A1MessageTravel1 min

Een bericht van Tim

Tim texts his girlfriend: he will be late, the train has stopped.

Short messages like on a phone. Watch te laat, “too late”, om half acht (“at half past seven”, which in Dutch means half way to eight, so 7.30) and the question with the verb first: Neem jij brood mee? — with no “do”.

Tim

Hoi Fleur! Ik ben te laat. De trein staat stil.

Fleur

Oh nee! Waar ben je nu?

Tim

Ik ben in Amersfoort. Ik denk dat ik om half acht thuis ben.

Fleur

Geen probleem. Ik kook.

Tim

Wat kook je?

Fleur

Soep met kip. Neem jij brood mee?

Tim

Ja, ik koop brood op het station. Tot straks!

More sentences on this in “Language in use”: Dutch for your trip

Words: 52
Sentences: 14
Words per sentence: 3.7
in the vocabulary: 100 %
measured level: A1
Reading time: 1 min

Grammar in this text

These forms appear in the text in real use. Switch on “Show grammar” above the text to highlight them.

Neem jij brood mee
A yes-no question starts with the verb: Neem jij brood mee? English needs “do” or “are”; Dutch just turns the verb round. Yes–no questions: Werk jij hier? →
om half acht
half acht is half way to eight, so 7.30. It is the time before the hour that is coming, not after the hour gone. Hoe laat is het? Telling the time →
brood mee
With meenemen the little word wanders to the end: Neem jij brood mee? — like “take along”, only stranded at the end. Ik bel je op: separable verbs →

The words from A1 up in this text

Not the hard words in general, but those at your level: all 15 of the 38 words in this text are at A1 or above. You will know everything else by the time you get here.

de kip
the chicken
A1
de soep
the soup
A1
de trein
train
A1
denken
to think
A1
half
half
A1
het brood
the bread
A1
het probleem
problem
A1
het station
railway station
A1
hoi
hi (casual)
A1
koken
to cook; to boil
A1
kopen
to buy
A1
nemen
to take
A1
staan
to stand
A1
stil
still, silent
A1
thuis
at home
A1

The word lists for this text

The words in this text appear in 9 lists on this site; the number after each says how many come from that list. Having read the text, you have just needed these very words — and can practise exactly them.

Verb forms 4 Food and drink 3 Town and getting around 2 Odds and ends for every day 1 Greetings and politeness 1 The most important verbs 1 Common adjectives 1 Home and household 1 Numbers and time 1

The verbs on this page, in every form: zijn · koken · staan · nemen · kopen · denken

Comprehension questions

3 questions on the text. With each answer the sentence it comes from appears — a question whose answer you cannot find in the text tests nothing.

1. Waarom is Tim te laat?

2. Hoe laat is Tim thuis?

3. Wat koopt Tim op het station?