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Category Archives: Grammar

Social and societal

For some reason, Dutch writers love correcting “social” into “societal”.

Posted byMike WilkinsonFebruary 22, 2022Posted inAdvanced, Hypercorrectness, Style, Wrong registerTags:dunglish, engels, maatschappelijk, sociaalLeave a comment on Social and societal

0.5 tons

English use of plurals with numeric (decimal) fractions is peculiar, particularly in the spoken form.

Posted byMike WilkinsonFebruary 8, 2022Posted inAdvanced, PluralsTags:decimale punt, dunglish, engels, gebruik meervoudLeave a comment on 0.5 tons

Making do

Making a jigsaw in English would mean cutting the puzzle pieces out, not putting them together. One of many occasions where Dutch uses “make” but English prefers “do”.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJanuary 18, 2022Posted inAdvanced, Elementary, VerbsTags:dunglish, engels, makenLeave a comment on Making do

Twins

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.

Posted byMike WilkinsonNovember 11, 2021November 11, 2021Posted inAdvanced, Cultural, PluralsTags:dunglish, engels, tweeling1 Comment on Twins

Spoken dates

Although we generally say something like “the fifth of November” or “April the seventeenth” (or variants depending on US/UK etc.), it’s not normal to write it out that way.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 14, 2021Posted inAdvanced, Hypercorrectness, US-UK issuesTags:datum, dunglish, engelsLeave a comment on Spoken dates

The singular of criteria…

…is “criterion” in English, not “criterium”.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 9, 2021July 9, 2021Posted inAdvanced, Fake English, PluralsTags:criterium, dunglish, engelsLeave a comment on The singular of criteria…

We suggest to avoid to make this error…

Many cases of an action being expressed in Dutch with an infinitive are more naturally written in English with the “-ing” form.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 8, 2021Posted inAdvanced, GrammarTags:adviseren, dunglish, engels1 Comment on We suggest to avoid to make this error…

A bit of this and that

Strangely enough, the usage of those two simple, everyday words is quite often the other way round in Dutch when referring to abstracts rather than tangible objects.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 5, 2021Posted inAdvanced, GrammarTags:dunglish, engels2 Comments on A bit of this and that

Habits such as: colons before lists

Dutch typography regularly seems to use a superfluous colon to introduce a list of items – sometimes even a ‘list’ of one!

Posted byMike WilkinsonJune 16, 2021June 16, 2021Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PunctuationTags:dubbele punt, dunglish, engelsLeave a comment on Habits such as: colons before lists

Fireworks

Dutch treats the broad concept of pyrotechnics as a singular noun, “vuurwerk”. English doesn’t: fireworks are in the plural.

Posted byMike WilkinsonMarch 2, 2021March 3, 2021Posted inAdvanced, Grammar, PluralsTags:dunglish, engels, vuurwerkLeave a comment on Fireworks

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