What's That Dutch Compound Word?

We give you the literal translation of these compound words in Dutch. You guess what the actual translation is.

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Last updated: October 31, 2023

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First submitted	June 21, 2022
Times taken	16,601
Average score	80.0%
Rating	4.95

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Dutch word	Literal translation	Actual translation
Schildpad	Shield toad	Turtle
Handschoenen	Hand shoes	Gloves
Koelkast	Cool closet	Refrigerator
Vliegtuig	Fly thing	Airplane
Stofzuiger	Dust sucker	Vacuum
Zeehond	Sea dog	Seal
Ziekenhuis	Sick house	Hospital
Ziekenauto	Sick car	Ambulance
Tandarts	Tooth doctor	Dentist
Zaklamp	Pocket lamp	Flashlight

Dutch word	Literal translation	Actual translation
Nijlpaard	Nile horse	Hippopotamus
Neushoorn	Nose horn	Rhinoceros
Tandvlees	Tooth flesh	Gums
Pindakaas	Peanut cheese	Peanut butter
Woordenboek	Words book	Dictionary
Aardappel	Earth apple	Potato
Piepschuim	Squeak foam	Styrofoam
Hoofdkussen	Head cushion	Pillow
Inktvis	Ink fish	Squid
Rekenmachine	Arithmetic machine	Calculator

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81 Comments

+18

Level 80

Oct 31, 2023

Bravo, really creative and entertaining quiz!

+16

Level 71

Oct 31, 2023

Can “plane” be accepted for airplane?

Level ∞

Oct 31, 2023

Okay

+21

Level 97

Oct 31, 2023

Great quiz but can you accept torch for "flashlight"? It's the same thing in British English.

Level ∞

Oct 31, 2023

Yes, that will work now

+14

Level 88

Oct 31, 2023

Can you accept gum for gums?

Level 77

Oct 31, 2023

I missed gums because of this

Level 66

Oct 31, 2023

Yes, gum should work now

+11

Level 91

Oct 31, 2023

Great quiz! Got hung up on "nose horn". I was thinking of horn as an instrument and never came up with the answer. Definite facepalm moment when I saw the answer! ;)

Level 86

Oct 31, 2023

Ha, me too :)

Level 81

Oct 31, 2023

Yeah, with "earth apple" I was thinking of the planet Earth, so I missed that one.

Level 35

Nov 11, 2023

i only knew that from french, pomme de terre literally translates to apple of the earth

Level 79

Nov 1, 2023

i kept thinking "sneeze" and "snore"!

+13

Level 66

Oct 31, 2023

I'm Dutch and I don't think a lot of people say 'ziekenauto' anymore (perhaps some older people). We mostly just use ambulance.

Level 66

Oct 31, 2023

And most people say 'kussen' instead of 'hoofdkussen'

Level 89

Nov 1, 2023

'Ziekenwagen' is pretty common where I live.

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

Belgian or south of the netherlands? I have heard ziekenauto but mainly used by little kids, adults don't really use it (anymore?). But ziekenwagen sounds more unusual, I immediately hear it with a belgian or brabants/limburgs accent.

+24

Level 73

Oct 31, 2023

Speaking german definitely helps here - almost all of them are built with the same words in german.^^

Level 68

Feb 15, 2024

Didnt get nose horn and I even speak German :D Could't believe it when I saw the solution

Level 84

Oct 31, 2023

"Sea dog" is shark in some other languages

Level 68

Feb 18, 2024

In Chinese, seal is "sea leopard"

Level 76

Feb 24, 2024

In german there is:

literal translation - german - proper name

Sea dog - Seehund - harbour seal

Sea leopard - Seeleopard - leopard seal

Sea elephant - See-Elefant - elephant seal

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

yea in dutch there is zeehond (seal), zeeleeuw (sea lion), zeeolifant. Not sure it they correspond to the one you gave, too tired to check.

And ofcourse we must not forget zeepaard (seahorse), zee-egel (sea hedgehog -> urchin). Ah And I think zeekoe (manatee)

Edit, we have a sealeopard too, but you don't hear it being used much.

Level 88

Oct 31, 2023

My parents are Dutch, so I grew up hearing most of these words and knew what they represented. I never realized how literal they were.

Level 78

Oct 31, 2023

Love it! In German, we have many literal translations in common with Dutch, but for Piepschuim that did not help me ..

Level 79

Nov 1, 2023

Such an adorable word!

Level 73

Nov 6, 2023

That's how I got all but this one. It was easy to think of the German word first, but since neither German nor English nor Dutch are my mother tongue thinking of the English word afterwards was a bigger challenge than usual.

