Dutch grammar
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Dutch grammar
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This page will attempt to outline the grammar of Dutch.
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[edit] Word order
Structurally, Dutch is a V2 language, which means that the inflected verb is raised to the second position in the main clause. Word order is SVO in main clauses and SOV in subordinate clauses. Research has led to the general assumption that Dutch has an underlying SOV word order [1] [2] [3].
- 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?
- *went you to the store = "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.
- Time modifiers usually come before place modifiers:
-
- Ik ben dit jaar in Frankrijk geweest.
- *I am this year in France been = "I went to France this year."
[edit] Nouns
In Dutch, nouns generally describe persons, places, things, and abstract ideas, and are treated as grammatically distinct from verbs. Nouns are marked for number and size.
In standard Dutch (formerly known as Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands) there are three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter. However in some parts of the Netherlands there is no grammatical distinction between what were originally masculine and feminine genders, these nowadays being adjectivally inflected in the same manner. In certain Flemish dialectal forms of standard Dutch however, the distinction between masculine and feminine noun genders survives with the use of pronouns. The gender of a word determines the articles used with it and the pronouns referring to it. Masculine and feminine nouns are usually collectively called de-words, and 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 the Netherlands, awareness of the distinction between masculine and feminine nouns disappeared in the 1600s, and using the masculine pronouns for feminine nouns has become the standard in speech and writing. A few very commonly used nouns, such as "earth" and "sun" still take feminine gender in writing, but rather than this being a grammatical function, it is usually analyzed as a poetic function, in a similar way that English refers to "ship" with the pronoun "she". This notion of commonality between masculine and feminine nouns in Dutch is supported by the fact that the gender of Dutch nouns can usually only be found by looking them up in a dictionary, although there are some rules to help determining the gender of many words. However, for a growing number of words no clear division is determined, and dictionaries just indicate them as de-words.
For the 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 (boot-> boten), the sound itself is still the same: because the syllable becomes open, it is no longer necessary to write the vowel double; final consonants are often duplicated to preserve the short vowel sound (schil -> schillen), and final -s and -f sounds are generally changed into -z- and -v- (huis -> huizen, hoef -> hoeven). For a significant minority of nouns, the plural is formed by addition of -s (or -'s, if the noun ends in a long vowel), and for a number of nouns of Latin origin, the Latin plural may be used (museum -> musea, politicus -> politici). Words ending in -heid get a plural in -heden. Some nouns, such as stad -> steden and schip -> schepen, have irregular plurals.
For proper nouns (names), possessive forms can be formed by addition of -s, or if the pronunciation is affected, 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 that "of" is used in English.
Archaic genitive forms may still appear in writing, where they are usually employed to make an article sound more "bookish" or academic. However, many writers are totally unaware of the historical distinction between masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive case (where the article is "des", the noun declines by taking an "-s" ending, and adjectives inflect by taking "-en" endings); and between feminine and plural nouns (where the article is der, nouns take zero endings and adjectives inflect by taking "-e" endings). Because of this, grammatically incorrect constructions can appear and using the genitive for this purpose is discouraged and generally seen as somewhat pompous.
For example, one might see a title such as:
- De Geschiedenis Der Nederlandse Film
- (The History GEN FEM-Dutch GEN FEM-Film)
- The History of Dutch Film
where "Film" is declined as a feminine gender noun, and "Nederlandse" inflected likewise.
Written correctly, it should read:
- De Geschiedenis Des Nederlandsen Films
- (The History GEN MAS-Dutch GEN MAS-Film)
- The History of Dutch Film
as "film" in Dutch is historically a masculine noun. Notwithstanding however, this formal use of the Genitive case, associated with bookishness and higher learning, probably persists as one tends to encounter it in institutions of higher learning. For example, all the faculties of the University of Leiden have names which are declined in the Genitive case. [4]
[edit] Articles
[edit] Definite article
When referring to one particular person or item, the definite article is used, being de for masculine and feminine words and het for neuter words. A shortened, informal form for het is 't. In current usage, definite articles are unchangeable except in a few frozen combinations.
