Glossary of Grammar and Syntax Terms

Here you find short explanations of all terminology of Dutch grammar and syntax encountered in the Units. The explanations are largely based on the Lagelands Grammar of UCL’s Virtual Department of Dutch.

Adjective - Bijvoeglijk naamwoord:

An adjective is a word that qualifies a person or object. It expresses a particular quality. Adjectives can be placed after the noun in a sentence; e.g.

het kind is dik (‘the child is fat’)

They can also be used before a noun; in most cases the ending -e is added; e.g.

het dikke kind (‘the fat child’)

To find out more about adjectives in Dutch, click here.

Adverb - Bijwoord:

Adverbs tell us about when, where, and how something happens. The three most common kinds are adverbs of time (when), place (where) and manner (how). Note that Dutch adverbs (mostly adverbs of manner) are usually identical in form to (undeclined, i.e. without the ending -e) adjectives; e.g.

Victor is een mooi jongetje (‘Victor is a beautiful boy’) = mooi is an adjective - die jongen kan mooi zingen (‘that boy sings beautifully’) = mooi is an adverb

To read more, click here.

Auxiliary - Hulpwerkwoord:

An auxiliary verb is literally a ‘helping verb’ as it supports other verbs grammatically. Auxiliary verbs are used, for example, when forming the perfect tense and the passive voice of ‘normal’ verbs, i.e. main verbs; e.g.

ik ben nog nooit te laat gekomen (‘I have never arrived too late’); mag ik je adres hebben? (‘can I have your address?’)

All modal verbs (see below) are auxiliary verbs. To study auxiliaries in Dutch in detail, click here.

Clause - Zin:

A clause can be equal to a sentence, but does not need to be - one sentence can consist of multiple clauses. A clause has to consist of one subject with one finite verb and may include objects, adverbs, and non-finite verbs. To read more, click here.

A main clause is a sentence which contains at least a subject and a finite verb. The finite verb takes the second place in the clause if it is a declarative sentence, and the first place if it is yes/no-question. It is possible to combine two main clauses by means of a co-ordinating conjunction; e.g.

ik woon in Antwerpen maar studeer in Brussel (‘I live in Antwerp but study in Brussels’)

Comparative - Vergrotende trap:

The comparative is a form of an adjective which is used to compare two things or people with one another. The comparative is used to state that one thing has more ‘value’ (bigger, smaller, thinner) than the other. To form the comparative, the suffix -er is added to the bare adjective; e.g.

dun (‘thin’) – dunner (‘thinner’); lang (‘long’) – langer (‘longer’)

There is one adjective with an irregular comparative which has to be learnt by heart: goed (‘good’) – beter (‘better’) – best (‘best’).

Like all other adjectives, the comparative declines if used attributively – i.e. before a noun – except when the noun it precedes is an indefinite neuter noun; e.g.

het mooiere kind (‘the more beautiful child’)

The comparative is used in Dutch when two or more items are compared. When both of the compared elements are present in the sentence, the word dan (‘than’) is used; e.g.

Sarah is groter dan Bart (‘Sarah is taller than Bart’)

If the other compared element is not present, dan will not be present either; e.g.

dit huis is kleiner (‘this house is smaller’)

If you want to read more, click here.

Compound - Samenstelling:

Words can be combined to form compounds. Compound nouns are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily. They normally have two parts. The second part identifies the object or person in question; e.g.

politieman (‘policeman’); koffietafel (‘coffee table’); slaapkamer (‘bedroom’)

The first part tells us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is;

politieman; koffietafel; slaapkamer

Note that compound nouns often have a meaning that is different from the two separate words.

A compound verb is usually composed of a preposition and a verb, although other combinations also exist; e.g.

instappen (‘to get in’), oppassen (‘to look out’), uitblazen (‘to blow out’)

Conditional clause - Voorwaardelijke bijzin:

Conditional clauses are used to refer to hypothetical situations; things that could happen if certain criteria were met. These criteria are expressed by the conditional clause, whilst the main clause describes the hypothetical situation as such.  The main clause accompanying a conditional clause can be made with a main verb in the present tense or using the past tense of the modal verb zullen. Most of the time, the subordinating conjunction als is used to introduce the conditional clause; e.g.

als ik jou was, zou ik die jas kopen (‘if I were you, I would buy that coat’)

To read more, click here.

Coordinating conjunction and clause - Nevenschikkend voegwoord en zin :

A coordinating conjunction joins two main clauses. The sentence structure in both clauses is the same; e.g.

