Dutch grammar

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Template:Short description Template:Dutch grammar This article outlines the grammar of the Dutch language, which shares strong similarities with German grammar and also, to a lesser degree, with English grammar.

Preliminary considerations

Vowel length is indicated in Dutch spelling using a combination of double vowels and double consonants. Changes from single to double letters are common when discussing Dutch grammar, but they are entirely predictable once one knows how the spelling rules work. That means that the spelling alternations do not form part of the grammar, and they are not discussed here. For more information, see Dutch orthography.

Word order

Dutch word order is underlyingly SOV (subject–object–verb). There is an additional rule called V2 in main clauses, which moves the finite (inflected for subject) verb into the second position in the sentence. That makes sentences with only one verb appear with SVO (subject–verb–object) or VSO (verb–subject–object) order.

Jan hielp zijn moeder
Jan helped his mother
"Jan helped his mother."
Gisteren hielp Jan zijn moeder
Yesterday helped Jan his mother
"Yesterday, Jan helped his mother."

However, any other verbs or verbal particles are placed at the end of the clause in accordance with the underlying SOV order, giving an intermediate order of SVOV(V)(V)...

Jan wilde zijn moeder gaan helpen
Jan wanted his mother to go help
"Jan wanted to go (and) help his mother."

In subordinate clauses, the order is exclusively SOV.<ref>Jan Koster: "Dutch as an SOV Language Template:Webarchive", Linguistic analysis 1 (1975), p. 111-136.</ref><ref>http://www.let.rug.nl/~zwart/college/docs/zinsleer/zinsleer6.pdf Template:Bare URL PDF</ref> In subordinate clauses two word orders are possible for the verb clusters and are referred to as the "red": Template:Lang, "because I have worked": as in English, where the auxiliary verb precedes the past participle, and the "green": Template:Lang, where the past participle precedes the auxiliary verb, "because I worked have": as in German.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Dutch, the green word order is most used in speech, and the red is the most used in writing, particularly in journalistic texts, but the "green" is also used in writing.Template:Citation needed Unlike in English, however, adjectives and adverbs must precede the verb: Template:Lang, "that the book is green". For an explanation of verb clusters of three or more see: V2 word order

Jan zei dat hij zijn moeder wilde gaan helpen
Jan said that he his mother wanted to go help
"Jan said that he wanted to go help his mother."

In yes–no questions, the verb of the main clause is usually but not always placed, first instead of second. The verb coming second often implies disbelief like in English: "The prisoner escaped?" vs. "Did the prisoner escape?"

Hielp Jan zijn moeder?
Helped Jan his mother?
"Did Jan help his mother?"
Wilde Jan zijn moeder gaan helpen?
Wanted Jan his mother to go help?
"Did Jan want to go help his mother?"
Zei Jan dat hij zijn moeder wilde gaan helpen?
Said Jan that he his mother wanted to go help?
"Did Jan say that he wanted to go help his mother?"

In imperative sentences, the verb of the main clause is always placed first, although it may be preceded by a noun phrase indicating who is being addressed.

(Jan,) ga je moeder helpen!
(Jan,) go your mother help!
"(Jan,) go help your mother!"
(Jan,) zeg dat je je moeder wilde gaan helpen!
(Jan,) say that you your mother wanted to go help!
"(Jan,) say that you wanted to go help your mother!"

In the following example, the SOV order in the subordinate clause causes the various noun phrases to be separated from the verbs that introduce them, creating a relatively deep "nesting" structure:

Ik zie dat de ouders de kinderen Jan het huis hebben laten helpen schilderen.
I see that the parents the children Jan the house have let help paint
"I see that the parents have let the children help Jan paint the house."

Adjectives always come before the noun to which they belong.

Template:Lang – red apples

In contrast to English, adpositional phrases come in the order time–manner–place, again as in German, so that time modifiers usually come before place modifiers:

Ik ben dit jaar naar Frankrijk geweest
I am this year to France been
"I have been to France this year."

Nouns

Template:See also

In Dutch, nouns are marked for number in singular and plural. Cases have largely fallen out of use, as have the endings that were used for them. Standard Dutch has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. However, in large parts of the Netherlands there is no grammatical distinction between what were originally masculine and feminine genders, and there is only a distinction between the resultant common and neuter. Gender is not overtly marked on nouns either, and must be learned for each noun.

Plural

The plural is formed by addition of Template:Lang (pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA) or Template:Lang, with the usual spelling changes in the case of the former. Which of the two is used is somewhat unpredictable, although some general rules can be given:

Plurals with vowel change

A number of common nouns inherited from Old Dutch have a short vowel in the singular but a long vowel in the plural. When short Template:Lang is lengthened in that way, it becomes long Template:Lang.

Other nouns with that change include Template:Lang "bath", Template:Lang "(money) contribution", Template:Lang "command", Template:Lang "sheet of paper; magazine" (not "leaf"), Template:Lang "offer", Template:Lang "roof", Template:Lang "valley", Template:Lang "hole", Template:Lang "prayer", Template:Lang "commandment", Template:Lang "gene", Template:Lang "glass", Template:Lang "god", Template:Lang "duke", Template:Lang "court", Template:Lang "cave; burrow", Template:Lang "member", Template:Lang "lottery ticket", Template:Lang "war", Template:Lang "path", Template:Lang "shot", Template:Lang "strike, battle", Template:Lang "smith", Template:Lang "large game; spectacle" (not in the sense of a smaller everyday game), Template:Lang "staff", Template:Lang "vat, barrel", Template:Lang "ban, prohibition", Template:Lang "treaty", Template:Lang "permission", Template:Lang "road, way".

The noun Template:Lang Template:IPA "town, city" has diaeresis in the plural alongside lengthening: Template:Lang Template:IPA "towns, cities". The plural of nouns ending in the suffix Template:Lang Template:IPA "-ness, -hood" is irregular Template:Lang Template:IPA.

Plurals in Template:Lang

A few neuter nouns have a plural in Template:Lang. The ending derives from the old Germanic "z-stem" nouns and is cognate with the English Template:Lang (Template:Lang, Template:Lang, etc.). The following nouns have that type of plural:

When used in compounds, the stem of those nouns usually includes the Template:Lang: Template:Lang "eggshell", Template:Lang "child labour", Template:Lang "traditional costume", Template:Lang "beef tartare". That is not a rule, however, and compounds with the singular form also exist: Template:Lang "egg-shape", Template:Lang "beef".

Foreign plurals

For a number of nouns of Latin origin, a Latin-like plural may be used. Depending on the word and the formalness of the setting, a regular plural in Template:Lang or Template:Lang can also be used.

Some modern scientific words borrowed from Latin or Greek form their plurals with vowel lengthening like the native words listed above. Those words are primarily Latin agent nouns ending in Template:Lang and names of particles ending in Template:Lang. Alongside the change in vowel length, there is also a stress shift in the plural, patterned on the Latin third declension in which that also occurs. In each case, the singular follows a Latin-like stress, and the plural stresses the Template:Lang or Template:Lang. Some examples:

Words borrowed from English or French generally form their plural in Template:Lang, in imitation of the native plural of those languages. That applies especially to recent borrowings.

