Øoord-(place). Kata Tjuta mountain, along with Ayers Rock, or Uluru, were the two main Aboriginal sacred sites.

Aupuin-(rubbish). A heap of tailings from a gold mine circa 1900.

          Even though there are more than a hundred other mono-syllable neuter words that aren't included in the 't au̇-Pictionary, they are seldom used.  Most of the new mono-syllable loan words from English also aren't included, but are explained on the A-Z page.

Auvel-(hide or skin) Aboriginal  initiation scaars

The Fine Print...

Auschroot-(scrap metal) Australia is a leading target of Space Junk. (This picture is actually from South Africa.)

Auwrak-(wreck) Due to extremely hazardous currents, some of the 300 year old Zuytdorp ship's treasure remains untouched!

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Auvocht-(moisture)  Prospectors had to dig for water before digging for gold.

Auvlot-(raft)

Auvlies-(membrane) Jellyfish

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Auslib-(ooze), Auslijk-(mud/mire), and Auslijm-(slijm). Advertisement for Nickelodeon's yearly musical festival which includes musicians and participants getting covered in slime.

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Øpaar-(pair). Kangaroo and Emu from the Coat of Arms.  'Paar' is a bit odd because it behaves like a common noun when used as an adjective, ie. 'de paar paarden'

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Auschuim-(foam) Beer laces.

Auschaap-(sheep), Although New Zealand is more famous than Australia for raising sheep, there are more than twice as many sheep in Australia!  A sheep shearing shed in Queensland.

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Auvet-(grease) Olivia Newton John is Australia's all-time female megastar. (Except she is from England.)

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Ausnot- (snot)  Naracoorte Caverns stalactites.

Øpart-(part), After New South Wales was named, New Holland was reduced in size to just the Western half of Australia.

Auvak-(pouch, compartment, or specialty) The Wallaby, like the Kangaroo, rears it's young in a pouch.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​            The final trick is based on the fact that almost all the the tips used to learn long 'aa' vs. short 'a' vowels can be applied to long 'oo' vs. short 'o' vowels!  Using the tips with 'oo' vs. 'o' words helps reinforce their use with 'aa' vs. 'a' words.

             Fortunately for English speakers, long 'oo' vs. short 'o' words generally aren't quite as difficult as 'aa/a' words to learn. Although English speakers have trouble hearing the difference between 'oo' and 'o', the  'oo' spelling is more eye-catching, less foreign, and more memorable than 'aa'.  

              As is the case with 'a's, 'o-'s before final '-cht', '-rt', and '-st' are almost always short, whereas 'oo-'s before final '-rd' are  are almost always long.  Two of the rare short '-ord' words, 'Record and Bord (board)', can be used in the same way as 'hard miljard'! above.  For example,  a 'record bord' thing- is something exceptional.​

             There is more regularity with 'oo' verbs than there is with 'aa' verbs regarding the spelling of past-tense verbs, and in the spelling of 'o-' at the beginning of monosyllable nouns.  If a present tense verb contains an 'ie', 'ee', or 'ui', and shifts to an 'o' sound in the past tense,  both the singular- and plural-past tenses will contain a long 'oo'.  If a monosyllable noun begins with an 'o-', the vowel will be a long 'oo-'.

              Similarly, to 'aa' vowels, 'oo' vowels were also affected by the Great Vowel Shift.  The most frequent change was to an 'ee' sound, as in 'stroom' to 'stream', or 'vloot' to 'fleet'.  Although the shift wasn't as common as the 'aa' to 'ay' shift, it still serves as a useful mnemonic.  If a pair of 'oo' and 'ee' cognates exists today, the odds are better than 90% that the original, and current, Dutch sound was/is a long 'oo'.

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Austof-(dust) Sydney sandstorm.  'Stof' is one of the rare anomalies to the 'Zoot' rules.  'De' stof means (somewhat abstract) 'products', ie. 'material', 'product', or 'element', such as Hydrogen.

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Auspook-(ghost)

Aurijk-(kingdom), The "kingdom" of the Australian King Parrot (with a royal red coat) stretches along the East coast from Queensland to Victoria. .  

Ausap-(sap), Bloodwood Eucalyptus tree

Footnote:  The 'Dukes' refers to the 'Dukes of Burgundy' of medieval Flanders.  The 'Trading Magnates' refers to the Directors of the Dutch East and West Indies Companies.

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Øpad-(path), Ring around Australia Highway

Auwild-(wildlife) Roadside warning sign.

