# vocabulaire/woordenschat



## Haylette

Do these two words both mean "vocabulary"?

Thanks in advance, 

Haylette


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## HKK

Ja. Woordenschat literally means _word treasure _but it's the Dutch word for vocabulary.


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## Haylette

How lovely that vocabulary is seen as a treasure!

 Is the word "vocabulaire" also commonly known?


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## HKK

I think it's well known in Flanders because all of us are taught French at a young age and the vocabulary lists are called 'vocabulaire'. So 'woordenschat' is colloquially often called 'vocabulaire'. I don't know if the Dutch use the French word too. But I'd say the best word is 'woordenschat'. Like you said, it's a beautiful word to start with, although probably hard to pronounce


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## Haylette

Dankzegging, HKK. 

You've been extremely useful.


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## Joannes

Haylette said:


> Dankzegging, HKK.


Hehe, where did you pick up that word?  It means 'saying thanks' but it is only used in a religious context. *Dank je (wel)* would be a regular 'thank you'.


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## Suehil

'Vocabulaire' is often used in Dutch to mean 'list of words' - either a glossary or a list of foreign words a schoolchild might have to learn.
'Woordenschat' is used for someone's vocabulary - how many words they know and use.


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## HKK

I can assure you the word 'woordenschat' is used in a lot of text books (teaching English/French/Arabic/...). We always refer to studying the vocabulary lists as 'de woordenschat leren'.


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## Suehil

I said 'often', not 'always'.  Many of the children I have worked with have had to learn their 'vocabulaire'


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## Lentekriebels

HKK said:


> I can assure you the word 'woordenschat' is used in a lot of text books (teaching English/French/Arabic/...). We always refer to studying the vocabulary lists as 'de woordenschat leren'.


 
Maybe this is one of those small differences between Belgium and the Netherlands. As far as I know, all my schoolbooks always referred to vocabulary as 'vocabulaire'. And when speaking of someones vocabulary in their own language, both words are used.


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## Haylette

Joannes said:


> Hehe, where did you pick up that word?


 
I thought I might have been wrong 

I don't actually speak any Dutch, you see.  An internet search turned up several words, and I picked the prettiest one.

Still, now I know. - Dank je wel, Joannes!


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