What does “stiefbroer” mean in Dutch?
Raadsel over een dokter en zijn broer
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Picked for people who know a little
Stiefbroer means stepbrother — a brother you gain when a parent remarries, not one you share blood with. In Dutch the prefix stief- (from Proto-Germanic steupa-, “bereft”) marks any family tie built on remarriage rather than birth. That step-versus-blood distinction is exactly what the riddle in the clip turns on.
The riddle: a doctor from Tilburg has a brother from Breda — yet that brother claims he has no brother in Tilburg. The resolution hinges on stiefbroer: they’re linked by a parent’s remarriage, not by blood, so “broer” alone doesn’t capture the relationship. The same stief- prefix works across the whole blended-family set: stiefvader (stepfather), stiefmoeder (stepmother), stiefzus (stepsister), stiefkind (stepchild).
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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.