Nolst Trenité is best known in the English-speaking world for his poem The Chaos, which demonstrates many of the idiosyncrasies of English spelling and first appeared as an appendix to his 1920 textbook Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen.

After grammar school, he studied classical literature, law and political science at the University of Utrecht from 1890 to 1894, but did not complete any of these courses.

Adventurous, he embarked on a self-promised trip around the world in 1894, which ended prematurely in San Francisco, where he became a home tutor for the children of the Dutch consul.

Two years later he was back in the Netherlands and resumed his studies in political science, at the same time preparing for the qualification to teach English at secondary level; he obtained the relevant certificate in 1898.

His poem The Chaos, included in later editions of the latter book, intended as a practice material for English words Dutch speakers found difficult to pronounce, also became popular outside the Netherlands.

[clarification needed][4] The Charivarius section was continued by Nolst Trenité until De Groene was banned by the occupying forces in 1940.

For example, a succession of short sentences was called panting style, and he coined the names "Fnaffers" and "Fnuiters" for people who redundantly used the Dutch words "vanaf" and "vanuit" ("from off" and "from out") instead of the more simple "van" ("from").

[7] Charivarius then writes: ("Tante Betje – waartoe zouden wij den naam van onze oude vriendin verzwijgen?