Dutch grammar
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This page will attempt to outline the grammar of Dutch.
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Word Order
Structurally, Dutch is an SOV language, meaning that the unmarked word order is subject - object - verb. Furthermore, Dutch main clauses show V2 (Verb Second) language, which means that the inflected verb is raised to the second position in the clause.
- Jan vertelde dat hij zijn moeder wilde gaan helpen
- John told that he his mother wanted go help
- John said that he wanted to go help his mother.
Inversion of the subject and verb is used in interrogative sentences:
- Jij ging naar de winkel
- You went to the store.
- Ging jij naar de winkel?
- Did you go to the store?
It also occurs when the first phrase in a sentence is not its subject.
Here are some rules about where to place the words in a Dutch sentence:
- Adjectives always come before the noun to which they belong.
- Rode appels - red apples
- In statements, the subject always comes first or third and the auxiliary verb comes second. If there is no auxiliary verb, the main verb comes second. If there is a separable prefix, the prefix goes on the end of the sentence, as does the main verb (with separable prefix on the beginning of the verb) if there is an auxiliary verb.
- In yes/no questions, the verb usually comes first and the subject comes second. If there is an auxiliary verb or separable prefix, it follows the same rules as the previous one outlined for putting parts on the end. If the subject comes before the verb, this often implies disbelief, like in English: "The prisoner escaped?" vs. "Did the prisoner escape?".
- In a command, the verb comes first, followed by 'we' if taking to a group with the speaker included, followed by the modifiers and the rest of the sentence.
- The time aspect usually comes before the place aspect.
Nouns
In Dutch, nouns generally describe persons, places, things, and abstract ideas, and are treated as grammatically distinct from verbs.
In Dutch there originally were three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter: masculine and feminine nouns are often also called de-words, and neuter nouns are often called het-words, as a result of the definite article these nouns are accompanied with. For all practical purposes, at least in the Netherlands, the masculine and feminine gender have merged into one common gender. Few native speakers in the Netherlands are aware which nouns are masculine and which are feminine, and even in the newer editions of the Van Dale dictionary a large number of nouns are only classified as a de-word, without any statement whether the noun is masculine or feminine. In Belgium, however, awareness of the distinction between feminine and masculine nouns is much stronger, and still plays a (slight) grammatical role. Nouns are also marked for number, size and definiteness.
For the vast majority of all nouns, the plural is formed by addition of -en. Several other rule-based changes in the word may take place at the same time: if a double vowel occurs in the final syllable of a word, it will become a single vowel as a result of the closed syllable becoming open (boom -> bomen); final consonants are often duplicated to preserve the short vowel sound (bed -> bedden), and final -s and -f sounds are generally changed into -z- and -v- (huis -> huizen, hoef -> hoeven). For a minority of nouns, the plural is formed by addition of -s or -'s, and for a number of nouns of Latin origins, the Latin plural may be used (museum -> musea, catalogus -> catalogi).
For proper nouns (names), possessive forms can be formed by addition of -s, or if the name ends on a vowel other than a mute e (schwa), by addition of -'s.
Genitive noun forms are essentially archaic and not part of common usage anymore. The only common exceptions of this are certain fixed expressions (e.g. "De dag des oordeels", "Judgement day"), and sometimes plural genitives in combination with the genitive form of the definite article, "der". In common usage of language, genitive forms are formed by usage of the word "van", in essentially the same way as "of" is used in English.
Articles
Definite article
When you want to refer to one particular person or item, you use the definite article de for masculine and feminine words and het for neuter words. An alternative, more informal form for "het" is 't.
- de man - the man
- de vrouw - the woman
- het huis - the house
In plural forms the article de is used for all genders.
- de mannen - the men
- de vrouwen - the women
- de huizen - the houses
The forms of the genitive definite article are der for feminine and plural nouns, and des for masculine and neuter nouns. Nowadays the genitive forms are rarely used.
Indefinite article
The indefinite article is een for all genders, which has a less formal alternative form, 'n. In plural, like in English, there is no indefinite article and the indefinite forms consist of nouns unaccompanied by any article.
- een huis - a house
- huizen - houses
The genitive forms of the indefinite article, now considered archaic, are eens for masculine and neuter nouns, and ener for feminine nouns. The phrase van een ("of a(n)") is used instead.
Adjectives
Verbs
Verbs in Dutch can be classified as weak, strong, and irregular.
