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)

Exception:
-a + achtig (would normally make a derivation but get a hyphen)
lama-achtig

The tendency in Dutch is to link words together to form compounds.
Sometimes, when more than 3 or 4 words are linked together and there is a chance of mispronunciation or misunderstanding, a hyphen is used to clarify.
This is often the case when one of the components of the word is English.

e.g. driekleureninktpatroon (drie + kleuren + inktpatroon)
      drive-inrestaurant

Some prefixes are joined to words with a hyphen, some are not.

With hyphen:
adjunct-
aspirant-
ex-
pro-
pseudo-
quasi-
semi-
vice-
interim-
substituut-
niet-
loco-
oud-
non-
privé-
sint-

Without hyphen:
anti
co
contra
des
dua
sub
pre
re
di
bi
tri

Suffixes are not joined to words with hyphens.

Dutch normally uses ‘N’ dashes (–).
Dashes are used:
to interrupt a sentence with another (smaller) one,
to put an extra emphasis on a particular part of the sentence,
to indicate an unexpected turning of the sentence.

e.g. We promise you – if you fill in the form today – that…

(half a) space comes before and after the dash.

Section Five – Miscellaneous Peculiarities

Most Dutch/Flemish place names have an English translation:
e.g. Den Haag - > The Hague
Brussel - > Brussels

But some don’t:
e.g. Amsterdam

Some English place names are different in Dutch
e.g. London - > Londen

Surnames are given after the first names. Surnames are often written in upper case in bibliographies (although rules on this differ).

Section Six – Geographic Distribution

Dutch is spoken by the 15 million inhabitants of the Netherlands, and is also the official language of Surinam in South America, and of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It is also spoken in northern Belgium but there the language is generally referred to as Flemish. Dutch, like English, is one of the Germanic languages, and thus part of the Indo-European family. It stands about midway between English and German and is the closest to English of any of the major languages.

Dutch is spoken/used in the following countries: Aruba (Dutch), Belgium, Canada, Netherlands (Holland), Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, United States of America.

Language Family
Family: Indo-European
Subgroup: Germanic
Branch: Western

Source: http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Dutch - Copyright © Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World, Published by Routledge.

Breakdown of languages spoken in Belgium:

Dutch (Flemish) - 56%
French - 32%
German – 1%
(Remainder = bilingual)

Section Seven – Character Set