🚀 go-pugleaf

Phil Pennock wrote:
> On 2004-09-21, Badmuts
> <AntwoordInDeNieuwsgroep@ReplyInNewsgroup.invalid> wrote:
>> Phil Pennock wrote:
>>> In dit geval waarschijnlijk staat er een probleem met de
>>> account-details voor uw account.
>>>
>>> Beste om support te bellen of emailen, met uw account-naam enz.
>>> Als u de precis tijden van de problemen heeft, dan is dat heel mooi.
>>
>> Goeie poging Phil... blijf oefenen ;-)
>> Wil je gecorrigeerd worden, of liever niet?
>
> *sigh*

No need to sigh... i get to learn a lot from some of your posts here, least
i can do in return is to try and help you learn good dutch. I know how hard
it can be, my own wife grew up in a country where a badly worn-out form of
english is spoken so people from different tribes to understand each other.
This is what she spoke when i met her, by now she speaks dutch reasonably
(writing is still hard though).

OK, here goes:

First, you are using 'u' and 'uw', which is technically correct, but usenet
is generally considered an informal medium. 'u' and 'uw' are mostly used in
a formal context. When you address someone in an informal manner you use
'je' or 'jij' or 'jouw'. Coming to think of it, i find it hard to explain in
english when to use which, specially because 'je' and 'jij' are
interchangeable in some cases, but not in others, but 'jouw' and 'je' are
also interchangeable :) Lovely language, isn't it?
A few examples that might help you get it right:
"Je hebt een probleem" ("Je" is the subject here)
"Jij hebt een probleem" (same thing, except you'd use this to pinpoint a
specific person (like in 'it works for everyone, but YOU have a problem')
"Het ligt aan je modem" ('je' means 'your' in this line)
"Het ligt aan jouw modem" (same thing, except it emphasizes the fact that
the modem belongs to *that* person and not another)

Further: a problem doesn't stand ('staat'). There is a problem, just like in
english. 'Er is een probleem.'
The place of the adjective 'waarschijnlijk' in the sentence is not right, it
should read 'in dit geval is er waarschijnlijk een probleem...'. Try to
think of the way you'd formulate a question in english: 'is there probably a
problem?' to get the order of words right in dutch, even if your sentence is
not a question. :) Weird language or what :)

>>> Beste om support te bellen of emailen, met uw account-naam enz.

In english you would say 'the best is to call or mail support', so in dutch
the 'is' also has to be there if you want to translate (almost) literally:
'Het beste is om support te bellen' (notice the 'om' has been added in this
passive form) or to formulate it in the active form, which is more common:
'Je kunt het beste support bellen'.

In english, there are a lot of separate words which become one word in
dutch: 'account name' would become 'accountnaam', without the dash. The dash
is hardly ever necessary.

>>> Als u de precis tijden van de problemen heeft, dan is dat heel mooi.

The correct spelling for 'precise' is 'precies'. In the adjective form it is
also spelled 'precies', or when the subject is a multiple, 'precieze', that
makes 'precieze tijden'. Which one to choose is depending on the gender of
the subject :)

Hmm, i'm beginning to understand why you're having a hard time getting this
language right.
We've seem similar sentences from Jim in the past, so you're not alone in
this... However, since both you and Jim have proven quite able to understand
far more complicated systems like computers, networks or scripting
languages, i think you have enough intelligence to learn a simpler system
like a human language... only difficulty is in the exceptions to the rules.
Dutch seems to have lots of exceptions, and i forgot most of the rules
myself ;)

I'm taking this thread to demon.nl.babbel from here (followup set). Might
make some interesting content for that group if you decide to take a course
in dutch 'in public' :)
Posting more in demon.nl.support is never bad, so that's a good excuse for
posting more in dutch, too. Same goes for Jim :)

Even though most dutch people of the internet generation are fairly good in
at least reading english, you'll get a lot of extra respect when you
communicate in dutch... or give us dutch some more good laughs ;)

-- 
Bm