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    01 Basics

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    Hisham Sasy
    Dutch is a Germanic language similar to English with some recognizable words. It has three grammatical genders - masculine, feminine and neuter - which affect word endings. Nouns use the definite articles 'de' and 'het' depending on their gender, and it's important to learn whether each new noun is a 'de' or 'het' word due to grammatical consequences. Pronouns, verb conjugation and the alphabet are also introduced at a basic level.

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    01 Basics

    Uploaded by

    Hisham Sasy
    37 views3 pages
    Dutch is a Germanic language similar to English with some recognizable words. It has three grammatical genders - masculine, feminine and neuter - which affect word endings. Nouns use the definite articles 'de' and 'het' depending on their gender, and it's important to learn whether each new noun is a 'de' or 'het' word due to grammatical consequences. Pronouns, verb conjugation and the alphabet are also introduced at a basic level.

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    01_Basics

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    Dutch is a Germanic language similar to English with some recognizable words. It has three grammatical genders - masculine, feminine and neuter - which affect word endings. Nouns use the definite articles 'de' and 'het' depending on their gender, and it's important to learn whether each new noun is a 'de' or 'het' word due to grammatical consequences. Pronouns, verb conjugation and the alphabet are also introduced at a basic level.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    37 views3 pages

    01 Basics

    Uploaded by

    Hisham Sasy
    Dutch is a Germanic language similar to English with some recognizable words. It has three grammatical genders - masculine, feminine and neuter - which affect word endings. Nouns use the definite articles 'de' and 'het' depending on their gender, and it's important to learn whether each new noun is a 'de' or 'het' word due to grammatical consequences. Pronouns, verb conjugation and the alphabet are also introduced at a basic level.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
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    Basics 1

    Welkom!
    Welcome to the Dutch course! Dutch is a Germanic language, with grammar and vocabulary
    similar to other European languages. You might recognize some words from English as well!
    Even so, Dutch is a language with grammatical genders. These genders have influence on
    endings on words, for example.

    Gender and articles


    In Dutch, there are three (grammatical) genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Each
    gender has their own definite article (‘the’): both singular masculine and feminine nouns use
    de and singular neuter nouns use het. For plural nouns, de is always used. The definite
    articles de and het don't have very clear rules for when you're supposed to use which; this
    will mostly be learning by heart and developing a feeling for it. However, there are some
    guidelines to help you along:

    De words:

    De is always used for plural nouns


    De is always used for professions: de kok (‘the chef’), de leraar (‘the teacher’)
    De tends to be used for people with an identified gender, such as: de vader (‘the father’), de
    dochter (‘the daughter’)
    De is used for vegetables, fruits, trees and plants, names of mountains, and rivers
    Furthermore, de is used for most words ending on -ie, -ij, -heid, -teit, -schap, -tie, -sie, -aar,
    -eur, -er, and -or.
    Finally, de is used for written-out numbers and letters: de drie (‘the three’), de a (‘the a’).
    Het words:

    Het is always used for diminutives. Diminutives can be recognised by their suffix; they end in
    -je, -tje, -etje, -pje, or -mpje.
    Het is always used for words consisting of two syllables and starting with be-, ge-, ver-, and
    ont-
    Het is always used for verbs used as nouns. When the infinitive form of a verb is used as a
    noun (e.g. 'the walking of the dog'), Dutch uses het (het lopen van de hond).
    Het is always used for languages and names of metals
    Het is also used for names of compass points: het noorden (‘the North’)
    Het is used for names of sports and games: het schaken (‘chess’), het voetbal
    (‘football/soccer’)
    Furthermore, het is used for words ending on -isme and -ment
    Basics 1
    Dutch speakers actually never tend to think about the gender of words. Rather than knowing
    whether a word is originally feminine or masculine, the only distinction that has to be
    remembered is the difference between the de words and het words. This is because it has
    grammatical consequences (in terms of possessives, question words, demonstratives,
    adjectives, and even relative pronouns). This is why when you learn a new noun, it is very
    important to memorize whether it is a de or het word.

    Pronouns
    The Dutch pronouns are as follows:

    English Dutch

    I Ik

    You (singular) Jij (Je*)

    He/She/It Hij/Zij (Ze*)/Het

    You (formal) U

    We Wij (We*)

    You (plural) Jullie

    They Zij (Ze*)

    *Je, ze and we are un-emphasized forms of jij, zij and wij. The difference will be taught in
    another skill.

    Verb conjugation
    In Dutch, verbs can be recognised by the ending -en. For example, eten (‘to eat’) and drinken
    (‘to drink’). Verb conjugation in Dutch can get rather difficult, since there are lots of exceptions
    (welcome to Dutch, where exceptions are the rule!). The most basic rule is: find the stem and
    add the right ending to it. To find the stem of the word, you take the infinitive of the word – the
    basic form that you can find in the dictionary – and take off the ending, i.e. -en. So in the
    example of 'drinken', (to drink), the stem would be drink-. For the simple present, the
    Basics 1
    conjugation is as follows:

    Pronoun Conjugation Example

    Ik [stem] Ik drink (I drink)

    Jij [stem]+t Jij drinkt (You drink)

    Hij/Zij/Het [stem]+t Hij drinkt (He drinks)

    U [stem]+t U drinkt (You drink)

    Wij Infinitive Wij drinken (We drink)

    Jullie Infinitive Jullie drinken (You drink)

    Zij Infinitive Zij drinken (They drink)

    Alphabet and pronunciation


    The Dutch alphabet has 26 letters – just like in English. In fact, you don’t have to learn any
    new letters! Hurrah!
    However, there are a lot of differences and peculiarities in pronunciation. Some letters are
    pronounced differently, and there can be combinations of letters that may throw you for a
    loop. Don’t worry, we are not discussing the letters just now.

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