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.
{| style="font-style:italic" | Jan||hielp||zijn moeder |- style="font-style:normal" |Jan||helped||his mother |- | colspan=9 style="font-style:normal" | "Jan helped his mother."
{| style="font-style:italic" | Gisteren||hielp||Jan||zijn moeder |- style="font-style:normal" | Yesterday||helped||Jan||his mother |- | colspan=9 style="font-style:normal" | "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)...
{| style="font-style:italic" | Jan||wilde||zijn moeder||gaan helpen |- style="font-style:normal" |Jan||wanted||his mother||to go help |- | colspan=9 style="font-style:normal" | "Jan wanted to go (and) help his mother."
In subordinate clauses, the order is exclusively SOV.Jan Koster: "Dutch as an SOV Language ", Linguistic analysis 1 (1975), p. 111-136. In subordinate clauses two word orders are possible for the verb clusters and are referred to as the "red": , "because I have worked": as in English, where the auxiliary verb precedes the past participle, and the "green": , 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: , "that the book is green". For an explanation of verb clusters of three or more see: V2 word order
{| style="font-style:italic" | Jan||zei||dat||hij||zijn moeder||wilde||gaan helpen |- style="font-style:normal" |Jan||said||that||he||his mother||wanted||to go help |- | colspan=9 style="font-style:normal" | "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?"
{| style="font-style:italic" |Hielp||Jan||zijn moeder? |- style="font-style:normal" |Helped||Jan||his mother? |- | colspan=5 style="font-style:normal" | "Did Jan help his mother?"
{| style="font-style:italic" |Wilde||Jan||zijn moeder||gaan helpen? |- style="font-style:normal" |Wanted||Jan||his mother||to go help? |- | colspan=5 style="font-style:normal" | "Did Jan want to go help his mother?"
{| style="font-style:italic" | Zei||Jan||dat||hij||zijn moeder||wilde||gaan helpen? |- style="font-style:normal" | Said||Jan||that||he||his mother||wanted||to go help? |- | colspan=9 style="font-style:normal" | "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.
{| style="font-style:italic" |(Jan,)||ga||je moeder||helpen! |- style="font-style:normal" |(Jan,)||go||your mother||help! |- | colspan=5 style="font-style:normal" | "(Jan,) go help your mother!"
{| style="font-style:italic" | (Jan,)||zeg||dat||je||je moeder||wilde||gaan helpen! |- style="font-style:normal" | (Jan,)||say||that||you||your mother||wanted||to go help! |- | colspan=9 style="font-style:normal" | "(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:
{| style="font-style:italic" |Ik zie dat || de ouders || de kinderen || Jan || het huis || hebben || laten || helpen || schilderen. |- style="font-style:normal" |I see that || the parents || the children || Jan || the house || have || let || help || paint |- | colspan=9 style="font-style:normal" | "I see that the parents have let the children help Jan paint the house."
Adjectives always come before the noun to which they belong. – 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:
{| style="font-style:italic" |Ik|| ben ||dit ||jaar ||naar ||Frankrijk ||geweest |- style="font-style:normal" |I|| am ||this ||year ||to ||France ||been |- | colspan="7" style="font-style:normal" | "I have been to France this year."
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 (pronounced or ) or , 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 : "door" → "boat" → "house" → "thief" → Words ending in a schwa often use , but a sizable number use , particularly if they are older. Some nouns may allow either ending. Nouns that are substantivised forms of adjectives always use . "aunt" → "chocolate" → "messenger" → or "oxide" → "great one" → Relatively modern words ending in a long vowel use (with an apostrophe), but if they end in or then no apostrophe is used. Older ones generally use or (with diaeresis). "baby" → "café, bar, pub" → "pizza" → "radio" → "roe" → (also ) "drawer" → (but in colloquial usage sometimes also ) Words ending in unstressed or usually use . If is allowed it tends to be more archaic or poetic. "agricultural field" → "apple" → or (archaic) (note: for the derived noun "potato", the plural is still common, alongside ) "spoon" → "key" → "father" → or (archaic) Initialisms (words pronounced as letters) follow the rules for whatever the final syllable suggests, usually by adding but occasionally : "vehicle inspection" → "CD" → "text message" → "BMX" →
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 is lengthened in that way, it becomes long .
"day" → "days" "lack, deficiency" → "deficiencies" "ship" → "ships" "lock" → "locks" (also the plural of "ditch")
Other nouns with that change include "bath", "(money) contribution", "command", "sheet of paper; magazine" (not "leaf"), "offer", "roof", "valley", "hole", "prayer", "commandment", "gene", "glass", "god", "duke", "court", "cave; burrow", "member", "lottery ticket", "war", "path", "shot", "strike, battle", "smith", "large game; spectacle" (not in the sense of a smaller everyday game), "staff", "vat, barrel", "ban, prohibition", "treaty", "permission", "road, way".
The noun "town, city" has vowel alternation in the plural alongside lengthening: "towns, cities". The plural of nouns ending in the suffix "-ness, -hood" is irregular .
Plurals in
A few neuter nouns have a plural in . The ending derives from the old Germanic "z-stem" nouns and is cognate with the English (, , etc.). The following nouns have that type of plural: "bone" → (when used in the sense "leg", the plural is the regular ) "leaf" → (when used in the sense "sheet, magazine", the plural is ) "egg" → "rank, file" → "mood, emotion" → "good" → "fowl" → "calf" → "child" → "cloth" → (archaic) or "clothes" (nowadays a plurale tantum like in English) "lamb" → "song" → (somewhat dated; the plural of the diminutive is often used instead: ) "wheel" → "cattle" → "people, nation" → (the regular is also used)
When used in compounds, the stem of those nouns usually includes the : "eggshell", "child labour", "traditional costume", "beef tartare". That is not a rule, however, and compounds with the singular form also exist: "egg-shape", "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 or can also be used.
"museum" → or "politician" →
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 and names of particles ending in . 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 or . Some examples:
( "electron") → ( "electrons") ( "doctor (holder of a doctorate)") → ( "doctors") ( "graviton") → ( "gravitons") ( "reactor") → ( "reactors")
Words borrowed from English or French generally form their plural in , 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 or with . The former is the standard way, and the latter is found in some dialects, mostly in the South (Brabantian and Limburgish). The diminutive on 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 .
Diminutive in
The basic suffix is modified in different ways depending on the final sounds of the noun it is attached to.
The 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).
hond → hondje brief → briefje hok → hokje vis → visje douche → doucheje ( → ) race → raceje ( → ~ )
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 is inserted, giving . kom → kommetje pil → pilletje lam → lammetje ding → dingetje vriendin → vriendinnetje baron → baronnetje
In all other cases, the basic form is used, which includes: 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 , , . Words ending in one of the above types of vowel, followed by . The resulting combination is assimilated to . Words ending in one of the above types of vowel, followed by . The resulting combination is assimilated to .