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Category Archives: Style

Woods, forests and jungles

Your everyday, common-or-garden patch of countryside with trees is a wood or woodland. Forests are bigger, darker and nastier; jungles are definitely more exotic.

Posted byMike WilkinsonAugust 17, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Wrong registerTags:bos, dunglish, engels, oerwoud, regenwoudLeave a comment on Woods, forests and jungles

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”.

Posted byMike WilkinsonAugust 13, 2020August 13, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Overused words, StyleTags:dunglish, engels, o.a., onder andere2 Comments on Among other things

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.

Posted byMike WilkinsonAugust 10, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Overused words, StyleTags:ambitie, dunglish, engels, Eurospeak1 Comment on Ambition

The muscles of the legs of the sprinter

Using possessive forms and adjectival nouns rather than “of the” can make your writing a lot more succinct.

Posted byMike WilkinsonAugust 6, 2020August 6, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Longwindedness, StyleTags:dunglish, engels3 Comments on The muscles of the legs of the sprinter

Hitting the right register

Dutch is rich in synonyms (often pairs with Germanic and Latinate roots). The nuances of usage aren’t quite the same – and it’s an issue in English too.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 30, 2020July 30, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Style, Wrong registerTags:dunglish, engels, register, samenwerken2 Comments on Hitting the right register

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.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 27, 2020July 27, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Overused words, Style, Wrong registerTags:dunglish, engels, zoekenLeave a comment on They seek him here, they seek him there

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”?

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 21, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Overused words, StyleTags:dunglish, engels, uitgerust met, uitrustingLeave a comment on Well-equipped

Playing for keeps

There are a few small words that bespeckle native English yet are rarely used by non-natives. A very useful one is “keep”.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 17, 2020Posted inAdvanced, Style, Underused wordsTags:aanhouden, continu, dunglish, engels, steedsLeave a comment on Playing for keeps

Zero Dark Thirty

There are all kinds of ways of expressing times and writing them down, but the commonest formats in English aren’t the same as the usual Dutch ones.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 14, 2020Posted inCultural, StyleTags:dunglish, engels, tijdstip, uurLeave a comment on Zero Dark Thirty

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.

Posted byMike WilkinsonJuly 10, 2020July 14, 2020Posted inMistranslations, Overused words, Style, Valse vriendenTags:dunglish, engels, Eurospeak, traject2 Comments on Trajectories are for ballistics

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