How are Dutch tulips named?

Een nieuwe tulpensoort en de naam van zijn vrouw

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A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
tulpennaamcultuur
noun · Dutch flower-trade tradition
How Dutch tulip growers name their new cultivars — wives, daughters, royals, friends

Dutch tulip growers traditionally name new cultivars after wives, daughters, royals, and friends. The convention dates to the 1600s tulip-mania era when bulb breeders documented their hybrids in formal name lists; the practice carried into the modern Bollenstreek nursery industry, where a grower coining a new variety can register the name with KAVB (the Dutch flower-bulb association). Famous tulip names include Queen of the Night, Princess Irene, Prinses Margriet, and many wives' first names that never made it past one season.

In this KRO-NCRV clip, a grower shows off a small-batch variety called peu de feu (“little fire”). The host needles him: “De naam van jouw toekomstige vrouw natuurlijk.”

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 Dutch listening practice video?

90.7%
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

87.6%
Top 1,000
90.7%
Top 2,000
95.9%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Dutch

96.7%
Top 1,000
98.9%
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 A2. Here is what they mean.

greet
3×
Not in top 5,000
to say hello
feu
2×
Not in top 5,000
fire (French origin)
peu
2×
Not in top 5,000
few (French origin)

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

★Where you hear this

See Dutch Videos You Can Understand on Reelang

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