Hun and hen: these are third person plural pronouns in Dutch, but the distinction – hun for indirect object and hen for direct object – is hard to remember (for me it definitely is). And anyway, the distinction was only introduced by Dutch schoolmasters in the distant past who believed in the principle of one form – one function. The trick to remember is that hun comes before hen (in the paradigm: 3rd before 4th case) in the phrase hun hen “their duck”. There you go.

NRC, one of the more authorititave Dutch newspapers, has long been publishing so-called “Ikjes” on its back page: short, usually funny narratives written from a personal (i.e. Ik, “I”) perspective. I always read them first thing in the morning, so I can start the day with a smile. Last week, this one appeared (with apologies for non-Dutch speaking readers of this blog …):