om de week

English translation: every other week

04:06 May 21, 2001

Dutch to English translations [PRO]

Dutch term or phrase: om de week

Help! I am having a dispute with my client about this ... he states categorically that it means "every week". I say it means "every other week". Which of us is correct?

Gillian

English translation:every other week

Explanation:
I'm a Dutch speaker, and I would never say 'om de week' if I mean 'every week'( which would be 'iedere week' or 'elke week')
So, the translator is right in this case to say 'every other week'.

A quick double check in the VanDale dictionary says:

om de week, om de andere week: de ene week wel, de andere niet

so, again 'every other week'.

Veel success

Selected response from:

Cecilia Coopman, M.A. in Translation
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:24

Grading comment

Oh dear, what a can of worms I opened here! A poll of all the answers gave (I think):
7 supporting me,
4 in favour of the client and
1 abstention (offering something completely different!)
Thanks a million to all who answered. It was really difficult to choose,
but your answer (Centos) was the one that gave me most comfort.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

every other week

Renate van den Bos

every other week

Carla Zwanenberg

every week

Alexander Schleber (X)

every other week

Evert DELOOF-SYS

every other week

Cecilia Coopman, M.A. in Translation

every week

Anja Lodge

weekly

Carine Brys

during the week

Christophe DUBOIS

every week

kideco

every other week

Saskia

every other week

dutchie

Every other week

Elizabeth van der Veen

Every other week

Hetty

Answers

11 mins

every other week

Explanation:
every week means: iedere week;
every other week means: om de week (de ene week niet, de daaropvolgende week wel).
Succes!

own experience

Renate van den Bos
Local time: 17:24
Native speaker of:

Dutch
PRO pts in pair: 92

11 mins

every other week

Explanation:
Iedere week is every week, om de week is every other week, you are right Gillian!

Carla

Carla Zwanenberg
Netherlands
Local time: 17:24
Native speaker of:

Dutch
PRO pts in pair: 187

14 mins

every week

Explanation:
Kramer's "Business English" has this to say:

om = (periodiek na) every [fortnight &]

which would indicate that the translation of "om de week" would indeed be "every week".
Kramer's then proceeds to give examples:

om de andere dag = every other (every second) day.

Again, this would appear to say that your customer is correct. Otherwise he would have had to writer "om de andere week".

"Laat ons om de week over praten" = Let us talk about it (once) every week.

A close check of VanDale gives the same result, so I am afraid that your customer is right.

Kramer's / VanDale

Alexander Schleber (X)
Belgium
Local time: 17:24
Native speaker of:

German,

English
PRO pts in pair: 826

16 mins

every other week

Explanation:
You're absolutely correct, t.i. if your client uses the correct Dutch terminology 'om de week'
Every week = elke week
Every other week = om de (andere) week

Ref.: Wolters' Woordenboek Engels - Nederlands (pg 232) is very clear about this:
E.g.:
every day = elke dag
every other day = om de (andere) dag
every third day = om de drie dagen

HTH

Evert DELOOF-SYS
Belgium
Local time: 17:24
Native speaker of:

Dutch,

Flemish
PRO pts in pair: 1278

46 mins

every other week

Cecilia Coopman, M.A. in Translation
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:24
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 8

Grading comment

3 hrs

every week

Explanation:
I realize that I'm going against most of your other respondents and I believe that in popular usage it is used to mean "every other week," but when you look at it logically, "om de week" means "one week between every occurence" just like "om de twee weken" means "two weeks between every occurence." So, "every week" is correct, in my opinion.

Van Dale says "om" = "telkens na"

Van Dale

Anja Lodge
PRO pts in pair: 48

3 hrs

weekly

Explanation:
I think the confusion stems from somewhat poorly written Dutch.
elke week, iedere week = every week
om de twee weken = every other week
om de drie weken = every third week.
My gut instinct as a native speaker is to say that "om de week" is "weekly" because the frequency modifier is missing.

Carine Brys
United States
Local time: 11:24
PRO pts in pair: 3

3 hrs

during the week

Explanation:

According to the context, it also can have the meaning of "during the week"

[email protected]

no
no

Christophe DUBOIS
Local time: 00:24

4 hrs

every week

Explanation:
Hi Gilian,

I am a Dutch speaker and when I saw: 'om de week' my first thought was 'every week'. I double checked in Van Dale, and there also, it says om de (andere) week: every (other) week. So, you'd have to add 'andere' in Dutch to say every other week. Sorry, but your customer's right.

Kind regards,

Kim

Van Dale N/E 1999

kideco
Belgium
Local time: 17:24

20 hrs

every other week

Explanation:
every week = elke week
every other week = om de week enz
ik ben volkomen 2-talig opgevoed

Saskia
Local time: 10:24
Native speaker of:

Dutch,

English
PRO pts in pair: 12

22 hrs

every other week

Explanation:
not every week, but leaving a week between events

dutchie
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:24

1 day 1 hr

Every other week

Explanation:
elke week= every week

om de week betekent dat je er een week tussen laat. De correcte Nederlandse zin had inderdaad om de andere week moeten zijn.

succes!
Els

Native Dutch living in US

Elizabeth van der Veen
PRO pts in pair: 10

2 days 1 hr

Every other week

Explanation:
I am a Dutch native and would always interpret "om de week" to mean "every other week". vanDale seems to agree with this.

Hetty
Local time: 16:24
Native speaker of:

Dutch
PRO pts in pair: 4

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