What does “nadoen” mean in Dutch?

Zeg drie keer niet nadoen

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A1 Dutch listening practice · Dutch from the Netherlands · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
nadoen
Dutch separable verb for copying, imitating
“to imitate, copy,” literally “to do after”

A classic Dutch trick-question clip has one friend say zeg drie keer “niet nadoen”, “say 'don’t copy me,' three times”, then immediately gets the other to slip up and nadoen (copy) something anyway. Nadoen means to imitate or copy someone, built from na (after) plus doen (to do): literally, to do again what came before you.

Nadoen splits in conversation: “hij deed het meteen na” (“he copied it right away”). It covers everything from a sibling mimicking your voice to a comedian doing an impression. The repeat-a-word-then-trick-question format itself is a well-worn Dutch joke shape (the classic version asks “wat drinkt een koe?” after three rounds of “wit”), and this one turns the trap word into the answer itself.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A1 Dutch listening practice video?

89.5%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Dutch words
Most of the words in this video are common Dutch words.

How common in written Dutch

86.8%
Top 1,000
89.5%
Top 2,000
89.5%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Dutch

97.1%
Top 1,000
100%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Dutch.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A1. Here is what they mean.

naen
1×
Not in top 5,000
(brand) nadoen — to imitate
nadoen
4×
Not in top 5,000
to imitate

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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