Diminutive

Many nouns have a diminutive form alongside the normal base form. The form indicates a small size or emphasises a particular endearing quality. The use of diminutives is so common that they could be considered part of the noun's inflectional paradigm.

There are two basic ways to form the diminutive: with Template:Lang or with Template:Lang. The former is the standard way, and the latter is found in some dialects, mostly in the South (Brabantian and Limburgish). The diminutive on Template:Lang is common in informal Belgian Dutch (because of final-n deletion in Dutch, the final -n is often not pronounced). All diminutives have neuter gender, whatever the gender of the original noun. The plural is always formed with Template:Lang.

Diminutive in Template:Lang

The basic suffix Template:Lang is modified in different ways depending on the final sounds of the noun it is attached to.

The Template:Lang is removed from the ending when added to words ending in a fricative or plosive (-b, -c, -d, -f, -g, -ch, -k, -p, -q, -s, -sj, -t, -v, -x, -z).

The last two words end in a consonant sound, despite not being spelled that way.

When the vowel of the last syllable is both short and stressed and it is followed by a sonorant, an extra schwa Template:Lang is inserted, giving Template:Lang.

  • kom → kommetje
  • pil → pilletje
  • lam → lammetje
  • ding → dingetje
  • vriendin → vriendinnetje
  • baron → baronnetje

In all other cases, the basic form Template:Lang is used, which includes:

When the final vowel is long, it is doubled accordingly. Final Template:Lang, which does not really occur in native Dutch words, is converted into Template:Lang. Final Template:Lang gets an apostrophe.

  • koe → koetje
  • auto → autootje
  • mama → mamaatje
  • vrouw → vrouwtje
  • taxi → taxietje
  • baby → baby'tje
  • school → schooltje
  • kuil → kuiltje
  • maan → maantje
  • muur → muurtje
  • appel → appeltje
  • boom → boompje
  • duim → duimpje
  • bodem → bodempje
  • koning → koninkje
  • houding → houdinkje

In the case of the vowels Template:Lang and Template:Lang, there is some ambiguity. While pronounced short in many dialects, they can also be long for some speakers, so forms both with and without the extra Template:Lang can be found.

Diminutive in Template:Lang

In the south, the ending Template:Lang is often used instead. It also has different forms depending on the preceding sounds, with rules very similar to those for the Template:Lang ending.

An older form of the ending was Template:Lang, which is more like its German cognate Template:Lang. That form is not used much today because of final n-deletion, which is common in Dutch. However, the form it is still found in older texts and names. A famous example is Template:Lang.

When the word ends in a velar consonant (-g, -ch, -k, -ng), an extra dissimilative Template:Lang is inserted, giving Template:Lang.

  • dag → dagske
  • lach → lachske
  • stok → stokske
  • ding → dingske
  • koning → koningske

An extra Template:Lang is inserted in three cases, giving Template:Lang:

Examples:

  • hond → hondeke
  • voet → voeteke
  • map → mappeke
  • boon → boneke
  • bon → bonneke
  • kom → kommeke
  • hol → holleke
  • bar → barreke

In all other cases, the ending is the basic Template:Lang, which includes:

Examples:

  • mama → mamake
  • koe → koeke
  • slof → slofke
  • doos → dooske
  • school → schoolke
  • muur → muurke
  • boom → boomke
  • bodem → bodemke

Diaeresis in diminutives

Standard Dutch and most other dialects do not use diaeresis as a grammatical marker. However, some eastern dialects (East Brabantian, Limburgish and many Low Saxon areas) have regular diaeresis of the preceding vowel in diminutives. As that is not a standard feature, it is rare in the written language except to evoke a local feeling. It can be more common in the spoken language:

Diminutives of nouns with irregular plurals

Nouns with irregular plurals tend to have the same irregularity in the diminutive as well. That is not a rule, however, and both forms can often be found. For some nouns, the irregularity is more common in the plural of the diminutive, and only rarely appears in the singular:

Cases

Template:Main

Noun cases were still prescribed in the formal written standard until the 1940s, when they were abolished because they had long disappeared from the spoken language. That has caused them to be restricted mostly to set phrases and to be archaic. The former Dutch case system resembled that of modern German, and distinguished four cases: nominative (subject), genitive (possession or relation), dative (indirect object, object of preposition) and accusative (direct object, object of preposition). Only the nominative and genitive are productive, and the genitive are seldom used and only surviving in the margins of Dutch. Some examples of the three non-nominative cases in fixed expressions:

The role of cases has been taken over by prepositions and word order in modern Dutch. For example, the distinction between direct and indirect object is now made by placing the indirect object before the direct object, or by using the preposition aan "to" with the indirect object. The genitive is replaced with the preposition van "of". Usage of cases with prepositions has disappeared as well. The case of each noun is now interpreted mainly by word order. Nominatives go first, datives after, and lastly the accusatives. Nouns after prepositions are also accusative.

Cases are still occasionally used productively, which are often calques of existing phrases. That is particularly true of the genitive case,<ref>http://www.nytud.hu/imm14/abs/scott.pdf Template:Bare URL PDF</ref> which is still used occasionally to evoke a formal style. Speakers' awareness of how the cases were originally used is generally low. People may confuse the old masculine/neuter genitive article Template:Lang and the corresponding noun ending Template:Lang with the article Template:Lang (with no ending) used for feminine or plural nouns.

Articles

Dutch has both a definite article ("the") and an indefinite article ("a" or "an").<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Masculine Feminine Neuter
Definite singular de man de vrouw het huis
Definite plural de mannen de vrouwen de huizen
Indefinite singular een man een vrouw een huis

Template:Lang and Template:Lang are normally pronounced Template:IPA and Template:IPA, only emphatically as Template:IPA and Template:IPA, respectively. They may sometimes also be contracted in spelling to reflect this: Template:Lang, Template:Lang.

There is no indefinite article in the plural, the noun is just used on its own. However, there is a negative indefinite article Template:Lang ("no, not a, not any"). Similarly to Template:Lang it is invariable, showing no inflection for gender or number.

The articles formerly had forms for the different cases as well. See Archaic Dutch declension for more information.

Adjectives and adverbs

Within the Dutch noun phrase, adjectives are placed in front of the noun and after the article (if present).

Inflection

The inflection of adjectives follows the gender and number of the following noun. They also inflect for definiteness, like in many other Germanic languages. When preceded by a definite article, demonstrative determiner, possessive determiner or any other kind of word that acts to distinguish one particular thing from another, the definite form of the adjective is used. In other cases, such as with an indefinite article, indefinite determiner (like Template:Lang "many" or Template:Lang "all"), the indefinite form is used.

