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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.
Quiz by Anne3kv
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Last updated: October 31, 2023
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First submittedJune 21, 2022
Times taken9,601
Average score80.0%
Rating4.82
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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
CaptainUnderpant
+12
Level 79
Oct 31, 2023
Bravo, really creative and entertaining quiz!
Jato
+12
Level 70
Oct 31, 2023
Can “plane” be accepted for airplane?
Quizmaster
+4
Level ∞
Oct 31, 2023
Okay
Scottie777
+16
Level 94
Oct 31, 2023
Great quiz but can you accept torch for "flashlight"? It's the same thing in British English.
Quizmaster
+3
Level ∞
Oct 31, 2023
Yes, that will work now
Ponderosa
+12
Level 86
Oct 31, 2023
Can you accept gum for gums?
Tramp
+1
Level 75
Oct 31, 2023
I missed gums because of this
Anne3kv
+3
Level 63
Oct 31, 2023
Yes, gum should work now
loganite
+8
Level 88
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! ;)
overtired
+1
Level 84
Oct 31, 2023
Ha, me too :)
TurkeyCookTime
+1
Level 75
Oct 31, 2023
Yeah, with "earth apple" I was thinking of the planet Earth, so I missed that one.
bluestar1923
+1
Level 34
Nov 11, 2023
i only knew that from french, pomme de terre literally translates to apple of the earth
iRDM
+3
Level 75
Nov 1, 2023
i kept thinking "sneeze" and "snore"!
CatcoolH
+8
Level 63
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.
CatcoolH
+3
Level 63
Oct 31, 2023
And most people say 'kussen' instead of 'hoofdkussen'
Jealous1sEnvy
+4
Level 87
Nov 1, 2023
'Ziekenwagen' is pretty common where I live.
Laaa
+19
Level 71
Oct 31, 2023
Speaking german definitely helps here - almost all of them are built with the same words in german.^^
Djilas
+3
Level 82
Oct 31, 2023
"Sea dog" is shark in some other languages
Faheem99
+2
Level 23
Nov 9, 2023
In Albanian, shark would be "fish dog"
Kokoanka
+1
Level 80
Nov 9, 2023
Same in croatian
Qikiq
+1
Level 85
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.
PynchonsOverbite
+6
Level 90
Oct 31, 2023
Gezichtspalm = What you do after you've spent a full minute wondering what the heck a "Nile horse" is and then see the answer. Heavy sigh.
brandybuck96
+6
Level 82
Nov 1, 2023
The word 'hippopotamus' comes from the Greek meaning 'river horse' so we're not far off.
Cocovenice
+7
Level 75
Oct 31, 2023
Love it! In German, we have many literal translations in common with Dutch, but for Piepschuim that did not help me ..
camus
+1
Level 78
Nov 1, 2023
Such an adorable word!
MayaB
+2
Level 72
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.
MarcellDAvis
+1
Level 73
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.
Jango
+1
Level 63
Oct 31, 2023
Love this quiz, funny and clever. Thank you, Anne!
Tramp
+7
Level 75
Oct 31, 2023
There's no way Dutch is actually a real language
AlexanderQ
+5
Level 89
Oct 31, 2023
Being Dutch, I am wondering how funny this much be for people who don't speak the language :D
BlackJohn
+2
Level 75
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.
KoljiVriVoda
+2
Level 76
Oct 31, 2023
12. Not bad :D

1 point

JWC1202
+5
Level 74
Oct 31, 2023
Peanut cheese may be the single most disgusting term I've ever heard. *ick*
PietjePuk24
+2
Level 60
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).

InterAlia
+1
Level 73
Nov 9, 2023
You've led a sheltered life.
angrobper14
+10
Level 84
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".

canadry
+3
Level 76
Nov 1, 2023
Fun quiz!

Amazing how similar some of these transliterations are to their Scandinavian-language and German equivalents. too.

Yesse03
+4
Level 70
Nov 1, 2023
Some additions: Lazy Horse (Luipaard), Burn again (brandweer), sand walker (zandloper)
RedPenguinLol
+7
Level 76
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.
Striker
+4
Level 59
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).
gerobach
+7
Level 75
Nov 1, 2023
All that Duolingo in Dutch paid off!

Ik ben en sinaasappel

MarcellDAvis
+1
Level 73
Nov 9, 2023
Ne, je bent een banaan. Ik eet een boterham.
Jerry928
+1
Level 75
Nov 2, 2023
Fun quiz, thanks!
blizzrd33
+1
Level 79
Nov 3, 2023
Great quiz.
FadKrashmor
+2
Level 72
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.
MarcellDAvis
+5
Level 73
Nov 9, 2023
To be fair, "octopus" is also literally "eight arm(s)".
busby
+1
Level 57
Nov 6, 2023
Love it
thegoatisgoaty
+2
Level 70
Nov 7, 2023
Great quiz
woshiwaiguoren
+1
Level 69
Nov 9, 2023
Perfect quiz, thanks!
Sapinator
+3
Level 64
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!
Islandcarver
+2
Level 78
Nov 9, 2023
I made this quiz some time ago using only animal words in German
Youngsterliam
+1
Level 43
Nov 9, 2023
We use ambulance in Dutch
JackintheBox
+1
Level 78
Nov 9, 2023
Got all but 'squeak foam'! Having learnt German definitely helped!
Kokoanka
+4
Level 80
Nov 9, 2023
Almost all of these are the same in Sweden. I believe the dutch went too far with "peanut cheese" though.
Mikasuomi
+1
Level 47
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").
TheNatureThread
+2
Level 65
Nov 10, 2023
Interesting, I think that's called a calque in linguistics.
Mikasuomi
+1
Level 47
Nov 11, 2023
You are correct. In Finnish it is "käännöslaina", literally 'translated loan'.
nosuchthingas
+2
Level 64
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.
matheusdonner
+1
Level 28
Nov 12, 2023
easy when German is your third language
Carry
+2
Level 63
Nov 14, 2023
Easy when German is your first language. Only thing I didn't get was Piepschuim.
mooselikestoparty
+1
Level 57
Nov 14, 2023
Same. If I didn't know it, I just translated from German but that one got me.
GlobalCitizen
+1
Level 64
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.

50
+1
Level 39
Nov 24, 2023
Dutch guy here! In areas around Rotterdam most (old) people say "ziekenwagen".
rphxx
+1
Level 70
Nov 14, 2023
i love how literally all of these except for peanut cheese are said in german as well
50
+1
Level 39
Nov 24, 2023
I am Dutch so this is quite easy!
ministarplanet
+1
Level 56
Nov 27, 2023
this is a good quiz, just wondering though is that photo ai generated?
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