Blowjobs and pant legs in Dutch (was RE: Grammatical Summary of Kemata)

Henrik Theiling wrote:
> > But not:
> > degenen, torenen*, eikelen*, loperen, toeteren*, hagelen*
> >
> > (* these can be verbs or verbalized forms, however)
>
> /?EhE:ms/... When I was in the Netherlands people told me that dispite
> my lexicon claimed the plural was with -en, I'd better say
> `fingers'. :-))) For the reason you put in parentheses, of course.
Yes, but following that line of thought, we would also have "pijps", "paals"
and "tongs" to avoid confusing them with verb forms of dubious meaning. The
most explicit example is asking the following (somewhat obvious) question to
someone wearing leather pants:

"Heb jij leren pijpen?"

Which can mean, depending on the circumstances:
"Do you have leather pant legs?" or "Have you learnt how to give blowjobs?"

In the first meaning, both are plural froms of nouns, while in the second
example, both or verb infinitives.

> German has `ja' which seems to cause a hard time for Dutch people.
I would compare "ja" with dutch "toch" (anyway) or "echt" (really).

> Dutch also has one I cannot use properly: `hoor' at the end of
> sentences.  Seems to add stress, but can be used either for real
> stress or for ironical stress.  My trials of examples would be
> wrong...
Adding "hoor" to the end of a sentence indicates that the speaker is trying
to convince the adressed person. It is sometimes used jokingly when you are
telling an obvious falsehood, by adding "echt waar hoor!". This is also
something little children wuold say when they want to convince someone they
are speaking the truth, even though it sounds unlikely.

Maarten

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