Essential Dutch phrases

The citizen service number that every Dutch system keys off. Ordinary residents get it from the gemeente; privileged staff of missions and treaty bodies get it from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instead.

Privileged status. If you work for an embassy or a treaty organisation you hold an MFA card rather than a residence permit, and a different set of tax and insurance rules applies to you.

Means-tested allowances — zorgtoeslag for health premiums, huurtoeslag for rent, kinderopvangtoeslag for childcare. Paid monthly in advance and reconciled against your real income later.

The rent tribunal. For a small fee it rules on excessive rent, service charges and neglected maintenance, and its decisions bind the landlord.

The seaside district, and a famous shibboleth — the initial 'sch' is a sound most non-natives cannot produce, which is why it was used as a wartime password.

The thirteenth-century courtyard that houses parliament — currently under a long restoration, with the Tweede Kamer sitting elsewhere in the city meanwhile.

Two words for a Hague native. Hagenaar is the sand side — the dunes, the villas, the ministries. Hagenees is the peat side, working-class and proud of it. Locals know exactly which they are.

'Just act normal' — the first half of the national maxim about not standing out. In a city full of ambassadors this is said with some irony, but it is still meant.

A hard coffee-caramel sweet invented here in the eighteenth century, reportedly by accident, in the house of a Baron Hop. Sold in every station kiosk in the country.

The first raw herring of the season, eaten from the tail at a street stall with onions. Scheveningen lands it, and the first barrel is auctioned for charity every June.

Police, fire and ambulance on one free number, with English-speaking operators. 0900-8844 is the non-urgent police line.