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Burgerservicenummer

English translation: citizen service number

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Dutch term or phrase:	Burgerservicenummer
English translation:	citizen service number
Entered by:	Max Nuijens, MSc

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09:03 Nov 10, 2009

Dutch to English translations [PRO]
Government / Politics / uitreksel GVB

Dutch term or phrase: Burgerservicenummer

HEt gaat om de vertaling van een uitreksel uit het GVB.
Is er een Engelse term voor burgerservicenummer of laat ik dat gewoon in het Nederlands staan?

Yvette van Ree KudoZ activity Questions: 25 (none open) Answers: 8 Netherlands
Local time: 19:40

citizen service number

Explanation:
This is how the Belastingdienst translate it on their own website.

"Obtaining the citizen service number (BSN)."

http://www.belastingdienst.nl/variabel/buitenland/en/citizen...

Selected response from:

Max Nuijens, MSc
Belarus
Local time: 20:40

Grading comment

This was quite a discussion.
Thank you all for your help.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +5

citizen service number

Max Nuijens, MSc

4 -1

National Insurance Number

Ghislaine van der Burgt

3 -1

Tax identification number

Lianne Wouters

Summary of reference entries provided

national identification number

Olly Pekelharing

Discussion entries: 3

Answers

3 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): -1

Tax identification number

Explanation:
Er is meen ik niet echt een equivalent, maar dit wordt vaak gebruikt (vaak ook afgekort als TIN).

Lianne Wouters
Netherlands
Local time: 19:40
Native speaker of:

Dutch

34 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

citizen service number

Explanation:
This is how the Belastingdienst translate it on their own website.

"Obtaining the citizen service number (BSN)."

http://www.belastingdienst.nl/variabel/buitenland/en/citizen...

Max Nuijens, MSc
Belarus
Local time: 20:40
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Dutch
PRO pts in category: 31

Grading comment

This was quite a discussion.
Thank you all for your help.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

David Walker: There is no equivalent in English so a direct translation is the best

18 mins

-> thanks

agree

Chris Hopley: I agree with David too.

21 mins

-> thanks

agree

Ghislaine van der Burgt: If the Belastingdienst are giving you the translation, then why make life hard for yourself by trying to come up with something else? Might as well use it!

26 mins

-> thanks

agree

Olly Pekelharing: If this is the official government translation, then yes. See my comment in the discussion above.

31 mins

-> thanks

neutral

writeaway: this is 'one' translation-one dico lists citizen's identification number which imo is better. keep the NL in any case /since it's the old SOFI no, it's an identification number - someone's service number sounds strange in English. sounds military.

42 mins

-> thanks, but why is 'identification' better than 'service'? /Now I understand. Citizen's service. Well, in Dutch it sounds strange too. "Sofinummer" was much clearer.

agree

Neil Cross: I agree with Ghislaine. In golfing terms, it's a "gimme" :-)

1 hr

50 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): -1

National Insurance Number

Explanation:
You could use this, but it covers slightly different areas from the BSN, but it is an equivalent.
Failing that, I would refer to the original BSN and [reference] an explanation.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Insurance_number
Reference: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nic/ynino.htm

Ghislaine van der Burgt
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:40
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Dutch,

English

Reference comments

18 mins peer agreement (net): +3

Reference: national identification number

Reference information:
More info here.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identification_number

Olly Pekelharing
Netherlands
Native speaker of:

English

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)

agree

Chris Hopley

39 mins

disagree

Ghislaine van der Burgt: If you check under UK, it will say National Insurance Number, as per my suggestion.

46 mins

-> Even if this is for a UK audience, as you say yourself the NI Number is not the same as a BSN.

agree

writeaway: I think that keeping the NL and using this in ( ) is the best solution. of course, it's not the "official" translation but this is clearer.

57 mins

agree

xxxSciMedit: If it was me, I'd keep the Dutch original and in brackets put the equivalent for the applicable country, if it exists.

3 hrs

agree

gypsyboy: The Burgeservicenummer is the tax and insurance number rolled into one. It must be used in all correspondence with the authorities. I would use the idea put forward by writeaway.

23 hrs

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