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. There is an additional rule called V2 in main clauses, which moves the finite verb into the second position in the sentence. That makes sentences with only one verb appear with SVO or VSO order.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...
In subordinate clauses, the order is exclusively SOV. In subordinate clauses two word orders are possible for the verb clusters and are referred to as the "red": omdat ik heb gewerkt, "because I have worked": as in English, where the auxiliary verb precedes the past participle, and the "green": omdat ik gewerkt heb, where the past participle precedes the auxiliary verb, "because I worked have": as in German. 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. Unlike in English, however, adjectives and adverbs must precede the verb: dat het boek groen is, "that the book is green". For an explanation of verb clusters of three or more see: V2 word order
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?"
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.
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:
Adjectives always come before the noun to which they belong.
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:
Nouns
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 -en or -s, 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:- Single-syllable words, which are common in Dutch, normally use -en:
- * deur "door" → deuren
- * boot "boat" → boten
- * huis "house" → huizen
- * dief "thief" → dieven
- Words ending in a schwa often use -s, but a sizable number use -n, particularly if they are older. Some nouns may allow either ending. Nouns that are substantivised forms of adjectives always use -n.
- * tante "aunt" → tantes
- * chocolade "chocolate" → chocolades
- * bode "messenger" → boden or bodes
- * oxide "oxide" → oxiden
- * grote "great one" → groten
- Relatively modern words ending in a long vowel use -'s, but if they end in -ee or -é then no apostrophe is used. Older ones generally use -en or -ën.
- * baby "baby" → baby's
- * café "café, bar, pub" → cafés
- * pizza "pizza" → pizza's
- * radio "radio" → radio's
- * ree "roe" → reeën
- * la "drawer" → laden
- Words ending in unstressed -el or -er usually use -s. If -en is allowed it tends to be more archaic or poetic.
- * akker "agricultural field" → akkers
- * appel "apple" → appels or appelen
- * lepel "spoon" → lepels
- * sleutel "key" → sleutels
- * vader "father" → vaders or vaderen
- Initialisms follow the rules for whatever the final syllable suggests, usually by adding -s but occasionally -en:
- * APK "vehicle inspection" → APK's
- * cd "CD" → cd's
- * sms "text message" → sms'en
- * BMX "BMX" → BMX'en
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 i is lengthened in that way, it becomes long e.- dag "day" → dagen "days"
- gebrek "lack, deficiency" → gebreken "deficiencies"
- schip "ship" → schepen "ships"
- slot "lock" → sloten "locks"
The noun stad "town, city" has vowel alternation in the plural alongside lengthening: steden "towns, cities". The plural of nouns ending in the suffix -heid "-ness, -hood" is irregular -heden.
Plurals in
A few neuter nouns have a plural in -eren. The ending derives from the old Germanic "z-stem" nouns and is cognate with the English -ren. The following nouns have that type of plural:- been "bone" → beenderen
- blad "leaf" → bladeren
- ei "egg" → eieren
- gelid "rank, file" → gelederen
- gemoed "mood, emotion" → gemoederen
- goed "good" → goederen
- hoen "fowl" → hoenderen
- kalf "calf" → kalveren
- kind "child" → kinderen
- kleed "cloth" → klederen or kleren "clothes"
- lam "lamb" → lammeren
- lied "song" → liederen
- rad "wheel" → raderen
- rund "cattle" → runderen
- volk "people, nation" → volkeren
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 -en or -s can also be used.- museum "museum" → musea or museums
- politicus "politician" → politici
- elektron → elektronen
- doctor → doctoren
- graviton → gravitonen
- reactor → reactoren
- harddisk → harddisks
- bonbon → bonbons
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 -tje or with -ke. The former is the standard way, and the latter is found in some dialects, mostly in the South. The diminutive on -ke is common in informal Belgian Dutch. All diminutives have neuter gender, whatever the gender of the original noun. The plural is always formed with -s.
Diminutive in
The basic suffix -tje is modified in different ways depending on the final sounds of the noun it is attached to.The -t- is removed from the ending when added to words ending in a fricative or plosive.
