Afdingen op een koopje op de markt
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Curated for beginners
What does Dutch “afdingen” mean?
Afdingen (“haggling”) is a Dutch tradition at vrijmarkten, kringloopwinkels, weekly markten, and especially on Koningsdag. Dutch sellers expect buyers to afdingen: a stated price is usually a starting point, and walking away is a normal negotiation move. The cultural rule of thumb is to start at half the asking price and meet somewhere in between. Bluntheid makes the practice efficient: where Mediterranean haggling often comes with theatrical sighing, Dutch afdingen is matter-of-fact (“twee euro”, “vijf”, “vier en je hebt 'm”). Dutch flea-market apps like Marktplaats digitised the same logic for online resale.
In this clip, a Koningsdag-vrijmarkt sketch: “Hé, ik geef jou twee euro voor dat ding. Ja, als één eurootje.”
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 Dutch listening practice listening practice?
General Dutch frequency
Spoken Dutch frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s A2 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Dutch vrijmarkt and Koningsdag content (Koningsdag.com, Marktplaats, Vinted)
- ▸In Dutch comedy and bluntheid-content about money (Toren C, De Avondshow, Hans Teeuwen)
- ▸In Dutch consumer-economics and second-hand market writing (Trouw, De Correspondent, De Volkskrant)
- ▸In Dutch retail and weekly-market coverage (VAN, Albert Heijn, LINDA.)