Despite the many different aspects that determine the inflection of an adjective, the adjective only occurs in two main forms. The uninflected form or base form is the adjective without any endings. The inflected form has the ending Template:Lang. The inflection of adjectives is as follows:

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Indefinite een kleine man een kleine vrouw een klein huis kleine mannen, vrouwen, huizen
Definite de kleine man de kleine vrouw het kleine huis de kleine mannen, vrouwen, huizen

Adjectives are only inflected in this way when they are in an attributive role, where they precede a noun and modify it. Adjectives in a predicative role, which are used in predicative sentences with a copula verb, are not inflected and always use the uninflected form. Compare:

Most adjectives ending in Template:Lang have no inflected form. This includes adjectives for materials, as well as the past participles of strong verbs.

Adjectives that end in a vowel in their uninflected form are rare, and there are no fixed rules for them. Often, the uninflected and inflected forms are the same, but sometimes an extra Template:Lang is added on anyway.

Additional uses of the uninflected form

Uninflected adjectives are occasionally found in other contexts. With neuter nouns, if the adjective is inherently part of the noun as part of a set phrase, then the uninflected form is often used in the definite singular as well:

  • Template:Lang ("the public transport", as a specific entity)
  • Template:Lang ("the public transport", meaning the transport that is public, it could be any transport)
  • Template:Lang ("the big dictionary of the Dutch language", as a proper title)
  • Template:Lang ("the big dictionary of the Dutch language", a dictionary that happens to be big)
  • Template:Lang ("the civil code", as a proper name)

Indefinite adjectives describing people often remain uninflected, if they express a personal quality. This is not stylistically neutral, but has a formal, rhetorical or poetic ring to it, and can occasionally distinguish literal meanings of an adjective from a more figurative one. Furthermore, this is only done with some nouns, not all.

Partitive

Adjectives have a special form called the partitive that is used after an indefinite pronoun such as Template:Lang 'something', Template:Lang 'nothing', Template:Lang 'much, a lot', Template:Lang 'little, a few'. The partitive form takes the ending Template:Lang.

Adjectives already ending in Template:Lang or Template:Lang don't take this ending:

The few adjectives that end in a long vowel take instead Template:Lang with an apostrophe like certain noun plurals.

  • Template:Lang ("I didn't like purple so much, so now I have something lilac.")

Adjectives used as adverbs

The uninflected form of an adjective is implicitly also an adverb. This makes it hard at times to distinguish adjectives and adverbs in Dutch.

Adjectives used as nouns

The inflected form of an adjective can also be used as a noun. Three types can be distinguished:

  • The noun that the adjective refers to is omitted but implied. The adjective will then be inflected as if the noun had been present, although the inflected form is normally used even in the indefinite neuter singular.
    • Template:Lang ("You can buy this car in various colours. Do you want the green, the blue or the yellow one?")
    • Template:Lang ("We have three children, two big ones and a small one.", alternatively Template:Lang)
  • The adjective is used as a masculine/feminine noun in its own right, usually referring to a person. The Template:Lang will always be added, even to adjectives that already end in Template:Lang. The plural is formed with Template:Lang.
  • The adjective is used as a neuter mass noun describing a concept.
    • Template:Lang ("I can't answer, because I don't understand what was asked.")
    • Template:Lang ("Fear of the unknown is very normal.")

Comparative and superlative

Adjectives have three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. The comparative and superlative are formed synthetically, by adding endings to the adjective. The comparative and superlative can also be formed analytically by using Template:Lang "more" and Template:Lang "most", but this is much rarer than in English. The analytic forms are used only when the word would become particularly long, or when it would become hard to pronounce (particularly in the superlative).

The comparative is formed by adding Template:Lang to the base form. For adjectives that end in Template:Lang, the comparative is formed by adding Template:Lang to the base form instead. The comparative inflects as an adjective in its own right, having inflected and partitive forms. The uninflected comparative can be used as an adverb as well.

The superlative is formed by adding Template:Lang. This is equivalent to adding Template:Lang to the partitive, and the same rules apply. When an adjective ends in Template:Lang or Template:Lang, it becomes Template:Lang and Template:Lang, but those forms are more rarely used, and the analytic form with Template:Lang is preferred.

Because it is most often used to distinguish one particular thing from all others, the superlative is generally accompanied by a definite article. This means it is rarely found in the uninflected form. Even in predicative sentences, a definite article precedes, so it becomes more like a noun phrase with an implied noun.

When used as an adverb, the superlative is always preceded by the neuter article Template:Lang, unlike in English where this is optional. Either the uninflected or the inflected form can be used, without any difference in meaning. This form can also be used as part of predicative sentences, which can lead to a mismatch of genders which may seem odd at first glance, but is correct nonetheless:

The first sentence meaning "This coat is the most expensive" has the same meaning as the first sentence further above. They are interchangeable, but they would be parsed differently. With the article Template:Lang, there is an implied noun, and it might better be translated as "the most expensive one". The superlative must also be in the inflected form in this case, Template:Lang would be incorrect. With the article Template:Lang, there is no implied noun, and both the inflected (Template:Lang) and uninflected form (Template:Lang) can be used.

Some comparatives and superlatives are irregular and suppletive. they use a different root from the base form.

When an adjective is a compound of an adverb and a verb participle, the adverb sometimes changes rather than the whole word. A space may be added as well.

Pronouns and determiners

Personal pronouns

As in English, Dutch personal pronouns still retain a distinction in case: the nominative (subjective), genitive (≈ possessive) and accusative/dative (objective). A distinction was once prescribed between the accusative 3rd person plural pronoun Template:Lang and the dative Template:Lang, but it was artificial and both forms are in practice variants of the same word. Both cases are still sometimes taught to students and may be used in formal Dutch, but no distinction is made in the everyday spoken language.

Like many other European languages, Dutch has a T-V distinction in its personal pronouns. The second-person pronouns, which are used to refer to the listener, exist in informal and formal varieties. However, because of the relatively complex and dialect-specific way in which the pronouns developed, it is less straightforward than it is in for example French or German. The old Germanic/Indo-European second-person singular pronoun Template:Lang / Template:Lang (English Template:Lang) fell out of use in Dutch during the Middle Ages, but it remained in use in the closely-related Limburgish and neighbouring Low German, West Frisian and German languages. The role of the old singular pronoun was taken over by the old plural form, which differed slightly depending on dialect: Template:Lang in the South, Template:Lang in the North. That development also happened in English, which once had a T-V distinction but then lost it when the old informal pronoun, Template:Lang, was lost. In Dutch, however, further changes occurred, and the North and the South developed differently:

  • In the North and in the standard language, a new formal pronoun Template:Lang was introduced, which made Template:Lang distinctly informal. A new second-person plural pronoun was created by adding Template:Lang "people" to the old singular (compare English Template:Lang). This created Template:Lang, an informal pronoun when speaking to many people. The formal pronoun Template:Lang is used for both singular and plural.
  • In the South, the older situation remained in many dialects, and Template:Lang is then still a neutral way to speak to a person in those dialects. However, informal Template:Lang and formal Template:Lang are commonly used in the standard language of the South, like in the North.
  • Many dialects created their own plural forms of pronouns, such as Template:Lang or similar in the South for the second person plural, and also Template:Lang for the third person plural ("they"), which later became a standard in Afrikaans. Those forms are not part of standard Dutch.