- hond → hondje
- brief → briefje
- hok → hokje
- vis → visje
- douche → doucheje
- race → raceje
When the vowel of the last syllable is both short and stressed and it is followed by a sonorant, an extra schwa -e- is inserted, giving -etje.
- kom → kommetje
- pil → pilletje
- lam → lammetje
- ding → dingetje
- vriendin → vriendinnetje
- baron → baronnetje
- Words ending in a stressed tense/long vowel or diphthong.
- Words ending in any unstressed vowel.
- Words ending in one of the above types of vowel, followed by -l, -n, -r.
- Words ending in one of the above types of vowel, followed by -m. The resulting combination -mtje is assimilated to -mpje.
- Words ending in one of the above types of vowel, followed by -ng. The resulting combination -ngtje is assimilated to -nkje.
- 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
- bloem → bloemetje or bloempje
- wiel → wieltje or wieletje
Diminutive in
In the south, the ending -ke is often used instead. It also has different forms depending on the preceding sounds, with rules very similar to those for the -tje ending.An older form of the ending was -ken, which is more like its German cognate -chen. 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 Manneken Pis.
When the word ends in a velar consonant, an extra dissimilative -s- is inserted, giving -ske.
- dag → dagske
- lach → lachske
- stok → stokske
- ding → dingske
- koning → koningske
- Words ending in a non-velar plosive.
- Words ending in -n, which is not a velar itself but would assimilate to one before the following -k-.
- Words ending in -m, -l or -r preceded by a stressed short vowel.
- hond → hondeke
- voet → voeteke
- map → mappeke
- boon → boneke
- bon → bonneke
- kom → kommeke
- hol → holleke
- bar → barreke
- Words ending in a vowel.
- Words ending in a non-velar fricative.
- Words ending in -m, -l, -r preceded by a long vowel, diphthong, or unstressed vowel.
- mama → mamake
- koe → koeke
- slof → slofke
- doos → dooske
- school → schoolke
- muur → muurke
- boom → boomke
- bodem → bodemke
Vowel alternation in diminutives
Standard Dutch and most other dialects do not use vowel alternation as a grammatical marker. However, some eastern dialects have regular vowel alternation 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:- man → menneke
- boom → beumke
- pop → pupke
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:- blad "leaf; sheet of paper" → blaadje "small leaf; folio", in plural also bladertjes
- dag "day" → dagje "short day", in plural also daagjes
- glas "drinking glass" → glaasje "small glass"
- kind "child" → kindje "toddler", in plural also kindertjes
- pad "path" → paadje "narrow or short path"
- rad "wheel" → radje or radertje "little wheel"
- schip "ship" → scheepje "little ship"
- spel "game" → speeltje "toy"
- vat "barrel" → vaatje "small barrel"
Cases
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, genitive, dative and accusative. 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:- Genitive: de dag des oordeels "judgement day", Koninkrijk der Nederlanden "Kingdom of the Nederlands"
- Dative: in feite "in fact", heden ten dage "nowadays", bij dezen "hereby"
- Accusative: op den duur "eventually", goedenavond "good evening"
Cases are still occasionally used productively, which are often calques of existing phrases. That is particularly true of the genitive case, 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 des and the corresponding noun ending -s with the article der used for feminine or plural nouns.
Articles
Dutch has both a definite article and an indefinite article.| 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 |
Het and een are normally pronounced and, only emphatically as and, respectively. They may sometimes also be contracted in spelling to reflect this: 't, 'n.
There is no indefinite article in the plural, the noun is just used on its own. However, there is a negative indefinite article geen. Similarly to een it is invariable, showing no inflection for gender or number.
- Dat is geen man
- Dat is geen vrouw
- Dat is geen huis
- Dat zijn geen mannen
- Ik heb geen water
Adjectives and adverbs
Within the Dutch noun phrase, adjectives are placed in front of the noun and after the article.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, 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 -e. 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:
- de kleine man — de man is klein
- kleine huizen — huizen zijn klein
- de houten stoel
- het stenen huis
- de gebroken lampen
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:- het openbaar vervoer
- het openbare vervoer
- het groot woordenboek van de Nederlandse taal
- het grote woordenboek van de Nederlandse taal
- het Burgerlijk Wetboek
- een talentvol schrijver — een talentvolle schrijver
- een groot man — een grote man — een grote vrouw
Partitive
Adjectives have a special form called the partitive that is used after an indefinite pronoun such as iets 'something', niets 'nothing', veel 'much, a lot', weinig 'little, a few'. The partitive form takes the ending -s.- Vertel me iets interessants.
