Sorry Jan, “The Netherlands” is just too much of a mouthful.

by GeeEyeEff

35 comments
  1. No probs Barry. The other parts of the country are more or less irrelevant anyhow.

  2. It’s really a showcase of education.

    Foreign functionally illiterate will call it Holland, while the Dutch functionally illiterate will be offended.

  3. When I call a Barry from Scotland english they’re passed, when I get called Hollander I have to accept that? That doesn’t seem fair.

  4. Ummmm this only works if he from both the Netherlands and Holland.

  5. After the House of Holland ruled the County of Holland for a few centuries the name kind of stuck. Why change something that has worked for a millenium?

  6. It’s alright Barry. I can’t expect an East Anglian to understand that stuff

  7. Well yeah. I am from Holland, so I don’t care if you say that

  8. Just do like us and say “Netherland”. No need for a definite article. No need to make it plural. Not a mouthful.

  9. I propose to call them just “the Nether”. Keep it short and on point.

  10. We should normalize “Netherland”. I have no idea why other countries had to make it a plural – we don’t say “de Nederlanden”, we say “Nederland”. But for some reason everyone else makes it plural and add an article…

  11. My experience is it’s usually the Jans from the actual provinces of Holland who are the most anal about it, everywhere else they say Holland when speaking English 🤷‍♂️

  12. Actual Dutch friend: When are you coming to visit me in the Dutch.

    Urm, that’s the name of your language buddy, not the name of the country

  13. Austria already has formalized using the name of the core provinces for the entire country. Somehow people thought “Habsburgische Lande” was too long of a name.

  14. They need a better name for the entire country, like “Subzealand”.

  15. Here’s a quick guide: you say Holland if you’re being normal in a convo, just polite and making conversation. You say The Kingdom of the Netherlands when you need something from the tall, rich skinwalkers(us).

  16. I’m fine with tourists calling it “Holland.”
    It helps keeping them clustered in one area, away from the civilised parts of the country.

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