Favourite Words

Both chouette and hibou mean "owl" but for ages I didn't know the difference. It turns out a chouette is an owl without "ears" and an hibou is an owl with "ears"!

Hoor literally means "hear", but it's used as a modal particle for a whole bunch of semi-untranslatable purposes. Here's a bunch of uses:

• Expressing confidence in a statement
• eg. "Hebben jullie ook aardbeien?" "Ja hoor."
• "Do you have strawberries?" "For sure (we always do)." [x]
• or "Lekker weetje hoor!"
• "I say, the weather is lovely!" [x]
• Reassuring the listener
• eg. "Heb je nog even?" "Ja hoor."
• "Do you still have a minute?" "Yes, no problem." [x]
• Removing potential doubts
• eg. "Ik weet het niet hoor."
• "I don't know (you might think I know the answer, but I don't)." [x]
• Indicating you think the listener is nagging
• eg. "Have you done your homework?" "Ja hoor! (yes and stop pestering me about it!)" [x]
• Admonishing someone
• eg. "Dat mag niet hoor!"
• "You're really not allowed to do that!" [x]
• Asking for confirmation
• eg. "Ik ga alvast eten bestellen hoor."
• "I'm going to order food, okay?" [x]
• Indicating disagreement
• eg "De koud valt best mee." "Nou, ik vind het toch wel koud hoor!"
• "The cold isn't so bad." "Well, I still think it's pretty cold regardless!" [x]

The British interjection "smashing!", meaning "great!", has nothing to do with actual smashing. It comes from Scottish Gaelic 's math sin ("that's good"), which is pronounced a similar way.