Home » Entertainment » Marie Verhulst explains why she does not speak flat Antwerp in ‘De Verhulstjes’: “It is not in me”

Marie Verhulst explains why she does not speak flat Antwerp in ‘De Verhulstjes’: “It is not in me”


As a viewer of The Verhulstjes did you notice in any case: Viktor and Gert speak Antwerp at their best, while Marie sounds as if she is speaking to the young Samson & Gertviewers talk. The youngest Verhulst tells in Hey everyone that she is aware of that difference, but that it is not a choice.

Marie says that she recently received a well-intentioned but harsh message in her inbox. “I think I know why people find you so annoying: you talk like that AN,” wrote a follower of Verhulst. You can’t miss it as a viewer: Marie addresses her family with “je” instead of “ge”, which sounds rather unnatural for Antwerp residents. Yet she is really herself in the program, Marie says. “I’m just conscientious, I don’t come across as casual. I know that too, you know.”

In her own words, Marie simply cannot speak Flat Antwerp like her father and brother. “I’d like to, but it’s not in me. I spent four years at a boarding school where everyone spoke General Dutch and I got diction every week. Viktor went to school in Antwerp, didn’t he.”

Samson’s owner doesn’t care that people call her annoying. She gets mostly positive reactions. “I also had the feeling that that message was well-intentioned. ‘You are annoying and I know how to solve it: by speaking Antwerp.’ Those people don’t really know you. Reality only shows a fraction of our lives.”

ALSO READ. Sarah, Viktor’s girlfriend, does not want to be in ‘De Verhulstjes’ for the time being: “Who knows, I might think differently in three years”

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