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Tout, toute, toutes and tous: all in French

How do you say ‘all‘ in French? A simple question but a long answer. All can be used in two different contexts:

  • All the children.
  • I want all (of them).

The first one stands with a noun (the children) and the second one stands alone or adds ‘of them’. In English, it’s twice all. In French, no.

All in French with nouns

In French, every noun (like ‘children’) is male or female.Male nouns use ‘le’ for ‘the’ and female ones ‘la’. It depends on the gender which form of ‘tout’ you’ll have to use. For example:

  • Les hommes: tous les hommes (all men)
  • Les femmes: toutes les femmes (all women)

And what about one man or one woman? In English, we use ‘a whole man’ or ‘a whole woman’. In French, we use a form of tout:

  • Tout un homme (a whole man)

    The whole universe: tout l’univers
  • Toute une femme (a whole woman)

As you see, whether it’s a male or a female word is again important to know whether it’s tout or toute.

All standing alone

To use all standing alone, you use a form of tout as well. However, the ending changes, depending on what you’d like to say. If it’s ‘all of them’ or ‘every single one of them’, it’s tous. If it means ‘everything’, it’s tout:

  • Je veux tout. (I want everything)
  • Ils sont tous là. (All of them are there)

Note that with ‘tous’, you’ll need another word to say who’s concerned. In English, it’s translated as ‘of them’. Here, it’s ‘ils’. They are all there. Two more examples:

  • Ils les mangent tous (they eat all of them)
  • Nous sommes tous là (we are all there)

Exercises

Let’s do some exercises. Fill in the blanks:

  1. Ils font _.
  2. Je travaille _ la journée.
  3. Je les vois _.
  4. Il y a _ un groupe.
  5. _ les groupes sont là?
  6. J’aime _ les maisons.

Solutions:

tout – toute – tous – tout – tous – tous

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To like in Dutch: graag

Learn the Dutch language from Belgium, also called Flemish

How do you say ‘I like to dance’ in Dutch? If you ask this question as a beginner,  your teacher will probably say it’s too soon. Why? Because ‘to like’ isn’t as easy in Dutch as it is in English.

No verb, no like

There is no specific verb for ‘to like’ in Dutch. At best, you can use ‘houden van.’ So, the translation would be:

  • Ik hou van dansen. (I like/love to dance)

But the literal translation is: I love to dance. Yes, houden van is to love. So it can also mean to like a lot, just as well as to love. To a loved one, you’d say:

  • Ik hou van jou. (I love you)

Graag: no verb

Dutch persons usually use ‘graag’ as a way to express they like something. Graag is no verb but it always stands with a verb. And to be more precise, usually just after the verb.

  • Ik dans graag. (I like to dance)

So if you’d like to make the sentence longer, you’ll add the words after graag:

  • Ik dans graag salsa met mijn vrienden. (I like to dance salsa with my friends)

If there is no verb, you use ‘hebben’, to have, with graag.

  • Ik heb graag kinderen. (I like kids)

Other uses of graag

Water? Graag!

Graag is also used for other purposes, which can be confusing. But here’s the other uses:

  1. Yes in a polite way.
  2. Politeness. Used in combination with zouden (would) or willen (want), or both zouden and willen.
  • Water, meneer? (water, mister)
  • Graag (yes, with pleasure)
  • En wat wil u drinken? (and what do you want to drink)
  • Ik zou graag een glas cola willen, alstublieft (I’d like a glass of cola, please)

Exercises

Translate (with graag):

  1. He likes to eat.
  2. I like dancing in the dark.
  3. Do we like to go to the cinema?
  4. They like ice cream.

Put the words in the right order:

  1. graag – drinkt – water – ze .
  2. weer – in – van – houden -zij – België – het .
  3. zou – krijgen – koffie – graag – je – tas – een .

Solutions

  1. Hij eet graag.
  2. Ik dans graag in het donker.
  3. Gaan we graag naar de cinema?
  4. Zij hebben graag ijsjes.

 

  1. Ze drinkt graag water.
  2. Zij houden van het weer in België.
  3. Je zou graag een tas koffie krijgen.

Improve your Dutch by taking some private classes…

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Learn languages with Udemy – a good idea?

Learning languages online is a challenge, as there’s almost no social pressure to attend classes. That’s one of the reasons why many learners prefer to learn languages online. One of the platforms offering courses is Udemy. That’s where I also teach courses.

On Udemy, there are many other language courses though, ranging from Chinese to German via Arabic. Let’s put some pros and cons of learning with Udemy next to each other.