- 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)
[edit] Indefinite article
The indefinite article is een for all genders, which has a shortened informal 'n. In plural, like in English, there is no indefinite article and the indefinite forms consist of nouns unaccompanied by any article. Except in a few frozen combinations the indefinite article is unchangeable for case.
- een huis (a house)
- huizen (houses)
[edit] Adjectives
1. Adjectives are placed in front of the noun and after the article (if present).
2. Except for neuter nouns with an indefinite article, adjectives are supplemented with an "e". If necessary, a vowel is erased or a consonant doubled to maintain correct pronunciation. Examples:
- de rode appel (the red apple)
- een rode appel (a red apple)
- rode appels (red apples)
- het rode huis (the red house)
- een rood huis (a red house)
- rode huizen (red houses)
3. If, however, the adjective describes an inherent property of the (singular) noun, rather than a specification of it, the ending -e is dropped. The noun may be preceded by a definite article or no article. Examples:
- openbaar vervoer (public transport (in general))
- het openbaar vervoer (the public transport (in general))
- lijdend voorwerp (object (of a sentence)) (Literally: suffering object)
- het lijdend voorwerp (the object (of a sentence))
but:
- het openbare vervoer van Amsterdam (public transport of Amsterdam (a specific one/in a specific place))
4. Sometimes, adjectives between an indefinite article and a noun describing a person are not supplemented with an "e". In such cases, the adjective describes an admirable quality of that person. Examples:
- een groot man (a great man), but: een grote man (a big/tall man)
- een talentvol schrijver (a talented writer)
5. Just as English does sometimes, if the adjective describes a material an object is made from, -en is used. Examples:
- een houten stoel (a wooden chair)
- het stenen huis (the brick house)
- metalen lampen (metal lamps)
[edit] Verbs
Verbs in Dutch can be classified as weak, strong, and irregular.
[edit] Weak verbs
Weak verbs form their past tenses by addition of a dental, -d- or -t-. The rule Dutch children are taught is the " 't kofschip (the merchant ship) rule", 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, gewerkt (to work) - cf. English worked (pronounced /kt/)
- leren, ik leerde, geleerd (to learn/teach) - cf. English learned (pronounced /nd/)
The perfect participle (cf. worked in 'I have worked') is formed by adding 'ge-' in front of the past tense form and removing the end '-e'. If it's used adjectivally, an end '-e' is used like that of adjectives:
- ik heb gefietst (I have biked)
- de gefietste route (The biked route)
[edit] Mixed Verbs
Verbs are called mixed verbs if some tenses are weak and others are strong.
- lachen, ik lachte, ik heb gelachen
- zouten, ik zoutte, ik heb gezouten
- kunnen, ik kon, ik heb gekund
A number of weak verbs such as denken show the irregularity associated with Rückumlaut: see the article on umlaut:
- denken, ik dacht (to think)
Usually these words are considered 'strong', since one cannot deduce its preterite (past tense) form regularly. Often they are called mixed verbs because their past participle ends on t instead of en. The perfect participle of the words can be deduced regularly from its preterite form:
- denken, ik dacht, gedacht
[edit] 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. Typical of strong verbs is the vowel change. Examples:
- binden, bond, gebonden (to tie)
- lopen, liep, gelopen (to walk)
- doen, deed, gedaan (to do)
The system of strong verbs is similar to that of the irregulars in English. In both languages you need to learn three forms and the most common irregular verbs in English are strong in Dutch, but not all irregular verbs in English are strong in Dutch and vice-versa.
Strong verbs of the classes 4 and 5 also distinguish between a short a in the preterite singular 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 Germanic strong verb.
