ten-of-wands - Tumblr blog

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french textbooks: Pourriez-vous répéter, s’il-vous-plaît ? 😇

french people in real life: *blows cigarette smoke in your face* Quoi ?

[ten-of-wands]

A very long list of linguistics YouTube channels and other free online videos about linguistics

Want to teach yourself linguistics on youtube? Looking for online courses about linguistics? Want to supplement the linguistics resources available for your linguistics class? Here’s an extensive list for you to pick from, with a few notes on style and content. 

General linguistics youtube channels: 

NativLang (animated)

Xidnaf (animated)

The Ling Space (person talking with a bit of animation, see also their summary post)

David J. Peterson’s conlanging youtube channel (person talking)

Arika Okrent (whiteboard videos)

Groups of videos or short series on specific topics: 

Tom Scott’s Language Files (person talking with graphic effects)

Artifexian’s conlanging videos

North Caroline Language and Life project

Common sounds in Australian Indigenous languages

Verner’s Law and how the Germanic languages developed from Proto-Indo-European (person talking plus animation)

How to apply for a Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) grant

Videos illustrating Gricean Maxims  

Cuando Muere una Lengua / When a tongue dies - Videos in Mexican Indigenous languages from the project 68 voces (68 voices)

Christmas-themed stories told in ASL by an adorable child (ASL Nook)

Individual interesting videos: 

Do Sign Languages Have Accents? 

Sign Language Isn’t Universal

A cute video about doing linguistic studies with children (and a puppet) from the University of Connecticut

Structural Ambiguity (LingVids) and an example from Animaniacs

How English Sounds to Non-English Speakers  

Prisencolinensinainciusol (fake English song)

Is Cereal Soup? and Zipf’s Law from Vsauce 

The Dangerous Ambiguity of Prepositions

Can You Speak Emoji? PBS Idea Channel

World-record fast talkers (and how that works in the brain)

Crash Course Psychology: Language

How much information? (Veritasium)

Cross-sections of the head or vocal tract while speaking: 

Music video (Better Man Than He)

ArticulatoryIPA: many individual short videos of specific sounds showing them produced in the vocal tract 

eNunciate: ultrasound videos of the inside of the mouth superimposed on the side of a speaker’s face 

X-ray gif and animated gif

Beatboxer in MRI machine (plus IPA)

Two videos of the inside of the vocal tract (note: kinda gross)

Structured series or online course, introduction to linguistics: 

Introduction to Linguistics (TrevTutor - whiteboard, Khan Academy style)

Another intro linguistics series (DS Bigham, person talking)

The Virtual Linguistics Campus at Marburg University (person talking)

“Miracles of Human Language” (on Coursera from Leiden University)

Structured series or online courses on a specific topic (might be useful to follow some of the intro material first): 

Phonology (TrevTutor)

Mathematical linguistics (TrevTutor)

Syntax (TrevTutor)

A syntax series following the chapter structure of a free online syntax textbook (University of Edinburgh)

Sign Language Structure, Learning, and Change (on EdX from Georgetown University, in ASL with English subtitles and voiceover)

Language Revival: Securing the Future of Endangered Languages (on EdX from the University of Adelaide)

Long videos (documentaries or lectures): 

The Linguistic Society of America’s youtube channel has both public lectures from prominent linguists (tend to assume some background knowledge of linguistics) and some recordings of professional development webinars, such as how to write an abstract

The Five Minute Linguist talks: 2017 and 2018 (one long video of many short, engaging talks about linguistics)

Steven Pinker: Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain

MIT OpenCourseware: Listening, Speaking, and Pronunciation lectures

Introduction to Optimality Theory in Phonology (UC Berkeley)

Rising voices/Hótȟaŋiŋpi, a documentary about revitalizing the Lakota language, in full on youtube (it’s just under an hour long)

A classic documentary on Canadian English

The Adventure of English (BBC documentary series)

A few linguistically-relevant TED and TEDx talks (NOT a complete list): 

Endangered languages: why it matters (Mandana Seyfeddinipur)

Deaf children need sign language (Drisana Levitzke-Gray)

Robots talking with Robots - How Lingodroids invent their own language (Janet Wiles)

Four reasons to learn a new language (John McWhorter)

Several short language-related videos from TED-Ed

American and British Politeness (Lynne Murphy)

Hacking Language Learning (Conor Quinn)

The linguistic genius of babies (Patricia Kuhl)

What makes a word “real”? (Anne Curzan)

Redefining the dictionary (Erin McKean)

See also my linguistics videos tag for an automatically-updated list of linguistics videos, often from sporadically-updated or smaller channels. 

