What's positive about falling with your nose in the butter? Well, until a few generations ago, butter was considered to be a luxury, ordinary people didn't get to taste it very often, only on special occasions. So falling into it was like getting an unexpected treat.

There's a bit of a story behind the "bacon and beans". In the past, once the weather gets cold enough to freeze the many rivers and lakes, skating competitions would be organized. Competitors were supposed to buy into that race and the winner would get the pot. Thing is, most of the poorer people, like farm hands, wouldn't be able to afford the entrance fee. To give the rich kids a bit more competition, everyone was allowed to join for "spek en bonen". Meaning, you can't actually win the race pot, but you'd get fed for your efforts.

We really are a quirky bunch of people 😂

"dat kun je op je klompen aanvoelen": when something is so very obvious, you can feel it even through your hard wooden clogs. 😄

'Hoor' comes from the verb 'horen', to listen, so could be translated as 'you hear', or 'listen up'. Nothing wrong with that. A word I have more difficulty with is 'kont'. This is best translated as 'arse', and is not gender specific; we all have one. But it sounds so much like the English 'c' word that I have difficulty in saying it, even though my Dutch friends say it all the time and it isn't considered particularly rude. I have no difficulty with 'mierenneuker', which is a great word and should be adopted into English without delay. Another favourite of mine is the verb 'ijsberen', literally 'to polar bear', i.e. to walk up and down with a worried look on your face like a polar bear in a zoo.

Im half Duch and half American, and its always hillarious to mess with relatives on both sides with Dutch and American English. By the way with the amount of Dutch related vidoes you've made; The Netherlands might as well adopt you😉🙃.

15:25 That makes the idiom work. It is so obvious that even when wearing clogs you can still feel it under your feet.

When you start translating the words in expressions just literally, you're in for a real treat :-) !...... All of a sudden you are handling the dust sucker instead of the vacuum cleaner ;-) and that list can get very, very long !!!

One of the most famous Dutch " ezelsbruggetje" is TV-TAS. It stands for all the names of islands we have in the North / Waddensea. They are, from west to east: Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland, Schiermonnikoog.

As regards to the pissen/ plassen thing (pissing/ peeing), there's another Dutch saying: Toen piesen plassen werd, begon het gezeik. It basically translates to: "When pissing became peeing, the bullshit started." Kind of an early anti-woke/ PC joke I suppose. Only in Dutch, gezeik, or zeiken, is another word for pissing (pissen/ piesen).

A "legend" of ladybug is that in medieval time a man was about to be executed by beheading. But just before the chop he said stop because there was a bug on his neck. He takes the bug and places it on a bush. And comes back for the beheading. His compasion compells his executioners to set him free. And he thanks the bug. And the bug must be sent by god. So the bug is called "dear lords creature" ( lieve heers beestje)

the origin of "Kinderkopjes: The name for the cobblestone is literally a size. As large as the head of a small child. In ths south of the country and in Flanders, the name is not (or barely) used and they are called Kassei (plural: kasseien) Met je neus in de boter vallen: There have been several times in Dutch history in which butter was something only for the welathy and upper class. So if one fell with their nose into butter, they clearly were lucky people. Pissen: It actually does translate from English to Dutch. Pissen is used, it is considered slang but I have said "Ik mot ff pissen (I have to go piss real quickly) often enough That entire line with the exception of "ik" is basically "alternative Dutch". mot is slang for moet (in this case, "een mot" would be " a moth" as in the animal) ff is shorthand for "even" which in this case means "quickly/in a hurry" but the everday meaning is "in a bit/while" or "for a short time" depending on it's use. Even is also the Dutch word for ... even (as in odds and evens) Op die fiets: Did you know we have no idea etymological speaking where "fiets" is originating from? Some suggestions are: 1. Derived from the French word Velocipede, 2. From South Limburgian dialect Vietse which means, or at least used to mean quick walking/running, 3. From the name of a smith/bike rental in Wageningen called Ellie Viets, 4: From the name of a bycicle club from Apeldaoor "La Vitesse" or (my favorite)5: an onomatopoeia from "the sound it makes when using it.. being fts". We do know it originiated somewhere in the 1860's. Another popular one with fiets is "Ga toch fietsen" ("just go cycling" as a variant of the English "ah f off") Op je klompen aanvoelen: Doesn't it make sense? If you can feel it in your clogs (a footwear putely made as protection for your feet), it must have been very very obvious what you stepped in. Also, clogs are made of wood, wood works with weather. So farmers could feel with their clogs what kind of weather they could expect. Clogs feel different in summer then they do in winter, different in rain then in dry. So if your toe freezes off because it is so dang cold, you could have felt that upfront when putting your clogs on your feet. Spek en bonen: similar to the butter example but the other way around. Bacon and beans were the cheapest forms of food in most of Dutch history. The boar has been part of Dutch nature since long before we got here. Pork (and in extension bacon) have been primary food sources forever. Therefor if you participated in something and the price was bacon and/or beans, the price was pretty worthless.

