Three little biggetjes

Varken always struck me as a funny Dutch word. It sounds GREAT!

Varken.

Varken….

But it puzzled me that there was no link between this and the English word 'pig'…

…until I heard on the radio an advert using the three little piggies tale 'De drie kleine biggetjes'!

Pig in Dutch is indeed 'varken' or 'zwijn' (similar to 'swine')

Looking at the etymology of pig in English we see that the word comes from Old English 'picg' which meant young pig. And this is exactly what 'big' (and its diminutive 'biggetje') means in Dutch: piglet.

Check out the 'Drie kleine biggetjes' sprookje in het Nederlands.
A good opportunity to listen to the imperfect tense too.