For more documentaries and longer videos about linguistics, most of which aren’t online, see A very long list of linguistics movies, documentaries, and TV show episodes. 

For more resources to learn linguistics, including linguistics podcasts, blogs, books, and other advice, check out How to teach yourself linguistics online for free. 

Know of something that isn’t on one of these lists and should be? Feel free to let me know!

[ten-of-wands]

How to learn a language when you don’t know where to start:

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

Get your writing corrected

[ten-of-wands]

French Vocab - High Fantasy

nouns

une elfe - elf

un nain - dwarf

un troll - troll

un orque - orc

un halfelin - halfling

un fée/une féerie - fairy

un lutin - pixie/sprite/leprechaun/imp/goblin

un vampire - vampire

un loup-garou - werewolf

un loup - wolf

un(e) dragon(ne) - dragon

un centaure - centaur

un minotaure - minotaur

un génie - genie

un druide - druid

un barde - bard

un chevalier - knight

un ranger - ranger

un clerc - cleric

un barbare - barbarian

un combattant - fighter

un moine - monk

un voyou - rogue

un démoniste - warlock

un voleur - thief

un donjon - dungeon

un sorcier - wizard

une socière - witch

un(e) nécromancien(ne) - necromancer

un(e) prince(sse) - prince/princess

un roi - king

une reine - queen

un royaume - kingdom

une épée - sword

un bâton - staff

un arc et une flèche - bow and arrow

un poignard - dagger

une potion - potion

la magie - magic

la sorcellerie - sorcery

un enchantement - enchantment

un sort - spell

un cristal - crystal

des pièces d’or - gold coins

des pièces d’argent - silver coins

une guilde - guild

verbs

empaler - to impale

jouter - to joust

tuer - to slay/kill

lancer - to cast (a spell)

conspirer - to conspire

céder - to yield

conquérir - to conquer

adjectives

écailleux - scaly

irisé - shining

courageux - courageous

résilient - tough

humblement - lowly/humble

dépravé - corrupt

malveillant - malevolent

magique - magical

bienveillant - benevolent

ancien(ne) - ancient

frêle - frail

faible - weak

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Italian Idioms related to sleep

😴 “dormire ad occhi aperti” (lit. “to sleep with open eyes”), which mean to be dead tired;

😴 “dormire all'albergo della luna” (lit. “To sleep at the hotel of the moon”), which means to sleep under the stars because you can’t afford a room;

😴 “dormire come un sasso” (lit. “To sleep as a rock”), which means “to sleep soundly”. You can also say “dormire come un ghiro” (lit. “to sleep like a dormouse”), which means the same thing;

😴 “dormire tra due guanciali” (lit. “To sleep between two pillows”), which means “to sleep easy”, in the sense of being without worries.

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Short Italian Vocabulary Recap

I giorni della settimana - the days of the week

lunedì - Monday martedì - Tuesday mercoledì - Wednesday giovedì - Thursday venerdì - Friday sabato - Saturday domenica - Sunday

I mesi - the months

gennaio - January febbraio - February marzo - March aprile - April maggio - May giugno - June luglio - July agosto- August settembre - September ottobre - October novembre - November dicembre - December

Le stagioni - the seasons

la primavera - Spring l'estate- Summer l'autunno- Autumn l'inverno - Winter

I numeri - the numbers (1-10)

uno - one due - two tre - three quattro - four cinque - five sei - six sette - seven otto - eight nove - nine dieci - ten