Many pronouns can occur in a stressed form and an unstressed (clitic) form. The stressed form retains the original full vowel and is used when particular emphasis or contrast is needed. The unstressed form normally replaces the vowel with a schwa Template:IPA and is used in other cases. The unstressed forms are shown in brackets; those spelled with an apostrophe or hyphen are not used often in formal written text and are used mainly in informal speech.

person subject object
1st person singular ik ('k) mij (me)
2nd person singular, informal jij (je) jou (je)
2nd person singular, formal u u
2nd person singular, Southern gij (ge) u
3rd person singular, masculine hij (Template:Not a typo) hem ('m)
3rd person singular, feminine zij (ze) haar ('r, d'r)
3rd person singular, neuter het ('t) het ('t)
1st person plural wij (we) ons
2nd person plural, informal jullie (je) jullie (je)
2nd person plural, formal u u
2nd person plural, Southern gij (ge) u
3rd person plural, for a person zij (ze) hun, hen (ze)
3rd person plural, for an object zij (ze) die (ze)

In addition to Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and Template:Lang having unstressed counterparts, they are themselves in a technical way unstressed forms of the demonstrative pronouns; Template:Lang is an unstressed form of Template:Lang, and the others are forms of Template:Lang. It is formal and normal to replace those personal pronouns with demonstrative pronouns.

The pronouns are the only place in the standard language where the difference between masculine and feminine gender is significant. Consequently, the usage of the pronouns differs depending on how many genders are distinguished by a speaker. Speakers in the North will use feminine pronouns for female people, and the masculine pronouns for male people and for common-gender (masculine or feminine) nouns. In the South, the feminine pronouns are used for feminine nouns and the masculine pronouns are used for masculine nouns. See Gender in Dutch grammar for more details.

The standard language prescribes that in the third person plural, Template:Lang is accusative and is to be used for the direct object, and Template:Lang is dative, and is for the indirect object. This distinction was artificially introduced in the 17th century, and is largely ignored in spoken language and not well understood by Dutch speakers. Consequently, the third person plural forms Template:Lang and Template:Lang are interchangeable in normal usage, with Template:Lang being more common. The shared unstressed form Template:Lang is also often used as both direct and indirect objects and is a useful avoidance strategy when people are unsure which form to use.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the West and among younger speakers, in informal spoken language, Template:Lang is also used as a subject pronoun by some. This is considered heavily stigmatised and substandard.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Possessive determiners

Possessive determiners also have stressed and unstressed forms, like the pronouns.

person uninflected inflected
1st person singular mijn (m'n) mijne
2nd person singular, informal jouw (je) jouwe
2nd person singular, formal uw uwe
2nd person singular, southern uw uwe
3rd person singular, masculine zijn (z'n) zijne
3rd person singular, feminine haar ('r, d'r) hare
3rd person singular, neuter zijn (z'n) zijne
1st person plural ons onze
2nd person plural, informal jullie (je) —
2nd person plural, formal uw uwe
2nd person plural, southern uw uwe
3rd person plural hun hunne

Possessive determiners are not inflected when used attributively, unlike adjectives. Thus:

An exception is Template:Lang, which inflects like an indefinite adjective, receiving Template:Lang when used with a masculine, feminine or plural noun. Possessive determiners are themselves definite in meaning, so any following adjectives will occur in the definite form even when the possessive itself does not:

The inflected form is also used when the determiner is used predicatively. It is always preceded by a definite article in this case, giving the appearance of an implied noun. For example: Template:Lang ("This is my car. The car is mine.", more literally "The car is the my one"). Template:Lang has no inflected form, the sentence is usually rephrased with Template:Lang instead: Template:Lang ("The car is of you.")

Before the case system was abolished from written Dutch, and in southern spoken language, all possessive determiners inflect(ed) as indefinite adjectives, not only Template:Lang. They also used to inflect for case. While this is no longer done in modern Dutch, some relics still remain in fixed expressions. See Archaic Dutch declension for more details.

Demonstrative determiners

Like English, Dutch has two sets of demonstrative for different degrees of distance. A third, unspecific degree also exists, which is fulfilled by the personal pronouns, but see further below on pronominal adverbs.

The demonstratives inflect like indefinite adjectives, but irregularly. They are themselves definite in meaning, so any following adjectives will occur in the definite form.

Proximal demonstrative
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Singular deze deze dit
Plural deze deze deze
Distal demonstrative
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Singular die die dat
Plural die die die

When the demonstrative pronoun is used exophorically (referring to something that has not yet been mentioned in the text) with a copula verb, the "uninflected" forms Template:Lang and Template:Lang are always used:

  • Template:Lang ("This is my new car. I bought this one yesterday.")

Even though Template:Lang is of common gender and otherwise requires the form Template:Lang. In this sentence, the first pronoun (Template:Lang) is exophoric, while the second one (Template:Lang) refers back to Template:Lang.

The exophoric pronoun, when used in a predicative sentence, is always the complement and never the subject. The inflection of the verb follows the other argument instead, and will be plural even when the pronoun is not:

Pronominal adverbs

Template:See also

A pronominal adverb is a location adverb that corresponds in meaning to a pronoun, and takes its place. They exist in English as well but are formal or outdated; examples are Template:Lang ("by that"), Template:Lang ("with this") and Template:Lang ("upon what" or "upon which").

Pronominal adverbs are used to replace the combination of prepositions with pronouns. They are very common in Dutch, and in some cases mandatory. The following table shows the pronouns that have adverbial forms:

Type Pronoun Adverb Meaning
personal hem, haar, het, hun/hen/ze er him, her, it, them, there (unspecific)
proximal
demonstrative 		dit hier this, here
distal
demonstrative 		dat daar that, there
interrogative or
relative 		wat, welk, welke waar what, which, where
universal alles overal everything, everywhere
indefinite iets ergens something, somewhere
negative niets nergens nothing, nowhere

Both the combination of preposition+pronoun and the pronominal adverb can often be used, although the adverbial form is more common. The pronoun is used mainly when one needs to be specific about it. The neuter pronoun Template:Lang can never appear as the object of a preposition; the adverbial form is mandatory. Combinations of a preposition and a relative pronoun are also usually replaced by a pronominal adverb. For example, the combination Template:Lang (with which) is distinctly dated and usually replaced by Template:Lang. The masculine and feminine pronouns are used more often in the pronoun form, particularly when referring to persons, but the adverbial form may be used occasionally as well.

