National Idioms -1

I thought that this month we could look at some idiomatic phrases that are related to the countries or nationalities of the teams that are participating in the Euro Cup. Today we are going to look at idioms containing the word 'Dutch' which, if you remember from Saturday's entry, is the name given to the people from the Netherlands and their language.

The first expression is 'Dutch courage' Sometimes when people have to do something frightening, they like to have a strong alcoholic drink to steady their nerves and calm them down. The confidence that comes from having this drink is what is known as Dutch courage.

The second expression is 'double Dutch'. One of the Words of the Week a couple of months ago was 'gibberish' and this expression has a similar meaning. If somebody is talking nonsense and you cannot understand them, you can say that they are speaking double Dutch.

The final idiom is 'to go Dutch'. Traditionally, when a man and a woman went out for a meal together on a date, the man would usually pay for it. Nowadays, it is more common for people to share the bill equally. When you do this it is known as going Dutch.