Plural

The plural is formed by addition of -en (pronounced /ən/ or /ə/) or -s, with the usual spelling changes in the case of the former. Which of the two is used is somewhat unpredictable, although some general rules can be given:

• Single-syllable words, which are common in Dutch, normally use -en:
  • deur "door" → deuren
  • boot "boat" → boten
  • huis "house" → huizen
  • dief "thief" → dieven
• Words ending in a schwa /ə/ often use -s, but a sizable number use -n, particularly if they are older. Some nouns may allow either ending. Nouns that are substantivised forms of adjectives always use -n.
  • tante "aunt" → tantes
  • chocolade "chocolate" → chocolades
  • bode "messenger" → boden or bodes
  • oxide "oxide" → oxiden
  • grote "great one" → groten
• Relatively modern words ending in a long vowel use -'s (with an apostrophe), but if they end in -ee or -é then no apostrophe is used. Older ones generally use -en or -ën (with diaeresis).
  • baby "baby" → baby's
  • café "café, bar, pub" → cafés
  • pizza "pizza" → pizza's
  • radio "radio" → radio's
  • ree "roe" → reeën
  • la (also lade) "drawer" → laden (but in colloquial usage sometimes also la's)
• Words ending in unstressed -el or -er usually use -s. If -en is allowed it tends to be more archaic or poetic.
  • akker "agricultural field" → akkers
  • appel "apple" → appels or (archaic) appelen (note: for the derived noun aardappel "potato", the plural aardappelen is still common, alongside aardappels)
  • lepel "spoon" → lepels
  • sleutel "key" → sleutels
  • vader "father" → vaders or (archaic) vaderen
• Initialisms (words pronounced as letters) follow the rules for whatever the final syllable suggests, usually by adding -s but occasionally -en:
  • APK "vehicle inspection" → APK's
  • cd "CD" → cd's

Diminutive

Many nouns have a diminutive form alongside the normal base form. This form is used to indicate small size, or emphasize a particular endearing quality. Use of diminutives is very common, so much that they could be considered part of the noun's inflectional paradigm.

There are two basic ways to form the diminutive: with -tje or with -ke(n). The former is the standard way, while the latter is found in some dialects, mostly in the south (Brabantian and Limburgish). The diminutive on -ke(n) is common in informal Belgian Dutch (due to final-n deletion in Dutch, the final -n is often not pronounced). All diminutives have neuter gender, no matter what the gender of the original noun was. The plural is always formed with -s.

Cases

Noun cases were still prescribed in the formal written standard up until the 1940s, but were abolished then because they had long disappeared from the spoken language. Because of this, they are nowadays restricted mostly to set phrases and are archaic. The former Dutch case system resembled that of modern German, and distinguished four cases: nominative (subject), genitive (possession or relation), dative (indirect object, object of preposition) and accusative (direct object, object of preposition). Only the nominative and genitive are productive, with the genitive seldom used and only surviving in the margins of the language. Some examples of the three non-nominative cases in fixed expressions:

• Genitive: de dag des oordeels "judgement day", Koninkrijk der Nederlanden "Kingdom of the Nederlands"
• Dative: in feite "in fact", heden ten dage "nowadays", bij dezen "hereby"
• Accusative: op den duur "eventually", goedenavond "good evening"

The role of cases has been taken over by prepositions and word order in modern Dutch. For example, the distinction between direct and indirect object is now made by placing the indirect object before the direct object, or by using the preposition aan "to" with the indirect object. The genitive is replaced with the preposition van "of". Usage of cases with prepositions has disappeared as well. Nowadays, the case of each noun is interpreted mainly by word order. Nominatives go first, datives after, and lastly the accusatives. Nouns after prepositions are also accusative.

Cases are still occasionally used productively, which are often calques of existing phrases. This is particularly true of the genitive case,^[5] which is still used occasionally to evoke a formal style. Speakers' awareness of how the cases were originally used is generally low. People may confuse the old masculine/neuter genitive article des and the corresponding noun ending -s with the article der (with no ending) used for feminine or plural nouns.

Inflection

The inflection of adjectives follows the gender and number of the following noun. They also inflect for definiteness, like in many other Germanic languages. When preceded by a definite article, demonstrative determiner, possessive determiner or any other kind of word that acts to distinguish one particular thing from another, the definite form of the adjective is used. In other cases, such as with an indefinite article, indefinite determiner (like veel "many" or alle "all"), the indefinite form is used.

