Ochtendroutine van een vermoeide wiskundeleerkracht

What does “rekenen op” mean in Dutch?

This Flemish comedy sketch about a maths teacher hides a clever pun. He wakes up next to “iemand waarop ik altijd ga kunnen rekenen. Mijn rekenmachine,” “someone I can always count on. My calculator.” The verb rekenen means “to calculate,” but rekenen op means “to count on, to rely on”, exactly the double meaning English has with “count on.”

The whole word family branches from there: rekenmachine (calculator), rekening (the bill, or a bank account), and wiskunde, the Dutch word for maths (literally “the science of what is certain”). This is Belgian Dutch (Flemish), so you’ll also catch a softer, southern accent. Learn rekenen op and you get the joke and a very useful verb.