Questions & Answers about De ruzie is voorbij.
Ruzie basically means a quarrel / argument / row.
- It usually refers to people being angry and arguing, not necessarily to a physical fight.
- In English it’s often best translated as “argument” or “row”, depending on context.
- For a physical fight, Dutch would more likely use words like gevecht, vechtpartij, or knokpartij.
Dutch nouns have grammatical gender. Ruzie is a common-gender (de-) word, so it always takes de, never het.
You just have to learn the gender of each noun; there’s no rule that would make ruzie clearly de or het from its form.
Yes, ruzie is countable:
- een ruzie = an argument / a quarrel
- twee ruzies = two arguments
Plural spelling: ruzies (no apostrophe).
Example:
- We hebben vaak ruzies over geld. – We often have arguments about money.
Approximate pronunciation: [ˈryzi].
- r – Dutch r (varies by region; can be guttural or rolled).
- u – like French u in lune or German ü in Tür (a rounded ee sound).
- z – like English z in zoo.
- ie – like English ee in see.
So it sounds a bit like “ryoo-zee”, but with the French/German u/ü vowel instead of the English yoo.
Literally, voorbij has the idea of “past / gone by”.
In De ruzie is voorbij, it’s best translated as “The argument is over.”, but voorbij can also mean things like past / by in other contexts:
- De trein rijdt voorbij. – The train is going past.
- Het ergste is voorbij. – The worst is past / over.
So voorbij often corresponds to “over”, “past”, or “gone (by)”, depending on the sentence.
They’re very close in meaning; both can be translated as “The argument is over.”
- De ruzie is voorbij focuses a bit more on the quarrel being behind you now, in the past.
- De ruzie is afgelopen focuses a bit more on the quarrel having come to an end (like an event that has finished).
In everyday speech they are often interchangeable here.
Dutch uses the present tense here just like English does in “The argument is over.”
You’re describing the current state:
- Nu is de ruzie voorbij. – Now the quarrel is over.
So even though the quarrel itself happened in the past, the fact that it is over is a present situation, hence is.
Yes, the most common expression is ruzie maken (met iemand) = to argue / to have a row (with someone).
Examples:
- Ze maken vaak ruzie. – They often argue / They often have rows.
- Ik heb ruzie met mijn broer. – I’m having an argument with my brother.
Note that ruzie maken is the natural way to say “to argue”; you don’t usually say iemand ruzieën or similar.
Yes, you can change the word order a bit, especially to add elements like nu (“now”):
- De ruzie is voorbij. – The quarrel is over.
- De ruzie is nu voorbij. – The quarrel is over now.
- Nu is de ruzie voorbij. – Now the quarrel is over. (emphasis on now)
All of these are correct. Dutch word order is quite flexible in simple main clauses like this, as long as the finite verb (is) stays in second position.
Ruzie is neutral to informal and very common in everyday speech.
In a more formal or written context, people might choose words like:
- conflict – conflict
- onenigheid – disagreement
- meningsverschil – difference of opinion
For example:
- Informal: De ruzie is voorbij.
- More formal: Het conflict is opgelost. – The conflict has been resolved.
In De ruzie is voorbij, voorbij works like a predicative adjective / adverbial describing the state of de ruzie.
- It is invariable: it does not take an -e and does not change with gender or number.
- De ruzie is voorbij.
- De problemen zijn voorbij. – The problems are over.
It always stays voorbij, regardless of the noun.