Archaic Dutch Declension - Nouns

Nouns

In Dutch nouns are inflected in some cases. Most Dutch masculine and neuter nouns have four forms, e.g. huis, huize, huizes, huizen. These nouns are called strong nouns (sterke zelfstandige naamwoorden). Feminine and plural nouns have three forms over four cases: vrouw, vrouwe, vrouwen. These are feminine nouns (vrouwelijke zelfstandige naamwoorden) (with the exception of female names, these are strong). Certain masculine nouns have three forms, e.g. de mens, den mens, den mense, des mensen (plural de mensen, den mensen, der mensen). These nouns are called weak nouns (zwakke substantieven). A single neuter noun is properly classed as weak. This is the noun "hart" (heart). It is declined as follows: het hart (SING NOM ACC) den harte (SING DAT) des harten (SING GEN); de harten (PLU NOM ACC) den harten (PLU DAT) der harten (PLU GEN).

It must be kept in mind though, that due to the latency of the Dutch case system, its disappearance in modern times and its arbitrary enforcement in recent times, many nouns in Dutch are of uncertain gender. To this extent one will come across fixed expressions such as "te zijner tijd" (declined for the singular, dative, feminine) alongside "destijds" (declined for the singular, genitive, masculine/neuter). As "tijd" in modern Dutch is a common gender noun, and case is not anyway felt, this poses no problem. A Dutch speaker simply knows these expressions by heart without doing any overt or latent grammatical analysis upon them.