Advice on saying The park Street

by **Dan1973** » January 27th, 2012, 3:40 am

G'day everyone

Im still very new at learning Dutch , so forgive me writing this question in English (hope that is ok?)

I'm doing a speech course (beginners version) on CD here and I'm confused about saying "The Park Street" in Dutch.The reason is when the Lady says "Park" on the CD , she really trills the "R" in the word , but when the Man says it, he doesn't trill his "R" and it pretty much sounds the same as saying it in English.I was wondering have a missed something or is it common for males not to trill the "R" as much as females?.

Also with my learning ,I'm doing another PC software course in learning to read/write and spell Dutch words.I'm really having lots of fun and would have to say around 70% has sunk in at 1st go , and the remainder 30% I'm getting better at.At present I'm doing about 90 mins a day with learning/study and hope my next question on the forums will be written in Dutch. I just wasn't ready today to do it as i knew it would all be incorrect....lol.

Thanks Daniel

Sydney Australia.

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by **RichWes** » January 27th, 2012, 6:50 am

Hey Daniel,

I will try to give you the answer in English, but my English is not so good (I do an extra course now, to improve myself), but the reason that I react, is that the answer at your question is very interesting.

In Holland we have different options for the pronunciation of the "R". The normal pronunciation is almost the same as in English, so a little bit 'rolling' (or trilling), but not super exaggerated. But in a small part of Holland, they use a pronunciation of the "R", like a wavy-way with a lot of air and a lot of 'euhhh' in their pronunciation. We Dutchies call it 'the Gooische-R' ('Het Gooi', is the small part of the country where they use this pronunciation). But in that small part of the country, lives many television personality (it is also a part of the country with a lot of money :wink:

). So you hear on the Dutch television a lot of 'Gooische-R' pronunciation, but this is not the 'normal' "R" pronunciation (it's a kind of dialect). At this video you see a populair Dutch clildren's choir from that area 'Het Gooi': http://bit.ly/xe11bE. Especially at the solo's of the girl, you hear the 'Gooische-R' very well.

The reason that the lady on the CD really overly trills the "R" in the words, is because to make it clear for you that this kind of pronunciation of the letter "R", the right one is. In contrast to you hear at the Dutch television most of the time (when you look at the Dutch television).

So the answer at your question: No, there is not a lot of different between the pronunciation of the letter "R" in Dutch or English, and the pronunciation is in Holland not different between male and female also, but because you hear a lot of wrong (or not usually) pronuciation of the letter "R" at the Dutch television, the lady at the CD does it more exaggerated correctly than usual, so you hear the right 'trilling' pronunciation extra well.

So a long story (in bad English, I'm sorry). The contrast of my Dutch is very big, because I'm very good in Dutch. I hope I see you soon in the 'beginnershoekje' (starters corner) of this forum. I and a lot of other people, want to help you gladly overthere with corrections of your texts in Dutch. Perhaps it is nice to start with making a summary of the children's song? (If you do it, repost the link overthere please :wink:

).

Hopefully, see you soon :-D

.

Regards,

Richard

by **Dan1973** » January 27th, 2012, 7:43 am

Hi Richard and thank you very much for a great reply , i understand what you are saying.I plan to get more active with these forums very soon , i just wanted to get my writing/spelling better before i start here.Im almost 40 years old and have only ever spoken English (and a lot of Australian Slang) so for me to learn another language is a big thing , and for it be Dutch is even extra harder for me....lol.I love your country and i love your culture , this is one thing im never going to give up on , and i hope i can do it all well

Dan

by **Joke** » January 27th, 2012, 8:53 am

A small addition to what Richard said:
The English or Gooische r is used a lot in Dutch nowadays, but usually only after a vowel.
At the beginning of a word or syllable, the r is more 'trilling', either with the tongue or in the throat.
All these different types of r are perceived as r thought, so you don't have to worry too much about it.

Succes met Nederlands leren!
Joke

by **RichWes** » January 27th, 2012, 9:53 am

Dan1973 wrote:Hi Richard and thank you very much for a great reply , i understand what you are saying.I plan to get more active with these forums very soon , i just wanted to get my writing/spelling better before i start here.Im almost 40 years old and have only ever spoken English (and a lot of Australian Slang) so for me to learn another language is a big thing , and for it be Dutch is even extra harder for me....lol.I love your country and i love your culture , this is one thing im never going to give up on , and i hope i can do it all well

Dan

Hey Daniel,

Nice that you give a (quick!) reply :-D

.

On this forum you can find all kind of excercises, so you can practice all kind of things on this site about the Dutch language (sentences constructions, verbs, conjunctions, prepositions, all kind of grammar things, etc. etc. etc.). But probably you had seen this already :wink:

.

For extra practice, I give you the website address of the re-watch site of the public Broadcasting television of Holland: www.uitzendinggemist.nl. You can watch overthere, almost any program of the Dutch public television, that have been broadcast already. This service is free and for the most programs also available abroad.

I want to specifically draw attention to the programs within the 'Zapp'-brand. Here I have the logo of this brand: http://bit.ly/wV3Uhq. All the programs within this 'brand', be for children from 6 year untill 12 year (so the Dutch conversations are there not so difficult). Within that 'Zapp'-brand there are many many programs (and each day come there new one) and you may choose to add subtitels for almost all programs (Dutch subtitles of course :wink:

).

So this is also a very good way to practice your Dutch! You can see it, you can hear the Dutch language and you can read the Dutch language at the same time! Good luck!

When you has visited the site, but you are having difficulty with this, report it here! Probably I (or other persons) can then help farther :wink:

.

Good luck with learning Dutch!

Regards,

Richard

by **Dan1973** » January 27th, 2012, 10:39 am

Hi Joke and thank you as well

Regards Daniel

by **viktorz** » April 2nd, 2012, 7:56 am

Try to read literature on Dutch , first will be not easy ))

by **Shazzy** » April 2nd, 2012, 12:08 pm

Hi Richard
This sounds very interesting listening and seeing children's programmes in Dutch. I have tried the link you gave http://bit.ly/wV3Uhq but it does not seem to work. It only gives the zapp logo

could it be my isp or could the link be incorrect.

Bedankt

Shazzy

by **Quetzal** » April 2nd, 2012, 7:37 pm

Shazzy wrote:Hi Richard
This sounds very interesting listening and seeing children's programmes in Dutch. I have tried the link you gave http://bit.ly/wV3Uhq but it does not seem to work. It only gives the zapp logo could it be my isp or could the link be incorrect.

Bedankt

Shazzy

Apparently that was what Richard meant to do... show people the logo so they can know which programs are easy to follow when watching Dutch TV.