Despite the many different aspects that determine the inflection of an adjective, the adjective only occurs in two main forms. The uninflected form or base form is the adjective without any endings. The inflected form has the ending -e. The inflection of adjectives is as follows:

Adjectives are only inflected in this way when they are in an attributive role, where they precede a noun and modify it. Adjectives in a predicative role, which are used in predicative sentences with a copula verb, are not inflected and always use the uninflected form. Compare:

• de kleine man ("the small man") — de man is klein ("the man is small")
• kleine huizen ("small houses") — huizen zijn klein ("houses are small")

Most adjectives ending in -en have no inflected form. This includes adjectives for materials, as well as the past participles of strong verbs.

• de houten stoel ("the wooden chair")
• het stenen huis ("the brick house")
• de gebroken lampen ("the broken lamps")

Adjectives that end in a vowel in their uninflected form are rare, and there are no fixed rules for them. Often, the uninflected and inflected forms are the same, but sometimes an extra -ë is added on anyway.

Partitive

Adjectives have a special form called the partitive that is used after an indefinite pronoun such as iets 'something', niets 'nothing', veel 'much, a lot', weinig 'little, a few'. The partitive form takes the ending -s.

• Vertel me iets interessants. ("Tell me something interesting.")
• Ik heb iemand nieuws leren kennen. ("I've got to meet somebody new.")

Adjectives already ending in -s or -sch don't take this ending:

• Ik heb iets paars aangetrokken. ("I've put on something purple.") (the base form is already paars)
• Er is niet veel fantastisch aan. ("There isn't much fantastic about it.")

The few adjectives that end in a long vowel take instead -'s with an apostrophe like certain noun plurals.

• Ik vond paars niet zo mooi, dus heb ik nu iets lila's. ("I didn't like purple so much, so now I have something lilac.")

Adjectives used as adverbs

The uninflected form of an adjective is implicitly also an adverb. This makes it hard at times to distinguish adjectives and adverbs in Dutch.

• Dat is een snelle auto. De auto rijdt snel. ("That is a fast car. The car drives fast.")
• Wij werden vriendelijk begroet door die vriendelijke mensen. ("We were kindly welcomed by those kind people.")

Adjectives used as nouns

The inflected form of an adjective can also be used as a noun. Three types can be distinguished:

• The noun that the adjective refers to is omitted but implied. The adjective will then be inflected as if the noun had been present, although the inflected form is normally used even in the indefinite neuter singular.
  • Je kunt deze auto kopen in verschillende kleuren. Wil je de groene, de blauwe of de gele? ("You can buy this car in various colours. Do you want the green, the blue or the yellow one?")
  • Wij hebben drie kinderen, twee grote en een kleine. ("We have three children, two big ones and a small one.", alternatively Wij hebben drie kinderen, twee grote en een klein.)
• The adjective is used as a masculine/feminine noun in its own right, usually referring to a person. The -e will always be added, even to adjectives that already end in -en. The plural is formed with -n.
  • Je rijdt als een blinde! ("You drive like a blind person!")
  • Waar ben je, mijn geliefde? ("Where are you, my loved one?")
  • Laat de gevangene vrij! ("Release the prisoner!", from the past participle gevangen "captured, imprisoned")
  • De rijken moeten de armen helpen. ("The rich should help the poor.")
• The adjective is used as a neuter mass noun describing a concept.
  • Ik kan geen antwoord geven, omdat ik het gevraagde niet begrijp. ("I can't answer, because I don't understand what was asked.")
  • Angst voor het onbekende is heel gewoon. ("Fear of the unknown is very normal.")

Comparative and superlative

Adjectives have three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. The comparative and superlative are formed synthetically, by adding endings to the adjective. The comparative and superlative can also be formed analytically by using meer "more" and meest "most", but this is much rarer than in English. The analytic forms are used only when the word would become particularly long, or when it would become hard to pronounce (particularly in the superlative).

The comparative is formed by adding -er to the base form. For adjectives that end in -r, the comparative is formed by adding -der to the base form instead. The comparative inflects as an adjective in its own right, having inflected and partitive forms. The uninflected comparative can be used as an adverb as well.