Weak Verbs
Weak verbs form their past tenses by addition of a dental, -d- or -t-. The rule Dutch children are taught is 'T kofschip is met tee beladen, ("the merchant ship is loaded with tea"), that is, if the verb stem ends with the consonants of 'T kofschip (-t, -k, -f, -s, -ch or -p), the past tense dental is a -t-; otherwise it is a -d-. Linguists put it more simply: an unvoiced consonant at the end of the stem takes an unvoiced dental suffix; a voiced consonant takes a voiced dental:
- werken, ik werkte (to work) - cf. English worked (pronounced /kt/)
- leren, ik leerde (to learn/teach) - cf. English learned (pronounced /nd/)
A number of weak verbs such as denken show the irregularity associated with Rückumlaut: see the article on umlaut:
- denken, ik dacht (to think)
Strong Verbs
Strong verbs form their past tenses by ablaut. For strong verbs one needs to learn three principal parts: the infinitive, the preterite, and the past participle. Example:
- binden, bond, gebonden (to tie)
Strong verbs of the classes 4 and 5 also distinguish between a short a in the preterite singualr and a long ā in the preterite plural. This is a remnant of the old preterite singular grade of ablaut. For a fuller explanation of strong verbs, see the article West Germanic strong verb.
Irregular Verbs
The irregular verbs are zijn, hebben, and the four modals kunnen, mogen, willen, and zullen.
zijn (to be)
- Past participle: zijn geweest
- Present: ben, bent, is, zijn
- Past: was, waren
hebben (to have)
- Past participle: hebben gehad
- Present: heb, hebt, heeft, hebben
- Past: had, hadden
zullen (will, would)
- Past participle: -
- Present:zal, zult, zal, zullen
- Past:zou, zouden
kunnen (to be able)
- Past participle: hebben gekund
- Present:kan, kunt, kan, kunnen
- Past:kon, konden
mogen (to be allowed)
- Past participle: hebben gemogen
- Present:mag, mag, mag, mogen
- Past:mocht, mochten
willen (to want)
- Past participle: hebben gewild
- Present:wil, wilt, wil, willen
- Past:wou (wilde), wilden
Pronouns
Personal and Possessive pronouns
Just like with nouns and adjectives, most aspects of the old Germanic noun case system have been lost in the personal pronouns in modern Dutch. Just like in English, the main remaining distinction is that between subject and object, and the old dative and accusative forms have merged into one object form. The only exception to this is the third person plural, which retains separate forms for direct objects and indirect objects.
On the other hand, Dutch preserves relics of the old Germanic noun case system in its pronouns. A full list of pronoun forms is listed below.
| Personal and possessive pronouns | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Subject | Object | Possessive Pronoun | |
| 1 sing | ik | mij, me | mijn | |
| 2 sing | jij, je | jou, je | jouw, je | |
| 3 sing (masc) | hij | hem | zijn | |
| 3 sing (fem) | zij, ze | haar | haar | |
| 3 sing (neut) | het | het | zijn | |
| 1 plur | wij, we | ons | ons/onze | |
| 2 plur | jullie | jullie | jullie | |
| 3 plur | zij | hen, ze | hun | |
Several of these forms also have alternatives that are used in informal language: mijn has the informal form m'n, hij has the informal form 'ie, hem has the informal form 'm, zijn has the informal form z'n, haar has the informal form d'r and het has the informal form 't.
In spoken language, the word hun is regularly used as the form for direct object, and sometimes even as subject form (e.g. "Hun zijn weggegaan." for "They have gone away.") Especially the latter is quite strongly disapproved of. The grammatical difference between hun and hen is artificial and has been created by Renaissance grammarians with a Latin bias.
The form onze is the inflected form of the possessive pronoun ons, which is inflected in the same way as the adjectives.
Demonstrative pronouns
Like in English, Dutch has two kinds of demonstrative pronouns: one kind (dit, deze) corresponds to the English this or these, and is used for nearby objects; the other kind (die, dat) corresponds to the English that or those and is used for objects at a further distance. The exact forms to use can be derived from the following scheme.
| Demonstrative pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| masc/fem | deze/die | deze/die |
| neutral | dit/dat | deze/die |
When the demonstrative pronoun is used as a part of speech of its own, the forms dit and dat are always used. E.g.: "Dit is een mooie auto" ("This is a beautiful car") vs. "Deze auto is mooi" ("This car is beautiful").
External links
- Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst (http://oase.uci.kun.nl/~ans/), a comprehensive grammar of Dutch which is viewable online (in Dutch).
- Dutch Grammar (http://www.dutchgrammar.com) - a series of lessons and resourses for those learning Dutch.
- Dutch Grammar & Vocabulary (http://www.ielanguages.com/dutch.html)nl:Nederlandse grammatica