I colori - the colours  

rosso (m,s.)* rossa (f.,s.) rossi (m.,p.) rosse (f.,p.)* - red giallo (m,s.) gialla (f.,s.) gialli (m.,p.) gialle (f.,p.) - yellow blu - blue nero (m,s.) nera (f.,s.) neri (m.,p.) nere (f.,p.)  - black bianco (m,s.) bianca (f.,s.) bianchi (m.,p.) bianche (f.,p.)  - white verde (m./f.,s.) verdi (m./f.,p.) - green grigio (m,s.) grigia (f.,s.) grigi (m.,p.) grigie (f.,p.) - grey marrone (m./f.,s.) marroni (m./f.,p.) - brown rosa - pink

Il sole è giallo. - The sun is yellow.  La notte è nera. - The night is black. Il mare è blu. - The sea is blue. 

Pronomi interrogativi - the question words

chi - who cosa, che cosa - what perché - why quando - when dove - where come - how quanto/quanti - how much/many quale/quali - which/what

Espressioni base - basic phrases

Sì. - Yes. No. - No. Buongiorno. - Hello/Good day/Good morning. Buonasera. - Good evening. Buonanotte. - Good night. Ciao! (informal) - Hi/Bye!  Buongiorno, Buonasera (according on the hour), Salve (formal) - Hi/Bye! Arrivederci. - Goodbye. Per favore, Per piacere - Please Prego, Di nulla, Di niente, Non c’è problema, Nessun problema - You’re welcome. Si figuri (formal) - You’re welcome Figurati (informal) - You’re welcome Grazie - Thank you. La ringrazio (formal) - Thank you Ti ringrazio (informal) - Thank you Grazie mille - Thank you very much. Benvenuto/a - Welcome. A dopo, A più tardi. - See you later.   A presto. - See you soon. A domani. - See you tomorrow. Mi (di)spiace. - I am sorry. Mi scusi, Mi perdoni (formal) - Excuse me! Scusami, Perdonami (informal) - Excuse me! Come va?, Come stai? (informal) - How are you? Come sta? (formal) - How are you? Tutto okay, (Tutto) bene, Sto bene. - I am fine. Molto bene, Benissimo. - Very good. Non male - Not bad. Male - Bad. Come si chiama?, (…) il suo nome? (formal) - What is your name? Come ti chiami? (informal) - What is your name? Mi chiamo … - My name is … Piacere di conoscerla!, Piacere di fare la sua conoscenza (formal) - Nice to meet you! Piacere di conoscerti! (informal) - Nice to meet you! Da dove viene? (formal) - Where are you from? Da dove vieni?, Di dove sei? (informal) - Where are you from? Vengo da … - I am from … Dove vive? (formal) - Where do you live? Dove vivi?, Dove abiti? (informal) - Where do you live? Vivo a…, Abito a… -  I live in … Quanti anni ha? (formal) - How old are you? Quanti anni hai? (informal) - How old are you? ____, Ho _____ anni - I am____years old. Parla italiano? (informal) - Do you speak Italian? Parli italiano? (informal) - Do you speak Italian?  Parlo italiano. - I speak Italian. Non lo so. - I don’t know. Certamente, Sicuramente, Di sicuro. - Of course. Le serve aiuto? (formal) - Do you need help? Ti serve aiuto? (informal) - Do you need help? Hai fame? (informal) - Are you hungry? Hai sete? (informal) - Are you thirsty?

*m = masculine, f = feminine, s. = singular, p = plural

insp.

[ten-of-wands]

Italian Vocabulary - Night

🌚 (la) notte - night 🌚 (la) luna - moon 🌚 (la) stella - star 🌚 (il) buio - dark  🌚 (la) via lattea - milky way 🌚 (il) pianeta - planet 🌚 (la) stella cadente - shooting star 🌚 (il) silenzio - silence 🌚 (la) galassia - galaxy 🌚 (il) sonno - sleep 🌚 (il) sogno - dream 🌚 (il) riposo - rest

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Fillers words are those small interruptions we put in our sentences whenever we talk. Mostly shunned upon when writing papers, or giving speeches, but in casual conversations it pops up all the time.

There are times where I just end up saying, “um,” “like,” “uhh,” and so on. You know, things like that and was curious how I can also transfer that blank state of mind in another language.