Oh my god. Your face Paul. This was hilarious. I know the Dutch language is a bit strange and difficult, but the way you reacted. Epic 🤣🤣

Now breaks my wooden shoe!

"voor spek en bonen meedoen" usually is used when a to young kid wants to join a game for higher age. The grown-up people would say it to the elder kids and then it means: let him join and let the little kid think he is participating the game. So like with monopoly: give the kids some money, throw the dice, walk around the board.

Love your enthousiasm and interest Combustible! 👍

The funniest Dutch word is: Huttentuttententententoonstelling 😂 Dutchies knows exactly what i mean 😂

Voor spek en bonen meedoen (join for bacon and beans) is often used while playing a boardgame, and for example a very young child wants to join in, he can play for bacon and beans. It means he participates but can not lose or win. Or for example while playing a poker game at home with inexperienced players, you may play a practice round with no real bets and nothing to win; it’s for bacon and beans.

Ezel (donkey or ass) is also a derogatory term for someone who is dumb. An ezelsbruggetje therefore is an aid to help dumb down difficult information (to bridge the knowledge gap, so you will). Originally the term was used for Euclid's theorem Pons asinorum, which generally speaking is translated Bridge of asses in English. In Dutch the phrase evolved beyond a single theorem or a single subject.

I like your comment about this video, I have seen it earlier. You made me laugh. Greetings, Roelof.

‘Ja hoor’ contextually best translates to ‘sure’

Yes, we are crazy people and we will make an idiom about you some day.... "Bij Highly in de schuur zijn de videos niet duur" meaning "At Highly in the shed the videos are not expensive". No, sounds better in Dutch 😂

Platypus = in Dutch vogelbekdier Vogel~bek~dier translated in English bird~beke~animal 😉🤣😂👍

In the past, the word boterbrief (butter letter) was used jokingly for a certain type of "indulgence letters". An indulgence (Latin: indulgentia) is a remission before God of temporal punishment (penance) derived from the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. These letters gave permission to eat butter, cheese, eggs and meat during the fast days. The common people were not allowed to use butter during the fasting days because it was too luxurious. That's why those who were allowed to do so were in luck.

Falling with you nose in the butter is better than falling on the kinderkopjes

Ook een leuke, "De kat in de zak kopen" it means you bought something but wasn't what you expected it was

Purely by coincidence a couple of years ago, I was walking outside with a good friend, and we saw a lieveheersbeestje, a ladybug. And then I said: that would sound weird in English: a dear lord’s beastie. After that we laughed out loud.

As early as the first century AD, Pliny wrote about donkeys that did not want to walk over a bridge when they saw the water through it; they must then be guided. In this sense, the mnemonic is a difficulty that can be solved with a little trick.

Hond in de pot, comes out of the 16th/17th century. When the rests of diner would be fed to the dogs in the large manors. So to find the dog in the pot.. means you're too late mate. The dog got all the left overs...

Op die fiets = On that Bicycle... a bit in the style of "Oh, so that's how you're riding, in that way. Now I've got ya!"

Your reactions are hilarious. Keep on being you Highly

Het op je klompen aanvullen. To feel it in your clogs. Remember the Star Trek episode Relics? In which Scotty says that he could tell what's wrong with the ship or how fast it was going, just bij the floorplates? It's an old farmers thing as far as I know. They could tell bad weather was comming and such

back in the day butter whas very expensive and a delicatie, so a face full of butter was heaven

😂😂😂 so cool to see this about the sentences and meanings!

With the idioms you must understand that some have been around for years and years. "To fall with your nose in the butter" originates from the 1700's. It sounds weird nowadays, but back then, during lent people were not allowed to eat meat and dairy, products but wealthy people could buy a permit to eat it. Those were called "boterbrief" (butter letter) and since butter and meat were really luxurious products back then, it kind of meant you were lucky enough and this then translated to "fall with your nose in the butter." In some parts of the country it was said you fell with your arse in the butter, this is the idiom in Belgium, met uw gat in de boter vallen.

