Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hey, Pascal, I know what it means, "literally" (pardon the bad phonetic rendition--my Dutch dictionary's in the office); what puzzles non-native speakers is *when* to use it. Perhaps the rules are clear if you grow up with them. Lots of small social interactions in the Netherlands are accompanied by "alstublieft." I spend a year among Dutch academics (which may be a bad sign in itself) and never received what I thought was a coherent explanation of why it was suitable in one case and not another--though I also think that this is caught up in the strange class politics of the Netherlands, where accents and habits of speech often demarcate social standing.. I did learn, however, that it's not synonymous with "you're welcome," though often used where American's would say such a thing. In any event, this is dramatically off topic and I'm not so great a student of languages as to want to push this too far. At 11:58 PM 7/7/1999 +0200, you wrote: >On 07-07-1999 21:56 Chandos Michael Brown wrote: > > >And then there's the absolutely occult "austjeblieft" (sic), which only the > >Dutch and the Illuminati know when to use properly. > >??? >alstublieft = if you please (literally !) > >Pascal >NO ARCHIVE > >-------------------------------------------------------- >See my photo pages at http://members.xoom.com/cyberplace/ >------------------------------------------------------- >Who else than Leica could make a camera like the R8 ? >With that unique design and above all: that ergonomics. >Nikon ? Canon ? Nobody but Leica ! >------------------------------------------------------- ><<< PGP public key available on request >>> Chandos Michael Brown Assoc. Prof., History and American Studies College of William and Mary http:www.wm.edu/CAS/ASP/faculty/brown