Ik kom uit Sheffield, maar ik studeer in London ('I am from Sheffield but I study in London')

The most common coordinating conjunctions are: dus (‘so’), en (‘and’), maar (‘but’), of (‘or’), want (‘because’). To read more, click here.

Diminutive - Verkleinwoord:

In Dutch, a suffix can be added to the noun to indicate that the object in question is of a relatively small size. The basic suffix of the diminutive is –je; e.g.

kind (‘child’) – kindje (‘small child’); hond ('dog') - hondje ('small dog')

A singular diminutive is always a neuter noun, whereas the plural is always a DE-word. To read more, click here.

Direct object - Lijdend voorwerp:

The direct object in a sentence is the person or thing undergoing the action. You can find the direct object by asking the question: What [verb] [subject]?; e.g.

hij las een boek over de Nederlandse geschiedenis ('he read a book on Dutch history').

QUESTION: wat las hij? (‘what did he read?’); ANSWER: een boek over de Nederlandse geschiedenis ('a book on Dutch history')

Verbs that take a direct object are called transitive verbs. To read more, click here.

Direct speech - Directe rede:

To transcribe speech in writing, one can use a direct quotation, when the words are reported verbatim. This is usually reflected in writing by the use of quotation marks; e.g.

ik zeg tegen hem: “Laten we gaan winkelen” (‘I tell him: “Let’s go shopping”’)

Er:

The word er occurs a great deal in Dutch. Sometimes it is easy to translate into English, but at other times it is not. Its meaning depends on the particular type of er that is used. The three different types of er are locative er, existential er and quantative er. Er can also occur in fixed expressions.

Locative er is the unstressed form of daar ('there') and is often used when the same location is referred to for a second time in the same conversation; e.g.

daar staat het water en de melk staat er ook (‘there is the water and the milk is there as well’)

Daar and (locative) er are adverbs of place, indicating a location, hence the term locative.

Existential er is derived from the locative meaning, but with this type of er, there is no parallel stressed form as there is with locative er. Note that not only the verb zijn can be used in combination with existential er, but also more general verbs; e.g.

er zijn veel fietsen in Nederland (‘there are many bikes in The Netherlands’)

Quantitative er occurs invariably with numerals or other words expressing quantities (e.g. één (‘one’), geen (‘none’) or veel (‘many’)). This er is never translated in English; e.g.

mag ik een zakdoek van jou hebben, want ik heb er geen? (‘can you give me a tissue, because I do not have one?’)

To read more on er, click here.

Future aspect - Toekomende tijd:

In Dutch, there is no separate tense which expresses future events. However, it is possible to express that things are to happen in the future. This can be done in a number of different ways. A way to express that something will definitely happen in the future, is to use the present tense of the verb gaan; e.g.

ik ga een biertje drinken (‘I am going to drink a beer’)

You can also use zullen to talk about the future. Note that in a declarative sentence this use implies an element of promise, prediction or intention, rather than being a ‘simple’ future. In interrogatives however, it carries the meaning of a suggestion. Note that because zullen is a modal verb, there is normally an infinitive in the sentence; e.g.

ik zal je een kaartje sturen (‘I will send you a postcard’)

It is possible to express the future using the present tense of any lexical verb with a compulsory indication of the future; e.g.

morgen vertrekken we naar Spanje (‘tomorrow we are leaving for Spain’)

For more, click here.

Finite verb - Persoonsvorm:

The finite verb is the conjugated form of a verb. A finite verb matches the subject of the sentence in person and number; e.g.

wij eten graag (‘we like to eat’); hij heeft hard gewerkt (‘he has worked hard’)

Imperative - Gebiedende wijs:

The imperative is a type of sentence which is used to give orders and commands. Imperatives differ in structure from declaratives because the verb always takes first position in an imperative.

Direct imperatives are either addressed to someone you would normally address with jij or jullie or in neutral situations where simple straightforward commands are required, such as directions or manuals. This kind of imperative simply consists of the stem of the verb. No subject is present; e.g.

ga weg (‘go away’); wees niet droevig (‘do not be sad’; wees is the imperative of zijn)

When instructing someone you would normally address formally (u), the imperative needs to be more polite. In Dutch, that is solved by using a formal imperative. In these, the conjugated form of the verb for the second person formal is used, followed by u; e.g.

gaat u zitten (‘please sit down’)

To read more, click here.

