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!
Tag Archives: dunglish
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.
As you ought to realise
Realising mostly means comprehending rather than creating something: getting the picture, not painting it.
Biological or organic?
Environmentally-aware agriculture is organic in English, not biological.
A timely reminder
A project can be completed on time, or in good time, or as scheduled. But the nuances of “timely” aren’t always quite the same.
Expertise
Only use this to mean someone’s acquired skill and knowledge in English, not as a term for a valuation or checkup or other professional opinion.
Proximity of verb and subject
Dutch sentence structures can leave a verb and its subject miles apart as some adverbial clause intervenes. A habit that’s best avoided in English.
Some supporting figures
People regularly tell me that they keep hearing natives use the words and phrases I say should be avoided. Which we do; the question is how often. Here are some figures to help back it up.
The verb for spatial positioning: to be
My car is located in the car park. It is placed in the car park. It can be found in the car park. It is positioned in the car park. It stands in the car park. Nope.
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.
