The 'formateur' who handed in his resignation today said: "Doorgaan zonder klare afspraken leek mij niet serieus."
Is this a common Flemish use of "serieus"? What does it mean in the context? Niet wenselijk? Geen serieuze mogelijkheid?
shilgia
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shilgia
Thank you, sndr!
I took the quote from a Dutch news site. Maybe they decided that "vind ik niet ernstig" was a Flemishism that needed to be 'translated', and they replaced it with another not-quite-Netherlandish phrase.
North of the border we use "Serieus?" in the same way, but not your second example. "Da's nie serieus he?" reminds me of Samson & Gert.
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sndr
Well, fortunately I am reading TT, otherwise I wouldn't have known that Leterme handed in his resignation today. Shame on me.
De Standaard quotes him as follows: "Doorgaan zonder klare afspraken vind ik niet ernstig." (http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF01122007_027).
Anyway, "niet serieus" in this context means something like "not right" or "not possible". Actually, I wouldn't have used "ernstig" here.
Other examples of the use of serieus:
"Serieus?" = "Really?"
"da's nie serieus" = this can't be true, oh no!
Pro tip
Lonely Planet
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