"wel eens" combination

by **cristian** » May 26th, 2008, 8:15 pm

Hello,

This shoud be our practice sentence

:

Moet u WEL EENS op reis voor uw werk?

What is the semantical content of "wel eens"?

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by **Quetzal** » May 26th, 2008, 8:24 pm

cristian wrote:Hello,

This shoud be our practice sentence :

Moet u WEL EENS op reis voor uw werk?

What is the semantical content of "wel eens"?

I'd translate that sentence in English as "Do you ever have to travel for your job?" So it means "ever", in this context at least.

You could also say, for instance:

"Dat gebeurt wel eens, ja." = "That happens every once in a while, yeah."

by **cristian** » May 27th, 2008, 7:58 am

Okay, thats nice. Now I know why the translators are translating it into "sometimes": it has the meaning of "once in a while".

It would be nice to see a few more examples :-D

.

Bedankt!

by **hurka** » May 27th, 2008, 1:30 pm

Or you can use wel eens like this:

Ben je wel eens naar Amsterdam geweest? - Have you ever been to Amsterdam?

by **cristian** » May 27th, 2008, 1:37 pm

I found something interesting:

weleens (bijwoord)
1 ooit
2 soms

Is this adverb related to "wel eens" because it seems it carries the same meaning.

by **Bieneke** » June 13th, 2008, 11:44 am

I would write 'wel eens' as two separate words because 'weleens' is not mentioned in the official Dutch word list (http://www.woordenlijst.org).

It is, however, strange that Van Dale does mention it as one word. Het Genootschap Onze Taal ("Society of our language") wrote the following:

Het Genootschap Onze Taal wrote:Wat ons betreft schrijft u weleens aaneen; veel naslagwerken, waaronder de grote Van Dale (2005) en het Witte Boekje (2006), nemen het zo op. Gek genoeg vermeldt het Groene Boekje (2005) het woord niet.

See http://www.onzetaal.nl/advies/weleens.php for the complete text.

by **Thony** » July 24th, 2008, 4:03 pm

cristian wrote:Hello,

This shoud be our practice sentence :

Moet u WEL EENS op reis voor uw werk?

What is the semantical content of "wel eens"?

I don't catch the "op reis" in this sentence...
Why not telling : Moet u wel eens voor uw werk reizen ?
Or : Moet u wel eens op reis voor uw werk zijn ?

by **Bieneke** » October 24th, 2008, 6:19 pm

Hi Thony,

I answered your question here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1976&p=12367#p12367.

by **AppelstroopIsLekker** » November 16th, 2008, 1:21 am

cristian wrote:Moet u WEL EENS op reis voor uw werk?

I just want to point out that the pronunciation of the "wel eens" combination is usually spoken as if it was spelled as "wellus" in English.
I'm not sure if that is how all Dutch people say it, but that is how I have always perceived it.

by **Wim** » November 16th, 2008, 11:46 am

The modal particle eens is usually pronounced like English 'us' os like Duch 'is.' The 'full' pronunciation /ens/ could only mean 'one time (and one time only)' and is almost only used in the expression dat was eens, maar nooit weer, which rerfers to an unpleasant experience: never again, once is enough.

The pronunciation /ens/ also occurs in expressions like het eens zijn 'to agree.'

The pronunciation of eens in the traditional beginning of a fairy tale er was eens... 'once upon a time there was...' is also 'us' or 'is.'

Groetjes,
Wim