Section One – Grammar and Spelling
1. Gender and Case:
Dutch has 3 genders: masculine – feminine – neuter
Male and female nouns have the article ‘de’, whereas neuter nouns have ‘het’.
e.g. de man
de vrouw
het geschenk
Genders are not always ‘logically’ attributed so it can be confusing
e.g. the girl = het meisje; neuter
In the Netherlands more and more people tend to ‘masculinize’ de-words in spoken language, but in Flanders the ‘de’ distinction is kept.
English words used in Dutch tend to be preceded by ‘de’
e.g. de update
de software
de modem, although het modem is also correct
Dutch no longer uses cases, however, traces of them do remain, eg.
* in the pronoun wiens = old genitive
The man whose book I borrowed = De man wiens boek ik heb geleend.
(wiens = van wie, which is prefered these days to express possession - >
De man van wie ik het boek heb geleend)
* op den duur
2. Articles:
De, het = definite
Een = indefinite
3. One-letter words or other unusual words:
Apostrophe + lower case s (‘s) can often be found at the beginning of a sentence, e.g.
’s Avonds/’s Ochtends/’s Namiddags …
This derives from the old Dutch ‘Des avonds’ in which ‘des’ is an inflected article meaning ‘in the evening/morning/afternoon…’
4. Accents:
4.1 Accents with upper case:
Do not use an accent on an upper case letter, except if the whole word is written in capital letters.
e.g. Eén is geen
ÉÉN IS GEEN
4.2 Accents with foreign words:
There has been a tendency recently to leave out all accents in foreign (mostly French) words. They are only used with ‘e’ and even then only when necessary for correct pronunciation.
e.g. seance
BUT
paté
4.3 Accents for emphasis
Accents on Dutch words are only used when the writer really wants to emphasise something:
e.g. The man stands in front of the window.
De man staat vóór het raam.
In this sentence it is stressed that the man is not sitting behind the window - if there is no space for misinterpretation, accents should not be used.
e.g. That is the ultimate way to do it!
Dat is dé manier om het te doen!
5. Plurals:
‘-en’ or ‘-s’ at the end of a word mark the plural.
e.g. 1 boek, 2 boeken (book)
1 tafel, 2 tafels (table)
However, sometimes:
• when the syllable of the singular word is ‘open’, it drops one of the vowels before adding the ‘-en’
e.g. 1 meer, 2 meren (lake)
• when the syllable is ‘closed’, the consonant is doubled
e.g. 1 kat, 2 katten (cat)
• words take apostrophes (’s); this is usually the case when there is a danger of pronouncing words in the wrong way. [vowels –a, -e, -i. –o, -u can either be pronounced long or short; when they are pronounced long they mostly take an apostrophe in plural and genitive]
e.g. 1 camera, 2 camera’s
• some words have irregular plurals
e.g. 1 kind, 2 kinderen (child)
1 doos, 2 dozen (box)
6. In-capped letters:
‘U’, the formal form of address used to be written with a capital, but that is no longer the case.
Some other forms of address do still use capitals:
mijnheer/mevrouw de Minister
Aan Hare Majesteit de Koningin/Aan Zijne Majesteit de Koning
Section Two – Punctuation
1. Full stops: Full stops are used in the following ways:
Headings, titles or subtitles: Normally no full stops at the end
Bullet points: When the bullet points are full sentences they start with capitals and end with full stops. When the bullet points are parts of sentences, they start with small letters and end with a semi colon, the last in the list being followed by a full stop.
Addresses: No full stops
Mevr. Janssen
Velveken 60
1230 Larum
België
Mr. Bos
Geuzenkade 13
1127MP Amsterdam
Nederland
3. Speech marks: Speech marks are used in the same way as in English.
4. Apostrophes: Apostrophes are used in the following way:
Plural:
Some words take apostrophes in the plural - this is usually the case when there is a danger of pronouncing words in the wrong way. [vowels –a, -e, -i, –o, -u can either be pronounced long or short, when they are pronounced long they mostly take apostrophe in plural and genitive]
e.g. 1 camera – 2 camera’s
Genitive:
Some words take apostrophes when forming the genitive – again, this is usually the case when there is a danger of pronouncing words in the wrong way. [vowels –a, -e, -i. –o, -u can either be pronounced long or short, when they are pronounced long they mostly take apostrophe in plural and genitive]
e.g. Oma’s wagentje.
