Dutch/Lesson 13

More about adjectives
Dutch adjectives are only a little more complicated than their English counterparts. An adjective generally occurs in two forms, an undeclined one and a declined one, ending in -e. Which one is used depends on a number of factors.

Predicative versus attributive
In general the undeclined form is used for a predicate, the declined form if the adjective is used as an attribute. Japanese speakers may recall the rules about na-type adjectives for this case:


 * predicative: dit huis is prachtig - this house is gorgeous
 * attributive: dit prachtige huis  - this beautiful house

Gender and indefiniteness
There is an important exception to the above main rule. If an adjective is used attributively before a singular neuter word in the indefinite case, it remains undeclined:


 * het mooie huis (definite)
 * een mooi huis (indefinite)
 * mooi werk ! (indefinite uncountable)

The 'indefinite' case includes words like geen, welk?, ieder etc.:


 * dit is geen mooi huis.

Adverbial use
Dutch adjectives can be used as adverbs without further ado, this contrasts with English where the ending "-ly" is usually required. Compare:


 * attributive
 * een langzame afdaling - a slow descent
 * predicative
 * de afdaling is langzaam - the descent is slow
 * adverbial
 * hij daalde langzaam af - he descended slowly

Substantives
The adjective can be made independent as a substantive, in which case it does carry an -e in the predicate:


 * dat is een mooie - that is a nice one

(Notice that Dutch does not add 'one' in this case, in contrast to Afrikaans).

The same holds for possessive pronouns, e.g.:


 * dat is de mijne - that's mine.

Fixed combinations
Sometimes the combination of adjective + noun have become a joint concept. In that case the inflection -e is dropped.


 * het [bijvoeglijk naamwoord] - the adjective
 * het [centraal station] - the central station
 * de [klinisch phycholoog] - the clinical psychologist
 * een [Amerikaans president] - an American president

Unfortunately there are many border line cases and it is hard to give fail proof rules, e.g. it is:
 * de Amerikaanse president.

And it is: but:
 * een Frans filosoof
 * niet een Franse, maar een Duitse filosoof.

In practice this seldom presents a serious problem for non-native speakers, as native speaker do not always agree on this point either.

Comparatives and superlatives
In English a few adjectives form comparatives and superlatives by adding "-er" and "-(e)st". Dutch follows the same pattern.


 * hoog - hoger - hoogst
 * high - higher - highest

However, in contrast to English this pattern is used for almost all Dutch adjectives, even for long ones and when formidable consonant clusters form.


 * interessant - interessanter - interessantst
 * interesting - more interesting - most interesting

After "-r" often a dental is inserted:


 * helder - helderder - helderst

For a few words ending in "-s" or "-isch" Dutch resorts to paraphrase as English does far more often;


 * fantastisch - fantastischer - meest fantastisch

Comparatives and superlative receive the ending -e as all adjectives:


 * de mooiste bloemen
 * de meest fantastische webstek

As in English a few adjectives have irregular forms:


 * goed - beter - best
 * good - better - best


 * weinig - minder - minst
 * little/few - less/ fewer - least/ fewest


 * veel - meer - meest
 * much/many - more - most

The same rules for inflection apply to the comparative ans superlative as do for the positive grade, but the inflection -e is dropped in many cases when there would be a lengthy succession of schwas, e.g.:


 * Een gemakkelijker(e) opdracht - an easier task

The word gemakkelijkere would have 4 schwas in a row  -kə-lə-kə-rə. In this case the last one is typically dropped.

Participles
As in English a participle behaves as an adjective and in most cases it receives the suffix "-e" as described above:


 * gekookte aardappels
 * kokende olie

An exception is the past participle of a strong verb that ends in "-en". It does not take an -e in attributive cases.


 * gebakken aardappels

Only as a substantive does it receive "-e":


 * dit is een gevangene - this is a prisoner (lit. a 'caughtee')

The adjective eigen (own) also follows this pattern. In fact, it descends from an old past participle.


 * Je eigen huis. - Your own house
 * Het eigen huis. - The owned house
 * Het eigene van de streek - The typical quality of the region
 * Deze streek heeft iets eigens - This region has something special

In contrast to English the present participle is seldom used to initiate a clause:


 * The train departing from platform 6 is delayed
 * De van perron 6 vertrekkende trein is vertraagd
 * De trein die van perron 6 vertrekt is vertraagd.

Vertrekkende would seldom be used after trein.


 * Alle treinen, vertrekkende van perron 6 -> Alle treinen die van perron 6 vertrekken.

The first construction is technically correct but sounds overly formal.

By contrast, past participles are occasionally found in such a construction, particularly if other attributes are already prefixed:


 * Het uitgestrekte gebied verloren bij het verdrag van XXX werd heroverd.
 * The vast territory lost at the treaty of XXX was regained by conquest.

Materials
As in English adjectives that indicate a material end in "-en":

wollen - woolen

They are indeclinable and are only used attributively:


 * de wollen muts

To express the predicate, the preposition van is used:


 * de muts is van wol.

Other endings
Dutch lost its case endings more recently than English did and it is not uncommon to encounter endings like "-er", "-en" etc. in frozen expressions:


 * te goeder trouw (dat. fem. sg.) -- in good faith
 * in koelen bloede (dat neut. sg.) -- in cold blood
 * goedenavond! (acc masc. sg.) -- good evening!
 * van ganser harte (dat. fem. sg., despite hart being neuter) -- with all my heart
 * te gelegener tijd (dat fem. sg.) -- at a convenient time

The latter contrasts with ten tijde van where tijd in shown as a masculine dative... Clearly the case system was getting pretty corrupt before most of it got abolished in official spelling (1947).

Partitive -s
One form of case ending is still productive. After words that indicate a quantity such as iets, wat, niets. veel an adjective gets a genitive (partitive) "-s":


 * iets moois - something beautiful
 * veel liefs - a lot of love
 * iets wikibooksachtigs - something like wikibooks