Gender in Dutch grammar

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In the Dutch language, nouns come in three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. The gender of a word determines the articles used with it and the pronouns referring to it. Sometimes masculine and feminine nouns are collectively called de-words, whereas neuter nouns are called het-words, in accordance with the definite article used with them. Traditionally, pronouns used for masculine nouns are hij/hem/zijn, feminine zij/haar, neuter het/zijn. In some parts of the Netherlands, awareness of the distinction between masculine and feminine nouns is disappearing, and using the masculine pronouns for feminine nouns has become quite common in speech and accepted in informal writing. In Belgium the distinction is usually, but not always, maintained. For a large number of words no clear division is determined, and dictionaries just indicate them as de-words. In case of persons and animals of known sex the pronouns used are generally determined by the biological sex rather than by the grammatical gender of the word.

Although for most words gender can only be found by looking it up in a dictionary, the following rules can be used to determine the gender of many words:

• Masculine nouns: De (There is a small number of words that form exceptions to the rules stated below, like baker (midwife)).
  • Words ending with:
    • -aar > leugenaar (liar)
    • -aard > dronkaard (drunken person)
    • -er > bakker (baker)
    • -erd > engerd (creep)
  • Indepently used verb stems:
    • for example: bloei (blossom), dank (thanks), groei (growth), schrik (fear) and slaap (sleep).
  • Obviously male words:
    • For example oom (uncle), dief (male thief) and hengst (stallion). Exception, use neutral when diminutive is used jongetje (little boy).
• Feminine nouns: De (There is a small number of words that form exceptions to the rules stated below, like: dienst (favour)).
  • Words ending with:
    • -heid > waarheid (truth)
    • -nis > kennis (knowledge)
    • -schap > boodschap (message)
    • -de > liefde (love)
    • -te > diepte (depth)
    • -ij > voogdij (custody)
    • -ing > wandeling (hike)
    • -st > winst (profit)
    • -ster > verpleegster (nurse)
    • -in > godin (goddess)
  • Words with non-native endings or elements: (There is a small number of words that form exceptions to the rules stated below, like kanarie (canary)
    • -ie > filosofie (philosophy)
    • -iek > muziek (music)
    • -ica > logica (logic)
    • -theek > bibliotheek (library)
    • -teit > puberteit (puberty)
    • -tuur > natuur (nature)
    • -suur > censuur (censorship)
    • -ade > tirade (tirade)
    • -ide > asteroïde (asteroid)
    • -ode > periode (period)
    • -ude > amplitude (amplitude)
    • -age > tuigage (rigging)
    • -ine > discipline (discipline)
    • -se > analyse (analysis)
    • -sis > crisis (crisis)
    • -xis > syntaxis (syntax)
    • -tis > bronchitis (bronchitis)
  • Obviously female words:
    • for example tante (aunt), dievegge (female thief) and merrie (mare). Exception, use neutral when diminutive is used meisje (girl).
• Neutral nouns: Het
  • Diminutive nouns (recognizable by je, kje, pje, tje or etje after the stem). Note this holds even when the noun is obviously male or female (e.g. meisje (girl)):
    • for example: bloempje (little flower), lammetje (little lamb)
  • Verb stems with the following prefixes
    • be- > beraad (consideration)
    • ge- > gedoe (fuss)
    • ont- > ontslag (discharge)
  • Names of towns and countries.
    • for example: Brussel (Brussels) and Nederland (the Netherlands)
  • Words ending with -isme.
    • for example: Socialisme (socialism) and vandalisme (vandalism)

[edit] See also

• Grammatical gender
• Dutch language
• Dutch grammar

[edit] External links

• Chapter 2 of van Berkum, J.J.A. (1996) The psycholinguistics of grammatical gender: Studies in language comprehension and production, "The linguistics of gender" (PDF)