• Ik ben groot, maar jij bent groter. ("I'm big, but you're bigger.")
• Dit speelgoed kan gevaarlijk zijn voor kleinere kinderen. ("This toy can be dangerous for smaller children.")
• Deze jas is duurder. ("This coat is more expensive.")
• Heb je niets goedkopers? ("Do you have nothing cheaper?")
• Dat heb je nog fantastischer gedaan dan de vorige keer! ("You did it even more fantastically than last time!")

The superlative is formed by adding -st. This is equivalent to adding -t to the partitive, and the same rules apply. When an adjective ends in -s or -sch, this becomes -st and -scht, but these forms are more rarely used, and the analytic form with meest is preferred.

• De Mont Blanc is de hoogste berg van de Alpen. ("Mont Blanc is the highest mountain of the Alps.")
• Dit is het vieste toilet dat ik ooit heb gezien. ("This is the dirtiest toilet I've ever seen.", alternatively Dit is het meest vieze toilet)

Because it is most often used to distinguish one particular thing from all others, the superlative is generally accompanied by a definite article. This means it is rarely found in the uninflected form. Even in predicative sentences, a definite article precedes, so it becomes more like a noun phrase with an implied noun.

• Deze jas is de duurste. ("This coat is the most expensive.")
• Dit huis is het grootste. ("This house is the biggest.")

When used as an adverb, the superlative is always preceded by the neuter article het, unlike in English where this is optional. Either the uninflected or the inflected form can be used, without any difference in meaning. This form can also be used as part of predicative sentences, which can lead to a mismatch of genders which may seem odd at first glance, but is correct nonetheless:

• Deze jas is het duurst(e). ("This coat is (the) most expensive")
• Dit huis is het grootst(e). ("This house is (the) biggest.")
• Onze auto rijdt het hardst(e) van allemaal. ("Our car drives (the) fastest of all.")

The first sentence meaning "This coat is the most expensive" has the same meaning as the first sentence further above. They are interchangeable, but they would be parsed differently. With the article de, there is an implied noun, and it might better be translated as "the most expensive one". The superlative must also be in the inflected form in this case, de duurst would be incorrect. With the article het, there is no implied noun, and both the inflected (het duurste) and uninflected form (het duurst) can be used.

Some comparatives and superlatives are suppletive, and use a different root than the base form. These are irregular.

• goed, beter, best 'good/well, better, best'
• veel, meer, meest 'much/many, more, most'
• weinig, minder, minst 'little/few, less/fewer, least/fewest'
• graag, liever, liefst 'willingly/gladly, rather/more preferably, most preferably'
• dikwijls, vaker, vaakst 'often, more often, most often'

When an adjective is a compound of an adverb and a verb participle, the adverb sometimes changes rather than the whole word. A space may be added as well.

• dichtbij, dichterbij, dichtstbij 'close/nearby, closer, closest'
• dichtbevolkt, dichter bevolkt, dichtstbevolkt 'densely populated, more densely populated, most densely populated'

Personal pronouns

As in English, Dutch personal pronouns still retain a distinction in case: the nominative (subjective), genitive (≈ possessive) and accusative/dative (objective). A distinction was once prescribed between the accusative 3rd person plural pronoun hen and the dative hun, but it was artificial and both forms are in practice variants of the same word. These two cases are still sometimes taught to students, and may be used in formal Dutch, but no distinction is made in the everyday spoken language.

Like many other European languages, Dutch has a T-V distinction in its personal pronouns. The second-person pronouns, which are used to refer to the listener, exist in informal and formal varieties. However, because of the relatively complex and dialect-specific way in which the pronouns developed, this is less straightforward than it is in for example French or German. The old Germanic/Indo-European second-person singular pronoun du / doe (English thou) fell out of use in Dutch during the Middle Ages, while it remained in use in the closely related Limburgish and in neighboring Low German, West Frisian and German languages. The role of the old singular pronoun was taken over by the old plural form, which differed slightly depending on dialect: gij in the South, jij in the North. This development also happened in English, which once had a T-V distinction but then lost it when the old informal pronoun thou was lost. In Dutch, however, further changes occurred, and the North and South developed differently:

• In the North and in the standard language, a new formal pronoun u was introduced, which made jij distinctly informal. A new second-person plural pronoun was created by adding lie(den) "people" to the old singular (compare English y'all). This created jullie, an informal pronoun when speaking to many people. The formal pronoun u is used for both singular and plural.
• In many Southern dialects, the older situation remained, and gij is still a neutral way to speak to a person in those dialects. However, informal jij and formal u are commonly used in the standard language of the South, like in the North.
• Many dialects created their own plural forms of pronouns, such as gijlie or similar in the South for the second person plural, and also hullie for the third person plural ("they"), which later became a standard in Afrikaans. These forms are not part of standard Dutch.

