Nederlandse Grammatica

These are a collection of my notes for grammar exam at University College Utrecht. I am posting them because I believe sharing knowledge fundamentally is a good thing, and of course because I hope this can serve as a useful resource for others. I have done my best to make sure that the information on this page is correct. If, however, you find this not to be the case, please email me, and then I will update the page. The full edit history is available on Github.

• Nederlandse Grammatica
  • Personal Pronouns
  • Object Pronouns
  • Regular Verbs - Regelmatige werkwoorden
  • Irregular Verbs - Onregelmatige wekwoorden
  • Schematized Syllables
  • Spelling - Spellen
  • Plural - Meervoud
  • Indefinite Article - Onbepaald Lidwoord
  • Definite Article - Bepaald Lidwoord
  • Possessive pronouns - Bezittelijke Voornaamwoorden
  • Modal Verbs - Modale Werkwoorden
  • Word Order - Woord Volgorde
  • Negation
  • Adjectives
  • Past Tense - Perfectum
    • Which oxilary?
    • Which Participum Form?

Personal Pronouns

The thing that performs the action described by the verb. "Ik ga met har" -> "ik" is the one acting.

wij/we en zij/ze representeert "light" en "heavy" varianten.

Object Pronouns

When things are acted upon -> Ik ga met haar -> "haar" is acted upon.

Regular Verbs - Regelmatige werkwoorden

Infinitiv -> stem + "en"

!EXC1.: verb -> subj. + informal = kun stem

Irregular Verbs - Onregelmatige wekwoorden

!EXC1.: verb -> subj. + informal = kun stem

Schematized Syllables

Dutch syllables have one of the following patterns:

• V
• CV
• CVC
• VC

Boundaries for syllables occurs:

• between two adjacent consonants (i.e CC), e.g. "mannen" -> "man" + "nen" -> CVC + CVC
• before a single consonant, i.e. "uren" -> VCVC -> V + CVC

Open syllables (i.e. CV), the vocals are pronounced as their long variants. E.g. "lezen" -> CV + CVC, the first "long e" is pronounced as "ee" because CV is open. The last e however, is pronounced as "short e" because the syllable ("zen" = CVC) is closed.

Similarly, when finding the stem of a word, we have to adjust the vowel to get the correct pronunciation. "Lezen"'s stem is "Lees", not "Les". In the latter case we would've had to pronounce a short e. However, we want a long e. To achieve that within the one syllable, we have to use "ee", not "e".

Spelling - Spellen

v and z never occur at the end of a word. If they do after conjugating (e.g. finding a verb stem), v is substituted by an f and z by an s. In other words, "lezen"'s stem is "lees", not "leez", and "gefen"'s stem is "geef" and not "geev". (also notice the addition of a vocal to preserve the long pronounciation)

Plural - Meervoud

Det er fire forskjellige suffixser som brukes for aa markere flertall.

Indefinite Article - Onbepaald Lidwoord

The indefinite article is "een", for all singular nouns. Confusingly, it is spelled the same as the word for 1 - een. To differ between the two, one might spell 1 as één. Eks. "Heeft jij een rugzak, maar alleen één boek?".

Furthermore, the indefinite article is only used in singular-, and not in plural form.

Wether a noun is a common- or a neuter noun often has to learned by heart. However, there are a few rules:

1. Plural? -> always de
2. Diminutive (ends in -je) -> het
3. Language name, e.g. het Frans -> het
4. other -> learn by heart..
5. if you have to guess -> de

Definite Article - Bepaald Lidwoord

There are two definite articles in Dutch: "de" and "het". Het is only used in singular, for neuter nouns.

Possessive pronouns - Bezittelijke Voornaamwoorden

Possessive pronouns indicates whos possession someone or something is.

"jouw" and "uw" must not be confused with "jou" and "u". The latter are personal pronouns, not possessive pronouns.

Modal Verbs - Modale Werkwoorden

Word Order - Woord Volgorde

Negation

Negation (saying that something is not the case) is done with niet and geen. Use the following rule order to figure out which one to use:

1. Preposition? use niet in front of it
2. Indefinite noun? Use geen in front of it
3. Adjective or Adverb? Use niet in front of the noun
4. None of the above -> use niet at the end !EXC2

!EXC2: If the sentence ends with a verb, put niet as the second to last word, and change the verb to infinitive.

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe nouns. E.g. "moi", "leuk" en "saai". Adjectives may appear as predicatively or as a modifier

!EXC3: Do not add e iff the noun is singular AND het-word (neuter) AND indefinite (i.e. "een ")

Past Tense - Perfectum

Past tense in the perfectum form is done by restructuring the sentence such that 1) it includes an oxilary (the conjugated form of either zijn or hebben) and a participum form, which is the verb stemp, prefixes with ge and suffixed with either t or d.

Which oxilary?

Which Participum Form?

There are lots of exceptions to the participum form-rules. Some of the irregular verbs are listed below - there are many more.