Saying honey in Dutch is quite easy: honing. As you can see, honing is not too different from honey, both words start with hon. On top of that, you could imagine that if a bee wants to have more honey, then the bee needs to be honing its skills :)
There is a little catch however.... honing in Dutch is just honey, the product of a bee. It would not make sense to call someone that you love honing. You can try it out for yourself... Just say honing to someone, and it really would not make any sense to this Dutch person :)
So what should you say instead? Pompoen means pumkin in Dutch, but also this word would not make any sense... So let's explore some words that you could use if you like to call someone honey....
Schat
Schat is one of one of the words that you will hear most often. Schat simply means treasure.
When Dutch people call you schat, it seems that somehow they see you as something precious!
As you may have noticed, Dutch people love to make things smaller all the time. They believe that if things are smaller, then it even sounds cuter. That is why you will also hear schatje a lot! And then of course, they Dutch people like the idea that they 'own' you, so they love to say mijn schat or mijn schatje as well. Although mijn is a bit possessive, if the right person says it to you, it still sounds cute, right?
Liefje
Liefje comes from lief and lief comes from liefde the Dutch word for love. Strangely enough, you would not call someone liefde, although it makes sense to say: je bent mijn grote liefde, you are my big love.....
Lief means cute, sweet or adorable in Dutch. You say it when you feel love inside of you. It could be your partner, it could be a cat. Liefje is a smaller form of lief, so you can also use liefje a lot or mijn liefje a lot.
Another word is lieverd and that is someone that is really lief! Another word that you could hear is knapperd. Knap in Dutch is like smart in English. It can mean 2 things. You are very intelligent and skillfull or you are very handsome, attractive and beautiful. Knapperd only means that you are goodlooking :)
Oops! Your darling could also stink!
You may expect that if Dutch people would like to call you honey, they would only come with pleasant things, but... somethings that they may Dutch people may use for showing their affection can be pretty disgusting!
Een scheet is a fart in Dutch, and if Dutch people call you mijn scheet or mijn scheetje, it could still be a positive sign that you are loved. Another disgusting word that they could use is poepie, which comes from poep, poop in English, so actually it is shit!
The reason that Dutch people may like to use scheet and poepie as a sign of affection, may have to do with little babies...
Little babies look cute, but... they fart and poop all the time. Dutch people seem to be deeply moved by this and find it extremely adorable! It is a word however that you would not really use in public. When other people are around then schat or liefje sound much better!
Oh snoesje!
Snoesje is a bit hard to translate. Snoezig in Dutch is something that is sweet, adorable, soft and fluffy and it is a word of ultra endearment. The word is not really that frequent though... The first words that you'll probably use and hear are schat en liefje and if you like you can always make combinations.... You can also say: lieve schat (lovable treasure) or lief schatje (adorable little treasure)
What words would you use for honey?
Which words would you use for honey? Somehow I love to discover what things people use in other languages. In French for example, you can call someone cabbage (chou) or in Spanish you can call someone my heaven (mi cielo) or my life (mi vida). It would be great to hear some other words from other languages and.... remember.... if you have a Dutch partner, it is always a good idea to remix words a little bit. Now you have a couple of Dutch words that you can use and if you use some words from your language and culture, it will make it really unique and special!