Many pronouns can occur in a stressed form and an unstressed (clitic) form. The stressed form retains the original full vowel, and is used when particular emphasis or contrast is needed. The unstressed form normally replaces the vowel with a schwa /ə/ and is used in other cases. The unstressed forms are shown in brackets; those spelled with an apostrophe or hyphen are not used often in formal written text, and are used mainly in informal speech.

In addition to hij, zij, and het having unstressed counterparts, they are themselves in a technical way unstressed forms of the demonstrative pronouns; het is an unstressed form of dat, while the rest are a form of die. It is formal and normal to replace these personal pronouns with demonstrative pronouns.

• Die houdt van melk. (He/she likes milk.)
• Dat is zeer snel. (It is very fast.)

The pronouns are the only place in the standard language where the difference between masculine and feminine gender is significant. Consequently, the usage of the pronouns differs depending on how many genders are distinguished by a speaker. Speakers in the North will use feminine pronouns for female people, and the masculine pronouns for male people and for common-gender (masculine or feminine) nouns. In the South, the feminine pronouns are used for feminine nouns and the masculine pronouns are used for masculine nouns. See Gender in Dutch grammar for more details.

The standard language prescribes that in the third person plural, hen is accusative and is to be used for the direct object, and hun is dative, and is for the indirect object. This distinction was artificially introduced in the 17th century, and is largely ignored in spoken language and not well understood by Dutch speakers. Consequently, the third person plural forms hun and hen are interchangeable in normal usage, with hun being more common. The shared unstressed form ze is also often used as both direct and indirect objects and is a useful avoidance strategy when people are unsure which form to use.^[8]

In the West and among younger speakers, in informal spoken language, hun is also used as a subject pronoun by some. This is considered heavily stigmatised and substandard.^[9]

Possessive determiners

Possessive determiners also have stressed and unstressed forms, like the pronouns.

Possessive determiners are not inflected when used attributively, unlike adjectives. Thus:

• Hij is mijn man. ("He is my husband.")
• Dat is mijn huis. ("That is my house.")

An exception is ons, which inflects like an indefinite adjective, receiving -e when used with a masculine, feminine or plural noun. Possessive determiners are themselves definite in meaning, so any following adjectives will occur in the definite form even when the possessive itself does not:

• ons grote huis ("our big house")
• onze grote huizen ("our big houses").

The inflected form is also used when the determiner is used predicatively. It is always preceded by a definite article in this case, giving the appearance of an implied noun. For example: Dit is mijn auto. De auto is de mijne. ("This is my car. The car is mine.", more literally "The car is the my one"). Jullie has no inflected form, the sentence is usually rephrased with van instead: De auto is van jullie. ("The car is of you.")

Before the case system was abolished from written Dutch, and in southern spoken language, all possessive determiners inflect(ed) as indefinite adjectives, not only ons. They also used to inflect for case. While this is no longer done in modern Dutch, some relics still remain in fixed expressions. See Archaic Dutch declension for more details.

Demonstrative determiners

Like English, Dutch has two sets of demonstrative for different degrees of distance. A third, unspecific degree also exists, which is fulfilled by the personal pronouns, but see further below on pronominal adverbs.

The demonstratives inflect like indefinite adjectives, but irregularly. They are themselves definite in meaning, so any following adjectives will occur in the definite form.

When the demonstrative pronoun is used exophorically (referring to something that has not yet been mentioned in the text) with a copula verb, the "uninflected" forms dit and dat are always used:

• Dit is mijn nieuwe auto. Ik heb deze gisteren gekocht. ("This is my new car. I bought this one yesterday.")

Even though auto is of common gender and otherwise requires the form deze. In this sentence, the first pronoun (dit) is exophoric, while the second one (deze) refers back to auto.