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Øpaard-(horse). 'Camel Cup' in Alice Springs. (Camels are a close relative of the horse.)

Aupunt-(point), Center-point of Australia near Alice Springs.

Auros-(steed), Charge of the Light Horse Brigade in WWI in Palestine. The statue is in Beersheva in Israel.

Augoud-(gold) Medal of the 'Order of Australia'  Australia's highest honor.

Auzaad-(seed) of a coconut.

​​​​            The fifth trick makes use of the fact that there are quite a few 'aa' monosyllable cognate (originally-similar) nouns in English and Dutch that were pronounced almost identically until about 500 years ago, (roughly the time Columbus discovered America).  Then the 'Great Vowel Shift' , or 'G(reat)V(owel)S(hift)', of English occurred, and many long 'aah' nouns shifted to being pronounced 'ay' instead.  An example was the shift of the pronunciation of Middle English 'aas' ('ace' in cards) to the Modern English 'ace'.

           Although the English pronunciation of the nouns shifted, the old-fashioned 'ae' spellings of the nouns were often semi-retained.   The 'ae' spellings, (alternately 'æ' in Middle English), usually morphed into non-phonetic'a+consonant+final-e's' in Modern English.  This is why Modern English words like 'blame' -from 'blæm (Old English)', 'blaem' (Old Dutch), and 'blaam' (Modern Dutch) are spelled how they are.  (Shakespeare was among the pioneering writers who exclusively used the new spellings, which had evolved during the century following the phonetic shift.)

            English speaking students can make use of the 'Great Vowel Shift', ('GVS'), phenomenon to learn Dutch/English  'aa/ay' cognate nouns by comparing the two cognates.  If the English cognate has an 'ay' sound, then the Dutch congnate will have a long 'aa' sound more than 90% of the time.   Examples include 'aap-ape', 'graad-grade', haar-hair', etc..

            Note 1: the 'ae' spelling is still used today in the 'Vlaemsch' dialect of Dutch spoken in the northwest part of France near Dunkirk, and in the 'Zeelandic' dialect spoken in the southwest part of Holland/ northwest part of Flanders.  

            Note 2: Middle English long 'ae' vowels occasionally shifted in other ways phonetically, but those sound shifts aren't nearly as common as the 'aah-to-'ay'  shift, so they don't make useful, easy, mnemonics.

            Note 3: The shift of "tomaeto" to the U.S. "tomato" (tomaat in Dutch) actually occurred after the GVS (because 'tomaetoes' came to Europe after South America was discovered by Europeans). 'Tomatoes' are still pronounced as 'tomaatoes' in England, but usually as 'tomaytoes' in the U.S.

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Aurund-(cow or ox) A statue of the Water Buffalo in Crocodile Dundee.

          Congratulations on completing your tour of hetOz'-('Oz' is neuter because it is a country).  As a reward, here are some bonus tips on how to more easily learn the other difficult thing about Dutch for English speakers- long 'aa' vs. short 'a' vowels.  Unfortunately, even though all Dutch words with long 'aa' and short 'a's are spelled phonetically, very few native English speakers can hear the difference, and hence can't remember the spellings of infrequently used words.        

Auspel-(game) Part of the Sydney 2000 Olympics  monument at Darling Harbour.  (The symbols spell out S-:y-d-n-e-y.)

Auras-(race), Kai Kai Aboriginal

Auplein-(plain), Note: a 'plein' is usually an open space in a city.

Auwerk-(work) Convict laborers

Auscheid-(separation), Soccer field with two halves/sides. (There are actually 5 types of 'Football' in Australia- 1.Soccer, 2. & 3. two types of Rugby, 4.Australian rules football and 5.American rules football!

Auprul-(Rubbish) 'Pat's Uninteresting Tours' in Sydney featured stops at a Rubbish Dump (with wine tasting), a jail, etc..

Ausmeer-(oil, grease)

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Auvlak-(flat area or surface) View of Central Australia plain from the top of Mt. Uluru (Ayer's Rock).

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Auschrift-(writing), Australian emergency vehicles use 'mirror writing'.

Auslop-(dead end or cul de sac) The end of the 'West End' path on Rottnest Island, just west of Perth.  Rottenest (Rat's Nest in Dutch) Island is also where Willem de Vlamingh (Bill from Flanders) first landed when he "rediscovered" Western Australia in 1696- photo from R.I.A.

Auwier-(seaweed).  Harvesting Japanese Kelp and other types of seaweed is a rapidly expanding industry. (The picture is of jellied kelp)

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Auvolk-(people, inhabitants) Aboriginal rights march. The flag represents: Black Skin, Yellow Sun, and Red Earth.