Pronominal adverbs are formed by replacing the pronoun by its corresponding locative adverb and the preposition by its adverbial form and putting them in reverse order. The locative adverbs Template:Lang, Template:Lang and Template:Lang are separated from the prepositional part by a space, while the other four are joined to it. For example:

For most prepositions the adverbial form is Template:Lang with the preposition itself, but there are two exceptions:

There are prepositions like Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang that do not possess an adverbial form, which makes it difficult to use them in a relative construction, because the relative pronouns like Template:Lang, Template:Lang are becoming obsolete.

Conversely, there are a number of prepositional adverbs like Template:Lang or Template:Lang that cannot be used as prepositions, but they occur regularly as part of a pronominal adverb or of a separable verb.

The adverbial pronoun and the prepositional adverb can be separated from each other, with the prepositional part placed at the end of the clause. This is not always required, however, and some situations allow them to remain together.

Notice that in Dutch the last word Template:Lang is generally analyzed as an adverb, not a preposition. Thus, the often quoted 'rule' that a sentence should not end in a preposition is strictly adhered to.

Verbs

Dutch verbs inflect for person and number, and for two tenses and three moods. However, there is considerable syncretism among the forms. In modern usage only the present singular indicative has different forms for different persons, all other number, tense and mood combinations have just one form for all persons.

Dutch verbs inflect in two main tenses:

  • The present tense is used to indicate present or future time, and may therefore be considered a "non-past" tense. It can express actions that are punctual, progressive or habitual.
  • The past tense is used to indicate past time. The actions can be progressive or habitual at the time being discussed, as well as punctual in a sequence of retold events. It is not used to indicate completed punctual events that have relevance for the present; instead the (periphrastic) present perfect is used in this role. Contrast Dutch Template:Lang with English Template:Lang — the time being discussed is past, but it is considered relevant in the present moment.

Verbs also inflect for the following moods:

  • The indicative mood is the default mood of Dutch and is used for general statements.
  • The subjunctive mood is used for statements that are perceived as hypothetical or desired. Due to syncretism it is only clearly distinguished from the indicative in the present singular. It is only slightly productive in modern Dutch, and is mainly restricted to formulaic phrases otherwise, such as Template:Lang "long live the king" or Template:Lang "may they rest in peace". Usually, it is replaced by the indicative or by a periphrastic conditional phrase.
  • The imperative mood is used for commands. It exists only for the second person; imperatives for other persons are expressed periphrastically (Template:Lang "let's..."). Only one form is used for both the singular and plural imperative in modern Dutch. The older separate plural imperative form has fallen out of use and is now archaic or overly formal in tone.

Other grammatical categories such as future tense, passive voice, progressive or perfect aspect may be expressed periphrastically. Verbs additionally have an infinitive and two participles (present and past).

Conjugation

Template:Main

Dutch conjugation resembles that of other continental West Germanic languages such as (Standard) German and Low German, and also the other Germanic languages to a lesser degree. Dutch retains the two main types of verb inherited from Proto-Germanic: weak and strong. Preterite-present verbs are also present, but can be considered irregular. All regular verbs conjugate the same in the present tense (including the infinitive and present participle), so the weak versus strong distinction only matters for the past tense.

The following is a general overview of the endings:

Infinitive -en
Indicative mood
Present Weak past Strong past
1st sing. – -de, -te –
2nd sing. Template:Lang -(t) -de, -te –
2nd sg+pl Template:Lang -t -de(t), -te(t) -t
2nd sg+pl Template:Lang -t -de, -te –
3rd sing. -t -de, -te –
Plural -en -den, -ten -en
Subjunctive mood
Present Weak past Strong past
Singular -e -de, -te -e
Plural -en -den, -ten -en
Imperative mood
General –
Plural -t
Participles
Present Weak past Strong past
-end ge- -d, ge- -t ge- -en

Weak verbs are the most common type of verb in Dutch, and the only productive type (all newly created verbs are weak). They form their past tense with an ending containing a dental consonant, Template:Lang or Template:Lang. Which of the two is used depends on the final consonant of the verb stem. If the stem ends in a voiceless consonant, then Template:Lang is used, otherwise Template:Lang. It is often summarised with the mnemonic "'t kofschip": if the verb stem ends with one of the consonants of Template:Lang (Template:Lang), then the past tense will have Template:Lang. However, it also applies for Template:Lang, Template:Lang and Template:Lang and any other letter that is voiceless in pronunciation.

Strong verbs are less common in Dutch, but they include many of the most common verbs. They form their past tenses by changing the vowel of the stem (ablaut). For strong verbs one needs to learn three or four principal parts: the infinitive, the past (singular), optionally the past plural, and the past participle. However, the vowel patterns are often predictable and can be divided into seven or so classes, based on the vowels used in those three principal parts. Some verbs are a mixture of two classes.

Examples:

A number of verbs mix the strong and weak types of past. They have a strong past participle but all the other past tense forms are weak, or the other way around.

  • Template:Lang ("laugh, laughed, laughed", weak past, strong past participle)
  • Template:Lang ("salt, salted, salted", weak past, strong past participle)
  • Template:Lang ("ask, asked, asked", strong past, weak past participle)

Some of the most common verbs in the Dutch language have irregular conjugations, which do not follow the normal rules. That is especially the case for preterite-present verbs. Those verbs historically had present tense forms that resembled the past tenses of strong verbs, and can be recognised in modern Dutch by the absence of the Template:Lang in the third-person singular present (the English equivalents lack the Template:Lang in the same way). Preterite-present verbs have weak past tenses, but often irregularly formed. Many such verbs are now used as auxiliary verbs.

The additional Template:Lang of the second-person Template:Lang form is optional in the past tense for weak verbs and is usually considered archaic. For strong verbs, the -t is always required.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Like English, Dutch uses modal verbs, such as Template:Lang ("can"), Template:Lang ("may"), Template:Lang ("shall/will"), Template:Lang ("must"), and Template:Lang ("want"). Those verbs act irregularly and in conjunction with infinitives. Modal verbs are among the few verbs that have irregular conjugation in the present tense.

A special feature of Dutch modal verbs that does not exist in English is that speakers tend to omit the infinitive verb Template:Lang ("go"), Template:Lang ("come"), and similar verbs if a modal verb is finite and there is a preposition.

Non-finite forms

Dutch possesses present and past participles.

Present participle

The present participle is always progressive in meaning, and indicates that something is performing the action as the subject. It is usually used as an attributive adjective, and inflects as such as well.

It can also be used as an adverb, meaning "while ...ing". Either the uninflected or inflected form can be used, although the uninflected form is more common outside set phrases.

Rarely, the present participle is used as a predicate, to indicate progressive actions as in English, such as Template:Lang ("The ball was rolling."). This is usually associated with a stilted or overly formal style. It is more usual to use Template:Lang plus the infinitive.

The present participle of a transitive verb can be preceded by an object or an adverb. Often, the space between the two words is replaced with a hyphen or removed altogether, creating a compound adjective.

