Recognizable?! These say the cards of popular Instagrammer about the language in Zoetermeer

What do you call such a rack with elastics on the back of your bike? That is called a luggage rack in Zoetermeer. Very normal for us, but in other parts of the country they use other words.

Through the language cards of Frans van der Vleuten (@Geographic.designer) You learn everything about our language and how it differs from other regions.

Back to that first example: a luggage rack is called somewhere else for example Pack carrier, rear seat or Afferpinnetje. If you are on the terrace in South Limburg, you may hear that someone orders a glass of Leng. Watte?! We Zoetermeerders Call that drink lemonade or possibly limo.

Active followers

How French all knows? “Because of my followers. I regularly ask how people call certain things and that sometimes causes surprises,” says the graphic designer.

Example: We Zoetermeerders say chainsaw, but in other parts of the Netherlands they call the tool one chamber saw or crackling.

Check, check, double check

The Instagram account has been around since November 2024 and has since yielded more than 60,000 followers. Frans always checks the reactions with his questions: “I see if the info of my followers is correct. I use dialectatlasses and dictionaries for that.”

Making tickets started as a hobby. “Now I am working on this for most of my time! I like that of course, and there is another advantage: it is super good for my topography knowledge. In the meantime almost every municipality in the Netherlands has passed by.”

Zoetermeer language is crazy?

There are even more cards on the Frans account on which you can see that our dialect deviates from the rest of the Netherlands. In our residential area we almost or almost say, in other parts, Sikdom or Temet. Frans also asked his followers how they really bad to call. In our residential area, people mainly say, for example, in other parts, for example, powerful, thunder or boulder.