- Ik heb iemand nieuws leren kennen.
- Ik heb iets paars aangetrokken.
- Er is niet veel fantastisch aan.
- Ik vond paars niet zo mooi, dus heb ik nu iets lila
' s.
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.- Dat is een snelle auto. De auto rijdt snel.
- Wij werden vriendelijk begroet door die vriendelijke mensen.
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.
- * Je kunt deze auto kopen in verschillende kleuren. Wil je de groene, de blauwe of de gele?
- * Wij hebben drie kinderen, twee grote en een kleine.
- The adjective is used as a masculine/feminine noun in its own right, usually referring to a person. The -e will always be added, even to adjectives that already end in -en. The plural is formed with -n.
- * Je rijdt als een blinde!
- * Waar ben je, mijn geliefde?
- * Laat de gevangene vrij!
- * De rijken moeten de armen helpen.
- The adjective is used as a neuter mass noun describing a concept.
- * Ik kan geen antwoord geven, omdat ik het gevraagde niet begrijp.
- * Angst voor het onbekende is heel gewoon.
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 meer "more" and meest "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.The comparative is formed by adding -er to the base form. For adjectives that end in -r, the comparative is formed by adding -der 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.
- Ik ben groot, maar jij bent groter.
- Dit speelgoed kan gevaarlijk zijn voor kleinere kinderen.
- Deze jas is duurder.
- Heb je niets goedkopers?
- Dat heb je nog fantastischer gedaan dan de vorige keer!
- De Mont Blanc is de hoogste berg van de Alpen.
- Dit is het vieste toilet dat ik ooit heb gezien.
- Deze jas is de duurste.
- Dit huis is het grootste.
- Deze jas is het duurst.
- Dit huis is het grootst.
- Onze auto rijdt het hardst van allemaal.
Some comparatives and superlatives are irregular and suppletive. they use a different root from the base form.
- goed, beter, best 'good/well, better, best'
- veel, meer, meest 'much/many, more, most'
- weinig, minder, minst 'little/few, less/fewer, least/fewest'
- graag, liever, liefst 'willingly/gladly, rather/more preferably, most preferably'
- dikwijls, vaker, vaakst 'often, more often, most often'
- dichtbij, dichterbij, dichtstbij 'close/nearby, closer, closest'
- dichtbevolkt, dichter bevolkt, dichtstbevolkt 'densely populated, more densely populated, most densely populated'
Pronouns and determiners
Personal pronouns
As in English, Dutch personal pronouns still retain a distinction in case: the nominative, genitive and accusative/dative. A distinction was once prescribed between the accusative 3rd person plural pronoun hen and the dative hun, 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 du / doe 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: gij in the South, jij 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, thou, 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 u was introduced, which made jij distinctly informal. A new second-person plural pronoun was created by adding lie "people" to the old singular. This created jullie, an informal pronoun when speaking to many people. The formal pronoun u is used for both singular and plural.
- In the South, the older situation remained in many dialects, and gij is then still a neutral way to speak to a person in those dialects. However, informal jij and formal u 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 gijlie or similar in the South for the second person plural, and also hullie for the third person plural, which later became a standard in Afrikaans. Those forms are not part of standard Dutch.
In addition to hij, zij, and het having unstressed counterparts, they are themselves in a technical way unstressed forms of the demonstrative pronouns; het is an unstressed form of dat, and the others are forms of die. It is formal and normal to replace those personal pronouns with demonstrative pronouns.Die houdt van melk. Dat is zeer snel.
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 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, hen is accusative and is to be used for the direct object, and hun 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 hun and hen are interchangeable in normal usage, with hun being more common. The shared unstressed form ze is also often used as both direct and indirect objects and is a useful avoidance strategy when people are unsure which form to use.