Level 78

Nov 9, 2023

Same for me, most of these are exactly the same in German, except for Piepschuim, which is such a wonderful word that I think I'll start using it from now on. Quiekschaum... I love it already.

Level 75

Dec 18, 2023

I speak dutch and didn't get that one .... because I didn't know the word in english.

Level 63

Oct 31, 2023

Love this quiz, funny and clever. Thank you, Anne!

+10

Level 77

Oct 31, 2023

There's no way Dutch is actually a real language

Level 91

Oct 31, 2023

Being Dutch, I am wondering how funny this much be for people who don't speak the language :D

Level 76

Nov 10, 2023

Not really. Hippopotamus and rhinoceros have the same meaning in English, they just dont know it because it's greek to them. Earth apple is the same in french and other languages. Words book, tooth doctor, arithmetic machine I have also seen in other languages too.

Level 78

Oct 31, 2023

12. Not bad :D

1 point

Level 75

Oct 31, 2023

Peanut cheese may be the single most disgusting term I've ever heard. *ick*

Level 80

Nov 9, 2023

This is because in The Netherlands butter is protected, it has to have at least 80% milkfat.

So instead of going for spread or something that would be more logical they went with cheese. Because the Dutch love cheese, eat cheese sanwiches, and there was alread another word with cheese in it but without cheese in the product (leverkaas/livercheese).

Level 78

Nov 9, 2023

You've led a sheltered life.

+10

Level 85

Nov 1, 2023

Interestingly enough, several languages use the "earth/ground apple" compound work for potato.

This is because "apple" used to mean "fruit" in general terms. Thus, potatoes are "fruits of the ground".

Level 73

Nov 1, 2023

Some additions: Lazy Horse (Luipaard), Burn again (brandweer), sand walker (zandloper)

+10

Level 79

Nov 1, 2023

Brandweer is more accurately translated as "fire averting", from the noun brand and the verb weren, which makes a lot more sense considering the meaning. The others are indeed a little wacky though.

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

Yea but it is not really walking (as in hiking or stroling somewhere) either. It corresponds more to the English run, a machine runs, the engine runs things run smoothly. So basicly "going". So I would go for Sand runner. It works with time running out very well.

Level 60

Nov 9, 2023

Lazy horse doesn't really work here, since it isn't really a dutch compound word, but just happens to translate to these two words. Luipaard has the same origin as the English word Leopard and comes from the latin compound word leopardus, meaning leo (=lion) and pardus (=panther).

Level 58

Aug 28, 2024

Funnily enough, the greek word leopard originally referred to cheetahs, as they incorrectly thought cheetahs were leopards (which they called just pards) crossed with lions, thus "leo-pard".

+10

Level 76

Nov 1, 2023

All that Duolingo in Dutch paid off!

Ik ben en sinaasappel

Level 78

Nov 9, 2023

Ne, je bent een banaan. Ik eet een boterham.

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

Hahah that takes me back. I did the dutch duolingo for a while (I am dutch) to help people there and answer the questions in the comments and give corrections if I saw wildly wrong explanations. And just clarify some things.

Atm I am doing Danish. However since I redicovered this site aswell as having installed a new game, I just missed the last three days! haha Trading in one addiction for another..

Level 76

Nov 2, 2023

Fun quiz, thanks!

Level 80

Nov 3, 2023

Great quiz.

Level 71

Nov 4, 2023

I am a Dutch speaker (as my second-best language). I had thought that "Inktvis" could translate to "Octopus". But no, apparently "Achtarm" (liiterally "Eight arm") is correct for that animal.

Level 78

Nov 9, 2023

To be fair, "octopus" is also literally "eight arm(s)".

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

And to be more fair I think most dutch people use the terms interchangeably, even though scientifically they definitely refer to two different things.

I think most people use inktvis for everything.

However if I am not mistaken

Inkvis=squid

Octopus= octopus

And cuttlefish=zeekat (sea cat) but pretty sure that is getting called inktvis too.

Edit, wait what?? rereading @FadKrashmor's comment. You think we call them achtarm??? I have never heard anyone call them that, I am pretty sure that must be a joke of someone. I can imagine it being called that in afrikaans. They have several words that are quite literal description (flemish has some too) well more than the ones we allready have, though every language does. People just dont realize it in their own language (sometiems partly because they use the latin or greek word)

Level 65

Nov 6, 2023

Love it

Level 71

Nov 7, 2023

Great quiz

Level 72

Nov 9, 2023

Perfect quiz, thanks!

Level 65

Nov 9, 2023

for me, being dutch, it is actually an easy translation quiz but seeing the literal translation of these words to english makes me suddenly realise that some of our every day words are very funny :). I'd love to see similar quizzes in other languages!

