READING SKILLS IN BUSINESS DUTCH

Unit 3: Buitenlandse bedrijven in Nederland (August 2006)

Introduction

In Unit 3 you will read a short summary of the article 'Aantal vestigingen buitenlandse bedrijven in Nederland groeit’ (Number of branches of foreign companies in the Netherlands is growing), a press release of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. The article was published online on 16^th August 2006.

The website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs provides information on key economic policies in the Netherlands, and offers daily updated press releases on economic and financial issues and governmental decisions.

Text Fragment

Het aantal vestigingen van buitenlandse bedrijven in Nederland is in 2005 gestegen met circa 1,5 procent. Het aantal arbeidsplaatsen bij vestigingen van buitenlandse bedrijven verminderde vorig jaar met 2 procent. Deze arbeidsplaatsen bevinden zich vooral in de Randstad en Noord-Brabant, in de sectoren ICT en logistiek. De VS had in 2005 het grootste aantal vestigingen in Nederland.

Text in original version: Ministerie van Economische Zaken @ http://www.minez.nl/index.jsp

Task 1: Vocabulary

Print this page or write down the four sentences below. Read the sentences, underline the words you do not understand and write down the meaning of the words you already know.

Het aantal vestigingen van buitenlandse bedrijven in Nederland is in 2005 gestegen met circa 1,5 procent.
Het aantal arbeidsplaatsen bij vestigingen van buitenlandse bedrijven verminderde vorig jaar met 2 procent.
Deze arbeidsplaatsen bevinden zich vooral in de Randstad en Noord-Brabant, in de sectoren ICT en logistiek.
De VS had in 2005 het grootste aantal vestigingen in Nederland

Click on the Vocabulary link to compare your answers and to find out the meaning of the words or phrases you do not understand. Note that words which appear in the Glossary of earlier Units will not be repeated.

Task 2: Word Groups

You will now have to divide the sentences into word groups using forward slashes. Once you have finished, you may compare your answers with those on the Feedback Page .

Task 3: Grammar and Syntax

Now answer the following grammatical and syntactical questions. Note that in this Task we will focus on the use of the past tense (imperfect) and perfect tense in Dutch.

Sentence 1:

Identify all verbal elements.
Find the subject.

Sentence 2:

Identify the finite verb. What tense is it?
Find all prepositions.

Sentence 3:

Identify the finite verb.
Find a demonstrative pronoun. If you do not know what a demonstrative pronoun is, click here.

Sentence 4:

Find the finite verb. What tense is it?
Identify a superlative form. If you first want to read more about the superlative in Dutch, click here.

After finishing the exercise you can check your answers on the Feedback Page, where you will also find some annotations to these questions.

Task 4: Word Forms

You will now have to identify the head-words or stems of a series of words from the text. Click here for this interactive, self-correcting exercise.

Task 5: Text Comprehension

Now that you have worked your way through the first four Tasks of this Unit, you should be able to answer a set of questions on the content of the text. This is again an interactive, self-correcting test. You will be asked to answer three questions on the text, using a (Dutch) sentence, a part of the sentence or a word from the text. Click here to enter the exercise.

Task 6: Glossary

Finally, you should try to memorise the following words from the text. Note that when these words reappear in later Units, they will be considered as known by the learner – but you can of course always look up their meaning in the Glossary!

1. het bedrijf: de onderneming [company; noun]

2. stijgen: in waarde omhooggaan [to grow; verb]

3. de arbeidsplaats: de job; de baan [job; noun]

4. bij: [with, at; prep]

5. verminderen: in waarde dalen [to fall, to diminish; verb]

6. vorig: een vorige zaak is een zaak die net voor iets kwam [last; adj]

7. het jaar: de tijd tussen 1 januari en 31 december [year; noun]

8. de sector: een deel van de maatschappij dat voor de economie belangrijk is [sector; noun]