39 Comments
1714
For some reason, this sounds similar to the idea of "he's in a better place now" for me!
Thank you. I thought I might be the only one... "The great Netherlands in the sky."
What's the most direct translation might well vary depending on whom you ask. In the course, we generally go for dad, daddy or father.
Why can't I say here 'my father' where usually talking about 'mormor' or similiar does imply that it is my Grandmother?
- 890
That should be accepted, since it's inferred in the sentence that it's your own father (and English uses possessives more than Swedish, so it's reasonable to add them when translating from Swedish into English, but not when translating from English into Swedish). I'm adding that translation now.
Although I knew it was a province within, I though it was also an accepted translation for the whole country in English, but apparently it's only an informal one. In portuguese we call the country 'Holanda'. I thought this would be common elsewhere. Not sure what other latin language countries call it.
Saying Holland is incorrect in English, but it is very very widely used. I think it is good to teach what is correct not vernacular, enjoy speaking English better than some natives! I personally cringe when I see "Holland".
Seriously, poor non-Hollanders in the Netherlands. They must have an identity crisis often
As a non-Hollander in the Netherlands I strongly dislike the use of the word Holland for Netherlands
Masja7 I feel your pain. Sadly I'm even more politically correct than my Hollander friend
I am Dutch and honestly, I really don't mind when people refer to my country as 'Holland', and I don't know anyone who does. We even call our own country Holland from time to time, for example when cheering for the national football team ("hup Holland hup!", meaning something like "let's go Holland let's go"). On the internet there seem to be quite of Dutchies disliking the term 'Holland', but for some reason I never get to meet them in real life.
It's not uncommon for the country to be referred to as Holland in Swedish too. It is accepted as an answer here. Even the Dutch tourist agency themselves use Holland.
I can relate to the holland netherland pain... i say i live in wales and people think its a part of england... wales and england are like sweden and denmark
Yes, but only because when people think of the country, they type "Holland" into Google...
Where i am from in Sweden no one refers to The netherlands as "Holland" if we say that we mean actual holland The two provinces
Where are you from? I've lived all over Sweden and that's definitely not common.
I am from Scania (more specifically Lund) and I've actually Never heard anyone refer to the Netherlands with Holland
In Romanian it is Olanda. You could also say 'Tarile de Jos' - the equivalent of Netherlands, but few people would understand what you are talking about...
In hungarian it is the same. The name of the country is 'Hollandia'. You can also say 'Németalföld' which literally means 'German lowlands', but it is mainly a historical and geografical name, which also involves most of Belgium as well.
What would be the difference (in Swedish) between Dad is in the Netherlands now and Dad is in the Netherlands right now?
As discussed above, over the last 20 years in the UK, people have been transitioning from the incorrect use of Holland, to the Netherlands. In the last five years, we've also been correcting ourselves further and dropping the 'the' from the start of countries such as Ukraine, Netherlands, Gambia, etc. I wondered if this has started happening in Swedish too? ie Is Nederländer rather than Nederländerna the truly correct form now?
- 1186
Some countries have taken formal positions on their English names. Ukraine prefers “Ukraine”, not “the Ukraine”. As you mention. The Gambia, however, prefers “The Gambia”, not “Gambia”.
This has not happened in the Netherlands. The Dutch government and Dutch law are silent on this issue, which is one of style. It is correct English usage to use "the Netherlands".
Well it's plural so by law of English grammar it requires a definite article (since it's definitely not indefinite). Both Ukraine and Gambia are singular.
I find it fascinating that in Swedish, it's also a plural country. Sounds like an interesting history I want to look into.
Unfortunately, it's not a very fascinating etymology. There used to be a bunch of countries in the lowlands, they were called "the netherlands" because of their geography. Ultimately, and as they came to merge administratively, the name essentially lost its geographical meaning and turned into the name of the kingdom instead.
It's Ολλανδία in Greek, or Κάτω Χώρες if you want to be more poetic about it.
Doesn't "Nederländerna" actually mean the "Down lands" like... "the southern lands down there" kind of sense?
No, it's topological, as so much of the Netherlands is below sea level.
As Joel said it's "nether" as in "lower situated", which in geographical terms means vertically lower since we're mostly below sea level. Otherwise it would much sooner have been the Southlands or something. The Dutch word 'neder' (which isn't used in everday speech anymore, only in petrified expressions like Nederland, nederlaag, vernederen etc.) implies something inferior, nor something southern since south isn't inherently worse than north and low is in our everday speech worse than high. It's like the opposite of the highlands, it's the lowlands, which is why we've got the festival Lowlands ;)
In Norwegian it's 'Nederland'. I hope the Swedes will follow one day. I think much of the confusion also arises from the fact it's officially called in dutch 'Koninkrijk der Nederlanden', which is suddenly plural and has nothing to do with the current three other constituent countries in the Caribbean. It's a matter of taste I guess.
We call our country 'Nederland' ourselves as well, so it makes sense that you do to if it's pronouncable. I find it very interesting in this course how languages translate country and city names even if they're perfectly pronouncabe. Like København (Köpenhamn in Swedish). In Dutch the word for havn/hamn/harbour is 'haven' so it would make sense to call it Kobenhaven, but we call it Kopenhagen instead (with the nice hard Dutch 'g'). I guess all these names have historical reasons. Very few countries pronounce 'Paris' to rhyme with 'sea' even though that's what the french do and it's easily pronouncable.
I personally don't have a problem with any of the names. But then, I was born in the province called South-Holland. I find the English word Dutchman very old-fashioned. It makes me think of Neanderthals, old tribes running about in The Netherlands and Germany. Maybe we could change Dutchman to Hollander?
