English Help Online's Blog

I have a very short and simple entry for you today. It’s the idiom, to “go Dutch”. It is used when we are at a restaurant or bar with someone and want to talk about each person paying for their own food and drinks. For example:

When I go out with my friends, we usually go Dutch.

A: Shall we go Dutch tonight?

B: No, not this time. Tonight it’s on me.

I can’t let you pay for the whole bill, so let’s go Dutch.

I like the idea of going Dutch because it’s a very fair system.

In the second example, I used “it’s on me”. When someone says this, it means that they will pay for the entire bill.

Apparently, this expression come from the custom in the Netherlands where people usually pay separately even when dating.