I’m deep in a Dutch book at the moment. The narrative carries the reader along: “Ik bleef naar haar kijken totdat een tram zich traag tussen ons in bewoog – I stood looking at her until a tram slowly moved between us.” Perhaps not the best extract from this thriller, but it shows how little in this sentence is of much use when chatting.

What you need to talk are some phrases. Often you need to ask for clarification: hoe bedoel je? – how do you mean? or dat volg ik niet – I’m not with you. If you’re at a complete loss you may need wat is er aan de hand? – what’s going on?; zeker weten? – are you sure?

Or you may be getting slightly hot under the collar and need to ask hoe kan dat nou? – how’s that possible? Or you may blow a fuse: waar heb je het verdomme over? – what the hell are you on about?

Sometimes we just want to make a noise to encourage the other person: wat leuk! – what fun!; or you may want to hear more: zeg het maar – tell me; or you want to tell the other person that their story makes sense: dat dacht ik al – I thought as much.

You can usually gloss over making a mistake with a verb tense but if you can’t tell someone to do something, it won’t get done. A good expression to prod someone with is vooruit! which can mean let’s go, or go ahead, or on your way; or to encourage someone to spill the beans: vooruit, wie heeft het gedaan? – out with it, who did it?

Whether you mean it or not, you may want to apologise; then use het spijt me – I’m sorry. Or you may just want to sound sympathetic: ik ben bang van niet – I’m afraid not.

You may need to calm the other person down by saying that it doesn’t matter – het maakt niet uit. Or the concern may be yours: doet dat er iets toe? – does it matter?

Not everyone makes sense. You can respond to an improbable tale with dat meen je niet – you cannot be serious.

When you part, you can use a phrase you must already know: tot ziens – goodbye; or tot morgen – see you tomorrow; or in our case, tot volgende week! – until next week!