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B2-

Als Ge Slaapt

Yong Yello

Language
Dutch
Released
2020
Genre
pop
Level
B2-
Difficulty score
893
Duration
3:31

How to study this song

“Als Ge Slaapt” carries 33 Dutch words, 25 adjectives and 51 verb forms — 109 study entries in all, graded B2-. Start with the glossary: maandag, koning and inkeer come up again and again, so they are the ones to know first. This one leans on its verbs: 51 distinct forms against 25 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the words on their own are not the problem — it is the way they are put together that takes the work.

The words of this song, in several languages

Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.

Vocabulary

NLENESITFRPTDE
maandagMondayluneslunedìlundisegunda-feiraMontag
koningkingreyreroireiKönig
inkeerremorsearrepentimientopentimentoremordsarrependimentoReue
weekendweekendfin de semanafine settimana

What this song teaches you

Level · B2-

Vocabulary words
33
Adjectives
25
Word combos
25
Expressions
20
Verb forms
51
Quiz questions
35

More Dutch songs at this level

  • Atlas — Pommelien Thijs (2025)B2-
  • Het Regent Zonnestralen — Acda en de Munnik (1998)B2-
  • 100 Tranen — Qlas, Antoon & Boef (2026)B1+
  • Europapa — Joost Klein (2024)B1+

Background

About the song

«Als Ge Slaapt» («When You Sleep») is a Dutch-language song by Yong Yello, sung in the everyday Flemish of Antwerp. It came out on 10 January 2020 on [PIAS] Recordings Belgium as his first single under his own name, and a year and a half later it was included on his debut album «Marcel & Het Magnetisme Van De Goot». It is a quiet, warm-sounding track, but the story it tells is anything but comfortable.

Yong Yello is the stage name of Yello Staelens, born on 26 December 1991 in Louvain-la-Neuve and based in Antwerp. He told the Flemish public broadcaster VRT that he was already writing raps at the age of ten and building beats on his older brother's computer. From 2008 to 2015 he was the youngest member of the Antwerp hip-hop label Eigen Makelij, and for years he worked mostly behind the scenes: he produced tracks for rappers such as Tourist LeMC, made the album «Lonely Boy's Paradise» for the singer Noémie Wolfs together with Simon Casier of the band Balthazar, and became the regular producer of the rapper Glints. In 2017 he finished a master's degree in music production in Ghent.

Between 2018 and 2021 he shared a house in the Brederode district of Antwerp with Glints and the rapper Faisal. Together they formed the collective Abattoir Anvers, which also had a weekly radio show on Studio Brussel. «Als Ge Slaapt» was the moment he stepped out from behind the mixing desk and put his own voice at the centre.

The song is a monologue by a young father. The first verse is a picture of family routine. It is Monday, the weekend is over, and he takes charge of the morning: he will drop the toddler off at the crèche so that his partner can stay in bed a little longer. If she fetches the child in the evening, he will do the shopping, and they can sit down to a good dinner together. The week goes on like that: the same on Tuesday, a wish to get married on Thursday, the cinema on Friday. He sounds caring, relaxed and in love.

The chorus adds a shadow. He tells his partner, tenderly, that she does not always know where he goes or what he does, and he describes how he slips off his shoes downstairs so that she will not wake. She looks so calm when she sleeps.

The second verse explains why. He was not out with his friends, not in a bar and not at a party: he spent the night with a woman whose name he does not even know. While his partner slept, he crept out of the house, and he came back before she woke. He calls himself a monster and admits that he cannot meet his own eyes in the mirror while shaving. Every Monday he decides to change, he holds out for a few days, and then it happens again. The hardest line of the story is about his own past: his mother lived with a man who did the same, and as a boy he swore he would never become like him. He still says he loves his partner deeply, and that he will enjoy their life together until the truth comes out.

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week-end
fim de semana
Wochenende
nestnest, bednido, camanido, lettonid, litninho, camaNest, Bett

This card holds 28 more words. You meet them when you play the song.

