"Is it a heavy treatment?"

Translation: Is het een zware behandeling?

[kobajagiprinceza]

Can "moeilijke" be used in place of "zware"? Or is "zware behandeling" a set expression meaning "a treatment heavy on the body" but not "a difficult one"?

[Susande]

In this context I'd say you cannot use moeilijk, since it means heavy on the body indeed. But there are contexts in which zwaar can mean roughly the same as moeilijk, e.g. het was een moeilijk traject = het was een zwaar traject = it was a difficult route (can mean both physically or mentally).

[nzcanadian]

Hi Susande, maybe an alternate English translation could be "intensive" or "serious"? Or if we have to use the word "heavy", then perhaps "Does the treatment take a heavy toll on the body"?

"Heavy treatment" in English just doesn't seem to make sense, to me at least.

Edit: or "taxing"?

[Susande]

Does the treatment take a heavy toll on the body? is perfectly fine as a translation, I just think it doesn't really work in Duo because it's worded so differently. Eist de behandeling een zware tol op het lichaam? would be the closest Dutch sentence. Tol eisen (literally demand toll) is idiomatic.

Intensive is a good alternative. In the Dutch sentence you could also replace zware by intensieve, so that definitely works.

Serious doesn't really work as a literal translation, as it has a bit different meaning, it misses the toll on the body part.

[Ayisha36]

Yeah, "heavy treatment" doesn't make sense in English--we don't use "heavy" that way. I think "taxing" or "intensive" are good substitutes.

[Jonathan--]

Like a 16 ton weight?

[sineweaver]

In case anyone gets confused between these words:
Zwart = black
Zwak = weak
Zware = weak