r/learndutch • u/Magicfanny123 • 3d ago
Nog VS meer?
So I just learned recently that nog can be and is the correct way of saying more in Dutch as in. Ik wil nog 3 eieren. I always thought meer was the word for more. So when then would you use meer instead of nog?
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u/dutchboy998 3d ago
Nog can be used for a lot of things
Tijdsaanduiding: "Ik ben nog niet klaar met mijn werk" Herhaling: "Wil je nog een kopje thee?" Versterking: "Dat is nog een beter idee!". Toevoeging: "Er is nog een fout in het document".
I know it's a very confusing word but it doesn't mean more but it can be used to ask for more
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u/Magicfanny123 3d ago
Oh I know I wasn’t very clear but I ment in the use of more. I know nog is mostly used more for the word “still” in most contexts
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u/de_G_van_Gelderland Native speaker (NL) 3d ago
Nog doesn't really mean more. It means still. It's just that in Dutch idiomatically you don't say "I want another 3 eggs", you say "I still want 3 eggs".
In a vacuum, meer is really the best translation for more. It's just that sentences and especially idioms don't always translate word for word. In most situations it works though:
3 eggs is more than 2 - 3 eieren is meer dan 2
I want more eggs - Ik wil meer eieren
I have more eggs than you - Ik heb meer eieren dan jij
More isn't always better - Meer is niet altijd beter
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u/IrrationalDesign 3d ago
Meer is almost always 'more', like
Ik wil meer - I want more
Ik weet het niet meer - I don't know anymore
Nog often functions to add intent to a sentence without adding specific meaning. When used together with an adjective, it increases it like 'even' would ('meer - more' becomes 'nog meer - even more', 'harder - louder' becomes 'nog harder - even louder'). When used without adjective, it often refers to something following another thing (in time)
Turning 'kom je?' into 'kom je nog?' adds impatience to 'are you coming?'
Turning 'weet je dat?' into 'weet je dag nog?' changes 'do you know that?' into 'do you know that still/do you remember?'
Turning 'moet dat ook' into 'moet dat ook nog' changes 'does that have to be done' into 'does that too have to be done still?'
'Dat is zo' - that's the case, becomes 'dat is nog zo' - that's still the case. Just to confuse you further, this 'nog' is often turned into 'nogsteeds', which has a pretty direct translation in 'still'
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u/Magicfanny123 3d ago
Interesting my Dutch teacher told me that nog has many functions and most of them are the word “still” that I get but he also said that nog is used very often in asking for more like the example above or like saying “ik heb nog bloem nodig” I need more flower. He also said that nog steeds is more of en emphasis on the still like saying “I STILL need to go to the gym” “Ik moet nog steeds naar de sportschool”
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u/IrrationalDesign 3d ago
He also said that nog steeds is more of en emphasis on the still like saying “I STILL need to go to the gym” “Ik moet nog steeds naar de sportschool”
Yeah, there is an emphasis, but that emphasis can be flexible too, from 'do we still have to do that? We did all those other things already' to 'oh shit, I completely forgot, we still have to pick up Jimmy' to 'if we really squeeze, I think we can still fit one more in there'. Lots of different stills.
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u/Ambitious-Scheme964 3d ago
Nog is more like ‘still’…
‘ben je er nog’ — are you still there
‘Ik wil nog 3 eieren’ — I still want three (additional) eggs