Well, that and it gives you time while you’re thinking of the right words for your target language. It sounds more natural than saying the English filler words and it won’t confuse the native speakers as much.

These are the filler words in the languages I’m learning:

SPANISH

Pues – Well

A ver – Let’s see

Digo – I say

O sea – I mean

Entonces – So/therefore

Asi que – So/therefore

Bueno – Well

Es que – It’s just that

Este – Umm/uhh 

La cosa es – The thing is

A lo que me refiero es – What I refer to is

JAPANESE

えーと [eeto] – Umm

あのう [ano] – Well/say

その [sono] – That/the

ええ [ee] – Uhh

なんか [nanka] – Something

それで [Sore de] – So

You can extend the way you say it such as eeeeto, or sonooo.

ITALIAN

Meno male – Thank goodness

Allora – So

Ma dai – Come on

Quindi – Therefore

Vediamo un po’ – Let me see

Siccome – Seeing as/since

Visto che – Seeing as

Comunque – Anyway

A proposito – By the way

Per la maggior parte – For the most part

Forse – Maybe

Magari – Perhaps

RUSSIAN

Ну – Well

Это/эта – Well

Типа – well, kinda

Как бы – Sort of

В общем – Basically, so

Слышь – Y’know

В принципе – Theoretically

Это самое – Whatsit, whatchamacallit

Собственно – As a matter of fact

Значит – So/well then

Скажем – Say

Однозначно – Sure thing

Так сказать – Sort of/kind of

Жесть – Sick/awesome/sick-awesome/harsh/heavy

В натуре – Actually, for real

Прямо скажем – To be honest

Короче – Bla-bla-bla, long story short

То сё, пятое десятое – This and that

Реально – For real

На самом деле – Actually

Круто – Cool

Конечно – Totally

Прикольно/ по приколу – Fun

FRENCH

Alors – So

Allez  – Right/Go ahead

Euh – Uhh

Quoi – What

Bref – Basically

Bien  – Well

En fait  – In fact

Quand même  – Still/anyway

Tu sais  – You know

Bon/bon ben  – Well

C’est-à-dire – That is to say

A la limite  – I mean/I suppose

PORTUGESE

Ou seja – Like/I mean/That is to say

Bom – Well/um/ok

Então – So/then

Pois – So/then

Ahn/Hum – Um/er

Mas – But

Bem – Well

Certo – Right

Certo/é  assim – Right/isn’t it

Como – Like

Try using these words as you slowly start forming sentences, or just use it whenever you’re studying in your target language.

Feel free to add more, or let me know if I missed anything! Happy studies!

[ten-of-wands]

Do you have any advice for student that want to learn dutch?

Hey anon,

How awesome that you are willing to learn dutch. Since our country is quite small, and our language is considered ugly (Which I agree with sometimes ;))

1. First of all, get a hang of the dutch grammar. Dutch grammar can be very confusing even for native speakers. These are the most confusing grammar rules:

word order

Use of er

Dt or D at the end of a past particle

Irregular verbs

Dimunitives

De or het

2. IDIOMS, the dutch language is full of idioms and expressions. They are used very often in conversations and determine our language culture

an idiom dictionary 

some regularly used idioms, explained (x) 

a comprehensive list of expressions

3. You might want to immerse yourself in some dutch culture through media

you can listen to dutch radio here

all public dutch television can be seen live/rewatched on NPO, basically anything from child television to documentaries about dykes etc.

some famous dutch news sites (x) (x) (x), if you select ‘’binnenland’’ you will get lots of news about things that happen inside the netherlands

Dutch music :) I made a list of some of my personal recommendations here, but here (x) (x) are some spotify lists.

4. When you would like to expand your vocab:

Watch the national dictation. Don’t be intimitated by it tho, almost no dutch native makes it without any mistakes. There is also a kid’s version, which may be nice to start with.

Follow ‘’one word a day’’ from Van Dale on twitter. Besides, Van dale is the most famous dictionary brand in the netherlands.

Some dutch slang words

5. And lastly, enjoy!

Dutch people don’t take grammar and spelling to seriously. The Dutch language has adopted a lot of words from other languages. So an English word in a conversation doesn’t bother the Dutch. 

