I once read that one of the differences between Dutch and English (apart from several obvious ones) is the Dutch practice of using parentheses and slashes to allow for several possibilities in one sentence without having to write them all down explicitly. A simple example:

The student(s) that fail(s) the exam can try again in a few months.

Although there’s technically nothing wrong with this sentence in English, native speakers typically wouldn’t write this. In Dutch, though, this is quite common. Sometimes, though, people try to do too much. I found this sentence in a contract for my new savings account:

De bank is bevoegd (één van) de/het bankdienst(en) en/of product(en) te beëindigen en/of (de daarvoor verschuldigde vergoeding) te wijzigen.

I can’t even translate that literally, but I’ll try as best as I can:

The bank is allowed to terminate and/or change (one of) the service(s) and/or product(s) or its/their corresponding compensation.

I guess what they mean is they can either terminate or change any of the services and products I’m signing up for. In addition, they can change the compensation (e.g. intereset). (As I translated it, the compensation can also be terminated, but the original Dutch sentence doesn’t allow for that.)

And there’s more. A few lines down, there’s this beauty:

Voor zover met betrekking tot de in deze overeenkomst vermelde (aanvragen (tot wijziging) van) product(en) reeds eerder met dezelfde rekeninghouder één/meer overeenkomst(en) is/zijn aangegaan, …

Translated as literally as possible, that becomes:

If one/more contract(s) was/were signed by this account owner in relation to (requests for (changes in)) the services mentioned in the present contract, …

Note, in particular, the nested parentheses. I really wonder if the person that wrote these sentences thought this was the clearest and easiest way to put it.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 10:12 and is filed under Language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.