Stemmen in kasteel Duivenvoorde in Voorschoten
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Curated for beginners
What does 'hartstikke' mean in Dutch?
Hartstikke is one of Dutch’s most-loved intensifiers, somewhere between English really, totally, and completely. It comes from older Dutch hart steken (heart-stuck, dead-stuck), and the speaker uses it the way English speakers might say dead pretty or dead cold. Hartstikke leuk (super fun), hartstikke mooi (gorgeous), hartstikke koud (freezing), hartstikke dood (stone-cold dead).
In this clip, a voter at Kasteel Duivenvoorde, an 800-year-old Dutch castle being used as a polling station, says: « Het weer is hartstikke mooi. Het zonnetje schijnt erbij » (the weather is hartstikke beautiful, the sun is shining on top). She also calls it « de mooiste stemlocatie van Nederland » (the most beautiful polling place in the Netherlands).
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Dutch family chat, KLM in-flight greetings ('hartstikke bedankt'), and customer-service sign-offs where hartstikke softens politeness into warmth
- ▸On Dutch TV and radio across NPO 1, RTL Boulevard, and BNR Nieuwsradio when hosts dial up the enthusiasm
- ▸In Dutch tourism copy on Holland.com and NS train-station ads where hartstikke leuk and hartstikke gezellig anchor every weekend-break campaign
- ▸In Dutch sports commentary on NOS Sport and Ziggo Sport when commentators describe Ajax, Feyenoord, or PSV wins as hartstikke verdiend