Pros and cons

Pro: There are many free courses available. It’s easy. You can learn anytime, anywhere. You can also review any of the lessons anytime, without having to pay. There are different levels, from beginners to experts. You can ask questions to your teacher. There are certificates.

Learn languages online with Udemy ©

Con: no face-to-face contact with your teacher. Some students pay but never start the course. Not all teachers reply to questions (I do!). There are not many options for ‘smaller’ languages. And, the quiz system is not adapted to language courses.

Despite these caveats, I still think it’s a valuable way to learn a language. Especially if you need to repeat more often than other students. You can always review the videos at a later time. Even after years. It’s also handy if you find a course that really suits your needs.

What to do on Udemy

Some best practices:

  • Always check if there are free previews available. Most teachers give some of their content away so students know what to expect.
  • See how many and which ratings the courses have. Udemy strictly checks if those are fraudulous, so you can trust these ratings are right. 52 reviews and a 4.7 rating on a course is better than 2 5-star ratings.
  • Finally, buying a course is more like a stepping stone: it’s the beginning. Many teachers include links to more materials, so use those links!

Also check out my Facebook page, where I share free links for paid language courses!

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All in Dutch: al, alle, alles, allen, allemaal

Learn the Dutch language from Belgium, also called Flemish

So when an English-speaking student is learning the Dutch translation for ‘all’, all hell breaks loose. How do you explain to a student there are five (!) ways to translate ‘all’?

Let’s see them all:

  1. Is that all?
  2. All are here. (as in people)
  3. All people are here.
  4. All the people are here.
  5. We are all here.

All as in everything

If you can replace the ‘all’ by everything, you use ‘alles’.

  • Is dat alles? (Is that all)

All as in everyone

If you can replace the ‘all’ by everyone, you use ‘allen.’ You can also use iedereen.

  • Allen zijn hier. (all are here)

All plus nouns

When you’re using all plus a noun, you use ‘alle.’ There’s nothing standing between de ‘all’ and the noun.

  • Alle mensen zijn hier. (all people are here)

All plus article plus nouns

If there’s an article or a pronoun (this, that) in between the all and the nouns, it’s ‘al.’

  • Al de mensen zijn hier. (all the people are here)
All or everything?

All separated from the noun

When all stands behind the noun, use ‘allemaal’. Allen can also be used in case of people.

  • We zijn allemaal hier.  (we are all here)

Exercises

(words: de studenten, de leraars, werken met, naar België, was, het)

  1. All students go to Belgium.
  2. The students all go to Belgium.
  3. All go to Belgium.
  4. All teachers work with all the students.
  5. Was it all, students?

Solutions

  1. Alle studenten gaan naar België.
  2. De studenten gaan allemaal naar België.
  3. Allen gaan naar België.
  4. Alle leraars werken met al de studenten.
  5. Was het alles, studenten?
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Free Dutch course online

Interested in learning the Dutch language? Here’s your way to do it for free.

In over 40 lectures, you’ll learn the basic grammar and over 300 Dutch words!

Start with the introduction to the course so you can start learning Dutch in 7 different sections:

  • Section 1: how to introduce yourself
  • Section 2: how to talk about jobs, countries and names
  • Section 3: the Dutch verbs
  • Section 4: the possessive, the family and the negative
  • Section 5: how to ask questions, how to use diminutive and when to write capitals
  • Section 6: the numbers and pronouns
  • Section 7: extra resources

    Get my book!

Enjoy the course and let me know what you liked and liked less!

Here’s the full description of the course:

Learn Dutch – this is the place to start learning Flemish online!

This is your opportunity! In this course, we start from zero. Indeed, zero. No previous knowledge needed. No expensive study books. We build on our way to learn Dutch, step by step. Learn at your own pace to translate Dutch, you can review the videos and redo the exercises any time, as much as you want! Learn Dutch online!
What can you expect?
Learning Dutch is difficult. Yes. So no unnecessary, 10-minute long Dutch grammar lessons with all the rules. Only what you need to know. Tips where you can find more Dutch language. Over 300 Dutch words to use in your everyday life. An interactive quiz at the end of each section, also about the Dutch vocabulary. Culture to understand Dutch better.
For who is this course?
You don’t understand Dutch, or barely. And you want to know how to speak Dutch. And it’s taught for you. Ready to start?
The level is Dutch A1 to Dutch A2.

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Busy in Dutch: druk or bezig

Learn the Dutch language from Belgium, also called Flemish

During one of my online Dutch lessons, a student said this:

  • Het was een bezige week (= it was a busy week).