Past participle

The past participle indicates completed actions. It is also used to form the perfect and the passive voice with a variety of auxiliary verbs. Their formation is discussed in the section on "periphrastic forms".

As an adjective, the meaning of the past participle can be either active (having performed the action) or passive (having undergone the action), depending on the type of verb:

  • For transitive verbs, the meaning is passive. Examples:
    • Template:Lang ("The made choice (the choice that had been made) turned out to be not so great.")
    • Template:Lang ("Broken glass is dangerous.")
  • For unaccusative intransitive verbs, the meaning is active. Examples:
    • Template:Lang ("The fallen man could not get back up again.")
    • Template:Lang ("Everyone went looking for the dog that had disappeared.")
  • For unergative intransitive verbs, the past participle cannot be used as an adjective at all. Such participles can not be used with a copula such as Template:Lang ("to be") either but only to form the perfect.

Like present participles, past participles can be preceded by an adverb.

Infinitive

Verb phrases

The infinitive can be used in larger verb phrases with an auxiliary verb or modal verb, much as in English. Like present participles, the infinitive can be accompanied by an object or adverb.

Verbal noun

The infinitive also doubles as a verbal noun, corresponding to the English gerund in Template:Lang. The infinitive, when used as a noun, is neuter and has no plural. Dutch also has a feminine gerund in Template:Lang, but it is no longer productive and usually has a concrete, technical meaning: Template:Lang 'borrowing, lending' vs. Template:Lang 'loan'; Template:Lang 'educating' vs. Template:Lang 'education'.

  • Template:Lang – 'The killing of people is forbidden', or less literally 'Killing people is forbidden'.
  • Template:Lang – 'I hate waiting.'

In the past, the infinitive was inflected for the dative and genitive. There are a few remnants of the latter:

It also occurs in expressions involving Template:Lang (until ... resulted):

Impersonal imperative

The infinitive is also commonly used as a kind of impersonal or polite imperative (infinitivus pro imperativo). That often has a meaning much like the English “one must (not)…” or “please do (not)…” and can be used to soften a direct command into more of a strong request or to make the command more general (such as on signs and in written instructions), rather than being directed at the listener or reader at that specific moment in time. The distinction is not always clear, and both the infinitive and the imperative may often be used without a strong difference in meaning.

With Template:Lang

The infinitive is often preceded by the preposition Template:Lang, analogous to the phrase Template:Lang + verb in English. It is used in combination with certain verbs like Template:Lang 'to begin'.

In combination with Template:Lang 'to be' it can express a potentiality.

The extended form can be used as an adjective:

But it can still carry adverbial expressions or objects:

Compound infinitives also exist for the perfect and the future, as well as for the passive voice of transitive verbs, and they can be used to form abridged dependent clauses.

Transitivity

Depending on their meaning and use, Dutch verbs belong to one of a handful of transitivity classes:

  • Unergative intransitive verbs do not take a grammatical object and have active meaning (the subject is the agent). The perfect is formed with the auxiliary Template:Lang. They have an impersonal passive voice.
  • Unaccusative intransitive verbs do not take a grammatical object and have passive or middle meaning (the subject is the patient or there is no clear agent). The perfect is formed with the auxiliary Template:Lang.
  • Transitive verbs take a grammatical object. The subject is the agent, and the object is either direct (patient) or indirect. The passive voice is formed with the auxiliary Template:Lang. The perfect is formed with the auxiliary Template:Lang when the direct object becomes subject, and with the auxiliary Template:Lang when the indirect object becomes subject. The perfect passive is formed with Template:Lang.
  • Ditransitive verbs take two grammatical objects, a direct object (patient) and an indirect object. These act like transitive verbs in most respects.
  • Middle verbs, also called verbs of innocence, are essentially transitive unaccusative verbs, and take a grammatical object. The perfect is formed with the auxiliary Template:Lang, while the passive is formed with Template:Lang and the perfect passive also with Template:Lang. The use of the perfect auxiliary Template:Lang carries an implication that the subject is not the direct initiator of the action or cannot or does not want to be held responsible for it. That includes verbs such as Template:Lang "to forget" and Template:Lang "to lose (an object)".
  • Reflexive verbs are accompanied by a reflexive pronoun as object
  • Impersonal verbs take only an indefinite pronoun Template:Lang (it) as subject
  • Absolute verbs are similar to unergatives, but they lack an impersonal passive form

Verbs can belong to several classes at once, depending on use. Specifically, many transitive verbs can also be used intransitively, and are thus ambitransitive. For example, Template:Lang "I eat an apple" contains a transitive verb, while Template:Lang "I eat" contains an unergative intransitive verb. Most ditransitive verbs can also be used as monotransitive verbs (with only one object, direct or indirect) or even as intransitives.

Whether an intransitive use is unergative or unaccusative depends both on the verb and on the meaning in which it is used. Generally, most transitive verbs become unergatives when the object is removed, and they are accusative verbs. However, there are also a sizable number of so-called ergative verbs, which become unaccusative when there is no object. Such verbs verbs thus switch from active to either passive or middle meaning when the object is dropped. Examples exist in both Dutch and English such as the transitive Template:Lang "I break the glass" and the unaccusative Template:Lang "the glass breaks". In both cases, the glass is the patient, but in the first case, it is the direct object, but in the second, it is the subject. The auxiliary Template:Lang of such verbs is used for both passive and intransitive use, which makes both uses essentially indistinguishable. The phrase Template:Lang can be interpreted as both "the glass has been broken" and "the glass is broken".

Alongside the normal conjugated verb forms, Dutch has a variety of verbal meanings that are expressed using auxiliary verbs or other additional words. The use of auxiliary verbs, particularly of the perfect tenses and the passive voice, if extant, depends on a verb's transitivity.

Perfect, future and passive

The perfect indicates that an action is complete. In Dutch the completion can take place in present, past, present future or past future:

The future tenses all take the auxiliary verb Template:Lang, cognate with English Template:Lang. The passive voice indicates that the subject undergoes the action rather than performing it itself. Both categories are formed with a variety of auxiliary verbs.

Verb type Present Perfect Passive Perfect passive
accusative transitive
Template:Lang 'to open' 		Template:Lang
'I am opening the box'. 		hebben
Template:Lang
'I opened the box.' 		worden
Template:Lang
'The box is (being) opened.' 		zijn
Template:Lang
'The box has been opened.'
ergative transitive
Template:Lang 'to break' 		Template:Lang
'I am breaking the glass'
Template:Lang
'The glass is breaking / breaks.' 		hebben
Template:Lang
'I broke the glass.' 		worden
Template:Lang
'The glass is (being) broken.' 		zijn
Template:Lang
'The glass has (been) broken.'
unergative intransitive
Template:Lang 'to bark' 		Template:Lang
'The dog is barking.' 		hebben
Template:Lang
'The dog barked.' 		worden
Template:Lang
≈ 'Barking can be heard.' 		zijn
Template:Lang
≈ 'Barking was heard.'
unaccusative intransitive
Template:Lang 'to fall' 		Template:Lang
'The tree is falling'. 		zijn
Template:Lang
'The tree fell.' 		— —

As can be seen in the table, in the case of unaccusative verbs, the auxiliary Template:Lang cannot be used for the perfect, unlike in English. Generally, they are verbs that describe a process (such as to happen, melt, or die) rather than an action. That means that there is no (clear) actor involved.

