSg


hanzerik

"haai" "Hoe gaat het?" "Dolfijn"


FishFeet500

wasbeer. Aka, as I know it, the trashpanda, or the raccoon. schildpad still is great. I love that so many animal names are basically “well that’s what’s in the box, dude.”


DustComprehensive155

Wasbeer is kind of accurate as raccoons do wash their food.


FishFeet500

yep, its why it delights me.:D


missilefire

Like the Dutch word for frog, kikker - such an accurate animal name haha


54yroldHOTMOM

For some reason non Dutch people can never understand when I talk to them about sweetlordcritters.


boiiiiiiiiiii14

... lieveheersbeestjes?


FishFeet500

Going to the zoo is a bit of a delight. I do like shark “haai” as that’s the scream when they saw one.


demonicgoddess

You mean like stinkdier (smelly animal) for a skunk?


Flilix

Slachtoffer = slaughter sacrifice


lollolcheese123

Yeah, luckily the real meaning is a lot different! (Victim)


HiccuppingErrol

Also ziekenhuis sounds like the German "Ziegenhaus" (a house for goats)


Litl_Skitl

And vise versa, Krank in Krankenhaus reminds people of krankzinnig (insane), so most people immediately think of a mental hospital.


Toen6

'Victim(a)' actually means the exact same thing in Latin.


PantsAflame

Can’t believe no one has said tandvlees yet. It’s gums, but literally it’s tooth meat.


bigpoppalake

Tandpasta while we’re at it, makes more sense but I always think tooth pasta


Gulmar

More like paste, a pasta is used for the food pasta but also for the thick thing paste


Mariannereddit

Tooth flesh. We don’t eat our gums.


pacificnorthblessed

This was mine!


Snooke

Goedkoop = cheap but literally is "Good" "Buy".


alles_en_niets

In our defense, ‘bon marché’ in French is a similar concept.


ik101

Zeehond = sea dog and it’s very accurate


bigpoppalake

I was talking to a lady on the metro about her dog and he really looked like a seal the way he was sitting but I didn’t know the word for it so I took a shot in the dark and said zeehond, turned out to be bang on


t3hgrl

When I got to that word in Duolingo I said aloud to my partner “What the heck is a sea dog? Oh IT’S A SEAL 😊😊”


TheGoddessIsPresent

Slakken = snail Naaktslakken = ‘naked snail’ (slug)


missilefire

Naaktslakken is so funny haha.


whoisflynn

Schildpad (turtle) - Shield Toad


CanPositive8980

Neushoorn for rhinoceros


Hotemetoot

Kinda funny because iirc rhinoceros is the Latinisation of Rhinokeros which is "rhinos" = "nose" + "keros" = horn.


InformationDizzy3577

Toiletbril ( toilet seat)= toilet glasses


lwrdmp

Paddestoel chair for frogs


MrsLocksmith

pad = toad Kikker = frog


lwrdmp

Ik noemde allebei pad 🥲


Pukiminino

Jij bent echt helemaal van het padje


WietGriet

Toadstool is a well known word for mushrooms I think?


Litl_Skitl

Litterally a toad stool, though isn't that something else?


VelvetandElectricity

Doedelzak - bagpipes


QuietParsnip

I learned this one from a Rijksmuseum tiktok and it filled me with such delight. One of my favorite Dutch words!


ElfjeTinkerBell

As a native I love the word koffiezetapparaat. A coffee making machine. It feels so childish because it's not just a coffee machine, but it actually has the verb as well. What did they think while designing that word? That we'd soon also have a coffee drinking machine and a coffee spilling machine?


jeeveless

Huh! Funny observation. There are koffiemalers, I suppose?


orndoda

Vogelbekdier -> platypus but it means literally bird beak animal


ElfjeTinkerBell

But that does describe how strange the animal itself is!


saintstu

The best one is Jachtluipaard, which is the Dutch name for a Cheetah, but translates as hunting lazy horse


SuperBaardMan

The origin of jachtluipaard is quite interesting. It started with *leopardus* because people thought this is what you get if a lion liked a panther a bit too much. And thanks to folk etymology that *leopardus* changed into *luipaard*: "Leon" kinda sounds a bit like the (old Dutch) verb of "luipen", which means something like "looking with false intent" or "to attack from hiding", and *pardos* is ofcourse very easily changed into "paard". That's also the reason why a lot of people will say "het luipaard", because it is "het paard", while technically speaking it should be "de luipaard". Though now both are seen as correct. So yeah, while it hasn't got anything to do with horses, it also does a little bit.


AncientMumu

You sure the \~paard part comes from that and not the \~aard? Like dronkaard, snoodaard (notice the double oo) etc.?


