Essential French & Dutch phrases

Your municipality. Brussels is nineteen of them, each with its own town hall, its own foreigners' desk and its own tax rate. Almost every piece of paperwork starts here, not with the region.

The temporary paper slip proving your registration is in progress. It is not an ID card, but for a few weeks it is the only proof you legally exist here. Do not lose it.

The neighbourhood police officer who calls at your address to confirm you actually live there. A real step, and nothing happens until the report comes back positive.

The health insurance fund you must choose and join yourself. Membership is compulsory but enrolment is not automatic — nobody signs you up.

Seventy and ninety in Belgian French. Not soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix. Prices, phone numbers and appointment times all use these — learn them before your first bank visit.

A small rented room, originally student digs, used in both languages. 'Kot' listings are the cheapest way into the city and a normal first step for arrivals under thirty.

A sudden violent downpour, a Belgian word with no French equivalent. That the language needed its own term tells you what to expect of the weather.

In Belgium this also means 'here you go' when someone passes you your change or your coffee. In France it only means please, which is why it sounds odd to French ears.

Belgian French for chicory/endive, which the French call endive. A small vocabulary fork that makes menus and market stalls briefly confusing.

A Brussels mongrel — originally a stray dog, now a proud label for someone of mixed Brussels origins. The city's self-image in one word.

112 for ambulance, fire or police anywhere in Belgium; 101 goes straight to the police. Both free from any phone, and 112 is answered in French, Dutch and English.