Here are some other tumblr resources to may help you:

a blog dedicated to learning dutch

and another one

a very elaborate masterpost

If you have any questions about dutch grammar/idioms/vocab/culture feel free to contact me :) Or if you are willing to have a chat in Dutch oc.

Good luck with your studies!

X, Kiki

[ten-of-wands]

Dutch songs that you won’t find in the top charts because they’re too hipster

EDIT: after receiving some comments, ok they are maybe not super hipster, but I tried to compile a list of good Dutch songs that are, in my mind, sometimes hard to find. Frans Bauer is not really the type of music I would like to limit myself to when learning Dutch hehe.

So I always like to listen to a bit more alternative songs, but usually they are quite hard to find in a language you don’t know as they are not really the kind of songs that you will find while Googling for ‘best *insert language* music’. In this post I want to give you some dutch songs that I really like, that are a little less mainstream. Some are less unknown than others, but all of them are dutch and hipster. Hopefully you will find it useful! 

Aandacht - Linde Schöne

Afdwaalt - Eefje de Visser Hartslag - Eefje de Visser Ongeveer - Eefje de Visser

Ik wil alleen maar zwemmen - Spinvis Bagagedrager - Spinvis

Afblijven - Clean Pete Sorry als ik stoor - Clean Pete

Huilen & Haten - O, Kutjes

Zonder Jou - Miss Montreal

Oceaan - Racoon

Dat ik je mis - Maaike Ouboter

Mag ik dan bij jou - Claudia de Breij

Het regent zonnestralen - Acda & De Munnik Mooi Liedje - Acda & De Munnik Niet of nooit geweest - Acda & De Munnik

Meer kan het niet zijn - BLØF, Sabrina Starke Harder dan ik hebben kan - BLØF Zo stil - BLØF For the advanced learners I could also recommend De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, but keep in mind that there lyrics don’t make sense AT ALL and even native speakers cannot make sense out of it haha

Please feel free to suggest more songs! I will add them!

[ten-of-wands]

Halloween Vocabulary (English - Dutch)

♤ Halloween party - Halloweenfeest ♡ trick or treat - snoep of ik schiet ♢ apple bobbing - appelhappen ♧ bonfire - vreugdevuur ♤ lights - lichtjes ♡ pumpkin - pompoen ♢ candy - snoep ♧ costume - kostuum ♤ witch - heks ♡ black cat - zwarte kat ♢ wizard - tovenaar ♧ vampire - vampier ♤ ghost - geest ♡ spook - spook ♢ skeleton - skelet ♧ mummy - mummie ♤ clown - clown ♡ zombie - zombie ♢ fortune teller - waarzegger ♧ fairy - fee ♤ pirate - piraat ♡ Victorian - Victoriaans ♢ the Grim Reaper - Magere Hein ♧ cemetery, graveyard - kerkhof ♤ grave - graf ♡ haunted house - spookhuis ♢ spider - spin ♧ spider web - spinnenweb ♤ night - nacht ♡ creepy, scary - eng, angstaanjagend ♢ afraid, scared - bang ♧ to be startled, to be frightened - schrikken ♤ haunted - behekst, vervloekt

[ten-of-wands]

Hey, I'm going to start trying to learn Dutch by myself, do you have any suggestions on where I should start?

Hi there,

First of all, it’s very important to learn vocabulary. A lot of people use Duolingo or Memrise for this, which is great, but I’ll also give you some other resources. 

Video series: 1000 most common words in Dutch + some of the words from the lessons in a file.

Some random vocabulary files: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Another important thing is the grammar of course. You can find some good resources for Dutch grammar here. I’ve checked out the files in this post and the best books I’ve found are: teach yourself dutch grammar, dutch an essential grammar, dutch reference grammar and dutch a comprehensive grammar. Just choose the grammar book you like and study a new chapter every other day. 

You can also check out some of my grammar posts and a few websites:

Irregular verbs, I’ve also found another list of irregular verbs that might be more useful because of the translations. 

Regular verbs: past

Regular verbs: present

Website for conjugating verbs

Linking words

Articles, and a useful website.