I like your video's keep it up man! This one was a little tough to get through because I felt like she needed a lot of words to not say that much.

I would translate "hoor" as y'hear. Literally it is the same it adds extra depth to what you say.

The clogs thing is, if bad and cold weather is incoming, the wood would expand. You'll feel it on your feet.

Hoor means something like “hear this” in its use it’s kinda comparable to “sure” and “ya hear” or “you know” combined.

The Netherlands was and sometimes still is a swampy country. A farmer had to explore his land, step by step. His clogs were the compass. An experienced farmer sensed whether he could take one more step before he sank. If something goes wrong, you don't feel it right. You should have seen it coming.

oh i forgot something I know you like paintings from old dutch painters ...like Pieter Bruegel Dutch Proverbs is an oil painting from 1559, painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The painting shows at least 125 Dutch proverbs and sayings that were common at the time. Some are still used today.

18:02 rewatching this funny reaction and yes, you are right... we Dutchies also love our windmills... "Hij/zij heeft een klap van de molen gehad" He/she has been hit by a windmill... when you talk to your friends about that particulair person who is the crazy one.. or when boss tells to make an impossible job to finnish, you tell your coworkers, well boss has had a klap van de molen gehad.. Knocked his head, concussion, brain stopped functioning properly

Your reactions make my day Highly.

Hilarious those reactions 😂😂😂😂

Op je klompen aanvoelen: klompen (wooden shoes) are related to being logical, simple and practical. So, to feel it coming on your wooden shoes, means: it is very logical that this would happen . . . You could see it coming.

To fall with your nose = ergens heerlijk van genieten. Lekker eten of een lekker glaasje wijn❤

Got to paint it on, got me 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks for these eighteen minutes of pure entertainment; I can't remember the last time I've had to laugh so hard over someone's reactions. It really made me stop and think about my native tongue. And how about "muggenziften", or "to filter mosquitoes?" ;)

"Unfortunately, peanut butter." means that sucks.

He got a cookie of his own dough!

"Hoor" is an interjection and those often can't be translated without context. It's used to emphasize either confirmation or denial. Just "Ja, hoor" usually means "yes, of course" but it can also sarcastically mean "yeah, as if".

Hoor is like “ sure”

Here's another one "Ben je van de pot gerukt?" which literally translates to "Have you been pulled off the shitter?" it means "are you crazy/insane?" usually said when someone is really angry at you.

Let's turn this around. Try and explain to the Dutch "It's raining cats and dogs'. The Dutch will look at you and think "you're nuts".

'Falling with your nose in the butter.' is like 'The cat that fell into the cream bowl.'

Love how your face turned as red as your shirt. Very amusing!

Wow, never realised. "ja, hoor". "Hoor" is primarily the first person, current tense of the verb "horen" (to hear). Not sure how it ended up in the expression as "Yes, hear" (but could imagine how it is a shortening)

You're so right on the "klompen" the are thick, and no you would not feel it. And that is exactly the point! "Op je klompen aanvoelen" means something is SO obvious, you could have/should have seen it coming. Like, "even if you wore "klompen" you would stil feel it/know it. It's THAT obvious.

To feel it on your clogs - it’s something so obvious you could feel through your wooden shoes. Like ‘that should not be a mystery to anyone’ Weirdly simultaneously it refers to feeling intuitively. You should have felt (intuitively) it coming it’s so obvious.

hoor is just listen in dutch, we put it after something to make it a little stronger. horen is listening, hoor is the single form of that.

Met de mond vol tanden staan (To sit with your mouth full of teeth) Meaning to be speechless. op zijn tandvlees lopen (to walk on one’s gums), meaning to be exhausted. And the list goes on 😂

11:04 ..when the positive comes truly un expected... like you think you gonna fall, break your nose on the floor, but hey!! You fell in butter, nose thill works :D

Meaning of "You can feel that on your clogs": "That is so obvious that you should have known it or you should have seen it coming" (association: Clogs are very simple / crude shoes. So if you can feel it on you clogs, it is really obvious and predictable...)