Indirect object - Meewerkend voorwerp:

A sentence normally contains a subject and a verb, and often also a direct object. However, in some sentences you might find a third 'actor'; e.g.

hij geeft Sarah het boek (‘he gives Sarah the book’)

The recipient of the action, namely ‘Sarah’, is referred to as the indirect object. You can find the indirect object by asking the question: ‘To whom……?’; e.g.

QUESTION: Wie geeft hij het boek? ('to whom does he give the book?'); ANSWER: Sarah ('to Sarah').

If you want to read more, click here.

Indirect speech - Indirecte rede:

To transcribe speech in writing, one can use a direct quotation, when the words are reported verbatim. This is usually reflected in writing by the use of quotation marks. However, it is also possible to report speech indirectly. In indirect speech quotes are incorporated as a subordinate clause (see below) into another clause. The word order in the subclause is different from that in a main clause. In the subordinate clause (the reported indirect speech), the finite verb (and other verbs) will occur in the final or penultimate position. The subordinate clause is initiated by the conjunctions dat ('that') or of ('whether'), or by an interrogative pronoun (e.g. wanneer (‘when’), wat (‘what’)); e.g.

hij vertelde me dat zijn moeder ziek geworden is (‘he told me that his mother fell ill’); ik weet niet wat me overkomt (‘I do not know what is happening to me’)

To read more, click here.

Infinitive - Onbepaalde wijs:

The infinitive is the form of the verb that you would find in the dictionary. Most Dutch infinitives end in –en; e.g.

werken (‘to work’), lachen (‘to laugh’)

Exceptions to this rule are gaan (‘to go’), doen (‘to do’) and zijn (‘to be’). To read more, click here.

Inversion - Inversie:

In the ‘normal’ word order of a Dutch declarative sentence, the subject precedes the verb. In certain cases, however, this word order is reversed. This reverse order of subject and verb is called inversion. With inversion the first position of a declarative sentence is occupied by another part of the sentence than the subject for reasons of emphasis. The element at the beginning of the sentence may be an indication of when something happened (adverb of time; e.g.

gisteren was ik ziek (‘yesterday I was ill’)

It may indicate where something happened (adverb of place; e.g.

in Londen zijn veel winkels (‘in London there are many shops’))

or how something happened (adverb of manner; e.g.

met het grote mes sneed zij het brood (‘with the big knife she cut the bread’)

To read more on inversion, click here.

Modal verb - Modaal hulpwerkwoord:

The modal verbs form a special category of Dutch verbs. The verbs are usually used with the infinitive of another verb to express ability or possibility (kunnen), obligation (moeten), permission (mogen) or volition (willen); e.g.

je mag de deur sluiten (‘you may close the door’); hij wil een nieuw boek kopen (‘he wants to buy a new book’)

When the infinitive of another verb is used along with the modal verb, the infinitive takes the last or penultimate place in the clause. Note that the modal verbs are irregular. To read more, click here.

Negation - Ontkenning:

In Dutch negation mainly happens in two ways, depending on what is negated. Niet is used in most cases, but geen is used when negating an indefinite noun or noun group. As a rule of thumb we can say that English ‘not’ is normally niet in Dutch, and an English negation with ‘no’ is normally rendered with geen in Dutch; e.g.

Josh eet niet vaak vlees (‘Josh does not often eat meat’) - Josh eet geen vlees (‘Josh eats no meat’)

Other negative elements in Dutch are niets (‘nothing’), nooit (‘never’), niemand (‘nobody’) or nergens (‘nowhere’). To study negation in Dutch more in detail, click here.

Om + te + infinitive:

The combination om ... te + infinitive expresses purpose (as in English ‘in order to’) and is used widely; e.g.

ik ga naar huis om te studeren (‘I am going home to study’)

Passive voice - Lijdende vorm:

The passive voice is not a tense, but provides a different focus on a situation. A sentence in the passive voice always has an active counterpart. An example:

Jan schildert de hond (‘Jan paints the dog’) – de hond wordt door Jan geschilderd (‘the dog is painted by Jan’)

In the first sentence, the subject is Jan, and the object is de hond. This is an active sentence, because the person carrying out the activity described by the verb, is the subject. In the corresponding passive sentence, the subject is de hond. In other words, the object in the active sentence is the subject in the corresponding passive sentence. The subject of the active sentence (Jan) is still present in the passive sentence and indicated by the preposition door. It is possible to omit the 'do-er' (or agent) of the action without making the sentence ungrammatical.

