A twin is a single person, who happens to have been born alongside another. That’s different from Dutch, in which “a twin” refers to the identical twosome.
Category Archives: Cultural
Richard of York gave battle in vain
That’s the mnemonic we all learned at primary school in England for the colours of the rainbow. Unfortunately, that’s one more colour than in Dutch!
Zwarte Piet
No matter what your personal take is on Black Peter, be aware that Brits and Americans are liable to see him as an offensive racial stereotype.
Indonesian borrowings
Most words that Dutch and English have borrowed from other European languages overlap, such as Italian musical terms. That doesn’t apply to borrowings from the respective former colonial areas, though.
Gallons, tons, fluid ounces…
When converting units, be aware that not all the imperial measures are the same in US and UK English (let alone the equivalent legacy words in Dutch).
“Euro” as a prefix
Eurocrat, Eurotrash, Eurospeak… prefixing something with “Euro” in English is often intended as a negative connotation. Unlike on the Continent.
Decimal coinage
Fifty years ago this week, Britain got rid of its notorious system of pounds, shillings and pence: great for dividing fractions in medieval times, but not much use with computers.
Dear, dear…
Try to avoid using “Dear” at the start of a message or e-mail unless you know the person’s name. Imagine you’re actually speaking to them, face to face.
Cowboys and Indonesians
Unusually for European languages, Dutch has retained the word “Indisch” as the demonym for the former East Indies and people are always mistranslating it as “Indian”.
De Ruyter? Sinterklaas?
Who?
Advanced Dunglish 