As in English, ergative verbs can occur both in a transitive (I break the glass) and in an unaccusative mode (the glass breaks). In Dutch the perfect of the latter takes Template:Lang 'to be', so that Template:Lang can either be seen as a perfect passive or as a perfect unaccusative. Dutch differs from German in that the latter language would add the participle Template:Lang to the passive sentence: Template:Lang.

Unergatives generally have passive forms, but they are impersonal. They typically take the adverb Template:Lang as a dummy subject and are hard to translate directly into English. Template:Lang means something like 'There's barking going on' or 'There's some dog barking'. Impersonal constructions of that kind are quite common in the language. The passives of transitive verbs can also be given an impersonal flavor by adding the dummy adverb Template:Lang, provided the subject is indefinite: Template:Lang 'There are boxes being opened' or 'Boxes are being opened'.

Verbs of motion like Template:Lang 'to walk', Template:Lang 'to swim', Template:Lang 'to ride, drive' typically occur as unaccusative / unergative pairs. If the motion is directional it is seen as a Template:Lang and the auxiliary is Template:Lang. If the motion is not directional it is seen as an action and the auxiliary verb is Template:Lang, unless the verb is used in the impersonal passive in which case it can take Template:Lang and Template:Lang.

directional
non-directional

Note also that the meanings of the formations that use Template:Lang correspond to the meaning of the past participle when used as an adjective. Thus, unergative verbs can never use Template:Lang as the auxiliary as their past participles cannot be used as adjectives. Furthermore, for ergative verbs, the passive does not differ significantly in meaning from the regular intransitive present tense. That is also true of English: a glass that Template:Lang is a glass that Template:Lang.

The forms listed above can occur in both present and past tense. The table lists the present tense forms, and the past tense is formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb in the past tense, which creates Template:Lang 'I had opened the box.' and so on.

When the perfect is created from a phrase that already uses an auxiliary verb, the auxiliary gets used in the infinitive form, rather than the past participle. That even causes some auxiliary verbs to have no past participle:

Ditransitive verbs

Ditransitive verbs carry both a direct and an indirect object. In English both objects can become the subject of a passive construction and the same auxiliary is used to form it:

  • I give the man a book
  • The man is given a book by me
  • A book is given to the man by me.

In Dutch a verb like Template:Lang (to donate) follows a similar pattern but the auxiliary Template:Lang (to get) is used for the pseudo-passive construction that renders the indirect object into the subject, whereas Template:Lang is used for passive involving the direct object:

  • Ik schenk de man een boek
  • De man krijgt van mij een boek geschonken
  • Een boek wordt door mij aan de man geschonken.

The following three groups of verbs only take the auxiliary Template:Lang in the perfect tenses.

Impersonal verbs

Impersonal verbs have no true subject but use a dummy subject pronoun Template:Lang ("it"). Such verbs often refer to conditions such as the weather:

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs take a reflexive pronoun like Template:Lang, Template:Lang or Template:Lang as their (dummy) direct object and take Template:Lang in the perfect. That contrasts with languages like French in which Template:Lang (to be) is used as perfect auxiliary.

  • Ik vergiste me (I mistook, made an error)
  • Ik heb me vergist

Some of them occur in pairs with a transitive form and replace the unaccusative component of an ergative.

  • Ratten verspreiden de ziekte – -(Rats spread the disease)
  • De ziekte verspreidt zich – (The disease is spreading)

There are no verbs that only occur in a reciprocal form, but those that can take the reciprocal pronoun Template:Lang (each other) also take Template:Lang in the perfect and thus behavie like reflexive ones.

  • Massa's trekken elkaar aan. – (Masses attract each other.)
  • De magneten hadden elkaar aangetrokken – (The magnets had attracted each other).
Absolute verbs

These verbs resemble the unergative ones except that they have no impersonal passive.

  • De zon schijnt – (The sun shines)
  • *Er wordt geschenen <- does not exist ->

Some of them may carry a direct object but they have neither a personal nor an impersonal passive:

  • Een jas aanhebben – (To wear a coat)
  • *Een jas wordt aangehad <- does not exist ->

Similarly, the past participle cannot be used as an adjective:

  • *De aangehadde jas <- does not exist ->

Future

Although the present tense can be used to indicate future events, there is also a more explicit future tense in Dutch. It is formed using the auxiliary Template:Lang ("will, shall, be going to"), which can be conjugated in both present and past tense. The "past future" carries a sense having pledged or promised to do something, or having been expected to do it, much as "was/were going to" does in English.

  • Template:Lang ("I will do it tomorrow." or "I am going to do it tomorrow.")
  • Template:Lang ("You were going to clean the windows yesterday!")

An alternative future tense is formed using Template:Lang ("to go") as the auxiliary. It is used in its literal meaning to indicate that one is moving to a place to perform an action, or is intending to do so ("be going to go"). More generally, it can indicate any kind of intention or plan to perform the action. It can also imply the start of an action in the future.

  • Template:Lang ("I'm going to go shopping with my friends tomorrow.")
  • Template:Lang ("For today the work is done; tomorrow they're going to continue working.")
  • Template:Lang ("It's going to start raining hard in a moment.")

Conditional

The conditional mood is formed using the past tense of Template:Lang, which is Template:Lang in the singular and Template:Lang in the plural. It is therefore somewhat analogous to the use of would in English, as the past tense of the future auxiliary will. The conditional is identical in form to the "past future" described above, but is always accompanied by some kind of condition that the verb depends on, usually introduced with conjunctions like Template:Lang ("if").

  • Template:Lang ("I would not do that if I were you.")
  • Template:Lang ("He would not have cleaned the windows, if they were not dirty.")

Note that Dutch does not have the strict rule "preterite in subclause, conditional in main clause" found in English. While such usage is most common, the reverse is also possible as is using the conditional or preterite in both clauses.

Progressive

The progressive aspect indicates that an action is ongoing and in progress. It is formed using Template:Lang + Template:Lang + infinitive of action verb. It is equivalent to the English 'be ...-ing' or 'be in the middle of ...-ing', but is not used as often.

Unlike in English, the progressive cannot be combined with the perfect to make a hypothetical "perfect progressive". Both "I have been eating" and "I had been eating" are expressed using the simple past tense form of the progressive: Template:Lang

A similar expression is Template:Lang + Template:Lang + infinitive of action verb or Template:Lang + action noun.

A different way to render progressive aspect is to use the (static) verbs Template:Lang 'to sit', Template:Lang 'to walk', Template:Lang 'to stand' and Template:Lang 'to lie' with Template:Lang + infinitive. Those verbs, when in the perfect, all use a double infinitive.

