What is special about the border between the Netherlands and Belgium?
Schommelen op de grens tussen Nederland en België
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Picked for people who know a little
The grens tussen Nederland en België runs 450 kilometres across one of Europe’s most-criss-crossed borders. Most of it is unremarkable, but the section around Baarle-Nassau (Netherlands) and Baarle-Hertog (Belgium) is famously eccentric: 22 Belgian enclaves inside the Netherlands, with eight Dutch counter-enclaves inside those, painted as white-cross border markings on roads, sidewalks, and even living-room floors. Restaurant tables sit half in one country, half in the other, and house numbering switches with the front door’s nationality. The whole area is a tourist-board favourite and a cartographer’s nightmare.
In this clip, NOS Jeugdjournaal visits a swing on the border: “Deze schommel staat precies op de grens tussen Nederland en België.”
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A2 Dutch listening practice video?
How common in written Dutch
How common in spoken Dutch
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Dutch and Belgian border-tourism content (Visit Baarle, Toerisme Vlaanderen, Holland.com)
- ▸In Dutch geography and cartography journalism (NRC, De Volkskrant, De Standaard)
- ▸In Dutch primary-school content about borders and geography (Het Klokhuis, Schooltv, NPO Zapp)
- ▸In Dutch and Belgian regional-news coverage (Omroep Brabant, VRT NWS, Het Nieuwsblad)