Health and Body Expressions

Talking about your health is one of those topics where Dutch and English diverge in small, sneaky ways: a cold is something you are in Dutch, the flu is something you have, and "to feel" almost always needs a reflexive pronoun. Get these patterns wrong and you'll still be understood, but you'll sound translated. This page gives you the core phrases for being unwell and going to the doctor, the grammar traps around voelen, last hebben van and verkouden, and a handful of genuine health idioms.

Being ill: ziek and the reflexive voelen

The basic adjective is ziek ("ill, sick"). Ik ben ziek = "I'm ill." To describe a vaguer "I feel off," Dutch uses the reflexive verb zich voelen ("to feel"): Ik voel me niet lekker — literally "I feel myself not nice," meaning "I don't feel well." The word lekker (normally "tasty / nice") is the standard way to say you feel good or bad physically: me lekker voelen (feel well), me niet lekker voelen (feel unwell).

The reflexive pronoun is obligatory and changes with the subject: ik voel *me, jij voelt je, hij voelt zich, wij voelen ons, jullie voelen je, zij voelen zich*. Leaving it out is the single most common error here.

Verkouden zijn vs de griep hebben — the be/have split

Here is the trap the brief warns about, and it's a real one. A cold in Dutch is an adjective-like state you are: verkouden zijn ("to be cold-ridden / have a cold"). You never have a cold — you are verkouden. But the flu is a noun you have: de griep hebben ("to have the flu"). So the auxiliary verb flips between the two illnesses, and English speakers regularly mix them up.

Last hebben van: where it hurts and what bothers you

To say something is bothering you — an ache, a symptom, hay fever — Dutch uses last hebben van ("to suffer from / be bothered by"), always with the preposition van. This is the workhorse phrase for symptoms. Compare with pijn hebben ("to be in pain") and pijn doen ("to hurt," of a body part that causes pain).

• last hebben van + thing — Ik heb last van mijn knie ("My knee is bothering me").
• pijn hebben — Ik heb veel pijn ("I'm in a lot of pain").
• pijn doen — Mijn rug doet pijn ("My back hurts").
• body part + doet pijn — Mijn keel doet zeer/pijn ("My throat hurts").

At the doctor: naar de dokter and Beterschap!

To go to the doctor is naar de dokter gaan ("to go to the doctor"). Your GP is the huisarts ("house-doctor / family doctor"), and you maakt een afspraak ("make an appointment"). When someone is ill, the standard get-well wish is Beterschap! — literally "betterment," meaning "Get well soon!" It's a complete, fixed exclamation; you don't build a longer sentence around it.

Health idioms: the genuine ones

These three are standard, everyday Netherlands Dutch.

Zo gezond als een vis — literally "as healthy as a fish." The Dutch equivalent of "fit as a fiddle": completely healthy. Note the image is a fish, not a fiddle, so don't translate it back.

Weer op de been zijn — literally "to be on the leg again." It means to be back on your feet, recovered after an illness. (De been is singular here in the fixed phrase.)

Er beroerd aan toe zijn — literally "to be badly off at it." It means to be in a bad way / in poor shape, whether from illness or circumstances. The fixed frame is er ... aan toe zijn ("to be in a [given] state"), and beroerd ("rotten, lousy") fills the gap.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Zich voelen is reflexive — always voel me / je / zich / ons; lekker is the everyday word for feeling well or unwell.
• The auxiliary flips between illnesses: verkouden zijn (a cold = something you ARE) vs de griep hebben (the flu = something you HAVE).
• Last hebben van (always + van) reports symptoms; pijn doen says a body part hurts.
• You naar de dokter gaan, you see the huisarts, and you wish someone Beterschap! when they're ill.
• The genuine idioms — zo gezond als een vis, weer op de been zijn, er beroerd aan toe zijn — are learned whole and don't map onto the English images.