Adjectives

NLENESITFRPTDE
kleinelittle onepequeñopiccolopetitpequenoKleine
bestebestmejormiglioremeilleurmelhorbeste
lekkernicelya gustoper benebienbemlecker
echterealverdaderoverovraiverdadeiroechte

This card holds 21 more adjectives. You meet them when you play the song.

Verb forms

NLENESITFRPTDE
laatI leavedejolascioje laissedeixolasse
beginI startempiezocomincioje commencecomeçobeginne
brengttakesllevaportaemmènelevabringt
isisesèestéist
blijfstayquédaterestaresteficableib
liggenlyingacostadasdraiatacouchéedeitadaliegen
zetI drop offdejoportoje déposedeixobringe
kuntyou canpuedespuoitu peuxpodeskannst

This card holds 43 more verb forms. You meet them when you play the song.

In interviews Yong Yello has said that he likes a sunny sound that contrasts with heavy lyrics, and that his stories mix pieces of his own life with fiction and invented characters. «Als Ge Slaapt» works exactly in that tension: a gentle melody, cosy details from family life, and a confession that slowly turns the love song into a portrait of guilt.

Did you know?

The song is a small course in spoken Flemish. Instead of the standard Dutch «je» and «jij», the singer uses «ge» and «gij», and «ge zijt» takes the place of «je bent». «Uw» and «u» mean «your» and «you» in everyday speech here, not only in formal language as in the Netherlands. Other Flemish forms are «gene» for «geen» («no»), «nen» and «ne» for «een» («a»), «ni» for «niet» («not»), «zijne» for «zijn» («his»), «stillekes» for «stilletjes» («quietly») and «effe» for «even» («just for a moment»). «Ikke» is an emphatic «ik», and «'k» is a short «ik» glued to the word before it.

Some words mean something else in Belgium. In Flanders «iemand graag zien» means «to love someone», not just «to like seeing someone», and «doodgraag» makes it stronger. «Zeer doen» means «to hurt», where the Netherlands would say «pijn doen». You go «op café» to have a drink, and «cinema» is heard more than «bioscoop». «Chou», a word of endearment borrowed from French, works like «darling».

There is also good grammar in the lyric. Dutch often describes what someone is doing with a verb of position plus «te» and an infinitive: «liggen te slapen» («to be lying asleep») and «staan te scheren» («to be standing shaving»). Separable verbs split in two in a main clause: «afzetten» becomes «ik zet hem af», «uittrekken» becomes «ik trek uit», and «volhouden» becomes «ik hield het vol». In the past participle the «ge-» goes in the middle: «weggeslopen», «bijgekropen».

The lyric also walks through most of the days of the week — maandag, dinsdag, donderdag, vrijdag and zaterdag — which makes it handy vocabulary for beginners. «Uurtje» is the diminutive of «uur», and «'s morgens» («in the morning») keeps an old genitive.

A live version was recorded for #ikluisterbelgisch, a Studio Brussel series that puts Belgian artists in the spotlight.

Charts & streaming

«Als Ge Slaapt» opened Yong Yello's solo career. It was followed by the singles «Cirkels», «Waanzin» and «Luchtkasteel», and in August 2021 by the album «Marcel & Het Magnetisme Van De Goot», which reached the top ten of the Ultratop Albums 200, the main album chart of Flanders, according to the Dutch-language Wikipedia. The same year he was nominated in the Hip-hop & R&B category of the Music Industry Awards, the Flemish music prizes. The official video on his YouTube channel has passed a hundred thousand views.

His second album, «Bennie & De Banaliteit Van Ons Bestaan», came out in September 2025, after the singles «Ik moet dringend op vakantie», a song about a workaholic, and «We geve ni op» with LOÏS. He presented it in the main hall of the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on 1 November 2025, and that year the Music Industry Awards nominated him in three categories: hip-hop, Dutch-language music and producer.

On stage he plays with a full live band, De fanfare van de goede hoop, and he has performed at Rock Werchter, Pukkelpop and the Lokerse Feesten, as well as in Antwerp venues such as De Roma and Trix.