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Comment by coffeeacc | Hacker News Reader

a direct translation of the Dutch "wat wilt u hebben?"

Although I'm not a Dutch speaker I'd suggest that would be "What will you have?".

You're right, although to a non-native speaker these might be hard to distinguish. The Dutch are often praised for their ability to speak English, but in my experience nuances like these are often missed, making the Dutch come across more blunt than they actually are.

The Dutch are particularly good at translating Dutch idioms into really crappy English.

That hits like a pliers on a pig. Now you are playing to the Dutch people the zwartepiet. We share selflessly with you the best parts of our amazing language and you look the given horse in the mouth! This is why we not the effort taken to learn you Dutch, because who not honors the small is not worth the big!

Whoever feels like having more of this can watch Louis van Gaal’s press conferences. :)

Being Dutch I painstakingly avoid using proverbs when speaking English, to avoid saying anything ridiculous. Sometimes the literal translation is actually correct, but it makes me paranoid.

Unfortunately peanut butter I think you are right about that!

No, "willen" means "to want". The Dutch sentence is in present tense, your English translation isn't.

That would be a correct word for word translation.

But the phrase "What do you want?" is the closes normal translation, not counting the politeness forms.

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