In the Dutch language

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

, nouns have one of three grammatical gender

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

s: masculine, feminine, or neuter. The gender of a word determines the articles used with it and the pronouns referring to it. Sometimes masculine and feminine nouns are collectively called de-words, whereas neuter nouns are called het-words, in accordance with the definite article used with them. Traditionally, pronouns used for masculine nouns are hij/hem/zijn, feminine zij/haar, neuter het/zijn. In some parts of the Netherlands, awareness of the distinction between masculine and feminine nouns has disappeared, producing a common gender, and using the masculine pronouns for feminine nouns has become quite common in speech and accepted in informal writing. In Belgium, the distinction is usually, but not always, maintained, with speakers and writers of West-Flemish descent using the common gender more than other Belgians. For a large number of words no clear division is determined, and dictionaries just indicate them as de-words. In the case of persons and animals of known sex the pronouns used are generally determined by the biological sex rather than by the grammatical gender of the word. In some dialects, there are exceptions here too: "de koe bij zijn horens vatten" and "Greta zijn hoed" (some West-Flemish dialects).

Although for most words gender can be found only by consulting a dictionary, the following rules can be used to determine the gender of many words:

Masculine nouns

The following nouns are generally masculine:

• Words ending with:

aar — leugenaar (liar)

aard — dronkaard (drunkard)

er — bakker (baker)

erd — engerd (creep)

eur — directeur (manager)

or — kolonisator (colonizer)

A small number of words form exceptions to these rules, e.g. baker (midwife), which is feminine.

• Independently used verb stems:

bloei (blossom)

dank (thanks)

groei (growth)

schrik (fear)

slaap (sleep)

• Words referring to male entities:

oom (uncle)

dief (male thief)

hengst (stallion)

However, diminutives such as jongetje (little boy) are neuter nouns.

Feminine nouns

The following nouns are generally feminine:

• Words ending with:

heid — waarheid (truth)

nis — kennis (knowledge)

de — liefde (love)

te — diepte (depth)

ij — voogdij (custody)

ing — wandeling (stroll/hike)

st — winst (profit)

ster — verpleegster (nurse)

in — godin (goddess)

A small number of words form exceptions to these rules, e.g. dienst (service), which is masculine.

• Words with non-native endings or elements:

ie — filosofie (philosophy)

iek — muziek (music)

ica — logica (logic)

theek — bibliotheek (library)

teit — puberteit (puberty)

tuur — natuur (nature)

suur — censuur (censorship)

ade — tirade (tirade)

ide — asteroïde (asteroid)

ode — periode (period)

ude — amplitude (amplitude)

age — tuigage (rigging)

ine — discipline (discipline)

se — analyse (analysis)

sis — crisis (crisis)

xis — syntaxis (syntax)

tis — bronchitis (bronchitis)

A small number of words form exceptions to these rules. e.g. kanarie (canary) is masculine and ministerie (ministry) is neuter.

• Words referring to female entities:

tante (aunt)

dievegge (female thief)

merrie (mare)

However, diminutives such as meisje (girl) are neuter nouns.

Neuter nouns (Het-words)

• Diminutive
  Diminutive
  In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
  
  nouns (recognizable by je, kje, pje, tje or etje after the stem). Note this holds even when the referent is obviously male or female, e.g. meisje (girl):

bloempje (little flower)

lammetje (little lamb)

• Verb stems with the following ("unseparable") prefixes:

be — beraad (consideration)

ge — gedoe (fuss)

ont — ontslag (discharge)

ver — verzoek (request)

• Names of towns, countries, languages:

Brussel (Brussels)

Nederland (the Netherlands)

Frans (French)

• Words ending with -isme:

Socialisme (socialism)

Vandalisme (vandalism)

• Latin loans in -um:

museum (museum)

unicum (unique event or aspect)

There is one notable exception, datum (date), which is masculine (and has both a "regular" plural in datums and the original Latin neuter plural in data).

• Greek loans in -ma:

thema (theme)

panorama (scenic view)

Gender in South-Dutch

In the South-Dutch (Flemish) colloquial speech, a difference is made between masculine and feminine words, unlike in Standard Dutch. Masculine words have different articles, possessives and demonstratives than feminine words):

• Indefinite article: (ee)ne(n) - versus the Standard Dutch een
• Definitive article: often remains de (like in Standard Dutch), but is sometimes den (unlike Standard Dutch)
• Possessives: mijne(n), jouwe(n)/je, zijne(n), hare(n), onze(n), uwe(n), hunne(n) - versus the Standard Dutch mijn, jouw/je, zijn, haar, ons, uw, hun (mine, your/your, his, her, our, your, their)
• Demonstratives: diene(n), deze(n) - versus the Standard Dutch die, deze

Example 1: (vrouw is feminine)

• South-Dutch: Hebt u mijn vrouw gezien?
• Standard-Dutch: Hebt u mijn vrouw gezien?
• English: Have you seen my wife?

versus: (auto and boom are masculine)

• South-Dutch: Ik heb mijnen auto onder diene boom geparkeerd.
• Standard-Dutch: Ik heb mijn auto onder die boom geparkeerd.
• English: I parked my car beneath that tree.

While Standard Dutch only has one indefinitive for its three genders ("een"), spoken South-Dutch has a much more complex set of articles:

• Masculine: ne(n), as in "ne man" (a man) and "nen avond" (an evening) - the ne(n) stems from the now archaic eene(n). Nen is used when a masculine substantive (or if the substantive is accompagnied by an adjective or adverb: the adjective or adverb, as in "nen harde steen" - a hard stone) starts with a vowel or an -h.
• Feminine: een, as in "een vrouw" (a woman).
• Neuter: e(en), as in "e kind" (a child) and "een huis" (a house). Een is used when the neuter substantive (or if the substantive is accompagnied by an adjective or adverb: the adjective or adverb) starts with a vowel or an -h.