The Dutch are interesting folk. Not only are they some of the tallest people in the world, but they also enjoy tons of canals in their homeland. More than 25% of the Netherlands is below sea level, and 50% of the total land is less than a meter above sea level. The weirdest part of them all? Dutch language.
Today’s infographic is all about weird dutch idioms you’ve probably never heard of. If you thought “it’s raining cats and dogs” was a bit strange, wait to hear “as if an angel was peeing on your tongue.” Yep, you read that right.
For even more weird dutch-ness, here are some facts about the language and the people!
- Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is built entirely on poles. This is because the soil is mainly a thick layer of fen and clay. Thus, the buildings are built on wooden poles anchored in the sandy layer more than 10 meters below the surface.
- There are around 30 million Dutch-speakers around the world. Among them, more or less 22 million are native speakers.
- The English language has dutch words. If you thought Dutch was a language far away from English, don’t judge so fast! We use several Dutch words on a day to day basis. Words like bamboo, apartheid, brandy, coleslaw, cookie, drill, iceberg and waffle are all at some point dutch words.
Check out today’s infographic for a closer look at some of the weirdest Dutch idioms.