Hi tracy,

>When I visited the Netherlands in the mid 80s I was asked by a waiter how I was enjoying my visit to Holland. That surprised me since I thought only Americans refered to the Netherlands as Holland. He then informed me that Holland was a small section of the Netherlands. I had to do some reading after that because I was sadly uninformed about the country I was visiting.


Holland originally refers to Noord and Zuid holland which were the richest place on earth in the 17th century. They are only 2 of the 12 provinces of the netherland. But now we don't have any clear distinction between The netherlands and Holland anymore. Most of them will regard them to be the same.

Walter,

>
>>Jean,
>>
>>>>Is that the same for all genders (masculine, feminine, and I am not sure if you use neutral)?
>>>
>>>Yes, that's where Dutch differs from German.
>>>
>>>>I speek German quite well. At home my parents spoke Dutch now and then, but mainly German; I have some trouble with Dutch.
>>>
>>>Do they have dutch roots ?
>>
>>How many bolivians would the carry the surname of "Zonneveld" ? Well, even quite a few americans up here carry dutch surnames.
>>
>>Walter,