  • Template:Lang – 'I'm sat down eating' (UK) or 'I'm sitting here eating' (North America).
  • Template:Lang – 'I'm stood (here) cleaning windows' (UK) or 'I'm standing here cleaning windows' (North America).
  • Template:Lang – 'Jantje is sleeping'.

The literal meaning of the verbs to sit or to stand etc. is often secondary to their durative aspect.

Numerals

Dutch uses a decimal numeral system. Numerals are not inflected.

0–9

The numbers from 0 to 9 are:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
nul een twee drie vier vijf zes zeven acht negen

Template:Lang is the same word as the indefinite article in the written language. When confusion is possible, the number is often written as Template:Lang to distinguish it from the article. The pronunciation differentiates them in speech: the article is Template:IPA, the numeral is Template:IPA.

10–19

The numbers 10, 11 and 12 are irregular. 13 to 19 are formed by adding Template:Lang ("-teen") to the base number. Two are slightly irregular: 13 is Template:Lang with metathesis (compare English Template:Lang), and 14 is Template:Lang.

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
tien elf twaalf dertien veertien vijftien zestien zeventien achttien negentien

20–99

The decades 20 to 90 are formed by adding Template:Lang ("-ty") to the base number. However, some are slightly irregular: 20 is Template:Lang, 30 and 40 are Template:Lang and Template:Lang (comparable to 13 and 14 above), 80 is Template:Lang. The remaining decades, although spelled beginning with Template:Lang and Template:Lang, are often pronounced beginning with voiceless Template:IPA and Template:IPA even in dialects that normally do not devoice those consonants.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
tien twintig dertig veertig vijftig zestig zeventig tachtig negentig

Combinations of a decade and a unit are constructed in a regular way: the unit comes first, followed by Template:Lang ("and"), followed by the decade. No spaces are written between them, and a diaeresis is added when necessary. For example:

Hundreds

100 is Template:Lang. Multiples of 100 are expressed by placing the multiple before Template:Lang, without any spaces: 200 Template:Lang, 300 Template:Lang and so on. Sometimes multiples higher than 10 can be used as synonyms for the thousands, such as 1100 Template:Lang, 2500 Template:Lang.

Combinations of a hundred and a lower number are expressed by just placing them together, with the hundred coming first. Sometimes, Template:Lang is added in between, but that is optional and no longer commonly done.

Thousands

The number 1000 is Template:Lang. Unlike in English, it is not preceded by an article. The same system used for naming the hundreds applies to the thousands as well, so multiples of 1000 are expressed by writing the multiple right before: 2000 Template:Lang, 3000 Template:Lang, 20000 Template:Lang, 999000 Template:Lang.

Combinations of a thousand and a lower number are expressed by placing them together, with the thousand coming first. A space is written between them.

Millions and above

Dutch always uses the long scale system.

Multiples of any of them are similar to the thousands, but a space is written between the multiple and the "million": 2 000 000 Template:Lang, 420 000 000 000 Template:Lang. If the multiple is 1, it must also be present, unlike with the thousands where it is left out: 1 000 000 Template:Lang.

Combinations with lower numbers are much the same as with the thousands.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers behave and inflect like superlative adjectives. Unlike normal adjectives, they always appear in the inflected form; always ending in Template:Lang ignoring whether the following noun is neuter or not, and are usually preceded by a definite article of some kind.

The ordinal adjectives are formed by adding either Template:Lang or Template:Lang to the base number. Which one is added depends on the word. The numbers 1 and 3 have irregular ordinals.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
eerste tweede derde vierde vijfde zesde zevende achtste negende
10th 11th 12th 13–19th 20–90th 100th 1 000th 1 000 000th+ 1 000 000 000th+
tiende elfde twaalfde -tiende -tigste honderdste duizendste -joenste -jardste

When a number is composed of multiple parts, the ending is added only to the last part of the word, and follows the rules for that word. Thus, 21st Template:Lang, 409th Template:Lang, 9001st Template:Lang.

Fractional numbers

Fractional numbers are expressed using a cardinal number for the numerator, and an ordinal for the denominator, like in English.

1/2 and 1/4 are Template:Lang ("a half") and Template:Lang ("a quarter") respectively, although the regular Template:Lang and Template:Lang are also possible, but rarer. In 3/4, the space is often left out: Template:Lang.

When combined with a full cardinal, the full cardinal comes first and they are separated by Template:Lang and spaces. The word Template:Lang can be left out if the numerator is not 1.

The combination 1 1/2 is usually expressed irregularly as Template:Lang, which literally means "other half" (Template:Lang was originally a synonym of Template:Lang, and the combination meant "second, minus a half").

Iterative numbers

These express repetition, like "once" or "five times". They are formed with a cardinal number followed by Template:Lang or Template:Lang (both meaning "times").

The space is often left out for the combinations Template:Lang ("once"), Template:Lang ("twice") and Template:Lang ("thrice"), but not with Template:Lang.

There are also ordinal forms of those forms. They express an iteration within a sequence of repetitions. They are formed with an ordinal instead of a cardinal, and act as masculine nouns.

Multiplicative numbers

They express a multiple of something. They are formed with the suffix Template:Lang '-fold' and are neuter nouns.

For the number 1, Template:Lang 'singular(ity), a onefold' is used, which is derived from Template:Lang 'single' rather than Template:Lang. The "regular" form Template:Lang instead means 'simpleness, uncomplicatedness, ease'.

Adjectives are formed by adding Template:Lang to form the combination Template:Lang.

Again, Template:Lang 'single, simple, onefold' is used for 1, and Template:Lang means 'simple, uncomplicated, easy'. Alternatively, the word Template:Lang 'single' can be used alone. A synonym for Template:Lang is Template:Lang.

Template:Main

Notes

Template:Reflist

See also

References

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  • Audring, Jenny. “Pronominal Gender in Spoken Dutch”, Journal of Germanic Linguistics 18, no. 2 (2006): 85–116.
  • Broekhuis, Hans et al. Syntax of Dutch: nouns and noun phrases. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012.
  • Broekhuis, Hans et al. Syntax of Dutch: verbs and verb phrases. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015.
  • Donaldson, Bruce. Dutch: a comprehensive grammar, 3rd edn. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2017.
  • Fehringer, Carol. A reference grammar of Dutch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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  • Oosterhoff, Jenneke. Modern Dutch grammar: a practical guide. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2015.
  • Shetter, William Z. & Esther Ham. Dutch: an essential grammar, 10th edn. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
  • Spaans, Yolande. A practical Dutch grammar, 3rd unrevised edn. Leiden: Primavera Pers, 2013.
  • van Riemsdijk, Henk. A Case Study in Syntactic Markedness: The Binding Nature of Prepositional Phrases. Dordrecht: Foris, 1978.
  • van Riemsdijk, Henk, ed. Clitics in the languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1999. Template:ISBN

Template:Language grammars

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