The exophoric pronoun, when used in a predicative sentence, is always the complement and never the subject. The inflection of the verb follows the other argument instead, and will be plural even when the pronoun is not:

• Dat is een nieuw huis. ("That is a new house")
• Dit is mijn vader. ("This is my father")
• Dat zijn nieuwe huizen. ("Those are new houses", notice singular dat, with plural verb zijn agreeing with plural noun huizen)
• Dit zijn mijn kinderen. ("These are my children", same with dit)

Pronominal adverbs

A pronominal adverb is a location adverb that corresponds in meaning to a pronoun, and takes its place. These exist in English as well, but are rare; examples are thereby ("by that"), herewith ("with this") and whereupon ("upon what" or "upon which").

Pronominal adverbs are used to replace the combination of prepositions with pronouns. They are very common in Dutch, and in some cases mandatory. The following table shows the pronouns that have adverbial forms:

Both the combination of preposition+pronoun and the pronominal adverb can often be used, although the adverbial form is more common. The pronoun is used mainly when one needs to be specific about it. The neuter pronoun het can never appear as the object of a preposition; the adverbial form is mandatory. Combinations of a preposition and a relative pronoun are also usually replaced by a pronominal adverb. E.g. The combination met dewelke (with which) is distinctly dated and usually replaced by waarmee. The masculine and feminine pronouns are used more often in the pronoun form, particularly when referring to persons, but the adverbial form may be used occasionally as well.

Pronominal adverbs are formed by replacing the pronoun by its corresponding locative adverb and the preposition by its adverbial form and putting them in reverse order. The locative adverbs overal, ergens and nergens are separated from the prepositional part by a space, while the other four are joined to it. For example:

• Ik reken op je steun. ("I'm counting on your support.")
• Ik reken erop. ("I'm counting on it.")
• Ik reken nergens op. ("I'm counting on nothing.", more freely "I'm not counting on anything.")

For most prepositions the adverbial form is identical with the preposition itself, but there are two exceptions:

• met "with" → mee
  • Hij stemt met alle voorstellen in. ("He agrees with all proposals.")
  • Hij stemt ermee in. ("He agrees with it.")
  • Hij stemt overal mee in. ("He agrees with everything.")
• tot "(up) to" → toe
  • Ik kan me niet brengen tot deze wandaden. ("I can't bring myself to (commit) these atrocities.")
  • Ik kan me hiertoe niet brengen. ("I can't bring myself to this.")

There are prepositions like sinds, via, vanwege that do not possess an adverbial form, which makes it difficult to use them in a relative construction, because the relative pronouns like dewelke, hetwelk are becoming obsolete.

Conversely, there are a number of prepositional adverbs like heen or af that cannot be used as prepositions, but they occur regularly as part of a pronominal adverb or of a separable verb.

The adverbial pronoun and the prepositional adverb can be separated from each other, with the prepositional part placed at the end of the clause. This is not always required, however, and some situations allow them to remain together.

• Daar reken ik op. ("That, I am counting on."), they can be combined too: Daarop reken ik. or Ik reken daarop.
• Ik reken er niet op. ("I am not counting on it."), here they must be separated.

Notice that in Dutch the last word op is generally analyzed as an adverb, not a preposition. Thus, the often quoted 'rule' that a sentence should not end in a preposition is strictly adhered to.

Conjugation

Dutch conjugation resembles that of other continental West Germanic languages such as (Standard) German and Low German, and also the other Germanic languages to a lesser degree. Dutch retains the two main types of verb inherited from Proto-Germanic: weak and strong. Preterite-present verbs are also present, but can be considered irregular. All regular verbs conjugate the same in the present tense (including the infinitive and present participle), so the weak versus strong distinction only matters for the past tense.

The following is a general overview of the endings:

Weak verbs are the most common type of verb in Dutch, and the only productive type (all newly created verbs are weak). They form their past tense with an ending containing a dental consonant, -d- or -t-. Which of the two is used depends on the final consonant of the verb stem. If the stem ends in a voiceless consonant, then -t- is used, otherwise -d-. It is often summarised with the mnemonic "'t kofschip": if the verb stem ends with one of the consonants of 't kofschip (t, k, f, s, ch, p), then the past tense will have -t-. However, it also applies for c, q and x and any other letter that is voiceless in pronunciation.

• werken, werkte ("to work, worked")
• leren, leerde ("to learn/teach, learned/taught")
• razen, raasde ("to rage, raged")
• lossen, loste ("to lose/get rid of, lost")

Strong verbs are less common in Dutch, but they include many of the most common verbs. They form their past tenses by changing the vowel of the stem (ablaut). For strong verbs one needs to learn three or four principal parts: the infinitive, the past (singular), optionally the past plural, and the past participle. However, the vowel patterns are often predictable and can be divided into seven or so classes, based on the vowels used in these three principal parts. Some verbs are a mixture of two classes.

