Good news for dyslexics (and everyone else who occasionally makes a mistake)

I have my propaedeutic diploma in Dutch and have only taken courses at the Faculty of Arts since I turned thirty-two. Since then, I have been working in the magazine industry, so I always find myself surrounded by strict editors who wave their fingers furiously when something unworthy of the Green Book comes out of my laptop.

Honestly, I also love beautiful language use, but I'm not the kind of person who gets a sour taste in their mouth when someone doesn't use the Dutch language perfectly. I mean: I might be able to distinguish a d from a t, but if you let me go through life calculating, I would really be at the very bottom of the ranking list.

It's quite unfair when you look at it that way. We communicate with language, so if you're not very good at it, you often get called out on it. Good news for everyone who is just a little less good with language is that our language is descriptive and not prescriptive. So if we all say something in a certain way very often, it will eventually be included in the Green Book.

A number of words have now been added that were never allowed but are now getting a twist.

1. Frikandel

It was ‘frikadel’, but because everyone (or at least many people) says ‘frikandel’, that's now completely okay olé olé.

2. Datums

That's one where I always had a bit of a need for improvement myself. It's datum and data. But because ‘data’ now also stands for ‘information’, the high ladies and gentlemen of the Green Book think that ‘datums’ is also acceptable.

3. Uitprinten

Honestly, a language mistake I wasn't even aware of. It was ‘printen’ or ‘uitdraaien’ (how old-fashioned does that sound?), but now ‘uitprinten’ is also allowed.

4. Mond-op-mondreclame

How wonderfully I have laughed about this. It's mond-op-mondbeademing and mond-tot-mondreclame. Unless you want to make an advertisement for something while tongue-kissing, that is.

I know there are language types who will spend this day grinding and gnawing with irritation, but I know so many creative dyslexics who will surely be waving their flags. And remember: if you ever make a language mistake and someone reprimands you... Throw in the descriptive and prescriptive and ask if they can draw/dance/calculate/cook as well as you can. There. Now it's their turn.

Have a nice weekend!