In the West and among younger speakers, in informal spoken language, hun is also used as a subject pronoun by some. This is considered heavily stigmatised and substandard.
Possessive determiners
Possessive determiners also have stressed and unstressed forms, like the pronouns.Possessive determiners are not inflected when used attributively, unlike adjectives. Thus:
- Hij is mijn man.
- Dat is mijn huis.
- ons grote huis
- onze grote huizen.
Before the case system was abolished from written Dutch, and in southern spoken language, all possessive determiners inflect as indefinite adjectives, not only ons. 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.
When the demonstrative pronoun is used exophorically with a copula verb, the "uninflected" forms dit and dat are always used:Dit is mijn nieuwe auto. Ik heb deze gisteren gekocht. Even though auto is of common gender and otherwise requires the form deze. In this sentence, the first pronoun is exophoric, while the second one refers back to auto. 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 adverbsA 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 thereby, herewith and whereupon.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:
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 het 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 met dewelke is distinctly dated and usually replaced by waarmee. 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 overal, ergens and nergens are separated from the prepositional part by a space, while the other four are joined to it. For example:
Conversely, there are a number of prepositional adverbs like heen or af 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.Daar reken ik op., they can be combined too: Daarop reken ik. or Ik reken daarop.
VerbsDutch 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:
ConjugationDutch conjugation resembles that of other continental West Germanic languages such as 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: [Germanic Germanic weak verb|weak verb|weak] and strong. Preterite-present verbs are also present, but can be considered irregular. All regular verbs conjugate the same in the present tense, so the weak versus strong distinction only matters for the past tense.The following is a general overview of the endings: Weak verbs are the most common type of verb in Dutch, and the only productive type. They form their past tense with an ending containing a dental consonant, -d- or -t-. Which of the two is used depends on the final consonant of the verb stem. If the stem ends in a voiceless consonant, then -t- is used, otherwise -d-. It is often summarised with the mnemonic "'t kofschip": if the verb stem ends with one of the consonants of 't kofschip, then the past tense will have -t-. However, it also applies for c, q and x and any other letter that is voiceless in pronunciation.
Examples:
The additional -t of the second-person gij form is optional in the past tense for weak verbs and is usually considered archaic. For strong verbs, the -t is always required. Modal verbsLike English, Dutch uses modal verbs, such as kunnen, mogen, zullen, moeten, and willen. 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 gaan, komen, and similar verbs if a modal verb is finite and there is a preposition.
Non-finite formsDutch possesses present and past participles.Present participleThe 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.
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 participleThe 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 or passive, depending on the type of verb:
InfinitiveVerb phrasesThe 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.
TransitivityDepending 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 perfect is formed with the auxiliary hebben. They have an impersonal passive voice.Unaccusative intransitive verbs do not take a grammatical object and have passive or middle meaning. The perfect is formed with the auxiliary zijn.Transitive verbs take a grammatical object. The subject is the agent, and the object is either direct or indirect. The passive voice is formed with the auxiliary worden. The perfect is formed with the auxiliary hebben when the direct object becomes subject, and with the auxiliary krijgen when the indirect object becomes subject. The perfect passive is formed with zijn.Ditransitive verbs take two grammatical objects, a direct object 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 zijn, while the passive is formed with worden and the perfect passive also with zijn. The use of the perfect auxiliary zijn 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 vergeten "to forget" and verliezen "to lose ".Reflexive verbs are accompanied by a reflexive pronoun as objectImpersonal verbs take only an indefinite pronoun het as subjectAbsolute verbs are similar to unergatives, but they lack an impersonal passive formVerbs 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, ik eet een appel "I eat an apple" contains a transitive verb, while ik eet "I eat" contains an unergative intransitive verb. Most ditransitive verbs can also be used as monotransitive verbs 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 ik breek het glas "I break the glass" and the unaccusative het glas breekt "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 zijn of such verbs is used for both passive and intransitive use, which makes both uses essentially indistinguishable. The phrase het glas is gebroken 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 passiveThe perfect indicates that an action is complete. In Dutch the completion can take place in present, past, present future or past future:
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.
