Tickets kopen voor een film in de bioscoop

Why do the Dutch say “tickets” instead of “kaartjes”?

Dutch already has a perfectly good word for a ticket — kaartje — but at the cinema, both moviegoers and the cinemas themselves usually reach for the English word instead: “Ik wil graag twee tickets.” The Netherlands' two biggest chains, Pathé and Kinepolis, use “tickets” as their default term on their own websites and apps, while “kaartje” survives mostly in casual, everyday speech.

It’s part of a bigger pattern: this same booking dialogue also offers “VIP-stoelen” rather than a Dutch equivalent for premium seating. Dutch is one of the more English-receptive languages in Europe, borrowing freely in commerce, entertainment, and tech even where a perfectly good native word already exists — while formal writing and government communication tend to stick with Dutch.