Detailed analysis of the everyday meanings of words like ‘joking’ and ‘teasing’, on the other hand, can yield insights into the ethnopragmatics of Anglo conversational humour (cf. Nor can the problem be easily solved, it is argued, by attributing technical meanings to the terms. Adopting such terms as baseline categories for cross-cultural comparison therefore risks introducing an Anglocentric bias into our theoretical vocabulary (Wierzbicka 2014a). They are not precisely cross-translatable even into European languages such as French and German. In the first part, it is argued that the meanings of the verbs ‘to joke’ and ‘to tease’ (and related nouns) are much more English-specific than is commonly recognised. Against this background, the present paper has three main parts. Related English adjectives, such as ‘jocular’ and ‘mock’, are also much-used in a growing lexicon of compound terms, such as ‘jocular abuse’, ‘mock abuse’, ‘jocular mockery’, and the like. More commonly they are used as scientific or technical categories, both for research into English and for cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison. Occasionally they are studied as metapragmatic terms of ordinary English, along with related expressions such as ‘kidding’, e.g. We here at Flowently won’t take any responsibility for what happens after, but we would like to warn you: don’t use this word in a formal setting! Need context? You can use this expression in an ironic way for a person who is not acting very handy or ‘een beetje dom’.Terms like ‘to joke’ (and ‘joking’) and ‘to tease’ (and ‘teasing’) have a curious double life in contrastive and interactional pragmatics, and related fields. Thinking ‘hey you jackass, ding-dong, dummy, windbag, cookie’ about a person and you want to express that in Dutch? Try ‘hé oelewapper’ next time. Life, and a romantic relation especially, is all about diplomacy and humour.
Meaning ‘you are right’, ‘you are completely right!’ (hiding your own thoughts in the meantime of course). Je hebt gelijk / You are rightĪre you in a romantic relation with a Dutchie? You can’t make your loved one happier than by then telling them: ‘je hebt gelijk’ or ‘je hebt helemaal gelijk!’ every now and then. Situations like failing your NT2 exam, finding out your holiday was cancelled, unable to join a party, etc. When it concerns a really serious matter, you could add ‘wat ontzettend jammer’, which equals to ‘what a pity’. You want to express your disappointment about a situation in an informal manner? Then you can say ‘wat jammer’. So not in case someone has broken his leg or died, but in a situation where you, for example, just missed the bus. Helaas pindakaas / Unfortunately peanut butterĭoes not make any sense in English, but you can impress your Dutch friends by using this phrase in a situation that is a bit disappointing. Hard to pronounce? Just focus on the first part, ‘GRAPpig’. Meeting a person who is funny, or flirting in a café, you can compliment the person by saying ‘ik vind je grappig’. When you find yourself in a funny situation, just say ‘dat is grappig’ – that’s funny.
Grappig is een grappig woord / Funny is a funny word! And then we’re not talking about making people laugh by making terrible or funny language mistakes.īelow you can find some phrases that will work even when you are a beginner, which will break the ice and put/toveren a smile on a Dutchie’s face. THE VERY MOMENT you’re able to make a joke in your new language and make natives laugh, you can be very proud of yourself! Being funny in a new language is one of the most difficult things there is.
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