This page contains links and information aboutinflection in theDutch language.
Dutch nouns are either masculine, feminine or neuter gender. Masculine and feminine are not distinguished for inanimate nouns by many speakers, and are then grouped together as a single common gender. Masculine and feminine use the definite articlede, and neuter words use the definite articlehet. The indefinite article iseen for all genders.
The gender of a noun is generally unpredictable from its spelling and has to be learned by heart, although there are some rules:
In general, the plural is formed by appending-en or-s to the noun. The ending-s is used for nouns ending in certain suffixes and for many loanwords.
When adding-en, vowel length is preserved by doubling the consonant for short vowels, and removing one vowel for long vowels. Furthermore, the unvoiced fricativess andf generally become voicedz andv, respectively.
Certain loanwords (mainly from Greek) ending inf do not become voiced:
When the noun ends inns,rs, orls, the voicing is unpredictable:
Some nouns with short vowels get a long vowel in the plural when-en is added, turning e.g. [ɑ] into [a] or [ɔ] into [o]. For some nouns, the vowel becomes e.
A dozen or so words take the compound ending-eren (historically a double plural):
The original single plural is still used in compounds:
Nouns ending in-ee or-ie usediaeresis to indicate that the suffixed-en is a separate syllable. When the stress is on the penultimate syllable, only a singlen is used:
The wordskoe andvlo introduce a gliding vowel to make pronunciation easier:
Nouns ending in a long single vowel get-'s appended, to preserve the vowel length:
Many nouns ending in unstressed-e may take either-s or-n as their plural:
Many Latin or Greek loans retain their original plurals, although the constructions described above may also be used:
Most Dutch nouns can also havediminutives. The diminutive is formed by adding the suffix-tje (or one of its varieties-etje,-je,-pje,-kje depending in the preceding sound). In many dialects the suffix-ke or-ken is also used. Diminutive nouns are always neuter and the plural of a diminutive is always formed with-s.
For words ending ining, if the emphasis is on the penultimate syllable,-kje is used:
For nouns ending in a long single vowel, the vowel is doubled to preserve vowel length:
Dutch adjectives generally possess three forms:
The above holds for thepositive degree, but the rules describing the use of the three forms also apply for thecomparative andsuperlative degree that are regularly formed with the suffixes -er and -st.
Periphrase of comparative and superlative usingmeer ("more") andmeest ("most") is possible, but only used in some cases, especially when the resulting word would be long or difficult to pronounce. As an example, adjectives with the common ending "-isch" use the periphrase with "meest" for the superlative ("democratisch" - "democratischer"/ "meer democratisch" - "meest democratisch"). The same goes for adjectives with a base form already ending in "-st" ("vast" - "vaster" - "meest vast").Using the "meer"/"meest" periphrase with shorter words (not ending in "-st") is not correct standard Dutch, although it seems to be on the increase, likely under the influence of English. Instead of "mooiste" ("most beautiful"), the (incorrect) periphrase "meest mooie" is now sometimes heard.
The suffix "-e" appears in every attributive form, except in singular indefiniteneuter.
| masculine & feminine & plural | neuter | |
| indefinite | eengrotekast | eengroothuis |
| definite | degrotekast degrotekasten degrotehuizen | hetgrotehuis |
The inflection "-e" does not appear when the adjective is used predicatively (i.e. in combination with acopula):
Dutch does use the inflected form when the adjective is substantivated to a noun:
If such a substantive refers to persons it takes -en in the plural:
The above rules aregeneral. The "-e" suffix is sometimes dropped
Adjectives denoting materials often end in -en (wollen,ivoren) and are immutable.
After words indicating a quantity likeveel,iets,weinig etc. an adjective can also take the partitive (genitive) suffix "-s":
This also holds for the comparative:
Adverbs are not inflected separately in Dutch. They often have comparative and superlative forms, formed with the same -er and -st endings as the adjectives.
Adverbs can be formed from adjectives using the base form of the adjective, no additional suffix (such as English-ly) is used. This means that any adjective is implicitly an adverb as well. Adverbs never get the inflection suffix "-e" like adjectives do, however.
Many Dutch adverbs descend from old absolute genitives and therefore tend to end in -s:
A special group uses the diminutive -je in combination with -s to form an adverb from an adjective:
The ending -en is sometimes added in combinations of prepositions and prepositional adverbs:
Many, but not all, prepositions likein,op,buiten etc. form a prepositional adverb that may be combined with verbs, creating a separable verb. Most prepositional adverbs areidentical with the preposition. Exceptions:
Some prepositional adverbs do not have a corresponding preposition likeheen oraf. This also holds for some of the compound ones likeachterom. In prepositional usage the compound dissolves into its components "achter" and "om".
Most prepositional adverbs can also be used to formpronominal adverbs likehierheen orerbuiten. These often replace pronouns in combination with a preposition and they are usually separable as well.
This participle is not used as much as in English because it is seldom used to form a continuous tense. Instead Dutch uses
However, the participle is in regular use as an attributive adjective:
And also as an adverb:
The present participle is formedinfinitive +d, e.g.lezend (reading).The inflected form isinfinitive +de, e.g.lezende.When using the present participle as adjective, use the inflection rules as explained at#Adjectives. One notable exception unique to the present participle is, that when used in a predicative or adverbial sense, the inflected form (-e) may also be used. This is similar to e.g. Swedish usage and has the same origin.
This participle is used to form perfect tenses and passive voice, much like the English one. It can also be used as an adjective.
If the participle is from a weak verb it ends in -t or -d and is inflected as an adjective. However if it belongs to a strong or mixed verb it ends in -en, and remains uninflected in attributive use (like all adjectives ending in -en). This does not apply for a few monosyllabic verbs likedoen andgaan, whose past participle forms do not end in -en.
