Hé, lekker ding!
Lekker bezig
There are few Dutch words as versatile as the adjective ‘lekker’.
To non-native speakers it seems you can just use it as you please.
Little do they know.
There’s a very fine, not to say almost invisible, line between proper and improper use of the word.
Lekker can mean tasty, good, agreeable, nice, fun, lovely or comfortable—to name a few options. In combination with a negation, it can mean ill: Ik voel me niet lekker.
Eten is lekker or niet lekker. That’s obvious.
But you don’t say about a movie or a work of art that it’s lekker. Though you can say that you are currently reading een lekker boek, that is lekker dik (with lots of pages, so you can enjoy it for a long time), while wearing een lekkere trui (a comfy sweater).
Een lekker ding is a hottie (any gender), whereas lekker ventje can only refer to a cunning male person. If you say about your father-in-law that he is een lekkere man, things can get awkward.
How? Zoek dat effe lekker zelf uit. (You can figure that out for yourself)
Lekker vies is something that’s not really to your taste, but every once in a while you have the urge to eat or drink it anyway.
I could go on indefinitely, maar lekker is maar een vinger lang.
One specific use of lekker took my students by surprise during our recent level B2 class: the combination with a verb.
Any verb.
Lekker wandelen, schrijven, zingen, werken, praten, lezen…
While I was brooding over a good (not lekker!) translation, I stumbled upon an article in The Washington Post that made a case for being in a flow state with what you’re doing as a way of slowing down mental aging.
Lekker + a verb is exactly that: being in a flow state with whatever activity, be it slapen, sporten, dansen, leven, niks doen…
If you are in a flow state, you are lekker bezig, with the added bonus that it’s good for your brain.
And no, you cannot say lekker voor je brein.
Lekker dan.
Lekker lingo
Lekker, lekkerder, lekkerst - a.o. tasty, tastier, tastiest
Lekker vies - kind of yucky, yet irresistible every now and then
Lekker is maar een vinger lang - what is sweet cannot last long
Lekker bezig - being in a flow state with whatever you’re doing
’Lekker bezig!’ - ‘Good job!’
Lekker niks doen/niksen - being in a flow state doing nothing
Lekker dan - that sucks/ bummer/ so much for that
It’s almost Xmas-time. Don’t forget to buy your lovely non-native Dutch speaking neighbor/ friend/ colleague/ boss/ employees/ in-laws/ lovers my bilingual book Nederlands is zooo makkelijk | Dutch is sooo easy.
