If you’ve lived, toured, visited, or really spent any amount of time in the lowlands and you haven’t heard this word…well, then I’d suggest you get your ears checked – and quick! This seemingly innocent word is ubiquitous in the Netherlands. Park yourself down in any Dutch café or restaurant and do a little good ol’ fashion eavesdropping (if you weren’t already) and you are sure to hear multitudes of the “L” word.

Lekker in its original form refers to food and can be roughly translated as tasty or yummy. The Germans and Belgians still use lekker in this form, however, over time Dutch people have taken incredible liberties with the word and now essentially use it to describe, well, just about everything! A warm meal on a cold fall day can of course be lekker, but so can a feeling, an experience, a place and even a person! Word of warning: don’t go around calling your boss lekker as the original translation of yummy or tasty still does apply! (Of course, the tall Dutch boy down that hall in his red pants and curly gelled hair may indeed be lekker to some! 😉

As you see, lekker is a highly versatile little fellow and can be used in endless instances. You will see that the original translation does not always hold true:

lekkere broodjes (tasty sandwiches) – an easy one
lekker rustig (yummy calm, pleasant calm)
lekker weer (tasty weather, great weather)
niet lekker (not yummy, not nice, not well)
slaap lekker (sleep tasty, sleep well, sleep tight)
lekker ruim (tasty space, lots of space/room)
– … and the list can go on!

Ask a Dutchie, in a work setting, how they are doing and you are sure to hear the reply of “lekker druk“! I do find this one a tad amusing, as the last time I checked the Dutch weren’t that lekker druk at all!  Of course, there are many things in the Netherlands that are “lekker belangrijk“: such as observing meal times (dinner is served at 18:00 precisely), scheduling appointments and generally acting normal. However, watch the tone of this one, as your opinion is most likely being dissed and dismissed as “lekker belangrijk” in a sarcastic/”what-EVER” type of way.

Just to make things a even more fun, the Dutch have decided to get a little tricky and pair one difficult-to-translate-word with yet another even-more-difficult-to-translate-word. The combination? The beautifully descriptive: lekker gezelligTrust me, it does come in handy but I’ll let you bicker amongst yourselves over the exact translation! 😉