Jouw verhuizing en de 'aan het' structuur

Kurt, je woont nu nog in Londen, maar je hebt een fantastisch plan: binnen een jaar wil je naar Nederland verhuizen om als fysiotherapeut te werken.

Dat is een prachtig doel, a truly wonderful goal.

I love how clear you are about what you want: passing that B2 exam and stepping into a great new job.

My job is to be right here in your ear, every day, helping you make that transition from B1 to B2 as smooth as possible.

Let's look at your daily life.

You are a busy professional in London, but you still make time for sports.

You mentioned you used to play football, but now you focus on running and rock climbing.

In Dutch, running is 'hardlopen'.

And rock climbing is 'rotsklimmen'.

When you combine your love for sports and movement with your career, you get 'de fysiotherapeut'.

That's the Dutch word for physiotherapist.

It's a bit of a tongue twister, isn't it?

Fysio-thera-peut.

And the place where you will work, the clinic or practice, is called 'de praktijk'.

You told me: "ik ben Nederlands leren, omdat ik plan te verhuizen." I understood exactly what you meant, and your motivation is fantastic, but let's polish that sentence so you sound completely 'vloeiend', or fluent.

In English, you use the continuous tense a lot: "I am learning", "I am running".

In Dutch, you cannot literally translate "I am" and just add the verb.

Instead, we use a very specific structure for things you are doing right at this moment: the verb 'zijn' + 'aan het' + the infinitive verb.

So, instead of saying "ik ben leren", you say: 'ik ben aan het leren'.

I am learning.

If you are jogging through the streets of London, you say: 'ik ben aan het hardlopen'.

If you are on the climbing wall, you say: 'ik ben aan het rotsklimmen'.

It literally translates to "I am at the learning" or "I am at the running", which sounds funny in English, but it is the perfect, natural way to express ongoing actions in Dutch.

Another thing you mentioned was passing your exam.

You said "geslaagd of slaagd".

The verb to pass an exam is 'slagen'.

If you want to say "I want to pass my B2 exam", you say: 'Ik wil slagen voor mijn B2-examen'.

Notice the preposition 'voor'.

We always say 'slagen voor' something.

To recap your vocabulary for today:

'Verhuizen' - to move to a new house or country.

'De fysiotherapeut' - the physiotherapist.

'De praktijk' - the clinic or practice.

'Rotsklimmen' - rock climbing.

'Hardlopen' - running.

'Vloeiend' - fluent.

'Slagen voor' - to pass (an exam).

And your grammar tool is the 'aan het' structure for ongoing actions.

Kurt, language learning is just like training for a sport.

You already know how to build a routine because you train and work out twice a week.

We are going to apply that exact same discipline to your Dutch.

Next time you go out for a run in London, I want you to think to yourself: "Ik ben aan het hardlopen." Keep it simple, connect the words to your actions.

Geniet van je dag, en we spreken elkaar morgen.