When used as a substantive, inflection does occur, however:
The formation of the past participle and the past tense differs depending on what class the verb belongs to.
Morphologically speaking, there are:
In addition Dutch has separable verbs, e.g.toestaan (toe- +staan) becomeshijstaat toe in the third-person singular.Insubclauses, these verbs are not separated:ik wil dat hij dittoestaat.
Note that there also exist verbs with prefixes which arenot separable. You can mostly distinguish them by looking to the place of the stress: if the stress falls on the prefix, it is normally separable, and vice versa. E.g.there's a verbóverzien (ik zie óver, in subclause: dat ik óverzie) and a verboverzíén (ik overzíé). The meaning of these homographs-by-emphasis can differ considerably.
Most of the classes above contain both base verbs and separable and inseparable derivatives, e.g.:
These three all belong to the same Class 1 of the strong verbs, but sometimes the class differs:
As in English many verbs are transitive. The active perfect takeshebben as an auxiliary.
They form a passive voice using the past participle. Its auxiliaries areworden for the imperfect tenses andzijn for the perfect ones.
Notice that the use ofzijn andto be doesnot correspond.
Dutch does have ditransitives, i.e. verbs that take both a direct and an indirect object.
Although this is a pretty recent development and not recognized in all grammars. it is possible to make both objects the subject of a new sentence. In contrast to English, Dutch uses two different auxiliaries for this purpose:worden for the passive voice andkrijgen for an 'indirect passive' one:
There are really two kinds of these in Dutch that differ in their choice of perfect auxiliary.
These verbs express an autonomous process or a movement. They do not have any passive forms and no clearagent. In the perfect tenses they takezijn.
The auxiliariesdoen andlaten are used to make causitives (transitives) out of ergatives:
The auxiliaryraken can be used to make an ergative construction from transitive participles or other adjectives.
These verbs have a clear agent but no direct object. They do have an impersonal passive voice, usually initiated by the dummy pronoun (locative adverb)er. Their perfect tenses takehebben:
Reflexive verbs in Dutch takehebben as their perfect auxiliary. There are two kinds:
Mandatory reflexives can only be accompanied by the reflexive pronounsme,je,zich etc.
Mandatory reflexives either do not occur withoutzich etc. or the verb has a very different meaning without them:
Optional reflexives can also takezich etc. but more usually take pronouns with the suffix -zelf:mezelf,zichzelf etc.
The four possibilities differ in amount of emphasis:
Impersonal verbs only occur with the indefinite pronounhet. They takehebben as their perfect auxiliary and lack passive voice. In modern Dutch they are mostly limited to meteorological phenomena:
Impersonals were numerous in Middle Dutch, a few remain:
Verbs likemogen,kunnen,willen,moeten are irregular in Dutch as they partly descend from preterit-presents. They takehebben if at all they occur in the perfect and then often replace their past participle by the infinitive:
The main copula iszijn or its alter egowezen, but there are a few others likeblijken,lijken,worden,voorkomen,dunken etc. They are often strong verbs and some of them takezijn as their perfect auxiliary.
These verbs are used in the formation of the tenses, voices and aspects of other verbs.
Links
| Personal pronouns | ||||||
| Subject | Object | |||||
| Full forms | Mute forms | Emphatic forms | Full forms | Mute forms | Emphatic forms | |
| First-person singular | ik | ’k | ikke,ikzelf | mij | me | mijzelf |
| Second-person singular | jij | je | jijzelf | jou | je | jouzelf |
| Second-person singulardialectal | gij | ge | gijzelf | u | - | uzelf |
| Second-person singularpolite | u | - | uzelf | u | - | uzelf |
| Third-person singular masculine | hij | ie | hijzelf | hem | ’m | hemzelf |
| Third-person singular feminine | zij | ze | zijzelf | haar | ze,’r,d'rh'r | haarzelf |
| Third-person singular neuter | het | ’t | - | het | ’t | - |
| First-person plural | wij | we | wijzelf | ons | - | onszelf |
| Second-person plural | jullie | je | (jullie zelf) | jullie | je | (jullie zelf) |
| Second-person pluraldialectal | gij | ge | gijzelf | u | - | uzelf |
| Second-person pluralpolite | u | - | uzelf | u | - | uzelf |
| Third-person plural | zij | ze | zijzelf | hen (accusative) hun (dative) | ze | henzelf |
| Reflexive pronouns | ||
| Full pronouns | Emphatic pronouns | |
| First-person singular | me | mezelf |
| Second-person singular | je | jezelf |
| Second-person singulardialectal | u | uzelf |
| Second-person singularpolite | u,zich | uzelf,zichzelf |
| Third-person singular masculine | zich | zichzelf |
| Third-person singular feminine | zich | zichzelf |
| Third-person singular neuter | zich | zichzelf |
| First-person plural | ons | onszelf |
| Second-person plural | je | jezelf |
| Second-person pluraldialectal | u | uzelf |
| Second-person pluralpolite | u,zich | uzelf,zichzelf |
| Third-person plural | zich | zichzelf |
| Possessive pronouns | |||
| Full forms | Mute forms | Independent | |
| First-person singular | mijn | m'n | mijne |
| Second-person singular | jouw | je | jouwe |
| Second-person singulardialectal & polite | uw | - | uwe |
| Third-person singular masculine & neuter | zijn | z'n | zijne |
| Third-person singular feminine | haar | 'r,d'r | hare |
| First-person plural | ons (onze) | - | onze |
| Second-person plural | jullie | je | - |
| Second-person pluraldialectal & polite | uw | - | uwe |
| Third-person plural | hun | - | hunne |