The present tense of the passive is formed by combining the past participle of a verb with a special auxiliary: the verb worden; e.g.

het kind wordt gewassen (‘the child is washed’)

As with the perfect tense, the past participle occurs in penultimate position. In the passive voices of the imperfect tense the appropriate tense of the verb worden is used with the past participle; e.g.

zijn haar werd geknipt (‘his hair was cut’)

Note that Dutch uses a completely different verb to form the perfect tense of the passive: the verb zijn. To form the perfect tense of the passive voice, the present tense of the verb zijn is used with the past participle; e.g.

het werk is gedaan door zijn vader (‘the work has been done by his father’)

To read more, click here.

Past participle - Voltooid deelwoord:

All perfect tenses consist of an auxiliary verb (hebben or zijn) and a past particle. The past participles of weak and strong verbs (see below) are formed differently. The past participle of most weak verbs consists of: ge + stem + t/d; e.g.

wachten (‘to wait’) - gewacht; hopen (‘to hope’) - gehoopt

The past particle of strong verbs has the prefix ge- and the ending -en. The vowel sound of the past participle is often different from that of the stem; e.g.

liggen (‘to lie’) - gelegen; schrijven (‘to write’) - geschreven

To read more on the perfect tense and for a list of the past participles of the most commonly used irregular verbs, click here.

Past tense (imperfect) - Onvoltooid verleden tijd:

The past tense, or imperfect, is used to describe events in the past that do not have a bearing on the present.

The past tense of weak verbs (see below) is formed by adding a suffix to the stem of the verb. This is either the suffix -de (plural -den) or the suffix -te (plural -ten); e.g.

wonen (‘to live’) - woonde(n); dansen (‘to dance’) - danste(n)

Strong verbs (see below) form their past tense (and their past participle) by, among other things, changing the vowel in the stem of the verb; e.g.

lopen (‘to run’) - liep(en); vinden (‘to find’) - vond(en)

For more on the formation of the past tense of irregular verbs, click here.

Perfect tense - Voltooide tijd:

The perfect tense is used to describe events that have taken place in the past. It is used to refer to actions in the past which are still relevant in the present. The perfect tense consists of a finite form of an auxiliary verb (hebben or zijn) and a past participle; e.g.

hij heeft de hele dag gewerkt (‘he has worked the whole day’); hij is ziek geworden (‘he has become ill’)

If you want to read more, click here.

Phrasal verb - Werkwoord met voorzetselconstituent:

Phrasal verbs are combinations of a verb with an obligatory fixed preposition. Examples of phrasal verbs are:

kijken naar (‘to look at’), houden van (‘to love’), denken aan (‘to think of’)

Pluperfect - Voltooid verleden tijd:

The pluperfect is a tense which, like the perfect tense, uses the auxiliaries hebben and zijn plus the past participle of the verb. The difference is that in the pluperfect the auxiliaries occur in the past tense; e.g.

ik had de buren bezocht (‘I had visited the neighbours’); zij was naar huis gegaan (‘she had gone home’)

To read more, click here.

Prepositional object – Voorzetselvoorwerp:

If an object is preceded by a preposition, it is generally called ‘prepositional object’; e.g.

hij houdt van haar (‘he loves her’); zij wachten op de bus (‘they are waiting for the bus’)

Present participle - Onvoltooid deelwoord:

The present particle is formed in Dutch by the stem + -(e)nd(e); e.g.

lopend (‘running’); dansend (‘dancing’)

Pronominal adverb – Voornamelijk bijwoord:

A pronominal adverb (for example daar ('there'), waar ('where')) functions like a pronoun, but it takes an adverbial form. Like a pronoun, it is used to refer back to things. Unlike pronouns, it cannot be used to refer to people and it always occurs in combination with a preposition belonging to a verb; e.g.

Jenny luistert naar de radio (‘Jenny is listening to the radio’) - Haar zus luistert er ook naar (‘Her sister is listening to it as well’)

If you want to read more, click here.

Reflexive verb - Wederkerend werkwoord:

Reflexive verbs can be described as a very special kind of transitive verb in that they do take an object. However, the object and subject of a reflexive verb refer to the same person; e.g.

ik voel me goed (‘I feel well’)

The object of a reflexive verb is always expressed as a pronoun. The reflexive pronouns are: ik – me, jij – je, u – u/zich, hij/zij – zich, wij – ons, julie – je, zij – zich. To read more, click here.

