How to complain about the weather in Dutch

Complaining about the weather… Dutch people love to do it… According to Dutch people, sunshine is good and rain is bad, so if it rains then there is no better way to break the ice with another Dutch person than by  by stating how bad the weather actually  is… Therefore you could easily say that complaining about the weather is a great social skill to have for your Dutch!

So how do you do it, complaining about the weather? Luckily you have many options. One  thing that you could say is hondenweer (dogs weather) and then what you could say is: wat een hondenweer!

Another construction that you could use is to put rot in front of it. You can put rot in front of anything that you dislike or hate. Rotweer is a  great start, because  you could also say  rothond, rotinternetverbinding (=connection)  and  rotfiets (= bike). So if you say wat een rotweer then it is a great opening for an highly engaging conversation filled with complains… Rot has a connection with rotten in English of course, so it is easy to understand and apply!

Another great source of inspiration are deseases. Tyfus (typhoid) or Klere wich comes from cholera. So now you can enrich your vocabulary with tyfus and klere, you just cram it in front of a word. For example: tyfuskind, klereweer  Talking about deseases, some Dutch people might mention kanker (cancer)  but personally I think that you really cross a line here… I would never use it…

Be creative when you complain about the rain!

But… if you want to be negative in a very strong way,  then  just use a body part that only women have… kut is a great word that you can use for everything and anything that you hate o dislike. Be careful! It sounds very strong, so use it with moderation…  However in informal settings many Dutch people use it all the time… If a Dutch person says: ik vind het kut! then he or she is really not amused (and this is an understatement)

One more tip… never complain about the weather if you apply for a  new job. Somehow it doesn’t work if you walk in with some negativity. Try to think of the sun and radiate some warmth and positivity instead…. If you like to complain about the weather by all means, then at least use some humor. In stead of saying: ik ga naar weer huis (I’ll go home), say: ik zwem weer naar huis (I’ll swim home). Then you’ll leave a positive impression 🙂

Here is a funny thing… if some foreigners complain about weer, it is often because of the fact that it has two meanings… It means weather and again. Honestly, I don’t see a problem here… Just imagine that weer is something that comes back again and again… Problem solved! The good thing is that with one word in Dutch, you’ll have 2 words in English…

By the way, in some other languages they use the word time for weather, because it is there all the time… just think of le temps in French, el tiempo in Spanish and il tempo in Italian…

So now you know what to do. You may still  prefer sunshine but if it rains, you can start up a Dutch conversation!