Word list
The words of the exam
The exam is in Dutch, also when you bring an interpreter. These are the words the examiner uses, explained in plain English, each with the Dutch word you will hear.
Concept translation: the Dutch text prevails.
Documents and weights
- registration certificate (kentekenbewijs)
- The document of a vehicle with its registration number and technical details, such as its masses. The examiner asks about it, for the car and for the trailer.
- maximum permitted mass (toegestane maximummassa (TMM))
- How heavy a vehicle may be at most, with its load in or on it. It is on the registration certificate (kentekenbewijs). With the maximum permitted mass of car and trailer together you work out whether you need a BE licence.
- mass in running order (massa rijklaar)
- What a vehicle weighs when it is ready to drive, without load. It is on the registration certificate (kentekenbewijs).
- payload (laadvermogen)
- How much load may go in or on it at most: the maximum permitted mass (toegestane maximummassa) minus the mass in running order (massa rijklaar).
- maximum towing weight (maximaal trekgewicht)
- How heavy the trailer a car pulls may be at most, given separately for a braked and an unbraked trailer. It is on the registration certificate of the car.
- combination (combinatie (samenstel))
- The car and the trailer together, as one whole.
The trailer and the coupling
- tow bar (trekhaak)
- The part at the back of the car that the trailer is fixed to, with the ball (kogel) on top.
- drawbar (dissel)
- The bar or triangle at the front of the trailer that runs to the car, with the coupling at its end.
- coupling (koppeling)
- The part at the front of the drawbar (dissel) that drops over the ball of the tow bar and locks there.
- nose weight (kogeldruk)
- The force with which the trailer’s drawbar (dissel) presses down on the ball of the tow bar (trekhaak). It depends on how you load; how much is allowed depends on the car and the tow bar.
- jockey wheel (neuswiel)
- The small wheel under the drawbar. With it the trailer stands on its own, you move it by hand and you lower the coupling onto the ball.
- overrun brake (oploopreminrichting)
- The brakes of a braked trailer that has no connection of its own to the brake pedal: when the car brakes, the trailer runs up against it and pushes the drawbar in, and that makes the trailer brake.
- breakaway cable (losbreekkabel)
- A cable between a braked trailer and the car. If the trailer comes loose from the car, the cable pulls on the trailer’s handbrake.
- plug and socket (stekker en contactdoos)
- The connection for the trailer’s lights: the plug on the trailer goes into the socket by the tow bar.
Driving with a trailer
- cutting in (inloop)
- In a bend the trailer follows a shorter line than the car: it cuts the corner on the inside. That is why you take a bend wider.
- swing-out (uitzwaai)
- When you start to steer, the back of a vehicle first moves briefly the other way, outwards.
- observation (kijkgedrag)
- How and when you look around you: mirrors, over your shoulder, ahead. The examiner watches it throughout the drive.
- joining and leaving the motorway (invoegen en uitvoegen)
- Driving onto the motorway from a slip road (invoegstrook), and leaving it by an exit lane (uitvoegstrook).
The exam
- practical exam (praktijkexamen)
- The exam in which you show that you can drive. For BE this is the whole exam: there is no theory exam.
- special manoeuvres (bijzondere verrichtingen)
- The exercises in the exam besides normal driving, such as reversing or turning round.
- half turn (halve draai)
- Turning round on the road with one wide curve to the other half of the road, without reversing.
- interim test (tussentijdse toets)
- A practice exam by CBR, as long as the exam and with the same parts. If you do the special manoeuvres (bijzondere verrichtingen) well there, you do not have to do them again in the exam.
- result form (uitslagformulier)
- The form you get after failing the exam, with what you still need to work on.