Aurad-(wheel), The Tour Down Under is Australia's big cycling event.  The rider is the great Robbie McEwen, who also learned to speak excellent Dutch!

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             The fourth trick is to take long 'aa' verbs "out of the equation"- in other words, to simply eliminate those words.  The trick to do this is to temporarily use  the Old Dutch 'ae' (or more succintly Old English 'æ') spellings for simple past tense 'aa' verbs.   The 'æ' spellings are more conspicuous, and therefore more memorable, for English speakers than the 'aa' spellings.

               An examples is: 'Zij hælde haar rijbewius' (She got (past tense) her driver's license),

              Note: The 'æ' spellings aren't recommended for verb-based adjectives, adverbs, or nouns.

Autouw-(rope) Boy Scouts Logo (classic version of logo)

Auzuur-(acid)  Jellyfish sting first aid station.

Auzand-(sand), A bit of the billions of tons of red sand in Australia.

Austel-(set) The Twelve Apostles (Actually only eight of them now due to erosion.)

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Au-perk-(boundaried area, a noun-suffix), A Jellyfish- free swimming area.  A sting from a 'Box Jellyfish' can be fatal in less than three minutes.

Auwee-(pain, especially emotional pain) Possibly the most "Australian" person ever, Steve Irwin died after being impaled by a the barb of a Sting Ray he was filming.  The loss of Steve still hurts.

              The sixth trick is based on the fact that almost all nouns (and most other words), ending in 'a' followed by '-cht',  '-rt', or '-ast', have short 'a's.  And the seventh trick is based on an opposite trend- nouns (and most other words) ending in an 'a' followed by '-rd' are almost always long.

              To learn the pronunciations of nouns with these endings, students can just learn the exceptional words, and then assume all other nouns follow the long-short rules.   '-cht' has no common exceptions.  A mnemonic to learn the '-ast' exceptions is: 'Haast naast Aalst'-(Almost next to the (carnival capital) city of Aalst.).  A mnemonic to learn the '-art' exceptions is: 'Staart in Maart'-(Begin in March) and use a'vaart-kaart' (navigation map) to find a 'staart-taart' (woven-dough pastery) in Maart (March).

              The two exceptional, and short, '-ard' words are 'hard & miljard'.  'Hard miljard!' can be considered to be a sort of epithet like "By Jove!"-refering to something exceptional.  An example is: "Hard miljard', de oudste paard heeft gewonnen."-(By Jove, the oldest horse won.)

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             The eighth trick is based on the fact that present-tense verbs which contain 'ee', 'ie', 'e', 'i', or 'o', such as 'breek' (break),  and which switch to an  'a' sound in the past tense, become short vowels in the singular simple-past tense, such as 'Ik brak', but become long vowels in the plural simple-past tense, such as 'Wij braken'.​

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Ausplit-(slit) Devils Marbles.

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​           The second, andmost powerful, trick is for students to learn each monosyllable word containing a long 'aa' vowel together with a counterpart word containing a short 'a' vowel.  Because Dutch tends to minimize homonyms (words that sound alike but mean different things) there is usually a short 'a' alternative for each long 'aa' word.  An example is 'gaas'-(gauze) vs. 'gas'- (gas).  Note: Even if a twin 'short-a' word is obscure, it is still worth learning it in order to reinforce its long 'aa' counterpart, such as: baan-(road) vs. ban-(excommunication).

Auplan-(plan), Burnum Burnum declaration of Aboriginal intent to recolonize Australia.

Auscherm-(screen), Although 'Drive In' theaters are almost extinct in the U.S., there are still more than 300 in Australia!-Bass Hill Theater

Øoog- Crocodile (eye)

Auspek-(bacon) Australia has more pigs than people! Unfortunately all the wild pigs have diseases that make them unedible.

Auroest-(rust), Aboriginal painting colors were often derived from oxidized(rusted) ochre rocks.  Many paintings are amazingly similar to the Wadi Sura rock paintings of the Sahara Desert in Africa!

Aurond-(circle or hemisphere). A map of the Southern Hemisphere circa 1650. The incomplete outline of Australia is at the top.

Auplebs-(common folk, rabble), Sports fans.

Aupeil-(marker or measurement)  Lake Albert

Autij-(tide) Canal Rocks near Perth. The vistas change from minute to minute due to the changing tides. Photo from West Aust. Parks & Wildlife webpage.

