zondag 13 augustus 2017

Sunday stamps: 'B' is for 'brief', 'bellen' and 'blindengeleidehond'

I love 'false friends': words which in one language have a certain meaning, and which have in an other language a totally different meaning.

That is the case with the word 'brief'. In English 'brief' means 'short'. But the Dutch word 'brief' has a meaning which I guess you all might like: 'epistle', 'letter'!



On the first stamp Nijntje (Miffy) is writing a brief (letter).
And on the second stamp you see the happy receiver of this brief (letter).



An other funny false friend is the verb (not noun) 'bellen', a false friend between German and Dutch.

In Dutch, the verb 'bellen' means 'to make a phone call'. In German, 'bellen' means... 'to bark' (in Dutch: blaffen).

Here you see some people 'aan het bellen' (calling),



And talking about barking (blaffen), the type of dog on the next stamps doesn't bark a lot, but works hard instead, to help to guide blind people.
In Dutch he/she is named 'blindengeleidehond' (blinden = blind people (plural), geleiden = to guide, hond = dog).
Sunny was the first guide dog in the Netherlands and started to work in 1935, the founding year of the KNGF (Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation).



The characters on top are from the Braille alphabet, named after Louis Braille and thus has the same name in Dutch, English and German.


See more stamps concerning the 'B' at and via today's Sunday Stamps.

6 opmerkingen:

  1. I love that you ended with a non-false-friend word that also begins with B!
    And, seeing stamps with people talking on the telephone is ... unexpected!

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  2. I recognised the meaning of the Dutch words immediately. So pleased that you included the guide dog.

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  3. Those phones look enormous, must be because they are white. Inventive design. My favourite is of course Miffy.

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  4. I love all the B words I learned. Actually, I already knew 'brief'. There is a use of brief in English that is slightly connected - the legal brief, a document or set of papers used to lay out a case for or against something. Probably a most unwanted 'letter', I think :)

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  5. seeing stamps with people talking on the telephone is ... unexpected!


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