Dutch Grammar - Nouns

Nouns

In Dutch, nouns generally describe persons, places, things, and abstract ideas, and are treated as grammatically distinct from verbs. Nouns are marked for number and size.

In standard Dutch (formerly known as Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands; General Civilized Dutch) there are 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, nowadays being adjectivally inflected in the same manner. In Belgian-Dutch the distinction between masculine and feminine gender often remains when referring to pronouns and in certain Belgian Dutch dialectal forms of standard Dutch, the distinction survives with the use of inflected articles and adjectives. The gender of a word determines the articles used with it and the pronouns referring to it. Masculine and feminine nouns are usually collectively called de-words, and neuter nouns are called het-words, in accordance with the definite article used with them. Traditionally, pronouns used for masculine nouns are hij/hem/zijn, feminine zij/haar, neuter het/zijn. In the Netherlands, but not in Flanders, awareness of the distinction between masculine and feminine nouns disappeared in the 1600s. Commonly used feminine nouns still take feminine gender in writing in the Netherlands, but rather than this being a grammatical function, it is usually analyzed as a poetic function, in a similar way that English refers to "ship" with the pronoun "she". This goes so far that in the Netherlands a referent such as a cow is often referred to with he, even though the animal is biologically feminine.

For nouns ending in a strong syllable (including all monosyllabic words), the plural is formed by addition of -en. Exception to this rule are kinship terms broer ("brother") and oom ("uncle"). Several other rule-based changes in the word may take place at the same time: if a double vowel occurs in the final syllable of a word, it will become a single vowel as a result of the closed syllable becoming open (boot → boten), the sound itself is still the same: because the syllable becomes open, it is no longer necessary to write the vowel double; final consonants are often duplicated to preserve the short vowel sound (schil → schillen), and for words that end in /z/ and /v/ underlyingly, final -s and -f sounds are changed into -z- and -v- (huis → huizen, hoef → hoeven). A remnant of this pattern exists in English: dief - "thief", dieven, - "thieves". The usage of -s and -f in the orthography of the singular forms reflects final devoicing, which is not applicable in the plural forms. For nouns ending in a weak syllable, the plural is usually formed by addition of -s (or -'s, if the noun ends in a long vowel), with some exceptions. For a number of nouns of Latin origin, the Latin plural may be used (museum → musea, politicus → politici). Words ending in -heid get a plural in -heden. Some nouns, such as stad → steden and schip → schepen, have irregular plurals.

For proper nouns (names), possessive forms can be formed by addition of -s, or if the pronunciation is affected, by addition of -'s.

Genitive noun forms are essentially archaic and not part of common usage anymore. The only common exceptions of this are certain fixed expressions (e.g. "De dag des oordeels", Judgement day; "Het Leger des Heils", The Salvation Army), and sometimes plural genitives in combination with the genitive form of the definite article, "der". For example the official name of the Netherlands in Dutch is "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden", Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is declined for the genitive plural. In common usage of language, genitive forms are formed by usage of the word "van," in essentially the same way that "of" is used in English.

The adjective still forms a partive genitive after words that indicate a quantity, like wat,iets,veel:

veel liefs (a lot of love)

iets zoets (something sweet)

Archaic genitive forms may still appear in writing, where they are usually employed to make an article sound more "bookish" or academic. However, many writers are totally unaware of the historical distinction between masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive case (where the article is "des", the noun declines by taking an "-s" ending, and adjectives inflect by taking "-en" endings); and between feminine and plural nouns (where the article is der, nouns take zero endings and adjectives inflect by taking "-e" endings). Because of this, grammatically incorrect constructions can appear and using the genitive for this purpose is discouraged and generally seen as somewhat pompous.

For example, one might see a title such as:

De Geschiedenis Der Nederlandse Film

(The History GEN FEM-Dutch GEN FEM-Film)

The History of Dutch Film

‘Modern’ Dutch: De Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Film

where "Film" is declined as a feminine gender noun, and "Nederlandse" inflected likewise.

Written correctly, it should read:

De Geschiedenis Des Nederlandsen Films

(The History GEN MAS-Dutch GEN MAS-Film)

The History of Dutch Film

‘Modern’ Dutch: De Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Film

as "film" in Dutch is historically a masculine noun . Notwithstanding however, this formal use of the Genitive case, associated with bookishness and higher learning, probably persists as one tends to encounter it in institutions of higher learning. For example, all the faculties of the University of Leiden have names which are declined in the Genitive case, as well as in religious usage where use of the genitive can play a somewhat similar function in making language sound more formal and respectful as the use of the archaic pronoun "thou/thee/thy", with subsequent conjugation of the verb in "-st" (e.g. "thou seest") does in religious usage in English.