wrote:
JennyC wrote:
"Douglas" wrote in message
news
ddc Wrote:
Hallo,
Visit our website you can see much pictures there, from our
garden and
my hobby arranging flowers .

http://www.denbosrand.be

Oh heck, where has the Dutch dictionary gone.......
Douglas

Belgium, you mean :~))

Actually, he probably DID mean Dutch rather than Belgian. There is
no
such thing as a Belgian dictionary;

That is essentially correct, but there should be one.
Dutch (Nederlands)and Flemish {Vlaams} can be distinctly different.
Assimil, (a good home-language-course supplier)has at least 2
Tallpocket Vlaams booklets, but they're not what you might call a
dictionary, though that is due to its layout.
An example would be their translation for May (the month)
The book gives it in Dutch (nl) as Mei,
in antwerp it is Maaj,
in Brugs it is Meie
and in Gent it is Maa.

In this instance, they all at least begin with the same letter.

Belgians speak (at least) one of
two languages, Flemish or French. Flemish is (if I understand
correctly) essentially the same as Dutch.

That too is essentially correct. In as far as I know, Flemish was the
original (& if you saw the programme on the English language, you'd
have heard how English originated from Friesland, NW Netherland

I've encountered some unexpected problems. Looking at the contents of
various products, I expected that Nitrogen would still be nitrogen, but
it's not written the same. Many botanical references are also
different. Sometimes, it's like the what happened to the original Greek
(names) when Latin usurped it.

I go to Dutch classes, but outside the class, most of the locals don't
speak Dutch. First they respond to say they do not speak any English,
but then the Dutch really stumps them, so they ask me to repeat myself
in English! Dutch is something they once learnt in school, just like
they learnt English and I once had to learn 'Irish' in school, but have
mostly lost it now, whereas there is a lot of English spoken in the
media... BBC is quite popular.

In other words, there is no such thing as a Belgian dictionary, but a
Dutch dictionary would enable you to read the site.

Not really, due to the technicallities of the language, you find
yourself wondering why so many words are not in the dictionary. That is
because of certain spelling changes which differ an infinitive from how
it may be used.
Secondly, if you were, say Chinese learning English and had never heard
the phrase: raining cats and dogs; Then although you would be able to
find the words; it, rain, cat and dog, you might feel quite puzzled(-:
& not just because to you it might read like Cat, it rain dog.
& that is where the biggest differences between Flemish and Nederlands
lay... I think.