When you make a list of favorite words to use by Dutchies, gewoon will definitely be on it. In its most common use, it’s an important word, but it’s also used in a variety of odd, unexpected ways. Why is gewoon so common and strange at the same time? Let’s dive into all the different iterations. Why? Gewoon!
Normal/common
In its basic meaning, gewoon means normal, or common, average, standard, just nothing out of the ordinary. Een gewoon dorp is an average village, een gewone dag is a normal day (the -e is added because dag is a de-word, and adding it means we don’t need the extra o anymore for pronunciation, so we get rid of it. More about that in the post about articles).
Dutch does feature plenty of synonyms for gewoon, just like English does, and some may look rather familiar: normaal, standaard, alledaags (Eng: everyday), gemiddeld (Eng: average, literally: middled), and so on. Nothing weird so far, right?
Used to
Gewoon is also used as a synonym for gewend, or used to in English, as in: ik ben het gewoon (Eng: I’m used to it). In the Netherlands, this use is regarded a bit archaic, but it’s still quite common in Flanders.
There’s a slight semantic difference between the two, though: ik ben het gewend often means you forced yourself to get used to it because it keeps happening all the time and there’s nothing you can do about it, while ik ben het gewoon means it’s just something you do, and always have done. They both derive from the verb gewennen, though, and both are used interchangeably.
Just because I can
When you hear gewoon in everyday conversation, there’s a solid chance it’s meant as a way of saying because / just because I can. When asked why you dropped the wet towel on the floor rather than putting it in the laundry basket, you may well reply Gewoon, and be done with it. Why? Because.
Just
Now it’s time to dive into the realm of bijwoorden, or adverbs. The Dutch love their adverbs, and gewoon is one we tend to throw in all the time. It means more or less the same as it does in the previous paragraph, but it’s used in a sentence rather than as a standalone term.
When someone asks you why you keep putting hagelslag on your sandwhich that’s already covered in Nutella (I still do this as an adult), you may reply with Ik vind het gewoon lekker (Eng: I just find it tasty). It’s basically the linguistic equivalent of a shrug.
Another version of this use of gewoon is when there’s a slight contradiction involved – again, you can use just in English in just the same way:
De wedstrijd was niet bijzonder, het was gewoon een simpele overwinning
The match wasn’t anything special, it was just a simple victory
Frustration
Gewoon can also be used to signal mild frustration or disbelief about something happening to or around you – again, just can often be used in English for the same purpose. For example:
Hij liep gewoon weg zonder doei te zeggen
He just walked out without saying goodbye
My absolute all-time favorite children’s book is one about a kid who walks home from school and finds a hippo walking along with him. The next day, it’s two, then five, then a whole herd of them. The original English version is called The boy who was followed home, but in Dutch, it’s Ze lopen gewoon met me mee (Eng: They just walk along with me).
Gewoonlijk
One final, pretty much related thought: English uses the suffix -ly to turn adjectives (for example: usual) into adverbs (usually). Dutch does this too, with the suffix -lijk. And lo and behold, it works for gewoon, too!
Gewoonlijk literally means usually, as in: something tends to happen over and over, without many, if any, exceptions. In speech, people will often opt for normaal gesproken, which literally means normally spoken, or simply normaal, but gewoonlijk is a very official way of saying usually in Dutch, too. (We don’t have normaallijk, which would have translated into normally, if we had at some point worked that version into our language – which we haven’t).
Long story short
Let’s face it: gewoon is gewoon one of the most useful words in the entire Dutch language. Its most basic meaning is that of normal/common/average, but it can also be used as a form of just, a form of because I can, or a form of being used to something, whether on purpose or because it just keep happening to you. Dutchies like to throw it into conversations at seemingly the most random moments, so it’s worth figuring out what they mean when they blurt it out.
To stress how quintessential gewoon is for us, we’ve come up with an expression that pretty much defines us as a people. It’s used when somebody does something out of the ordinary, or when they’re slightly exaggerating. In English, it means something like Try to be normal, you’ll be crazy enough already. In Dutch, it’s: Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg.