Degrees of comparison

After learning some basic vocabulary and grammar you can start practising your reading, listening and speaking skills. Resources:

Pronouncing vowels: Dutch , Flemish

Pronouncing consonants: Dutch, Flemish

News: 1, 2

Fanfiction and stuff

Articles about science

Youtube videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

In short, start with basic vocabulary and choose a grammar book to work through. After that, you can practise your reading, listening and speaking skills. It might also be useful to start this free beginners course (it starts 20 November). 

Hope this is helpful ^^

[ten-of-wands]

Music Vocabulary

For the anon who requested this and also for @superimnotapilotworld . I hope you like it!

Muziek (de) – music

Liedje (het) – song

Nummer (het) - song

Genre (het) – genre

Pop - pop

Punk - punk

Rock - rock

Metal - metal

Blues - blues

Jazz - jazz

House - house

Dance – dance

Volkslied (het) – national anthem

(Muziek)instrument (het) – instrument

Gitaar (de) – guitar

Basgitaar (de) – bass guitar

Elektrisch – electric

Akoestisch – acoustic

Ukelele (de) – ukelele

Banjo (de) - banjo

Piano (de) – piano

Keyboard (het) – keyboard

Drumstel (het) – drums

Viool (de) – violin

Cello (de) – cello

Contrabas (de) – double bass

Fluit (de) – flute

Blokfluit (de) – recorder flute

Dwarsfluit (de) – German flute

(Mond)harmonica (de) – harmonica

Versterker (de) – amplifier

Microfoon (de) – microphone

Geluid (het) - sound

Geluidsinstallatie (de) – audio system

Box (de) – speaker

Speaker (de) - speaker

Platenspeler (de) – record deck

CD-speler (de) – CD player

Mp3-speler (de) – Mp3 player

Radio (de) - radio

Koptelefoon (de) – headphones

Keep reading

[ten-of-wands]

Linking Words (Dutch-English)

     Enumeration

en - and

ook - also, too

verder - furthermore

bovendien - furthermore, in addition, besides, moreover, what’s more

daarnaast - besides, moreover

voorts - furthermore, moreover, and also

niet alleen…..maar ook - not only…..but also

zowel…..als - both…..and

noch….noch - neither….nor

daar komt nog bij dat - on top of that

ten eerste, op de eerste plaats - firstly, first of all

ten tweede, ten derde, etc. - secondly, thirdly, etc.

ten slotte - finally

vervolgens - then, subsequently

     Opposition

maar - but

echter - however

doch - but

natuurlijk - of course

toch - still, yet, even so

daarentegen - conversely

integendeel - on the contrary

evenwel - as well as

enerzijds….anderzijds - on the one hand….on the other hand

aan de ene kant….aan de andere kant - on the one hand….on the other hand

in tegenstelling tot - unlike, as opposed to

desondanks - even so, despite

daar staat tegenover - on the other hand

niettemin, desalniettemin - nevertheless

of(wel)….of - either….or

behalve - besides

eigenlijk - in fact

terwijl - whereas

dan - than

     Reason/argument

want - because, for

omdat - because, as

aangezien - since

immers - after all

namelijk - namely

derhalve - therefore, thus, consequently 

daarom - as a result, therefore, hence

vanwege - due to, because of

op grond van - based on, on account of

    Cause- effect

doordat - because (of)