Auvee-(livestock) The sign is in the town of "Durham Ox", named after a cow that weighed more than 1000 pounds.

Auroet-(soot) or a charcoal/ochre combination could be blown by mouth to create a stencil.

Auschot-(shot)  'Mad Max'  The very successful, post-Apocalyptic, battle film gave rise to the 'New Wave' of Australian cinema and features the breakout role of Mel Gibson.  National Film and Sound Archive photo.

Aurijst-(rice), Australia's rice region is in the dry interior, yet Australia achieves one of highest yields per acre in the world!- here with the help of a robot.

Auzweet-(sweat) "From a land where women glow..."-'Men at Work' lyrics.

"A World Apart-the Land of Øtherness "

Auzout-(salt) Dry Creek Salt Works

pak-(pack- OR 'suit' OR 'bundle'), A hobo's (itenerant worker's) pack was called his "swag" or "Mathilda". He walked, or "waltzed" along.

Aupark-(park). Archibald Fountain is the focal point of the large park complex in Downtown Sydney.

Auzog-(wake) Collins Class Submarine of the Australian Navy

Auspul-(stuff, group of things such as tools) Aboriginal hunting tools.

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Aupand-(pawn or mortage)  During the Great Depression in the 1930s many people lost their homes.  This family had just been evicted.

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Auspit-(pointed thing) The northern tip of Queensland.

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Øoor-(ear)  By law, several types of livestock in Australia have to wear ear tags.

Auzoek-(search).   Australia is a quintessential place to go in search of a new beginning.  The picture is of the 50,000th Dutch immigrant to Australia in 1954.

Au-voud-(multitude or multiple, noun-suffix) Monument to the Ancestors at the National Gallery- (ie. a -voudwoud (forest of the multitudes- neuter gender) (N. G. photo)

New Zealand, originally New Zeeland, was named after Zeeland, which made up the southern half of the Netherlands.

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Auvoer-(feed)

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Auvod-(rag) From the musical version of "Priscella, Queen of the Desert"

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Austuur-(wheel) Steering wheels in Australia are on the opposite side of the car than those in the U.S..

Austuk-(piece) Four thousand years ago the Henbury comet, which was rich in iron, landed in Australia. For the Aborigines, it was as if iron tools fell out of heaven.

Au-werp-(something thrown or created, noun-sufffix)

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             The remaining three vowels are quite easy to learn.  Double 'i' doesn't exist, double 'ee' is phonetically distinct for English speakers, and double 'u' follows an easy rule: 'u's followed by 'r's are long, whereas 'u's followed by all other consonants are short- (with the minor exceptions) of 1. the words 'purper'-(purple) and 'purge', 2. multi-syllable words with an emphasis on the last syllable, such as 'kostuum'-(suit), and 3. the exceptional word 'spuug'-(spit), which can alternately be spelled 'spuwg' as a mnemonic.

              For a word-list of monosyllable 'aa' and 'oo' nouns, including mnemonic spelling tips, please visit the 'Zootology' web page.

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​           Actually, there isn't much fine print.  Although most people can't really learn all 200 words in one day, most can come close.  A 'hack' to learning them is to test yourself by just looking at the pictures, and then trying to recall the words.

Australia went largely unexplored by Europeans until the '1776' American War of Independence.   After the war, the U.S. refused to accept any more convicts from Britain, and this jump-started the colonization of Australia!

Aurecht-(right or justice), Governor Davey's proclamation of equality before the Law

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Autal-(number) During WWI 1/8th of all Australian men were killed or wounded.

Ausein-(sign), Drawings at Uluru (Ayer's Rock)

Au-tuig-(tools, harness, or implement-noun-suffix). Airplane (Flying-tuig) Monument to the Flying Doctors of Australia.

Auteam-(team). Australian Aboriginal Team Rugby match vs. the Maori Hakahaka team of New Zealand

Auwaas-(haze) Bushfire smoke, and corresponding haze, often extends for thousands of square kilometers.

         There are surprisingly few exceptions to the prefix/suffix rules.  With the exception of -en endings, almost all other prefixes and suffixes are more than 90% gender-consistent.   The exceptions are addressed at the bottom of the German A-Z web page. ​

Austrand-(beach) Gold Coast

Auvest-(vest)

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Auzeil-(sail) Sydney-Hobart Race

Auvlees-(meat) Outback Steakhouse was actually started in Florida!

Auveen-(bog) Bog snorkelling is a competitive event in Australia.

