Dutch uses the same word for both (relatie), but the meanings in English are distinctly different.
In the vast majority of cases, relatie should be translated as relationship.
- mathematical and logical functions are relationships
- artistic and other comparisons and juxtapositions are relationships
- the way individuals or companies are associated or positioned with respect to each other are also relationships:
parent-child relationship
a landlord-tenant relationship
the relationship between buyer and seller - having a boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, whatever is a relationship. And they are not your relations, because…
- …your relations are your family ties. Not so much the nuclear family as all the aunts, uncles, cousins and so forth.
- the more physical social and business interactions and similar are relations:
e.g. BZK = Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
e.g. Bill Clinton stating he “did not have sexual relations with that woman”
(You could have relations without a relationship, and vice versa!) - in the business world, a “relatie” is a contact or business contact, not a “relation”.
And don’t be misled in that last one by the fact that it’s the R in CRM: what you’re managing in CRM are the relations with the customers (the penultimate bullet above).
Prevalence: very high. Turns up a great deal in business texts in particular, but in fact can be found in pretty much any type of document.
Frequency: endemic. Dutch authors rarely use the word relationship, although it’s more often the correct choice.
Native: rarely. A typical non-native error. But by no means exclusively so.
Advanced Dunglish 