daardoor - therefore, because of that

waardoor - whereby

hierdoor - because of this

met als gevolg - with the result

ten gevolge van - as a result

dit is te danken/wijten aan - this is due to

de oorzaak hiervan is - the cause of this is

zodat - so that, in order to

bijgevolg - consequently, subsequently

dan ook - therefore

dientengevolge - consequently

want - because

zodoende - hence

    Objective - means

opdat - so that

om - in order to

daartoe - for that purpose, to that end

met de bedoeling (om) - through, with a view to

waarmee - whereby

door middel van - by means of, through

met behulp van - by means of, with help from

is erop gericht - is aimed to 

om te - in order to

daarmee - with that

    Explanation/clarification

dat houdt in - that means

dat wil zeggen - that is, that means, in other words

met andere woorden - in other words

bijvoorbeeld - for example

ter illustratie - to illustrate

zoals - like, such as

onder andere - among other things

    Example

bijvoorbeeld - for example, for instance

ter illustratie - to illustrate

zo - like, such as

zoals - such as, like

stel – for example

    Condition

als - if

indien - if, provided that

wanneer - when 

mits - provided that

op voorwaarde dat – provided that, on condition that

tenzij - unless

aangenomen dat – supposing that

gesteld dat – supposing that

    Relativization

hoewel - although, though

ofschoon - although, though

ondanks dat - in spite of

weliswaar - admittedly, certainly

tenzij - unless

    Comparison

alsof - like, as though, as if

evenals - as well as

eveneens - also, too, as well

evenzeer - equally

in vergelijking met – in comparison to

net als - just like

overeenkomstig – consistent with, in accordance with 

    Summary

samenvattend - thus

kortom - in short

al met al - all in all

terugblikkend - in retrospect

oftewel – in other words

samengevat – in summary

    Conclusion

dus - so

concluderend – in conclusion

dat betekent – that means

hieruit volgt dat – it follows that

    Period in time

eerst - at first

dan - then  

daarna - after that, afterwards, next

toen - once, back then, when

zodra - once

vroeger - earlier, in the past

voordat - before 

tot nu toe - up till now, so far

plots, plotseling - suddenly

reeds - already

al - already

wanneer - when

terwijl - while, whilst 

nadat - after

aanvankelijk - initially

intussen/ondertussen - meanwhile

[ten-of-wands]

 Since yesterday (Sept 23rd) was the autumn equinox I thought that a list of autumn related Italian words would be a nice idea so here we are! 

Autumn/fall - autunno 

Autumnal equinox - equinozio d’autunno 

September - settembre

October - ottobre 

November - novembre 

Leaf - foglia

Tree - albero

Woods - bosco

Orange (colour) - arancione 

Yellow - giallo

Red - rosso

Cool (weather) - fresco 

Windy - ventoso 

Rainy - piovoso 

Cold (sickness) - raffreddore 

Pumpkin - zucca 

Chestnut - castagna 

Mushrooms - funghi 

Grapes - uva

Harvest - raccolto

Scarecrow - spaventapasseri 

Halloween - halloween 

Costumes - costumi 

Trick or treat? - dolcetto o scherzetto? 

Candies - caramelle 

Cozy - confortevole 

Fireplace - camino 

Sweater - maglione 

Scarf - sciarpa 

Raincoat - impermeabile 

[ten-of-wands]

La Casa

il pavimento - the floor

il soffitto - the ceiling

il tetto - the roof

la cantina - the basement

la stanza / la camera - the room

il bagno - the bathroom

la camera (da letto) - the bedroom

la cucina - the kitchen

la scala - the staircase

l’armadio (m.) - the closet

la porta - the door

la finestra - the window

il banco / il bancone - the counter

il letto - the bed

la sedia - the chair

il tavolo - the table

il divano / il sofà - the couch

la vasca da bagno - the bathtub

il tappeto - the rug

[ten-of-wands]

Italian Love Phrases

Italian: English / Spanish

- Ti amo: I love you / Te amo (romantic sense) (en sentido romántico).

- Ti voglio bene: I love you / Te quiero (feeling of affection for a friend) ( un sentimiento de aprecio por un amigo).

- Ti adoro: I adore you / Te adoro.

- Amo solo te: I love only you / Te amo solo a ti.

- Ti amo con tutt l'anima: I love you with all my heart / Te amo con todo mi corazón.

- Amore mio: My love / Mi amor.

- Tesoro mio: My darling / Mi tesoro.

- Tu sei la mia stella: You are my star / Tu eres mi estrella.

- Tu sei la mia felicità: You’re my hapiness / Tu eres mi felicidad.

- Sei la mia vita: You are my life / Eres mi vida.

- Sei tutto per me: You are everything for me / Eres todo para mi. _____________________________________

If you have other prhases of love, please add!!

Si tienes otras frases de amor, por favor agregalas!!

Ciao!!!

😊💜