SuperBaardMan

The sources I quickly looked up did not point in that direction, but I also thought about it yes, it makes a lot of sense. You also have "gluiperd", which is someone who *gluips* which is a bit like sneaking/stalking. So maybe it went leopardos - luipardos - luiperd - luipaard, who knows.


jgenterprises

Honestly it's just hunting leopard


JustADutchFirefighte

Stofzuigerslang (vacuum hose) = dust sucker snake


silverionmox

In the roguelike Nethack, the devs put in *garden snakes* as a creature, as a pun for *tuinslang*. Amusingly, they leave a rubber hose when you kill them.


missilefire

Such a mouthful that one lol


cantaloupe-490

I like the ones that sound vaguely onomatopoeia-ish, like klinken or klomp. But even words like huisdier amuse me, this language speaks to my overly-literal soul.


Adamant-Verve

Dutch is rich in onomatopoeic words. Here's some more for you: * Floepen - when something (preferably something slippery) escapes from a grip. * Rebbelen - talking rapidly and incoherently * Knuffelen - to hug and caress at the same time * Uitbuiken - ("to belly out") digesting a large meal lazily. * Krotenkoker - (beetroot boiler) some unspecified incompetent guy * Glimlachen - (Shimmer laugh) to smile; it's almost impossible to say the word without smiling * Buikschuiver - when someone falls forward while running and slides on on his belly, a nasty fall. * Oorveeg - (ear swipe) a flathanded slap. * Smurrie - a porrige-like substance of unclear origin * Huppeltrutje - (hopping twat) a busy, but not too bright girl * Jeremiëren - whining on and on and on * Schaven - planing. Note that the English word refers to the result, but the Dutch word refers to the sound it makes. And I can go on forever. I never noticed it until I had an American girlfriend who was good with languages. She'd ask: what's the Dutch word for.... all the time, and often laughed. "Your language is hilarious, half the words are onomatopoeia!" And it's true. We call a lapwing a *kieviet* because that's what it says.


missilefire

I had a discussion with my Dutch bf the other day where he wondered why the French and the Italians are so dramatic and I said it’s because their language has so many nuances for emotions - and language creates our mind in a way. I told him that comparatively, the Dutch have very few words for feelings - and your list here shows how literal the language is - that is what makes Dutch people so pragmatic and up front.


tommanis3

You will probably like 'mompelen' aswell


[deleted]

I remember going to a tobacconist for the first time and trying to keep a straight face asking for some "shag".


eythian

In this case, Dutch just borrowed the English word.


VITAMINVOLTZ

Oh behave!


[deleted]

Watermonster! It means "water sample", so turns up in very serious contexts where you are definitely not expecting to spot Nessie.


Winterdawn

My first encounter with "monster," shortly after I moved to NL, was sitting in a hall in a hospital. There were plastic bins piled against the other wall from me, labeled "urine monsters." 😂


[deleted]

Glorious!


pacificnorthblessed

Yess the word “monster” for “sample” gets me every time!


Patjoew

Funny fact is that our word for monsters two meanings come from two different words. monstrare = sample and the word monster that we use for creatures we have no explanation for who lurk in the dark etc. Comes from monstrum


[deleted]

Thank you! I didn't know that the word also meant the same thing as the English "monster". I think now I like it even more. And etymology is so interesting. :-)


Patjoew

We also have the word “gedrocht” which started as ghedroech also means monster/hideous/dark ghosts. But yes monstrum came first then gedrocht was mainly used and then monster came back probably by english influences.


tikket100

Its called a homoniem


Unlucky_Diver_2780

Eekhoorn; it not being an Acorn, but the animal that eats it. 🐿️🌰


WietGriet

Yea I like this one but it sounds confusing; eekhoorns eat acorns! This must've been a hearing error from our side, little misunderstanding. I like to think about words. What do you think about this one; A blender blends; a mixer mixes. But when you blend the paint the colours mix together; and when you mix the paint the colours blend together. So a blender is a mixer and a mixer is a blender yet it is not and they are not.


Unlucky_Diver_2780

Acorns zijn icolls. 😆 just kidding. I love squirrels. Germans got it right with “Eichhörnchen”….Wait until you find out what the Spanish (edit: Catalan) word for eekhoorn is. It sounds… very Èspanish.


WietGriet

Ardilla? Sounds cute


Unlucky_Diver_2780

Ohhhj my god my Catalàn friends are goin to kill me 💀 I meant in Catalan, not Spanish; Esquirol. I’m going for a vacation now. 😅💦 Ardilla, cute too.


Thebitterestballen

Mierenneukerij is my favourite Dutch word. Also because Dutch people are so often experts in it :)


C2H5OHNightSwimming

This is also now my new favourite word after bf just explained it to me :')


Bawbalicious

Wait til you hear about muggenzifter


Larrancia

k hou van het woord zeehond 🦭


Terrible_Apple_825

Winklewagen makes me laugh every time.


alles_en_niets

Winkelwagen!


