American Tries READING DUTCH SIGNS in Amsterdam!! 

Ich würde sagen, Du mußt unbedingt Fränkisch ausprobieren und Schwäbisch. Immerhin sind das die beiden Sprachen der Menschen in Bayern (neben Bairisch)

Wanted Adventure 🤦‍♂️

Maybe try to read and speak Luxembourgish :)

Wanted Adventure hi i have a tip for you dont think that dutch and german are the same for example we the dutch say goedendag en the gemans say guttentag very different keep that in mind

Esch hann ätt enz commenceiert, datt ess en melange uss daitsch ung frangzeisisch

+actua99 THANK YOU!!! Thank so much for this break down of the meanings :D Really cool to see what they all mean. And awesome that you spotted a typo in the street name spelling 😂

And about the construction site sign: the fact it tells unauthorised people to stay out is kind of like a jurisdictional thingy. In reality, you will probably get away with entering the building site outside working hours, if you just like to sit somewhere closed off. The sign however gives a (literally translated saying coming up) 'bar behind the door' (Stok achter de deur) for people that misbehave, as they are officially trespassing. As said, if you trespass you will be doing that anyway (and this could attract a penalty) but if people misbehave, they at least can say that the sign clearly stated entering the premises/site was not allowed. The funny thing about the 'uitvoerder' is that it can be VERY hard (especially at larger construction sites) to find the guy/woman that is the 'uitvoerder'. There are like 'helmet'-codes at some construction sites for convenience (green helmet: you're there for the exterior, blue: interior, yellow: electrics... and so on) but I have only come across one site ever where this was strictly followed (and as I was an intern back than, I got the spare helmet which proved to have the color that was meant to be for the building site manager...)

You're welcome, thanks for putting up the video! By the way, I didn't know about the helmet colours... interesting :)

Sometimes it works if you combine English and German cognates in the right way, but you have to figure out which is which. "Hoe" = E "how"; "gaat" = D "geht" "het"= D "es" (The last is easier to spot if you realize that the "h" is silent. Or if you are hearing it spoken, the silent "h" isn't a problem, but you have to know that the throat-clearing noise can represent "g" as well as "ch".) So "Hoe gaat het?" is word-for-word "Wie geht's?" and has the same meaning. Piece of cake, huh? If you had recognized "terug" = D "zerück", you could have put that together with "vind" (D "find", E "find") -- though "terugvinden" here means D "vorfinden" (to find something) rather than D "zurückfinden" (to find one's way). I can't help you much with "voorwerp", though (=E "object", D "Gegenstand"). The dictionary says it's a direct calque of Latin "objectum" -- so, I suppose, is D "Vorwurf", but with a different meaning.

As said, I only came across those helmet codes once (I have been on a few construction sites after that, but none had 'the code') This is also a thing for larger construction sites, where helmets can be the responsibility of the building site manager and not of all individual workers on site. This prevents the workers on site from working without one while they really shouldn't be doing so. By handing out helmets as a building site manager, a worker can't say he didn't know he was obliged to wear a helmet (in case of accidents) as the building site manager gave him one and told him it was obligatory. Though helmets are almost always obligatory, this method makes it rather hard to forget ;) The colour-coding is just there so it's easy to spot who is who, as construction sites can be very chaotic.

+Spity Yeah I was surprised how much Dutch Mr. German Man could understand! Signs and just in general.

But German and Dutch are quite similar. I think it also comes down to the very similar signs. Though US signs are clear as well (for me, as a Dutchie) about what they mean, we Dutch tend to place a lot of extra signs underneath other signs to indicate exempts or things that don't really need it an extra explanation at all. Like the blue signs with a white P on it: which mark parking spots. A lot of times, especially if people don't like to park in official parking spots, there can be a 'onderbord' (literally: undersign) which tells 'Alleen in de vakken' ('Parking only in the boxes') which is exactly the same as the blue and white P sign, but it like stresses the point. And the 'cyclists and mopeds exempt' sign is like the most common sign over here ;)

Indeed, once you make a few basic substitutions (such as uit/aus), you will often arrive at a German-like word sequence where the meaning is understandable and the words are just somewhat unusual in the context (such as "ausgesondert" instead of "ausgenommen" or "allein" instead of "nur")

+Alexander van Maastricht Well, it is usually considered a *language* of its own, belonging - like German - to the West Germanic language family. Then again, the distinction dialect vs. language is a debatable one and neither completely coupled to mutual understandability nor completely coupled with political borders.

The whole dialect/language distinction is flawed, anyway. What makes a "tongue" a dialect instead of a language is supposed to be mutual understandability. However, if A and B are mutually intelligible and B and C are, what if A and C aren't? So in the end, something is a language because it is considered a language. As such, Dutch is, in fact, a language. Besides, German and Dutch are not mutually intelligible, though it is close. What I find really fascinating, is that Swiss German is considered a dialect. I can somewhat understand Dutch, but I can't understand a word of Swiss German.

