Environment & Nature
Environment & Nature
Environmental Dutch is built on two things you already know pushed to their limits: long compound nouns and the impersonal passive with er, which is how the language makes general statements about what is being done.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Impersonal passives state what is generally done
Er wordt steeds meer gerecycled. Er wordt hier niet gerookt.
More and more is being recycled. There's no smoking here.
For statements about society at large, Dutch uses er wordt plus a participle, with no subject at all. English needs a subject — 'people recycle more' — or a rule-like phrasing ('no smoking'). This construction is everywhere in public information and policy debate, and it is the natural register for talking about collective behaviour.
steeds and hoe ... hoe express developing trends
Het wordt steeds warmer. Hoe warmer het wordt, hoe meer energie we gebruiken.
It's getting warmer and warmer. The warmer it gets, the more energy we use.
steeds plus a comparative gives the sense of English 'more and more' or the doubled comparative 'warmer and warmer'. For two things changing together, Dutch uses hoe ... hoe (or hoe ... des te in formal writing), which maps neatly onto English 'the ... the ...'. Note that the first clause is subordinate, so its verb goes to the end: Hoe warmer het wordt, ...
Long compounds are the norm in this vocabulary
de klimaatverandering, het broeikaseffect, de luchtverontreiniging
climate change, the greenhouse effect, air pollution
Environmental terms are almost all compounds, often three or four elements deep. Reading them means splitting from the right: luchtverontreiniging is lucht ('air') plus verontreiniging ('pollution'), which itself contains ver- plus onrein ('unclean') plus -ing. The gender always comes from the final element, so de verontreiniging makes de luchtverontreiniging.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- the environment
- English
- sustainable
- English
- climate change
- English
- the waste
- English
- to separate / sort
- English
- the emissions
- English
- renewable
- English
- pollution
- English
- nature
- English
- more and more
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