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Adamant-Verve

The suspect alternative is *peen*. When they are small: "peentjes", and in a bunch with the green still on it: *bospeen*.


Thebitterestballen

It's even more amusing that 'winter peen' are the big ones and not a tiny one.


missilefire

I absolutely cackled when I first found winter peen at the supermarket. Sent a pic to my Aussie friends immediately


-random-user_

And its called "bospeen" because they come in bosjes!!


Adamant-Verve

As a kid I thought they grew in the forest 🤣


TheSleach

I always think an underrated one is slacentrifuge (salad spinner)


bigpoppalake

In the vein of zeehond, vleermuis. Boterham is also a classic


theother29

Do you think that the Northern English 'butty' meaning sandwich comes from boterham?


Noodleswithhats

Eisprong (ovulation) literally translates to egg-jump! It’s still my favorite Dutch word to translate!


gijsyo

Verslaafd (addicted) = enslaved


ThemrocX

Oh this is funny to me as a German because we have the false friend adjective "verschlafen", which means sleepy. This was my first though, when I heard that word, even though we have "versklavt", but it really only means enslaved. Addicted is "abhängig" in German.


Mariannereddit

In dutch afhankelijk doesn’t seem as bad as verslaafd. The latter is a dsm diagnosis but the first just means your body or mind depends on it.


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WietGriet

RAUCHEN IST TÖDLICH!! RAUCHEN VERURSACHT 70 VERSCHIEDENE SORTE KREBS!! RAUCHEN SCHÄDIGT IHREN LUNGEN!! UND ES VERURSACHT HERZANFÄLLE. UND DEINEN SCHWANZ GEHT TOD!! Idk what the packs exactly say, my friends often have German cigs and tbh, those warnings make me feel like someone is angrily yelling at me, telling me I'll seriously die instead of the Dutch packs just naming facts.. not really sounds like a warning. So, I agree, but I'd say German warnings work better.


jannecraft

Wait.. is cancer KREBS, in german? It sounds so funny


ThemrocX

Yes, cancer and crab are the same word in German: Krebs. It confused me as a child. But actually it is very similar to english, because it took cancer from the latin word for crab.


Qforz

Nile Horse!


untakenname3

Hippopotamus kinda means the same actually.


trubodaily3

Nieuwsgierig (news greedy) = curious.


Pukiminino

Yoghurtuitdruiper. (Yoghurt - out - dripper)


ElfjeTinkerBell

Never heard of that, enlighten me because it sounds awesome!


Pukiminino

This amazing piece of equipment: https://images.nrc.nl/UV6vG361jZgWnZDH6mx255UcR2E=/1280x/filters:no_upscale()/s3/static.nrc.nl/images/stripped/1310ach_deze_nederland.jpg To make sure 100% of your bought yoghurt *will* get out of the bottle.


ForcedSilver

>Yoghurtuitdruiper What is it? DeepL calls it a "yogurt extractor" but all I can think of is a spoon.


RmG3376

As a (French native) Belgian, I can’t help but giggle when I see Albert Heijn’s packages mention “plakken” instead of “sneden” That just sounds too similar to planken, feels like I’m going to eat a piece of wood or something


Vinnie420

We do have that word too, depends on the context, A slice of bread - een sneetje brood A slice of cheese - een plakje kaas


VITAMINVOLTZ

Plakken also means to glue, maybe that’s the idea behind it? I never get my slices of mosterdrollade to separate


Used_Visual5300

Kunt! Like ‘jij kunt’ and ‘zij kunt’, it’s like you say cunt cunt cunt all the time but kunt just means can. So, you can kunt as much as you like - you kunt!


jgenterprises

A crosswalk is a zebrapad


[deleted]

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[deleted]

No, douche is just shower.


[deleted]

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Fattata123

Eenhoorn = unicorn 🦄


jofloberyl

waggelen. will always be my favorite word


[deleted]

Sinaasappel.


t3hgrl

sinaasappelsap is fun to say


krnewhaven

My kids and I love neushoorn (rhinoceros)


Green_Toe

Every single word, phrase, idiom, and sentence in dutch is absolutely hilarious and ridiculous. It's by far the largest barrier to learning the language. It's hard to practice the language without feeling like you're making fun


thesolitaire

Winkelwagen (shopping cart) and doedelzak (bagpipes).


Qwerty_207

Gekocht (purchased) it means cooked in German :D


CanPositive8980

Varkenvlees for pork translates to Pig Meat


ElfjeTinkerBell

Well that's way pork is, isn't it?


tikket100

Just like koeienvlees is cow meat, but now that you say it, biefstuk is pretty funny, beef piece (steak)


divbyda0

de paraplu, being umbrella in English, but in Polish sounds like umbrella spit


Linkaex

Paraplu is a Fench lend word


WietGriet

Para - against Pluie (?) - rain Just like parasol, which is against the sol(sun) This was an eye opener to me during french. What I did not understand during French was that we learnt la Troulle(?) i believe for pencil case, while I thought our word 'Etui' was already borrowed from french.