i used a nice idiom today. i wrote to a friend nu breekt mijn klomp (now my clog ik breaking which means you encounter something unexpected) im disabled and have a cat plus 2 cats from the neighbours visit me on a daily bases. the dutch dierenbescherming (aspca for the netherlands) has a service where a volonteer comes to you to help out with pet related stuff. so i have a buddy who comes and washes out the litterbox once a week ( i keep up with clearing the dirt out through the week) today she though what has she done with the box now cause it was very heavy when she opened it we found out a neighbour cat has choosen the litterbox as his favorite sleeping spot. we couldnt stop laughing. so i didnt find a dog in the pot but a cat in the litterbox

Faling with your nose in the butter stems from a time were Butter was a luxury item. So a negative (faling) gains you a positive (butter) My favoriete literal translation of a dutch saying is:" Unfortunately peanut butter" Witch means: You are fresh out of luck

Alternative for mierenneuker: muggenzifter! (putting mosquitoes through a sieve) But trust me mierenneuker is so totally normal to say. Fun videos guys! Love from Holland.

Next level will be a video showing me as a dutch watching an american watching an american talking about the dutch.

In the weather forecast in winter they often say 'frost at clogs' hight. That means it's below freezing at about 10cm hight.

The other way around it's the same thing, I am in the US for 27 years now.. the first year or two I always had to grin when I heard the word 'cut' ... and then at some place I worked the word lull was used at times for stuff.. Once I responded with "It's better to lull on a staircase then to staircase on a lull" ... After people looking puzzled I said "I can't translate it really well except literally .. it's a dutch thing." (Oh and there are more of those words.. if you start thinking... same with license plates haha)

"Tweede leg" that Ava translates as second lay, does not reference getting laid but the laying of eggs by birds in potentially a new nest. The ambiguity that Ava's English translation may have is not present in Dutch.

Mierenneuker is used among friends. Correcting eachother. Always with a smile

It always surprises me how so many people who hear the word 'hoor' immediately hear it as an English word. I mean, we hear 'CUT' so often but in Dutch, although written with a k has a complete different meaning. Still I don't even think about it when using the word 'cut' in English, because.... it's English. In English you also use 'lull' and that's the same thing because 'lul' in Dutch is the men's private part, lol. We're not shocked hearing it because it's English so why do Americans (or English) think we say 'whore' to people all the time. It's not English...

I'm somewhat familiar with the term 'kinderkopjes', which doesn't make very much sense to me as a Dutch guy either. I believe the people in my enviroment, which is another part of the country than Ava has been living, call these things 'klinkers' (plural form of 'klinker'). I'm not sure how to properly translate this, but I think it has something to do with the clunking sounds the tires of cars make when driving over them. There is also the reason that it's not easy to translate this properly, because the word 'klinker(s)' is a homonym that can also be used to mean 'vowel(s)'. However, that meaning has nothing to do with this. There is yet another name for these stones that both the Dutch and Flemish people are familiar with, in particular those who have an interest in on-road bicycle racing, and that term is 'kasseien' (which I can't translate at all. The term 'kinderkopjes' only refers to the size of these stones - as small as children's heads -, but I understand how weird and morbid it sounds to people speaking other languages as their native language. One other thing on that phrase with the cheese involved. In most cases, if someone is not referring to themselves, this means something like 'You don't know how to do that, now do you' or 'You don't know anything about this'. It has a rather negative tone to it in cases like this. But in a more neutral way, you could also say about yourself that you don't have the particular knowledge needed for the subject in question. I've got another one for you. "Oh, jij hebt stront aan de knikker." This is a kind of slang, and t sentence literally means "Oh, you've got shit on the marble." The 'marble' actually refers to your head in a way (it's round), but more specifically to your mind. In more proper English this would mean something like "Now you got a serious problem on your hands/mind" or "You're in trouble, man", depending on the situation. Can you give us Dutch people some examples of some things that people speaking English would say, but would get weird reactions on from us Dutch speakers, if you can think of any?

‘On that bike’ it’s like on that other specific bike and not the one I was thinking about first. (So it’s a different thing as what it appeared to be first and now I got it)

With your nose in the butter is an old statement or saying that dates back to the Middle Ages. proverb dates back to the 17th century and earlier During that period, people were not allowed to eat meat and dairy products during Lent. Butter, cheese, eggs and meat were forbidden. But those who had enough money could buy a permit and receive a letter of indulgence in return. That letter was derisively called a 'butter letter' and the evaders were said to have 'got their noses in the butter'. The saying already occurs in the Farce of the Molenaar, a short play written in 1613 by the famous Amsterdam playwright Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero.

