C2 · Lesson 308 · Essays, columns & satire (C2)

Weather & nature writing

Describe Dutch skies and landscapes with precision: grades of rain, light, mist and frost, and the texture of present participles.

Grammar

Impersonal weather verbs and fine distinctions

Weather verbs take a dummy het: het miezert, het hoost, het ijzelt, het onweert. The idiom het vriest dat het kraakt means it is freezing hard.
Dutch grades rain finely: miezeren / motregenen (fine drizzle) → buiig (showery) → plenzen / hozen (pouring) → het regent pijpenstelen (cats and dogs).
Present participles (-end) give nature prose its texture, mostly before a noun: zinderende hitte, een kabbelende beek, de opkomende nevel.
Schemering covers both dusk and dawn; specify with avondschemering or ochtendschemering. Dauw forms on summer nights, rijp (hoarfrost) on cold, clear ones.
Dutch nature writing has a long tradition: Jac. P. Thijsse wrote the texts of the famous Verkade albums and co-founded Natuurmonumenten in 1905.

Vocabulary