[edit] Irregular verbs
Some of the most used verbs in the Dutch language have irregular declensions. Examples are zijn, hebben, and the four modals kunnen, mogen, willen, and zullen. In pairs for the singular second person such as zal/zult, the second carries a somewhat more formal connotation. In formal registers, u (the formal pronoun for the second person) can be combined with both forms depending on the region. The second form of the pair hebt/heeft cannot be combined with je/jij (the informal pronoun). The verb "zijn" has two special forms that go exclusively with the personal pronoun "gij": in the present tense, "gij zijt" (you are), and in the past tense, "gij waart" (you were). The same goes for the verb "mogen", though only in the present tense: "gij moogt" (you are allowed). The verbs "hebben", "zullen", "kunnen" en "willen" have special forms for "gij" in the past tense: "gij hadt", "gij zoudt", "gij kondt" and "gij woudt" ("gij wilde(t)").
| infinitive (meaning) |
present | past | perfect | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | participle | |
| zijn (to be) | ben, bent, is | zijn | was | waren | geweest |
| hebben (to have) | heb, hebt/heeft, heeft | hebben | had | hadden | gehad |
| zullen (will, shall) | zal, zal/zult, zal | zullen | zou | zouden | - |
| kunnen (can, to be able) | kan, kan/kunt, kan | kunnen | kon | konden | gekund |
| mogen (to be allowed) | mag, mag, mag | mogen | mocht | mochten | gemogen |
| willen (to want) | wil, wil(t), wil | willen | wou (wilde) | wouden (wilden) | gewild |
[edit] Pronouns
[edit] 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. As in English, the main remaining distinction is that between subject and object, while 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, though even native speakers often fail to make the distinction (see below).
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, with unstressed "weak" (or clitic) forms given in parentheses.
| personal and possessive pronouns | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| person | subject | object | possessive pronoun | |
| 1 singular | ik ('k) | mij (me) | mijn (m'n) | |
| 2 singular | jij (je), gij (ge), u | jou (je), u | jouw (je), uw | |
| 3 sing (masc) (fem) (neut) |
hij (ie) zij (ze) het ('t) |
hem ('m) haar ('r) het ('t) |
zijn (z'n) haar (d'r) zijn (z'n) |
|
| 1 plural | wij (we) | ons | ons/onze | |
| 2 plural | jullie, gij (ge), u | jullie, u | jullie, uw | |
| 3 plural | zij (ze) | hen, ze (direct obj.) hun, ze (indirect obj.) |
hun | |
In spoken language, the word hun is regularly used as the form for direct object, sometimes even as subject form (e.g. Hun zijn weggegaan. for "They have gone away."). Especially the latter is quite strongly disapproved of (and considered wrong). The opposite also happens: the word hen is often used as indirect object, as well. The grammatical difference between hun and hen is artificial and was created by Renaissance grammarians with a Latin bias. The shortened form "d'r" for "haar" is almost exclusively used in the Netherlands.
The 2nd person pronouns have different degrees of politeness, depending on dialect:
- in the Netherlands: jij (je) and jullie is informal and u is polite, while gij (ge), is only used in very formal or poetic contexts (for instance when addressing God in prayers).
- in Belgium: jij (je) is also informal but in spoken language, the older gij (ge) is used as well, just like in the South of the Netherlands, and u is polite. Note that "gij" has "u" and "uw" as respectively object and possessive forms.
The form onze is the inflected form of the possessive pronoun ons, which is inflected in the same way as the adjectives.
[edit] Demonstrative pronouns
Like 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").
The singular demonstrative pronouns can take plural verbs in certain contexts:
- Dat zijn nieuwe huizen (Those are new houses)
- Dit zijn mijn boeken (These are my books)
[edit] Pronominal adverbs
Pronouns in Dutch work differently depending on whether or not they appear with a preposition. When they are used as the subject or object of a verb (without a preposition), they are chosen according to the grammatical gender of the noun they replace—i.e. hij/hem/'m for masculine (or common gender) nouns, zij/haar/d'r for feminine nouns, and het/'t for neuter nouns (the reduced forms are preferred when referring to inanimate objects):
- Zie je [de stoel]/[de deur]/[het broodje]? ("Do you see the chair/the door/the sandwich?")
- Ik zie 'm/(d'r)/'t. (lit. "I see him/her/it.")
