Dutch language

Dutch ({{Audio|nl-Nederlands.ogg|Nederlands}}) is a West Germanic, Low German language spoken by around 24 million people, mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium. The varieties of Dutch spoken in Belgium are also informally called Flemish (Vlaams). The language is sometimes colloquially called Hollands by native speakers although this is becoming less common today. Dutch is sometimes called Netherlandic in English.

Grammar

:Main article: Dutch grammar

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Like all other continental West Germanic languages, Dutch has a word order that is markedly different from English, which presents a problem for some Anglophones learning Dutch.

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The Dutch written grammar has simplified over the past 100 years: cases are now mainly used for the pronouns, such as ik (I), mij, me (me), mijn (my), wie (who), wiens, wier (whose). Nouns and adjectives are not case inflected (except for the genitive of nouns: -(')s or -'). In the spoken language cases and case inflections had already gradually disappeared from a much earlier date on (probably the 15th century) as in many continental West Germanic dialects.

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Inflection of adjectives is a little more complicated: nothing with indefinite (een "a", "an"...), neuter nouns in singular and -e in all other cases.

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:een mooi huis (a beautiful house)

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:het mooie huis (the beautiful house)

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:mooie huizen (beautiful houses)

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:de mooie huizen (the beautiful houses)

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:een mooie vrouw (a beautiful woman)

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More complex inflection is still found in certain lexicalized expressions like de heer des huizes (litt.: the man of the house), etc. These are usually remnants of cases and other inflections no longer in general use today.

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Dutch nouns can take endings for size: -je for singular diminutive and -jes for plural diminutive. Between these suffixes and the radical can come extra letters depending on the ending of the word:

Related Topics:
Diminutive - Suffix

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:boom (tree) - boompje

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:ring (ring) - ringetje

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:koning (king) - koninkje

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:tien (ten) - tientje

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Like most Germanic languages, Dutch forms left-branching noun compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: hondehok (eng. doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, Dutch (like the other Germanic languages) always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: boomhuis (eng. tree house). Like English, Dutch allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. The longest serious entry in the Van Dale dictionary is wapenstilstandsonderhandeling (ceasefire negotiation).

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