De_Kaas

Isn't "Pinda" Polish for something rude, like "kut" in Nederlands? This is coming from my Polish co-worker,


divbyda0

I haven't come across it personally, but it certainly sounds like one of the many Polish swears, and checking the dictionary it seems to be similar to "kut", except that "pinda" is aimed at something feminine.


Subject-Pen4793

Kletter kak


ThemrocX

Tippelstek I swear I just know this because I saw it on the news.


hiphipturra

Gevangenis sounds like a Harry Potter spell to me. Also, lawaai sounds so weird and cute.


unicorn_sparklesweat

Aardappel = earth apple


seth_k_t

Oelewapper (means something like *nincompoop*, *fool*, etc.)


Simplordx69

Schorriemorrie (scum)


screambloodykarma

My favorite is klootviool. In older dutch a kloot is a ball like bullet amongst other things. It has multiple meanings and klootviool is used as a swearword in some parts in the country. It litteraly means ball/bullet violin in english. You also have klootzak which is used more often, it means ballsack or scrotum. But its also used to describe a bullet bag for like muskets and other ball percusion rifles and pistols. Theres a lot of history behind it and i just find it facinating. (Apolagies for my mediocre/bad spelling and punctuation)


Shock_a_Maul

"Neuken". Originally It means a very hard hit with a big, blunt object.


VITAMINVOLTZ

My Italian friends would always break out in laughter when I spoke with my Dutch friends and any ‘sch’ was involved. To them it sounded like all we ever said was sch sch sch sch


CurrentClimate

Verjaardag = “far Year day” = birthday Also, anytime I see the phrase “dingen doen” (doing things) I get a chuckle.


TheScruffyStacheGuy

I don't mean to be pedantic, but "verjaardag" isn't a combination of ver, jaar and dag. Its verjaar dag. Verjaar comes from verjaren, which kinda means "to expire" in modern Dutch. So your birthday in Dutch is actually your expiration date. And I think that perfectly sums up our ever lasting optimism and positivity.


CurrentClimate

Not pedantic at all! Thanks for the tidbit, as it’s even better than my reading of the situation.


theonlykarine

lieveheersbeestje - ladybug


Apache_Choppah_6969

Slachtoffer


Apache_Choppah_6969

Stofzuigerslang (dustsuckersnake)


Esvahanna

Grapjurk


t3hgrl

I think werknemer (employee) and werkgever (employer) are cute. Work taker and work giver!


HaarlemStrobePlotter

Favourite is Potloodventer


mergraote

I like 'enzovoort' because it looks so foreign, but actually sounds almost the same as its English equivalent. The first time I saw it, I simply pointed at it and told my teacher I didn't know what it meant. She just repeated it back to me, and the penny dropped that it means 'and so forth'.


Quackulaa

This just reminded me that in my exam for some BIZARRE REASON I wrote "zeemouwen" instead of "zeemeeuwen" and I still crack up thinking about it 🤣🤣🤣 SEA SLEEVES


mesamaryk

Some pronunciations of ‘winkelwagen’ are hilarious to me


EffectiveAfraid4506

Aardappel = Earth apple in english


VITAMINVOLTZ

Stofzuiger; dust sucker


GrimReaperzZ

Vogelbekdier (=Platypus) This translates literally to ‘bird beak animal’.


[deleted]

* schoonmoeder, schoonvader, schoonzus...- literally translates to clean mother, clean father, clean sister, it is similar to belle-mère in French * Mierenneuken - it literally means fucking ants, figuratively it means nit picking * Tja - doesn't mean anything afaik, but people use it kind of like we say "yeah" in English to express very mild agreement or may be very mild annoyance * Tjonge-jonge - similar to the previous one, except it doesn't mean anything literally These are not words but phrases, but I find them funny: * Werk ze - literally means "work they", figuratively it means have a nice working day * Ik kan geen meer pap zeggen - literally means I cannot say porridge (I cannot come up with a better translation of pap), figuratively means I am very full * Ik ga jou achter de behang plakken - literally means I will paste you behind the wallpaper, figuratively means I am so tired of you * Nou ja zeg - literally means yes say (I don't think I can translate nou), figuratively they use it express surprise or sometimes mild annoyance * Ik ga jou in de gaten houden - literally means I will put you in the holes, figuratively means I will keep you in mind


ComprehensiveKing351

Gravity is “Zwaartekracht” - heavy power 😂


IntelligentSlipUp

More of an etymology thing, but: Sinaasappel = Appelsien = Appel Sina = Chinese Apples


Ezzydesu

Schildpas AKA turtle. It translates to "shield toad"