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English-Foreign Dialogues
English-Dutch Dialogues - T
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Dialogues
A
(4)
B
(1)
C
(1)
F
(1)
G
(1)
H
(3)
I
(5)
K
(1)
L
(2)
P
(1)
S
(1)
T
(8)
V
(3)
W
(5)
English
Literal breakdown
Recording
Learn
The bus stop
(dialogue)
Bert walks up to a bus stop and sees another traveller standing there.
Hello, madam, do you know when the bus is coming?
Yes sir, which bus do you mean?
Line twelve or line five?
Oh, I don’t know.
I need to go to Spijkenisse
Which bus should I take then?
Then it does not matter.
Both of them stop there.
Line twelve only comes in half an hour, but line five should be here in three minutes.
Oh, good!
Do you know how long the trip takes?
I think a quarter of an hour.
Not much longer.
Oh, look, there comes the bus!
Thanks very much.
It was a pleasure and have a good trip!
Learn
The Little Match Girl
(story)
The Little Match Girl
It was very cold
Shivering with cold and hunger, the poor little girl crept along as the picture of pitty and misery.
The snowflakes covered her long blond hair
In a corner formed by two houses
Her little hands were almost completely frozen from cold
A second one was struck against the wall
Now someone is dying
She again struck a match on the wall, and again it became bright around her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet loving in her appearance.
“Grandmother!” shouted the little one.
But in the corner
Learn
The meniscus is not a bone. It is a cartilage, a flexible, elastic tissue.
The meniscus is not a bone.
It is a cartilage, a flexible, elastic tissue.
Learn
The Princess and the Pea
Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but it had to be a real princess.
Now he traveled all over the world to find such a one, but all he saw lacked something.
There were enough princesses; but he could not find out if they were real princesses.
There was always something that was a bit not quite right.
So he came home again and was sad, because he really wanted to have a real princess.
One evening a strong thunderstorm came; there was thunder and lighting, the rain was pouring down, it was terrible weather!
There was a knock at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.
It was a princess who stood outside in front of the gate.
But good heavens!
What did she look like from the rain and the terrible weather!
The water dripped from her hair and clothes; it went in at the toes of her shoes and went out again at the heels.
And yet she said she was a true princess.
“Now, we’ll find out!” thought the old queen.
But she said nothing, went to the bedroom, lifted up all the bedding up, and laid down a pea on the bed base; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty more feather-down quilts on the mattresses.
The princess now had to lie there all night.
The next morning they asked her how she had slept.
Learn
The snowflakes covered her long blond hair
(paragraph)
The snowflakes covered her long blond hair, which flowed to her shoulders in beautiful locks; but she did not think of it.
All the windows were brightly lit, and it smelled wonderfully of goose roast; because it was New Years Eve.
Yes, that is what she was thinking about.
Learn
The ugly young duckling
Look, that’s the way the world is now!
Piff! Paff!
The hen had very short legs, so she was called “Miss Shortlegs.”
She laid good eggs, and the woman loved her as if she had been her own child.
In the morning, the strange visitor was discovered, and the tom cat began to purr, and the hen to cluck.
What is there to do?
said the woman, looking around
but she had poor eyesight, and therefore she thought, that this duckling must be a fat duck, who had got lost
“That’s a good catch!” she said.
Now I can have some duck eggs.
I hope it is not a drake!
We will try that!
and so the duckling was allowed to remain on trial for three weeks
but no eggs came
Now the tomcat was the master of the house, and the hen was mistress, and they always said, “We and the world,”
for they believed themselves to be half the world, and the better half too.
The duckling expressed as his opinion, that it could be different, but the chicken was not able to do that.
“Can you lay eggs?” she asked.
Well, will you ever shut up?
and the tomcat said
Can you arch your back, or purr, or throw out sparks?
Then you have no right to express an opinion when sensible people are speaking.
and the duckling sat in a corner, feeling very low spirited
till the sunshine came into the room through the open door
and then he began to feel such a great longing for a swim on the water, that he could not help telling the hen.
“What an absurd idea,” said this one.
You have nothing else to do, therefore you have foolish fancies.
Lay eggs or purr, and if not get out of here!
“But it is so delightful to swim about on the water,” said the duckling
so delightful, to feel it splash over your head, and to dive down to the bottom.
“Well, that is also a great pleasure!”, said the hen
You are definitely out of your mind.
Ask the tomcat about it.
who is the cleverest creature I know
whether he likes to swim in the water, or to dive under it
I don’t want to speak about myself.
Just ask our mistress yourself, the old woman.
there is no one in the world cleverer than she is
Do you think maybe she would like to swim, and to let the water splash over her head?
“You don’t understand me,” said the duckling.
We don’t understand you?
Who would be able to understand you?
Surely you don’t want to be wiser than the tomcat and the woman.
I don’t want to speak for myself.
Don’t imagine such nonsense, and be grateful for all the good you have received.
Have you not come into a warm room and don’t you have a company from which you can learn something?
