Texts by Dutch authors tend to be full of little phrases like these. Sure, they have their place, but there’s often a natural one-word alternative.
Category Archives: Overused words
Performance
“Performance” is the noun that comes from “to perform”. But it’s not the right word to use for carrying out tasks or doing work: the overtones are too confusing.
Relations and relationships
Dutch uses the same word for both (relatie), but the meanings in English are distinctly different.
Among other things
Although it’s valid English, it’s not all that common a phrase and often not the most natural equivalent of the Dutch “onder andere”.
Ambition
Ambition isn’t always purely about positive goals. There can be overtones of being hell-bent on achieving them: being greedy, self-serving and unscrupulous.
They seek him here, they seek him there
To ‘seek’ is another of those words that are very similar to a much more everyday Dutch equivalent. It therefore gets heavily overused in Dunglish.
Well-equipped
This mask is equipped with an elastic band. This playground is equipped with a slide. This jacket is equipped with large pockets. What’s wrong with “has”?
Trajectories are for ballistics
The curve taken under gravity by a thrown object, or a metaphorical upward progression such as a career. Not a generic synonym for a route or pathway.
So-called
Watch the overtones: it’s not only telling you a term is used but also implying that it’s incorrect. A so-called expert or so-called friend is not to be trusted!
Insights… preferably not.
One of the worst offenders in the list of words overused by Dutch authors, because ‘inzicht’ is hugely more common.
