Let us bite
One evening, I sat down to dinner with my Dutch friends, and, not knowing if any of them were religious, asked Moet er gebeten worden? which I though meant 'do we need to pray?'My friends raised their eyebrows ... then burst out laughing. What I'd really said was 'do we need to bite?' The correct phrase would have been: Moet er gebeden worden? Just one letter difference!
Sent by: Lanja
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I love it! It would make me roar, but don't worry, we Dutch don't bite our guests.
After a Belgian exchange student at our school went back home, I tried to impress her by writing her a Christmas card in Dutch. As I always teased her about Belgian waffles, I tried to write "I love waffles!" - Ik hout van wafel. Unfortunately, one wrong letter made a big difference - She wrote me back saying I told her that I "wood of waffles!" Ik houd van wafels would have been correct.
My mum is Dutch, and when we were little she would say "Zeg waffle ... ellebogen van de tafel!" Say waffle ... elbows off the table! More subtley, just the subtle whispher of the word "waffle" now reminds us to be polite, especially in front of guests!
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