Dutch speakers....

[Kaltia]

My mother is going on holiday to Amsterdam (to look at the tulips ) at the end of this month and I wondered if any native dutch speakers would be able to give me some useful sentances in Dutch?

[SolitaryHacker]

Amin delotha lle.....its dutch......and it means.....helloooo.....yeeeaaaa.....

[Melusine]

Yeah, really helpful I'm sure.
Now as for some REAL Dutch

Hallo - Hello (of course)
Goedemorgen - Good morning
Goedemiddag - Good afternoon
Tot ziens - See you later
Dank je wel - Thank you
Nee dank je - No thanks
Spreek je Engels? - Do you speak English?
Hoeveel kost het? - How much does it cost?
Nee, ik wil geen klompen kopen - No, I don't want to buy any wooden shoes
Nee, ik hoef geen wiet - No, I don't want any weed
Tieft op - Sod off (only in The Hague though, in the rest of Holland use "sodemieter op" or "rot op")
Lekker weertje he? - Lovely day isn't it?
Heb je geen azijn? - Don't you have any vinegar?
Met melk graag - Milk please
Wat mooi - How beautiful
Houd de dief! - Stop that thief!

Those should be some easy-to-use handy little phrases...
The pronunciation however is an entirely different matter. I have a theory that the glottis of speakers of English is so underdeveloped that they simply cannot manage to make the sounds needed to speak Dutch, German or French.
Just kidding of course.
Everyone speaks English here anyway (or thinks they do - it's a sad misconception that the Dutch are good at languages - they merely think they are [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) but a few "dank je wels" and "goedemorgens" would make your mother very popular indeed. It doesn't happen often that English speakers try to use our language. [img]smile.gif[/img]
The only experience of it that I have is when Yorick came to visit here. He asked everyone "spreek je Engels?" before addressing them in his own language, which I thought was very sweet and thoughtful [img]smile.gif[/img] (even though I fear most people understood his English better than his Dutch )

[Kaltia]

Oooh, tell me about it
We English people are very good at maiming other languages-my teacher told me that if I did my French oral with the accent I had she would bash herself to death with the tape recorder [img]graemlins/crazyeyes.gif[/img]
Thank you very much for your help, Mel [img]smile.gif[/img]
The "I don't want any weed" option may come in handy too

[Djinn Raffo]

I think Kaltia wants to know more along the lines of:

How do i get to the closest coffeeshop?

and:

Where is the red light district?

[Kaltia]

Originally posted by Djinn Raffo: I think Kaltia wants to know more along the lines of: How do i get to the closest coffeeshop? and: Where is the red light district?

Djinn...this is my mother that's going

[SolitaryHacker]

aww, it was worth a try throwing some elvish in here and saying it was dutch

[Kaltia]

Originally posted by SolitaryHacker: aww, it was worth a try throwing some elvish in here and saying it was dutch

No, not really [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Plus, "Elvish" is a flowing language and from what I've seen Dutch has more in common with German than "elvish"

[Donut]

Dutch and Welsh. Two languages difficult to speak without half a pint of phlegm in your throat!

[Dreamer128]

Originally posted by Melusine: Everyone speaks English here anyway (or thinks they do - it's a sad misconception that the Dutch are good at languages

Actually, I had the pleasure of interviewing kids from the second grade of High School this morning. The quality was much and much higher then I expected. And I doubt you'll see the same thing in say... German or French schools [img]smile.gif[/img] . (not that I ever interviewed any German or French children for that matter )