+MC Meyer Thank you!! 😊

Hahaha, as someone who's fluent in both languages, that is really funny! :D Fiets is an etymological marvel. It's hardly 150 years old, yet we do not have a real clue where it came from. Possibly it comes from German. In the early ages of the bicycle, it's been nicked "Vize-Pferd", so "vice-horse". The word got shortened to "Vize" and then imported in the Dutch speaking region as "vietse" and later "viets". The latter actually is the oldest found written official reference to the word, in 1886. An older occurrence of the word "fiets" with an "f" is from 1871, but it's from a less certain source. It was a teacher's letter where he talked about the word that he heard from one of his pupils. Other hypothesises suggest that it's from English "feet". It could have been adopted here as a word for a draisine, as it were a "foot bike". Or it might have been an onomatopoeia. "fffffftsssssss"... But this is rather doubtful. An even more doubtful concept is "velocipede" -> "fieselepee" -> "fietsepee" -> "fiets". It's been suggested that the word comes from the cartwright Elie Cornelis Viets, but that is more than unlikely. He founded his company in 1885. As the oldest form is nearly 15 years older, this is nearly impossible. Another hypothesis is the most likely one. It might have originated in the Limburgian word "vietse" which means to run very fast. This might be originating in "vite", which is French for quick. But... even to this very day, we have only hypothesises. There is absolutely no certainty!

Thanks, that's really interesting! I also find the Dutch word for motorbike particularly onomatopoetic: Bromfiets, which I always imagine coming out in English as something like "vroom-bike". :-)

Bromfiets is actually a onomatopoeia indeed! It comes from "brommen" and "fiets". Brommen means to buzz, to hum, to grumble in this context. It can also mean to grumble, but not in the "bromfiets" context. ;)

Fascinating! I'd always had the impression that Dutch is quite fun-loving language, but it's obviously very creative, as well.

I love German and Dutch! And you perfectly got why! :)

same

am from germany and study in the netherlands - can confirm

lol

getting pissed and I can speak fluent German.. the Dutch :)

Most dutch people I know don't speak german, or don't like to speak german 😁

Kristina Ma down here in Limburg every Dutch person speaks German as well as Dutch and English

hoe kom je aan een halve nationaliteit?

Ik kom uit Nederland ❤🎀

+Lauren Herda Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed the video :) :) It was so much fun to see what I could understand of the language!

+Jaime Vest Yay!! Thank you 😄

Yea dutch didn't go through as many sound shifts. It's a bit less developed and primitive.

Let me (Speaking English, German and Dutch, learning Danish) tell you, understanding Danish and Icelandic from listening would be utterly impossible. Especially the Danish pronunciation is very different from most other Germanic languages. Reading should be about as difficult/easy as Dutch.

Thanks, that's interesting to hear, as a Dutchy myself I have been able to (mostly) follow Danish chat (in a known context).

True! I've lived in the Netherlands for a couple of years and then moved to Denmark. Reading wasn't the problem... ;)

How about the eastern/northen dialects? those aren't easy. Even for an dutchy person.

+Antonio Verweij Thank you!! :)

Cheater :-)

Oh yeah ;)

Oké gefeliciteerd

Lara H I think it's one of the most beautiful in the world

Lara Elle come to rotterdam amsterdam ugly as fack

Lara H The best thing in Amsterdam is the train to Rotterdam.

+In1998able :D bedankt!

+Speireata4 Nice!! :)

+Posturtle Well done, my friend 😃 Dank je wel!

Same.

+Sarah Bloemetjes, You have a Surname which remind the German Language: "Blume" ( Flower ). And I gues that "etjes" is the diminutive... Like "Blümchen" ( Little Flower ) in German. Since it remind German, then Dana could understand it...

Some Dutch words should be easy to understand as a Swede: straks, been, zaak, brandweerman, etc.

A lot of Swedish words are similar to Dutch. Like ... lång = lang, kort = kort, ram = raam, långsam = langzaam, bevara = bewaren, späning = spanning, modig = moedig, blåsa = blazen, brand = brand, slott = slot, evig = eeuwig, intressant = interessant, veta = weten, ögonblick = ogenblik, mindervärdighet = minderwaardigheid, anledning = aanleiding and I can go on and on . A lot of them are also similar to German.

All Germanic languages are similar. Dutch is closest to German. lang = lang, kort= kurz , langzaam = langsam, eeuwig=ewig, ogenblik=Augenblick, bewaren= bewahren, minderwaardigheid = Minderwertigkeit, aanleiding=Anleitung

+Sanne De Lange aaah, okay! Is "Fietspad" the word for bike lane? Thanks :D

Wanted Adventure yeah, it is. the 3rd sing means that you can't go there, as it is protected under a article of or law. and it warns you to enter at own risk. it's a common sing used at building areas.

Wanted Adventure fiets=bike pad=lane/road :))

overall you guys did really well 👍

Actually, I should mention, the sound mappings I mentioned are not necessarily how the Dutch people pronounce those letter groups, but if you pronounce those letter combos out loud the word sounds a bit like German (or English). Then there are other equivalences with prefixes like "uit" (pronounced like English "out" I think) -> German "aus" (like Mr German Man mentioned in our example)

+AniekAnt Ant 😄 Yay! Thanks for the feedback!!

❤