Dutch grammar

## Introduction

This is the wiki page for Dutch grammar. Dutch grammar is generally considered easy for an English speaker so it should not be too difficult. This is mostly an overview or a reference page. This is not intended to be an extensive guide and you're probably best of using course book. I will assume that you already know the Dutch alphabet and spelling rules.

**This page is not even close to completion**

Subjects are marked based of difficulty as follows:

★ :Lower beginner (Partially covered)

★★: Upper beginner (Partially covered)

★★★: Lower intermediate (Partially covered)

★★★★: Upper intermediate (Not covered yet)

★★★★★: Advanced (Not covered yet)

A plus-sign (+) marks that Dutch natives often do this wrong, even if it is a relatively easy subject

Furthermore,

"1" Denotes that the second form is informal but very common

"2" Denotes that the second form is informal and officially wrong

## Adjectives

### Adjective conjugation★+

In Dutch, Adjectives are sometimes conjugated and may have an extra -e

* Adjectives followed by het-words in the plural form
* Adjectives followed by het-words if the sentence is genitive

## Articles

Just like other Germanic languages, Dutch distinguishes between definite and indefinite articles:

### Definite articles★+

Dutch has 2 types of definite articles. One for male or female nouns (De), and one for neuter nouns (Het). Like French and German, there are no exact rules, but there are some general rules of thumb:

* Plurals always use "De"
* Diminutives are **always** neuter
* Names of language are often neuter. ( Het Nederlands)
* Words that end on  -isme, -ment, -sel or -um are also often Neuter
* Most words that represent people (especially female forms of those nouns) are often male/female
* **German speakers**: German words and Dutch words often have the same Gender. Words that are neuter in German are **often** neuter in Dutch as well

If you still aren't sure there are various sites like:https://www.welklidwoord.nl/, https://volkabulaire.nl/de-of-het/ or https://webwoordenboek.nl/ that show what definite article a word has.

### Indefinite articles★

The indefinite article is always *een* and is used in almost all contexts where you would use "A" in English.

#### één

You may have noticed that the Dutch indefinite article and word for "one" are the exact same word (*een*). This luckily is not much of a problem because they are used in similar situations. If someone still wants to place emphasis that it's "One" and not "A" they may use *één* for emphasis, this is not common in informal speech though.

##### **Example**

Hij had maar een uur nodig! (He only needed an hour)

Hij had maar één uur nodig! (He only needed ONE hour)

## Nouns

### Personal pronouns★

Dutch personal pronouns are somewhat similar to English and German ones. And just like in German and English they may not be omitted in combination with Verbs.

#### Nominative

Singular

e
n
d
e
r
 Female
 Neuter

Plural

e
n
d
e
r

#### Accusative

Singular

 Female
 Neuter

Plural

 Female
 Neuter

### Possesive pronouns ★

Possesive pronouns indicate (obvious) possesion

### Accusative pronouns ★

Accusative pronouns denote accusative functions in a sentence, just like English, Dutch does not have an accusative case beyond these pronouns

#### Singular

 F
 N

### Plurals ★

Plurals in Dutch are fairly easy for an English speaker and should mostly be fairly straightforward

-En or -S

Most nouns on these letters, there are no set rules for when a plural ends in one instead of another.

#### -'S

" 'S " is for Plurals that would normally be written with an "s" without an apostrophe, but need the apostrophe for pronunciation and spelling purposes, Particularly for nouns that end on long vowels that would become short vowels if the "s" was added without an apostrophe

##### Examples

Auto - Auto's (Auto ends on a long vowel)

Baby - Baby's (Baby ends on an y)

More explanation on those spelling rules in the Dutch spelling page, coming *soon*tm

#### -Us

Words that end on -Us end on -I in the plural form just like in Latin and English

#### -Um

Nouns that en on -Um end on -A in the plural form

### Diminutives ★★★

Turning a word into a diminutive is basically adding a suffix (-Je, -Etje, -Tje, -Kje or -Pje) to a noun to imply that the noun is smaller than it would normally be, it's difficult to explain so here are some examples

Hond - Dog

Hondje - Little Dog

Huis - House

Huisje - Small house

etc.

#### -Je, -Tje, -Etje, -Kje or -Pje ?

**-Je**

Nouns that end on p, t, k, d, s or f get a -je suffix

**-Tje**

words that end on any vowel, or a long vowel followed by a "r" or "l" get a -Tje suffix

**-Etje**

Short vowels followed by r, l, n, m or ng get an -Etje suffix

**-Kje**

words that end on -ing get a -Kje suffix and the last "g" gets removed

**-Pje**

Nouns that end on a long vowel followed by a "m" get a -Pje suffix

## Verbs

### Regular verbs (Present simple)★

Regular verbs go according to this table:

 S.1
 S. 2

**Bold** marks the endings

### Common irregular verbs★ (partially finished)

#### Hebben (to have)

 S.1
 S.2
 S.3
 P.1
 P.2
 P.3

**Note:**  The 3rd Person singular form(Hij heeft) is the only irregular one

#### Willen (to want)

 S.1
 S.2
 S.3
 P.1
 P.2
 P.3

**Note:**  The 3rd Person singular form(Hij wil) is the only irregular one

## Word order

### SVO2 word order ★★

The Dutch word order follows the SVO2, and because Dutch and German are the only languages that use it, it might be difficult for you to wrap their head around.

In short, Dutch sentences are formed according to the following pattern:

Subject+Auxiliary verb+Object+Location/Time/+Other Verbs

#### Examples

(In the following examples the Auxiliary verbs are **bold** and other verbs are in *Italics)*

Hij **wil** straks *fietsen*  ( he wants to ride his bike later)

Hij **Moet** alleen *werken* (He has to work alone)

###