But you are uncontrollable, and it is anything but enjoyable to spend time with you
Rest assured you can trust me!
I mean it only for your own good.
I tell you the truth, although you might find it unpleasant, but that is a proof of my friendship
Try your best to lay eggs, or to purr or let sparks come out of your body.
“I believe I shall go out into the wide world!” said the duckling.
Yes, do that! Added the chicken to this
And so the duckling went away
it swam in the water, dived under with his head, but was treated with contempt by all other animals, because of its ugly appearance.
Now came the autumn
the leaves in the forest turned to yellow and brown
the wind tore them off, so they danced around, and up in the air it was ice cold
the clouds were full of hail and snow
and on the hedge sat a raven and made her complain
The poor duckling had it very bad already.
One evening, just as the sun set amid radiant clouds, there came a large flock of beautiful birds out of the forest
They were bright white and had long, flexible necks: they were swans
They uttered a strange noise, spread their beautiful, long wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries
As they climbed higher and higher in the air, the ugly little duckling felt wonderfully weary
He whirled himself in the water like a wheel, stretched out his neck towards the swans, and uttered such a loud and strange scream that it frightened himself.
Oh, it could not forget those beautiful, happy birds
and as soon as they were out of his sight, he dived under the water until the bottom, and when he rose again he was almost beside himself with excitement
The poor animal did not know what these birds were called nor where they were flying to
but he felt something towards them as he had never felt for anything else
It didn’t envy them at all.
How could he ever think to wish to be this pretty himself?
He already would have been happy if the ducks would have accepted him around them
that poor, ugly animal
Winter came.
It was cold, freezing cold.
The duckling had to swim around in the water, to prevend it from freezing completely
but with every night, the space on which he swam became smaller and smaller
It froze so hard that the ice in the water crackled
the duckling had to paddle constantly with his legs, to keep the space from closing up
At last he became exhausted, and lay still and helpless, frozen fast in the ice.
Early in the morning, a farmer passed by.
When he saw the duckling, he approached it, broke the ice in pieces with his clog, and took the animal home to his wife.
There it revived.
The children wanted to play with him
but the duckling thought they would harm him; and in his fear he flew into the milk pail, so the milk was splashed all over the room
The woman clapped her hands together, which made him fly first into the butter churn, and then into the meal-tub
How it looked like now
The woman screamed, and struck the poor animal with the tongs.
the children tumbled over each other, in order to catch the duckling
They laughed and screamed.
It was happy that the door was open and that it could slip out among the bushes into the newly fallen snow.
There it lay down quite exhausted
But to tell all the distress and misery the duckling had to endure in that harsh winter would be too dire.
It lay in the swamp among the reeds when the sun began to shine warmly again.
The larks sang.
Spring had arrived.
Now the duckling was suddenly able to spread his wings.
these clapped louder than before and carried him strongly from here
and before he well knew how it had happened, he found himself in a large garden, in which fragrant elders bent their long green branches down to the water
Oh, it was so beautiful here, so wonderful.
And from the trees appeared suddenly three beautiful white swans.
They clapped their wings, and swam proudly in the water.
The duckling remembered the lovely birds, and felt more strangely unhappy than ever.
I will fly towards them, towards those royal birds!
But they will kill me, because I, who am so ugly, dare to approach them
But that doesn’t matter!
It’s better to be killed by them, than being bitten by the ducks, pecked by the chickens, kicked by the maiden who feeds the chickens, or starved with hunger in the winter.
It rushed into the water, plunged in and swam towards the beautiful swans
They saw him and rushed towards him with clapping wings.
“Kill me!” Said the poor beast.
bent his head over, and awaited nothing but the death.
But what did it see now in the clear water?
In it he saw his own image; no longer that of a cumbersome, grey, ugly bird, but of a swan.
It doesn’t matter to be hatched by a duck, as long as you came out of a swan’s egg!
He now felt so glad at all the suffering and hardships which he had undergone.
Now it realised correctly for the first time his good luck and the magnificence that surrounded him.
And the swans swam around him and stroked him with their beaks.
Some children ran into the garden
They threw bread and barley into the water.
and the smallest shouted: “there is a new swan!”
And the other children rejoiced with him
Yes, there is a new one!
He is so young and looks so beautiful!
And the other swans bowed before him.
Now it felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his wings.
He didn’t know how to behave himself.
it was overwhelmed with happiness, and yet not at all proud
He thought about how he had been persecuted and despised, and now he heard them all say he was the most beautiful of all the birds.
Even the elder tree bent down its bows into the water, and the sun shone warm and lovely!
Now he clapped his wings, stretched his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart.
“I had never imagined such happiness, when I was still an ugly duckling!”
Learn
The Village
(song by Wim Sonneveld)
Verse 1 (The Village)
Chorus (The Village)
Verse 2 (The Village)
Chorus (The Village)
Verse 3 (The Village)
Final Chorus
Learn
Tom isn’t smoking a cigar. He’s smoking a pipe.
Tom isn’t smoking a cigar.
He’s smoking a pipe.
Learn