Ezelsbruggetje: making something easier (to remember) like the little bridge makes it easier for the dumb donkey to cross 🤗

The Dutch language is not the only one with quirky expressions. How about the English one “sticking your spoon in the wall”?

Yes, in a way ‘tweede leg’ can be considered slightly rude. However, more accurately, the meaning of ‘tweede leg’ conveys a meaning more complex by on the one hand underlining the taboo of having a second batch of children, while on the other hand acknowledging that every household is a composition of its own in order to cope with its own specific problems. So in case of true true love and an unfulfilled child wish regarding one of the two love birds; ‘tweede leg’ would be rather a phrase that by its playfulness seems to claim that we are willing to look away and make an exception if really necessary. Its meaning is incredibly paradoxical like you can see in “doe normaal, dan doe je gek genoeg.” To specify my thought when I hear the word ‘tweede leg’, my dutch mind thinks as follows: “So you’re living the taboo… however, you thought about it thoroughly… couldn’t decide differently, and therefore… you’re not a shame.

Mierenneuker?! I’m shocked… is that the way my language is going? I don’t wanna be proud of that

Gezellig hoor! 😊

In my hometown a ladybug or lieveheersbeestje is called 'kukeluusje'. I like that word better (and it's shorter 😊)

lady bug is lieveheersbeestje , sweet lords creature, but in my dutch dialect, accent, slang ( east of the netherlands ) it is called zonnekoekje ( suncookie )

A hero on socks - is a hero without leaving his house. (Otherwise he would have put one his shoes to go outside and actually do something about it)

klompen aanvoelen? it means that when you use clocks it's hurts the top of you're feat....making contact to the wood(en shoe)

Hoor is like hear . Ja hoor is yes i hear you. You can say Ja ik hoor je.

I've burned my butt once.. 2nd degree burns and very big blisters all over. I can tell you.. You just can't sit on them.😵‍💫

Speaking of 'ezelsbruggetjes', I really like 'Een Aap Die Geen Bananen Eet'. Translation: a monkey that doesn't eat banana's. Wich makes no sense in English, but in Dutch every first letter of the words are the standard guitar tuning, EADGBE. Very specific one for sure.

What a nice reaction video this is: it's as if you were in a conversation with her.

Some words/phrases are only used in specific areas in NL. For instance 'tweede leg' I was not familiar with as a Dutch (married to a foreigner). You may know 'Hiero', and it tells me that you're from the west (e.g. Amsterdam or Almere), but every area has it's specific words, not used elsewhere.

If you take dutch idioms too literal, and imagine the situation, it might make sense. Imagine a rainy day, people walk outside through the mud and suddenly they find a stone in the mud. They felt that stone through the clocks, even when the clocks are so thick as can be.

Butter is soft. So if you fall, you are very lucky to land your nose in something as soft as butter . . . .

Helaas pindakaas!

it is not just the Dutch language that has these words, phrases and idioms... Dutch dialects have those too! and for such a small country we have a lot of dialects, most are regional, but some are exclusive to a city. one of those is even recognised as being a seperate language, "Frysk" only spoken in the province of Friesland. 🙄

Im a south african and speak fluent afrikaans. Similar to dutch. We also have a lot of words translated into english is hard to do. Eg: babalaas means hangover. Too funny

To make a word small / cuter - we use "je" behind a word. So a head is a kop ("hoofd" better) and a small head is a "kopje" so kinderkopjes sounds way cuter.

"hoor" litterally translates to "hear". It's like saying "you hear me?" or "ya hear?" ("hoor je?") after a sentence. Over time it became just "hear" without the question mark. It's just a redundant filler word. You can kind of compare it to the American-English phrase "you know what I'm saying?" just compressed into a single word.

Even before watching the video, wjen you've learned Dutch, I got to teach you Limburgs, or commonly known as "plat" 🤣

Inge, ik denk dat je aan de bak moet 😂. Leg hem het boter verhaal uit en misschien nog wel meer. 😅

A way of remenbering how something works of what something means. For example, With your left hand you can make the 'L' with your thumb and index finger.... This way even a donkey can remeber !

I have been here 16 years. Ik ben nu 16 jaar hier in Zwolle. Je kunt niet geloof hoe veel Engels swear words , ik spreek bijna gewoonlijke ik nog steeds en dutch word read in Engelse Eerste. Hoor!