What does “zebrapad” mean in Dutch?

Nijntje op de fiets langs trein en zebrapad

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

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zebrapad
Dutch compound word
pedestrian crossing; literally “zebra path” — named for its black-and-white stripes

Zebrapad puts two Dutch words together: zebra (the animal, for its stripes) and pad (path). The result is the everyday word for a pedestrian crossing — the striped road marking where you stop to let people cross. Once you know that pad means path, a whole family of Dutch compounds opens up: fietspad (cycle path), voetpad (footpath), bospad (forest path). One word, two lessons at once.

In the clip, the narrator builds up the reveal: “Wat is dat? Heel veel lijnen. Weet jij het al? Nu zie ik het. Het is een zebrapad.” — “What is that? Lots of lines. Do you know yet? Now I see it. It’s a zebrapad.” Miffy (Nijntje) stops at the curb and models the correct road-safety sequence: look left, look right, look left again. The word then comes back in the summary (“een trein, een auto en een zebrapad”), cementing it perfectly. In everyday Dutch you cross op het zebrapad and cars must give way bij het zebrapad — the crossing doubles as a right-of-way marker, not just a visual stripe.

How common are the words?

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

97.5%
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

91.4%
Top 1,000
97.5%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Dutch

91.7%
Top 1,000
98.7%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Harder words in this video

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

nijntje
5×
Not in top 5,000
Nijntje
knorretje
3×
Not in top 5,000
Knorretje
zebrapad
3×
Not in top 5,000
zebra crossing
stoeprand
1×
Not in top 5,000
curb
wieeee
1×
Not in top 5,000
wheee
dat klopt niet
1×
figurative: it fits / makes sense

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

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