Relative pronoun and clause - Betrekkelijk voornaamwoord en bijzin:

The relative pronouns (die, dat) introduce relative clauses. A relative clause supplies information about a preceding noun (i.e. antecedent); e.g.

de vrouw die zwanger is (‘the woman who is pregnant’)

In a relative clause the verb is always in last position. The form of the relative pronoun is dependent on the gender of the noun it qualifies. If it is a DE-word, the relative pronoun is die. If it is a HET-word, the relative pronoun is dat. Plurals are all DE-words. Note that the relative pronoun for inanimate objects is die or dat, but that in combination with a preposition a relative pronominal adverb is used: the adverb of place waar; e.g.

de pen waar ik mee schrijf (‘the pen which I am writing with’)

If you want to read more, click here.

Separable verb - Scheidbaar werkwoord:

Some Dutch verbs have a complex structure, e.g.:

oversteken (‘to cross’); aankomen (‘to arrive’)

Verbs which are structured like this are called separable verbs, because the first element, the so-called prefix (over-, and aan-), can be separated from the verb. In the infinitive these stressed prefixes are joined to the verbs, but in their finite forms they are separated from the verb and occur towards the end of the sentence, usually in the final but sometimes in the penultimate position. Note that in the formation of the past participle, the prefix and the verb become one word again: -ge- is inserted between the prefix and the verb; e.g.

aankomen - ik kom aan - ik ben aangekomen; oversteken - ik steek over - ik ben overgestoken

Something similar happens in subclauses, where the finite verb moves to the end of the subclause and merges with the separable prefix; e.g.

hij hoopt dat hij morgen aankomt (‘he hopes that he will arrive tomorrow’)

To read more on separable verbs, click here.

Strong verb / weak verb - Sterk werkwoord / zwak werkwoord:

Weak verbs are the most regular type of verb. All the rules for forming the present, perfect and imperfect tenses apply. Examples of weak verbs are wonen (‘to live’) and studeren (‘to study’). Strong verbs are also regular, but their regularity works in quite a different way. The patterns that occur in strong verbs have to do with vowel changes in the past tenses and/or with the ending of the past participle. Examples of strong verbs are brengen (‘to bring') and geven (‘to give’).

Subject - Onderwerp:

The subject in a sentence is generally the person or thing carrying out an action. Sometimes sentences will start with the subject, although this is certainly not always the case; e.g.

vanavond gaat hij dansen (‘tonight he will go out dancing’)

The subject of the sentence, hij, is item three because the verb must remain second. To read more on subjects in Dutch, click here.

Subordinate clause and conjunction - Onderschikkende zin en voegwoord:

A subordinate clause, or subclause, contains at least a subject and a finite verb. The finite verb in the subclause does not, however, occur in the second place as it does in a main clause. The verb in a subclause can be found in the last or penultimate place. That is also where any other verbs may be found.

Subclauses are introduced by subordinating conjunctions. If, in other words, you use a subordinating conjunction to link two clauses, the clause following the subordinating conjunction will be the subclause; e.g.

Ik ga vaak naar de universiteit omdat ik bijna elke dag college heb (‘I often go to the university because I have lectures nearly every day’)

The most common subordinating conjunctions are: als (‘if, when’), dat (‘that’), hoewel (‘although’), of (‘whether’), omdat (‘because’), nadat (‘after’), terwijl (‘while’), toen (‘when in the past’), wanneer (‘when’). To read more on subclauses in Dutch, click here.

Superlative - Overtreffende trap:

The superlative is used in Dutch to say that one thing has the biggest ‘value’ (the most beautiful, the oldest, the most expensive, the best). To form the superlative the suffix -st is added to the bare adjective; e.g.

klein (‘small’) – kleinst (‘smallest’); grappig (‘funny’) – grappigst (‘funniest’)

Like all other adjectives, it declines if used attributively: an –e will be added if the superlative precedes a noun. The nature of a superlative dictates that this noun is almost always definite; e.g. de jongste broer (‘the youngest brother’)

To read more, click here.

Word class - Woordsoort:

Word classes refer to a category of words in the lexicon. There are several word classes; e.g. substantives or nouns (kind (‘child’), huis (‘house’)), articles (de, het (both ‘the’)), prepositions (op (‘on’), in (‘in’)). Some of these words are invariable (e.g. articles (de, het) and prepositions (in, op)); others are not (e.g. substantives (boom – bomen (‘tree – trees’)) and verbs (eten ('to eat')) – at – heeft gegeten).

Word group - Woordgroep:

A sentence is made up of word groups; a word group consists of one or more words that together make a meaningful unit. The following sentence consists of three word groups: de jongen / leest / het boek (‘the boy reads the book’).