Archaic ’s
’s Avonds/’s Ochtends/'s Middags (Dutch), ’s Namiddags (Flemish),
’s Gravenhage
(see above)
5. Colons, Semi-colons and Ellipsis:
5.1 Colons - Mostly in front of:
a citation;
an enumeration;
direct speech.
5.2 Semi-colons – Used as something inbetween a comma and full stop.
Also used when bullet points are parts of sentences.
5.3 Ellipsis (…) - When a piece of text has been omitted or when there is a pause.
6. Brackets: Brackets are used for:
explanation;
something that has been added;
reference; (year of publication…)
alternatives; (plural form, feminine form …)
clarifications.
To outline how text in brackets is punctuated is not easy. Usually the full stop is placed after the second bracket, but the use of full stops within brackets should really be considered for each case separately.
7. Capitalisation:
In Headings - Mostly only capital for first word.
Product names - Mostly capital for first word BUT product names are often left in English so it is hard to set basic rules.
Sentences - Mostly only capital for first word.
Proper names - Capitals for all the components of the name. Surnames starting with a preposition or an article are often written differently in the Netherlands and Belgium:
(NL) When name or initials precede, one tends to write it with a small letter;
e.g. de heer J. van den Berg
de heer Van den Berg
(BE) In Belgium the name is written as it appears on the identity card, which is mostly with a preposition or article with a capital.
e.g. de heer Jan Van den Berg
Names of days/seasons/months - No capitals
Section Three – Measurements and Abbreviations
1. Measurements: The Metric system is used.
Commas are used to denote decimals
Full stops or spaces are used in numbers with more than 4 digits
e.g. 4,5 cm
4000
50.000 or 50 000
Time:
10.30 am - 10.30 uur
noon - middag = 12.00 uur
4.30 pm - 16.30 uur
midnight - middernacht = 0.00 uur
Date:
20 februari 2004
20/02/2004
20/2/2004
20/02/04
20/2/04
Spacing:
Space before measurement abbreviation – e.g. 5 kg
No space before a % symbol – e,g. 10%
Space before °C – e.g. 30 °C
Currency:
The ‘€’ is written in front of the amount. There is a space between the sign and the amount. When written as ‘EUR’ it can go before or after the amount (with spaces). In the Netherlands one tends to put it in front of, in Belgium after the amount.
¥, £ and $ are written in front of the amount.
The letter code depends: sometimes in front, sometimes after
e.g. DM 50,00
80 fr.
2. Abbreviations:
N/a N.v.t.
No. (nos.) Nr.
e.g. Bijv. / B.v.
WxLxHxD BxLxHxD
1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th 1e, 2e, 3e … (e on same line as number)
Mr. / Mrs. Dhr. (Dutch), Mr. (Flemish) / Mevr.
Miss Juffrouw/Mejuffrouw (Mej.) (in titles, addresses)
Dear Sir / Madam Geachte heer / mevrouw
Please note: According to the Belgian Instituut voor Normalisatie (which sets the BIN-normen) there is NO comma after it at the beginning of a letter. However, according to the Nederlandse Normalisatie Instituut (NNI) there should be one!
m (for metre) m
cm (for centimetre) cm
lb (for pound weight) (lb)
g (for gram) g
km (for kilometre) km
EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Asia) EMEA
Days of the week/ month/seasons - Not normally abbreviated.
Section Four – Hyphenation
Words are mostly broken down by syllabic structure, although that is not always easy. The best way to work out how to hyphenate a word is by ‘chanting’ it out loud.
However, hyphenation should be avoided as much as possible, especially in advertisements. If it cannot be avoided, it is best to hyphenate somewhere in the middle of the word as it does not look good to end or begin a line with only 2 or 3 characters of a (long) word.
e.g. perso-nages rather than persona-ges
Linking words with a hyphen is not that common in Dutch. It is done in compounds where the two components are equally important.
e.g. vertaler-tolk
winst- en verliesrekening
Acronyms, symbols, letters and numbers are joined to words by hyphens:
e.g. tv-kijker
NAVO-partner
60-plusser
20%-korting
Compounds linking two ‘clashing’ vowels (vowels that result in mispronunciation when they are linked to each other) get a hyphen, whereas derivations get a diaeresis where two ‘clashing’ vowels are linked.
e.g. warmte-isolatie (=compound)
