We’re living in times when everyone and everybody prefers shortcuts. From travel routes to school homework, business meetings to learning, people try to find a shortcut in nearly everything.

Technology has developed at such a fast rate, inspiring people to be more productive.

It has influenced our lives to a great extent like language translations including funny Dutch translations.

Every day we strive to do better than everybody else, even better than the technology itself. It requires plenty of time for us to do maximum tasks. We cannot increase the hours in a day but we can manage our time.

Hence, we have adopted ways to do things in minimum time with the maximum outcome.

Adopting shortcuts is the way to do so. We even try to make our conversations the shortest, to save maximum time.

Slang

By using slang words and short forms, we can manage the hours in a day. We have adopted shortcuts even in our ways of conversations but you may have heard “A shortcut is often a wrong cut”. Well, it is not untrue. When we use slang words, we indeed save our time but we, as humans, may end up using wrong pronunciation or spellings of even slang terms.

This may make your text sound in a different way (possibly funny). The Dutch language also applies to the following scenario. Let us take a glance at some funny Dutch translations that would spite up your mood and help you spend a brighter day than usual.

As we know that at least one scoop of humor per day keeps you focused on your aims and helps you do better, so let us assume that today’s topic “funny Dutch translations” is your today’s dose of recommended humor. We will put light on some Dutch words that sound funny when they are used informally or as slang words.

Outset

When it comes to informality, every language is casual and sometimes funny to a certain extent. But the Dutch language is on another level. It contains some vocabulary that exhibits different levels of humor and goofiness when translated to the English language. These Dutch words are often used in both Dutch and English Television that host comedy shows.

The literal translation of these Dutch words may sometimes be the correct translation but in most cases, the translation of these words is incorrect. Stick around with us to know the meaning of funny Dutch translations and 10 funny Dutch words that sound funny in a way, when their literal translation is done.

Checkout our latest post about Automated Translation – Three ways that you can make a funny mess with translations!

What are funny Dutch translations?

Dutch is a west-Germanic language that originated from Old Frankish in the 3rd century. It gradually developed to Old Dutch, Middle Dutch, and to Modern Dutch that is still in use today. The Dutch language is widely spoken in the Netherlands, a country that is a constituent of the “Kingdom of the Netherlands” along with other Dutch Islands and overseas territories.

It is the Official and the National language of the Netherlands along with the English language. Dutch is a language with a very wide vocabulary, containing unique words and even words that also belong to another language. These words, that belong to another language such as English, sometimes sound in a funny way when their literal translation is done. Such a kind of dutch translation is referred to as “funny dutch translation”.

10 funny Dutch translations

Here we will provide you with the funny dutch translation of several bilingual words that would be funny enough to spice up your day and give you a good kick-start for your day.

Wasbeer:

Wasbeer translates into wash bear. Well, it is a ridiculous way to refer to a polar bear or even a raccoon.

Pindakaas:

Pindakaas translates into peanut cheese or peanut sauce when translated literally. In an actual translation, it means peanut butter.

Zeewolf:

Literally meaning sea wolf, zeewolf is a dutch word actually meaning catfish.

Apetrots:

As the word Apetrots has “ape” in it, it directly translates into monkey or ape. Since I watched a film with subtitles, I came to know that the word Apetrots translates into “really” instead of apes or monkeys.

Boterham:

If we break down the word Boterham into two words, Boter and Ham, Boter and Ham have different meanings. Boter translates into Butter and Ham means the upper part of a pig’s leg that is smoked and salted and the direct translation of Boterham will be Butter ham. But if we look into its actual translation then, boterham translates into a sandwich or a slice of bread.

Handschoenen:

The word Handsschoenen can be broken down into two words hand and schoenen. Here, hand refers to hand and schoenen translates into shoes. Collectively, the literal translation of handschoenen would be “Hand shoes” which is a quite hysterical way to refer to gloves.

Monster:

To look into it deeply, the word monster does not refer to actual monsters, the kind of giants we see in fantasy/horror movies and novels. It just translates into “sample” so do not tire your mind into thinking about the actual meaning of this word.

Gelukzak:

The word Gelukzak literally translates into “happy bag” or “lucky sack” but if we look into its actual translation, the word gelukzak would mean “lucky guy” or “lucky boy”. The Dutch people may call you “gelukzak” to call you lucky in a way.

Muilpeer:

If we break down this Dutch word into two parts, it would be “muil” and “peer”. Muil translates into mouth and peer translates into pear so the literally translation of Muilpeer would be “mouth pear”. In an actual translation, this word is used to refer to “slap”.

Tandpasta:

The word tand means tooth and pasta? well, you probably know about it. The literal translation of Tandpasta would be “tooth pasta” but actually, it translates into toothpaste. Also thanks to the party poopers with whose help, we got to know that pasta also translates to paste.

Oliebollen:

The word Oliebollen can be broken down into two parts “Olie” and “bollen” meaning oil balls. Oil balls are a festive dish that is traditionally served on the occasion of the New Year.

Schoonmoeder:

Schoommoeder is a term that can be broken down into Schoon and moeder. Schoon means clean and moeder means mother in English. This dutch word is used to refer to “clean mother” in literal translation but actually, it is used to refer to Mother-in-law.

Ziekenauto:

Broken into two terms, Zieken meaning sick and auto meaning car. The Dutch word ziekenauto means “sick car” in literal translation. If we look up its actual translation, this word is used to refer to Ambulance.

Conclusion

You may be very surprised to discover that many Dutch words have two meanings, literal and actual meaning. The literal translation of these words is usually inaccurate and not precise therefore actual translation should be consulted.

Every single one among these Dutch words may have a different Dutch expression and English expression. The difference in the literal translation of funny Dutch vocabulary is mainly due to differences in expressions. Funny Dutch translation is widely appreciated among the international audience, especially among the English speakers.

It is often used as a reference or inspiration in many literary works and fields of arts especially comedy shows. All these funny Dutch words are abundantly used in everyday conversations especially among friends and other informal relations.