It’s a literal translation from English into Dutch. Due to the close relationship between the two languages, it’s a good tactic. However, in this case, it isn’t.

So I corrected my student:

  • Het was een drukke week.

But I couldn’t tell why. Yes, language teachers do not know everything. So I did some research and found interesting forum conversations on an amazing website. And here’s how it is:

Bezige bij or drukke bij?

Bezig is used for living things doing an activity. The result is that the living thing can’t do something else:

  • Jan, kan je me helpen? (= Jan, can you help me?)
  • Nee, ik ben bezig. (= No, I’m busy.)

So a week can’t be ‘bezig’. Because it’s not a living thing. Also, it’s not doing an activity. And that is why it’s a drukke week. Let’s do some exercises:

Fill in: druk/bezig (solution below)

  • Ben je met de afwas … ?
  • Het plein is … .
  • Jan is altijd zo’n … mens.
  • Op het werk is het altijd … .
  • Hij is … . Dus vraag het aan Sara.

(afwas = dishes, zo’n = such a)

Mind as well that you can use ‘druk bezig‘ as in very busy. Again, this is only for living things doing an activity.

Druk can also mean pressure. For example luchtdruk (= air pressure) and in stressful situations. And ‘bezet‘ means occupied. As in what you have to reply when you’re in the bathroom.

Fun fact: a busy bee is an expression also used in Dutch: een bezige bij. It’s a living thing and doing an activity.

Solutions:

Bezig – druk – drukke – druk – bezig.

 

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To be in Maltese

Learn the Maltese language to express yourself in Malta's official language

Is the verb to be making you lose all your hair? Yes, indeed. Maltese isn’t easy. It’s always a good idea to start learning a language by learning the verb to be. So how is it exactly in Maltese?

To be or the pronouns?

Here’s the list:

  • jien/jiena = I am
  • int/inti = you are
  • hu/huwa = he is
  • hi/hija = she is
  • aħna = we are
  • intom = you are
  • huma = they are

Actually, these are the pronouns: I, you, he, etc… So you have to think the verb to be with it. If there is another verb in the sentence, the pronoun is probably added to that verb.

  • Huma jaħdmu f’dari = They work in my house.

This is to stress the fact that ‘they’ are working. Not someone else. So the pronoun is only used to stress who is performing the action in the sentence. If it’s not important to stress it, Maltese say:

  • Jaħdmu f’dari

So if there is no other verb in the sentence, it’s to be.

Which one to choose?

Now: one more question. Is it jien or jiena? Int or inti? Well, the short version is used to stress the difference between the person as an opposition to someone else.

  • Min jaħdem? = Who works?
  • Jien! = I am (but the others aren’t)

Learn more conjugations in my book:

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Niet or geen? Differences between Dutch not’s and no’s

As you’re learning your first Dutch words, you’ll come across an important topic: to say a sentence in the negative. For example: I don’t live in Germany:

  • Ik woon niet in Duitsland.

So, not is niet, right? Yes. And no. Because as you’re translating the next sentence: ‘I am not a German’, you won’t see a niet in:

  • Ik ben geen Duitser.

But you do see a geen appearing. So when do you use geen, and when niet? Well, it’s simple: if you can replace the not in English by a no, it’s geen. In the other cases, it’s niet. Let’s see our two examples:

  • I don’t live in Germany. I do no live in Germany = wrong, so it’s… Ik woon niet in Duitsland.
  • I am not a German. I am no German = right, so it’s… Ik ben geen Duitser.

That’s it. Also mind that a simple ‘no’ as in not a yes is translated as nee or neen.

Check out more Dutch here!

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Learn languages with movies – fun!

Have you ever learnt languages by watching movies? It’s a great tool to learn new words and new expressions in the language you’re learning. However, there are some do’s and don’ts.

First of all, the genre of the film should be suited to your language level. Action movies and animated movies are best for beginners, because those use simple words and sentences. Especially if they’re movies for kids. More advanced students are better served with the many puns and expressions of comedies.

Second, prepare well by printing the script. Check which words are used most, and learn those you don’t know yet. You can find the most-used words also by using Wordle or WordCounter.

Third, never watch dubbed movies. This may be obvious, but what’s the point of watching a movie if not even the language is the language you’re learning?

Fourth, avoid watching with subtitles in your language. You’ll be more concentrated on reading your own language instead of learning new words.

Fifth, put subtitles in the language you’re learning. These are mostly used by deaf persons, but you can enjoy them too.

Sixth, find movies in the language you’re learning on IMDb. Go for the search option and select the language you’re learning under the option ‘languages’.

More tips in my book.