In the Dutch language, the gender of a noun determines the articles, adjective forms and pronouns that are used in reference to that noun. Gender is a complicated topic in Dutch, because depending on the geographical area or speaker either a three-gender structure or a two-gender structure (with vestiges of a three-gender structure) is identified and maintained.

Overview

Traditionally, nouns in Dutch, like in German and Icelandic, have retained the three grammatical genders found in the older forms of all Germanic languages: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Almost all Dutch speakers maintain the neuter gender, which has distinct adjective inflection, definite article and some pronouns. The picture is less clear for the masculine and feminine gender, because in the standard language the adjective inflection of both is identical, and both share the same article and the same demonstrative pronouns. The standard language mostly distinguishes masculine and feminine genders by the use of the personal pronoun, which is hij for masculine nouns and zij for feminine nouns. It is also distinguished in the case forms of the definite article an some pronouns, but those have fallen out of use and are only retained in literary or archaic usage and fixed expressions.

This article outlines the grammar of the Dutch language, which shares strong similarities with German grammar and also, to a lesser degree, with English grammar.

Preliminary considerations

Vowel length is indicated in Dutch spelling using a combination of double vowels and double consonants. Changes from single to double letters are common when discussing Dutch grammar, but they are entirely predictable once one knows how the spelling rules work. This means that the spelling alternations do not form part of the grammar, and they are not discussed here. For more information, see Dutch orthography.

Word order

Dutch word order is underlyingly SOV (subject-object-verb). There is an additional rule called V2 in main clauses, which moves the finite (inflected for subject) verb into the second position in the sentence. Because of this, sentences with only one verb appear with SVO (subject-verb-object) or VSO (verb-subject-object) order.

However, any other verbs or verbal particles are placed at the end of the clause in accordance with the underlying SOV order, giving an intermediate order of SVOV(V)(V)...