Some peculiar things about Dutch rain

Do you already know the word regen in Dutch? Regen could be one of the most important words in the Dutch language. The reason is simple.... just like tulpen (tulips), kaas (cheese) and stroopwafels, regen is that one thing that makes Holland Holland...

Regen is an easy word to remember. First of all, it is a highly frequent word in Dutch, you'll hear and read it all the time. On top of this, regen is not too far away from rain and regen also exists as a German word. If you say regen in German then the g sounds will be a  lot easier of course :)

Then you also have regenen, which is a verb, an activity, to rain in English.  Did you realize that regenen is a bit strange as a verb? Just like in English.... You always say it rains, so in Dutch you have to say het regent.  In English you would never say I rain, you rain, we rain and in Dutch it is the same thing. You can only say het regent, you would never say ik regen, so regenen is also in Dutch a very special verb....

If you like, you could still be creative with regenen...  If you like to share the message of the Weather Girls in Dutch, you could say het regent mannen, it is raining men! Other usages could be: het regent klachten (it is raining complaints) or het regent likes op Facebook :)

By the way, did you realize that rain sounds like reign in English? In Dutch the difference is much bigger, not only the spelling.... regenen is to rain and regeren is to reign...  As you can see, the spelling is different and also the proncunciation... It seems that if you reign in English, you could be in control of the rain as well, but not in Dutch....

In Dutch we have regenen and.... there is also verregenen.... Verregenen means that it is raining too much and that something gets ruined. For example, if you say mijn vakantie verregent, then it means that the rain ruins your holiday!

Then if you like, we also have the word verregend, which means ruined by rain.  Een verregend weekend is a weekend that got ruined by the rain

When it rains a lot,  in English you can say it is raining cats and dogs. In Dutch we don't think that cats have anything to do with bad weather. You can simply say: het is hondenweer, it is dogs weather and then one thing is certain.... the weather is bad!

Last but not least, you can always check buienradar if you like to know where it is raining in Holland. Een bui is rainshower and... it also stand for an emotional mood....  You could say ik ben in een goede bui  vandaag and then it means that you are in a good mood today!

Hou jij van regen? Do you like rain?