# Double Dutch
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 3, 1999, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949 "1999-10-03T23:55:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [October 3, 1999, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/1 "1999-10-03T23:55:00Z")
Does anyone still play Double Dutch. I don’t ever see kids out on the sidewalk playing like they did years ago. It seemed like a natural activity when I was a child, but I’ve begun to wonder whether it was just a fad.
Also, I can’t remember most of the rhymes we used to chant while playing Double Dutch. I can remember ones that were used in other games, but sometimes were imported to Double Dutch, like “Engine, engine number nine…” But as to rhymes used only in Double Dutch, I can only remember fragments, like:
Oooo, she thinks she’s fine
Walkin’ down that fine line.
My, she think she’s bad
Puttin’ on her maxi pad…
Does anyone else remember the rhymes they played the game with?
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/2 "1999-10-04T11:41:00Z")
I AM Dutch, but I’m wondering here just what the hell Double Dutch is.
WAIT !! I know. I think it’s that skipping-a-rope-but-then-with-two-ropes thingie… am I right ?
O well… the kids still do it here, although more in the country than in the cities.
Coldfire
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“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/3 "1999-10-04T13:32:00Z")
My Mama told me
If I was good
She’d buy me rubber dolly
With cheeks so red
She went to the Army
Got killed in the war
Now no more rubber dollies
Forevermore
::remembering back from 3rd grade, rural Georgia elementary playground, 1966::
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Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post
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### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [October 4, 1999, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/4 "1999-10-04T16:41:00Z")
My elementary school actually had a jump rope team, which I was on (fifth grade: 1991-92?). I don’t remember any of the jump rope songs, but I know all the clapping songs (Ms. Susie, etc.) which we sometimes used for double dutch. Come to think of it, none of the little girls that I babysit play jump rope anymore. Kinda sad.
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Cessandra
[My Homepage](http://www.shsu.edu/~stdmed17/Home.html) **Updated 9/30/99!**
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### Author:  [@SoxFan59](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoxFan59)
#### Post date: [October 5, 1999, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/5 "1999-10-05T20:20:00Z")
“Double Dutch” had nothing to do with jumping rope in my child hood, but was a made up language, like pig latin, except you inserted an “ub” before every vowel syllable, rather than the reversed “ay” in pig latin. I was quite chagrined when what I grew calling “double dutch” appeared on public television in the kid’s series “Zoom,” but referred to as “ubbi dubbi.”
Ub-eye gub-ess thu-bats thu-buh wubbay thu-buh buh-ball buh-bounce-ub-ez.
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SoxFan59
“Its fiction, but all the facts are true!”
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [October 5, 1999, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/6 "1999-10-05T20:29:00Z")
WTF ???
🙂 🙂
## Well, it’s nowhere NEAR single Dutch, if you ask me…
Coldfire
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“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [October 5, 1999, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/7 "1999-10-05T21:43:00Z")
I have heard of the word game called Double Dutch, but I’ve never known anyone who actually played it. The version I heard of, you didn’t just insert -ub, you replaced all consonants with double consonants, seperated by a schwa:
b = bub
c = cuc
d = dud
…ect.
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### Author:  [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)
#### Post date: [October 5, 1999, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/8 "1999-10-05T21:50:00Z")
Wasn’t there some pseudo funk song in the 80’s about “the double dutch bus” kind of along the same lines as White Horse?
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Just add water, it makes it’s own sauce!
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### Author:  [@SoxFan59](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoxFan59)
#### Post date: [October 7, 1999, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dutch/8949/9 "1999-10-07T14:15:00Z")
Mr. Angel:
Could you give a phonetic example of your version of the “Double Dutch” word game? I’m not sure I understand it.
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SoxFan59
“Its fiction, but all the facts are true!”