Auveer-(ferry)  The Superfast mega-ferries that connect Melbourne, (and previously Sydney) to Tasmania travel at over 50KPH or 35MPH!

Aupas-(leveling instrument), It can also be borrowed for use in Kompas-(compass), which is actually neuter due to the '-as' ending.  Compass Airlines was the (failed) pioneer in trying to deregulate Austrailia's Airline business.

Auvat-(cask, barrel) Water wagons used to be essential in Australia.

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          Finally, it turns out the Dutch may not have been the first Europeans to discover Australia.  Portuguese explorers may have discovered the continent around 1550, but knowledge of their discoveries was possibly lost in the great fire of Lisabon in 1755.

Auzeer-(pain) Jellyfish warning.

Auwicht-(little rascal/child or weight) Tasmanian Devil- now extinct in Australia

Auweb-(web) Web of an

'Orb-weaver' spider

Auriet-(reed or straw), Didgeridoo

Auspuug-(spit) Spittlebug

Ausop-(broth) or soap(suds). Soup line during the Great Depression- 1934. 

Auuur-(hour) Australia is one of the first places to celebrate New Years Eve because the East coast of Australia is only couple hours from the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean.

Auveld-(field) The playing field of the quintessential Australian, and English, game Cricket is round! (Fun Fact: Cricket evolved from the game "Kriecket" in Flanders.)

Hét Au̇woord-(word)

Øons-(fluid ounce)-There are 20, instead of 16, ounces in an Imperial Pint

Auschip-(ship) The Duyfken (little dove) under Captain willem Janzoon was the first European ship to reach Australia in 1606. (The Flemish flag is at the prow.)

         In any case, the majority of European discoverers were Dutch.  They include Willem Janzoon-1606, Dirk Hartog-1616, Francois Thijssen-1627, Able Tasman-1642, and Willem de Vlamingh-1696. 

     After the Dutch period of discovery, no further expeditions were made to Australia (or New Zeeland) until James Cook's expedition in 1768, because all the explorers had concluded the entire continent was quite inhospitable

        The name "New Holland" was used from 1606 until 1824, when the English Government decided on the name "Australia".  However "New Holland" persisted in common use, and on maps, until around 1850.  James Cook changed the "e" of 'New Zeeland' to "a" in 1768.

        And NOT to forget, the Aboriginal Australians really discovered Australia about 50,000 years ago.

Auschild-(shield), To protect against spears and boomerangs, shields were essential for Aboriginal warriors.

Auzicht-(view) Sydney Tower

Auroer-(rudder), The rudder of the plane of the 'Red Baron' after he was shot down behind Australian lines in WW1. (Before the guard was posted, the canvas from the rudder had already been removed as a souvenir.)

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Aurif-(reef), The Great Barrier Reef was the home of  Clown Fish Nemo in the classic Pixar film 'Finding Nemo'.

Aurek-(shelf), Old Australian bars were designed for efficient bar tending and no-frills drinking.

Auslot-(lock), Lock on the ultimate convict cell in Australia, built specifically for Joe Moondyne (who could break out of anywhere). He broke out of this prison too.

Auwoud-(woods)- A photo taken of 'Chateau Woods' after the legendary Passchendaele (Flemish Passendale) battle of WWI.  The Passchendaele Forest Park in Australia was created in honor of the battle.

Auwiel-(wheel) Queens Park in Sydney

            Fortunately, there are several simple tricks that can help English speakers differentiate between the two spellings.  The first trick is based on the fact that short 'a' is more common than long 'aa' .  Students should therefore concentrate on learning long 'aa' words before short 'a' words (as in pick the lowest fruit').  After a while a student can assume any common 'a/aa-word' he or she isn't sure about contains a short 'a'.

Auweer-(weather) Adelaide storm.

Auraam-(frame), Goal at Rugby match.

          The third trick is to learn the pronounciation of the plural forms of 'aa' nouns together with the singular forms.  The pronuncation of 'aa' vs. 'a' in the plural froms is easier for English speakers to hear.  If, in the plural form, the 'a' syllable ends in an 'ah' sound, the singular form has a double 'aa'.  For example: 'graad'-(degree) and 'graden', where 'graden' is pronounced 'gra-den', as opposed to 'grad-en'.

             In the case of 'aa' nouns ending in '-s', this is particularly easy because in the plural form', the 's'es shift to 'z'es.  For example, 'haas' vs. 'hazen'-(rabbits)- pronounced 'ha-zen'.

Auspoor-(railway or track) The Great Southern Rail line runs 1500 miles from Adelaide to Perth.