# How shall I put it?



## mirind4

Dag!

In English sometimes there are situations when I can not express myself, or I can not remember a word, and I usually say the following phrase:
"...(mhh), how shall I put it...". I usually use this instead of "how to say". Therefore I would like to know how to say " How shall I put it" in dutch. Is there any phrase in dutch which is similar to this?

Bij voorbaat dank!
mirind4


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## Peterdg

A couple of possibilities would be: "Hoe zal ik het zeggen?" or "Wat zal ik zeggen?".


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## mirind4

thank you very much!


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## bibibiben

If you can't readily remember a word, you can also throw in "hoe heet het":

We maakten een rondreis door Denemarken, Noorwegen, Zweden en, hoe heet het, Finland.


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## mirind4

Thank for the addition!


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## Timidinho

Or, "hoe kan ik dit (het beste) zeggen"
"hoe zeg ik dit"

"hoe zeg je dat ook alweer"
"hoe heet dat ook alweer"
"hoe noem je dat ook alweer"


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## YellowOnline

Slightly off-topic: "how shall I put it" in English is something I wouldn't use when not being able to remember a word. Usually that's used when you have to carefully weight your words to express your opinion. Compare:

 Could you fetch me the, _how shall I put it_, thing to put water in? [a bucket]
 Your wife is, _how shall I put it_, not really slim. [fat]

You should double-check with a native speaker though.


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## mirind4

@YellowOnline

You are absolutely right, I misunderstood this phrase, I asked a native speaker friend of mine. In my situations only used the following:
"How do I say", "How do you say" or a fancy way: "How does one say?" Despite my misunderstanding, the answers of you all is good for the situation where I wanted to use.

Thanks for everyone!


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