In combination with a preposition, however, pronouns are chosen according to natural gender: hem for males, haar for females, and neuter forms for inanimate entities. An additional complication, however, is that the ordinary series of neuter pronouns (het, dat, wat, etc.) cannot normally appear after a preposition, and they are instead replaced by the corresponding "r-pronoun":
| regular pronoun | het | dit | dat | wat | iets | niets | alles |
| r-pronoun | er | hier | daar | waar | ergens | nergens | overal |
| pronoun meaning | it | this | that | what | something | nothing | everything |
| adverb meaning | there | here | there | where | somewhere | nowhere | everywhere |
As indicated in the table, the r-pronouns (so-called because they all contain the letter r) are used in other contexts as locative adverbs. When used with a preposition, these r-pronouns usually do not appear after the preposition, but before it. Thus for example:
- Ik reken [op je steun]. ("I count on your support.")
- Ik reken [op hem] (can only mean "I count on him (a person).")
- *Ik reken [op het]. *Ik reken [op er]. (both incorrect)
- Ik reken erop/daarop/hierop (correct, "I count on it/on that/on this.")
The r-pronoun and the preposition should be written as one word (except with ergens, nergens, and overal), and the resulting form is called a "pronominal adverb" (Dutch: voornaamwoordelijk bijwoord) in Dutch grammar. These forms are similar to words like hereupon, whereupon in English or darauf, worauf in German, but Dutch shows two particularities:
- Two prepositions change their form: met → ermee ("therewith/with it"), tot → ertoe ("thereto/to it").
- Hij stemt [met alle voorstellen] in. ("He agrees with all proposals.")
- Hij stemt [overal mee] in. ("He agrees with everything.")
- The r-pronoun and the preposition can be separated from each other:
- Daar reken ik op. ("That, I am counting on.")
- Waar reken je op? ("What are you counting on?")
- Ik reken er niet op. ("I am not counting on it.", lit. "I count there not on")
[edit] Numeral system
Dutch uses a decimal numeral system, without octal or vigesimal traces like many other European languages. The base numbers, from which all cardinal numerals can be constructed, are:
| 0 | nul | ||||
| 1 | een | 11 | elf | 10 | tien |
| 2 | twee | 12 | twaalf | 20 | twintig |
| 3 | drie | 13 | dertien | 30 | dertig |
| 4 | vier | 14 | veertien | 40 | veertig |
| 5 | vijf | 15 | vijftien | 50 | vijftig |
| 6 | zes | 16 | zestien | 60 | zestig |
| 7 | zeven | 17 | zeventien | 70 | zeventig |
| 8 | acht | 18 | achttien | 80 | tachtig |
| 9 | negen | 19 | negentien | 90 | negentig |
Note that "een" is the same word as the indefinite article; as such, when confusion is possible, the number is often written as "één" to distinguish it from the article.
The cardinal numerals from 21 to 99 (apart from the tens) are constructed in a regular way, by adding en (=and) and the name of the appropriate multiple of ten to the name of the units position. (As in German, the last written digit is actually pronounced first):
- 28 achtentwintig (literally "eight and twenty")
- 83 drieëntachtig (trema to mark diaeresis, to avoid colliding into ee)
- 99 negenennegentig
100 is honderd, 200 tweehonderd, 300 driehonderd and so on.
Numerals between 101 and 999 are constructed as follows:
- 112 honderdtwaalf or honderdentwaalf
- 698 zeshonderdachtennegentig
The same system used for naming the hundreds applies to the higher base numbers that are powers of ten. Dutch always uses the long scale system.
- 1 000 duizend
- 1 000 000 miljoen
- 1 000 000 000 miljard
- 1 000 000 000 000 biljoen
- 1 000 000 000 000 000 biljard
The cardinal numerals of numbers greater than 1000 are grouped in "multiples of 1000":
- 2 348 is tweeduizend driehonderdachtenveertig
- 117 401 067 is honderdzeventien miljoen vierhonderdeenduizend zevenenzestig
[edit] References
- Donaldson, Bruce. (1997) Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15419-7.
- van Riemsdijk, Henk (ed). (1999) Clitics in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-015751-9
- van Riemsdijk, Henk. (1978) A Case Study in Syntactic Markedness: The Binding Nature of Prepositional Phrases. Dordrecht: Foris.
[edit] External links
- Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst, a comprehensive grammar of Dutch which is viewable online (in Dutch)
- Simple Dutch Grammar (UCL)
- Advanced Dutch Grammar (UCL)