As can be seen in the table, in the case of unaccusative verbs, the auxiliary hebben cannot be used for the perfect, unlike in English. Generally, they are verbs that describe a process rather than an action. That means that there is no actor involved. As in English, ergative verbs can occur both in a transitive and in an unaccusative mode. In Dutch the perfect of the latter takes zijn 'to be', so that het glas is gebroken 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 worden to the passive sentence: Das Glas ist gebrochen worden. Unergatives generally have passive forms, but they are impersonal. They typically take the adverb er as a dummy subject and are hard to translate directly into English. Er wordt geblaft 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 er, provided the subject is indefinite: Er worden dozen geopend 'There are boxes being opened' or 'Boxes are being opened'. Verbs of motion like lopen 'to walk', zwemmen 'to swim', rijden 'to ride, drive' typically occur as unaccusative / unergative pairs. If the motion is directional it is seen as a process and the auxiliary is zijn. If the motion is not directional it is seen as an action and the auxiliary verb is hebben, unless the verb is used in the impersonal passive in which case it can take worden and zijn. ;directional
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 Ik had de doos geopend. '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:
Impersonal verbsImpersonal verbs have no true subject but use a dummy subject pronoun het. Such verbs often refer to conditions such as the weather:
FutureAlthough 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 zullen, 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.
ConditionalThe conditional mood is formed using the past tense of zullen, which is zou in the singular and zouden 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 als.
ProgressiveThe progressive aspect indicates that an action is ongoing and in progress. It is formed using zijn + aan het + 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.
A similar expression is bezig + zijn te + infinitive of action verb or bezig zijn met + action noun.
NumeralsDutch uses a decimal numeral system. Numerals are not inflected.0–9The numbers from 0 to 9 are:
een is the same word as the indefinite article in the written language. When confusion is possible, the number is often written as één to distinguish it from the article. The pronunciation differentiates them in speech: the article is, the numeral is. 10–19The numbers 10, 11 and 12 are irregular. 13 to 19 are formed by adding -tien to the base number. Two are slightly irregular: 13 is dertien with metathesis, and 14 is veertien.
20–99The decades 20 to 90 are formed by adding -tig to the base number. However, some are slightly irregular: 20 is twintig, 30 and 40 are dertig and veertig, 80 is tachtig. The remaining decades, although spelled beginning with v and z, are often pronounced beginning with voiceless and even in dialects that normally do not devoice those consonants.
Combinations of a decade and a unit are constructed in a regular way: the unit comes first, followed by en, followed by the decade. No spaces are written between them, and a diaeresis is added when necessary. For example:
Hundreds100 is honderd. Multiples of 100 are expressed by placing the multiple before honderd, without any spaces: 200 tweehonderd, 300 driehonderd and so on. Sometimes multiples higher than 10 can be used as synonyms for the thousands, such as 1100 elfhonderd, 2500 vijfentwintighonderd.Combinations of a hundred and a lower number are expressed by just placing them together, with the hundred coming first. Sometimes, en is added in between, but that is optional and no longer commonly done.
ThousandsThe number 1000 is duizend. 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 tweeduizend, 3000 drieduizend, 20000 twintigduizend, 999000 negenhonderdnegenennegentigduizend.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 aboveDutch always uses the long scale system.
Combinations with lower numbers are much the same as with the thousands.
Ordinal numbersOrdinal numbers behave and inflect like superlative adjectives. Unlike normal adjectives, they always appear in the inflected form; always ending in -e 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 -de or -ste to the base number. Which one is added depends on the word. The numbers 1 and 3 have irregular ordinals.
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 eenentwintigste, 409th vierhonderdnegende, 9001st negenduizend eerste. Fractional numbersFractional numbers are expressed using a cardinal number for the numerator, and an ordinal for the denominator, like in English.
When combined with a full cardinal, the full cardinal comes first and they are separated by en and spaces. The word en can be left out if the numerator is not 1.
Iterative numbersThese express repetition, like "once" or "five times". They are formed with a cardinal number followed by maal or keer.
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 numbersThey express a multiple of something. They are formed with the suffix -voud '-fold' and are neuter nouns.
Adjectives are formed by adding -ig to form the combination -voudig.
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