Level 81

Nov 9, 2023

I made this quiz some time ago using only animal words in German

Level 52

Nov 9, 2023

We use ambulance in Dutch

Level 81

Nov 9, 2023

Got all but 'squeak foam'! Having learnt German definitely helped!

Level 82

Nov 9, 2023

Almost all of these are the same in Sweden. I believe the dutch went too far with "peanut cheese" though.

Level 51

Nov 10, 2023

Many of these are also same in Finnish (but "mustekala", literally 'ink fish' means octopussy). I believe that the logic of many Finnish compound words is borrowed from Swedish, they use native words but with similar combination (like "vuorenvarma" 'absolutely certain', literally 'mountain's certain', cf. Swedish "berg + säker").

Level 67

Nov 10, 2023

Interesting, I think that's called a calque in linguistics.

Level 51

Nov 11, 2023

You are correct. In Finnish it is "käännöslaina", literally 'translated loan'.

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

In dutch leenvertaling though I think we simply use claque too. Unless I am mixing things up again ( thinking I have read something in dutch while it was in english). Which literally means borrow(ed) translation. Or yea loan translation like yours

Level 67

Nov 10, 2023

i get kind of frustrated when people make fun of this bc a lot of english words are the same thing, just borrowed from dead languages. Like a hippopotamus is litterally 'horse river' and a dentist is just a 'tooth-er'. It's not just bc you don't remember, that english is any less silly lol.

Level 48

Nov 12, 2023

easy when German is your third language

Level 63

Nov 14, 2023

Easy when German is your first language. Only thing I didn't get was Piepschuim.

Level 61

Nov 14, 2023

Same. If I didn't know it, I just translated from German but that one got me.

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

I am Dutch I didnt get it either... Ofcourse I knew styrofoam, but absolutely could not think of it, I tried pack(ag)ing foam. And just checked, that is actually not wrong. So it should have been accepted.

Hmm now I am searching deeper, and it seems polystyrene is a better translation for piepschuim. But too much research atm.

OK did some more digging. The answer should be polystyrene. Styrofoam is extruded polystyrene foam, not squeaky (and actually a brand name, but lets disregard that), polystyrene is expanded polystyrene, very squeaky.

We only call the stuff that squeaks and seems to be made up of little balls piepschuim.

To be totally correct piepschuim=expanded polystyrene.

Not totally certain what we called extruded polystyrene but not piepschuim. (I think either styrofoam sometimes (cup) but when it is in sheets we might say polystyrene (I remember using those sheets for mock-ups in my study, think that is what we called it. Not getting confusing is it? :D)

Level 65

Nov 12, 2023

Was a funny quiz to complete as a Dutch guy, but I never heard of the word 'ziekenauto', I always use ambulance.

As far as I know, everyone also just uses 'kussen' for pillow. But after googling I do see that stores sometimes specify 'hoofd kussen' maybe to make it clear that it is the pillow for sleeping.

Level 48

Nov 24, 2023

Dutch guy here! In areas around Rotterdam most (old) people say "ziekenwagen".

Level 71

Nov 14, 2023

i love how literally all of these except for peanut cheese are said in german as well

Level 48

Nov 24, 2023

I am Dutch so this is quite easy!

Level 54

Jan 8, 2024

I think potato is earth apple in several languages

Level 70

Jan 10, 2024

dutch is a very silly sounding language

Level 44

Feb 9, 2024

Was anyone else very disappointed "nose horn" wasn't sneeze?

Level 68

Mar 7, 2024

Dutch guy here, mostly just checked it to see the comments about our language. xD Had 19 out of 20 myself.....for some reason the word ambulance had skipped my mind.

Level 72

Mar 28, 2024

Cool quiz, nicely picked words. I have two remarks though. I word not translate -tuig with thing. I think apparatus, tool, or device is more accurate. (And you could argue tuig is not a word in this case, just a suffix. You do have the word tuig, but it either means scum/rabble/riffraff or like a harness for an animal. I imagine it can be a grey area, but noone says where is that tuig)

The other one was arithmetic machine, I would go for calculating machine. (Not calculus though). You would say let me calculate that, not let me arithmetic that. So calculating is better

Native dutch speaker btw ;)

Level 71

Jun 3, 2024

As a native Dutch speaker, this should have been an ace, but I couldn't think of the English word 'styrofoam' XD

Level 91

Jul 18, 2024

Vogelbekdier - Bird Mouth Animal (Platypus) is another good one :')

Level 66

Jul 18, 2024

Ooh, that one is great!

Level 62

Sep 22, 2024

accept thermocol and other words for sytrofoam?

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