Dutch slang your textbook skipped

Dutch leans on tiny words to add tone. Toch turns a statement into 'right?', eigenlijk softens a question, gewoon means 'just', and best means 'quite', not 'the best'. Master these and your Dutch instantly sounds less like a textbook.

Plenty of Dutch replies are only two words long. Ja ja means 'yeah right'. Hoezo? means 'why do you ask?'. Net goed! means 'serves you right', and goed bezig means 'good going', unless it doesn't.

Young people in Dutch cities speak straattaal, a mix of Dutch, Arabic, Sranan Tongo, Papiamento and English: wollah, mattie, doekoe. And yes, the Dutch swear. Here's what you'll hear, and which word to never use.

In the Netherlands you don't text, you app. And you do it in shorthand: ff, wss, mss, sws. The full list is in Dutch texting abbreviations. When you retell the drama, you use zo van: en hij zo van…

Slang sticks best when you see it in context. That's why Doe Normaal teaches it through fictional dating profiles and group-chat drama: tap any underlined word for an English explanation, and the app brings it back in a quiz until you know it.