Examples:

• rijden, reed, gereden ("ride, rode, ridden", class 1)
• binden, bond, gebonden ("bind, bound, bound", class 3a)
• geven, gaf, gegeven ("give, gave, given", class 5)
• lopen, liep, gelopen ("walk/run, walked, walked", class 7b)

A number of verbs mix the strong and weak types of past. They have a strong past participle but all the other past tense forms are weak, or the other way around.

• lachen, lachte, gelachen ("laugh, laughed, laughed", weak past, strong past participle)
• zouten, zoutte, gezouten ("salt, salted, salted", weak past, strong past participle)
• vragen, vroeg, gevraagd ("ask, asked, asked", strong past, weak past participle)

Some of the most used verbs in the Dutch language have irregular conjugations which don't follow the normal rules. This includes especially the preterite-present verbs. These verbs historically had present tense forms that resembled the past tenses of strong verbs, and can be recognised in modern Dutch by the absence of the -t in the third-person singular present (the English equivalents lack the -s in the same way). Preterite-present verbs have weak past tenses, but often irregularly formed. Many of these verbs are now used as auxiliary verbs.

The additional -t of the second-person gij-form is optional in the past tense for weak verbs and is usually considered archaic. For strong verbs, the -t is always required.^[10][11][12]

Non-finite forms

Dutch possesses present and past participles.

Transitivity

Depending on meaning and use, Dutch verbs belong to one of a handful of transitivity classes:

• Unergative intransitive verbs do not take a grammatical object, and have active meaning (the subject is the agent). The perfect is formed with the auxiliary hebben. They possess an impersonal passive voice.
• Unaccusative intransitive verbs do not take a grammatical object, and have passive or middle meaning (the subject is the patient or there is no clear agent). The perfect is formed with the auxiliary zijn.
• Transitive verbs take a grammatical object. The subject is the agent, the object is either direct (patient) or indirect. The passive voice is formed with the auxiliary worden. The perfect is formed with the auxiliary hebben when the direct object becomes subject, and with the auxiliary krijgen when the indirect object becomes subject. The perfect passive is formed with zijn.
• Ditransitive verbs take two grammatical objects, a direct object (patient) and an indirect object. These act like transitive verbs in most respects.
• Middle verbs, also called verbs of innocence, are essentially transitive unaccusative verbs, and take a grammatical object. The perfect is formed with the auxiliary zijn, while the passive is formed with worden and the perfect passive also with zijn. The use of the perfect auxiliary zijn carries an implication that the subject is not the direct initiator of the action or cannot or does not want to be held responsible for it. This includes verbs such as vergeten "to forget" and verliezen "to lose (an object)".
• Reflexive verbs are accompanied by a reflexive pronoun as object
• Impersonal verbs only take an indefinite pronoun het (it) as subject
• Absolute verbs are similar to unergatives, but they lack an impersonal passive form

Verbs can belong to several classes at once, depending on use. Specifically, many transitive verbs can also be used intransitively, and are thus ambitransitive. For example, ik eet een appel "I eat an apple" contains a transitive verb, while ik eet "I eat" contains an unergative intransitive verb. Most ditransitive verbs can also be used as monotransitives (with only one object, direct or indirect) or even intransitives.

Whether an intransitive use is unergative or unaccusative depends both on the verb and on the meaning in which it is used. Generally, most transitive verbs become unergatives when the object is removed; these are accusative verbs. But there is also a sizable number of so-called ergative verbs, which become unaccusative when there is no object. Consequently, these verbs switch from active to either passive or middle meaning when the object is dropped. Examples exist in both Dutch and English, such as the transitive ik breek het glas "I break the glass" versus unaccusative het glas breekt "the glass breaks". In both cases, the glass is the patient, but in the first case it's the direct object while in the second it's the subject. The auxiliary zijn of such verbs is used for both passive and intransitive use, making those uses essentially indistinguishable. The phrase het glas is gebroken can be interpreted as both "the glass has been broken" and "the glass is broken".

Alongside the normal conjugated verb forms, Dutch has a variety of verbal meanings that are expressed using auxiliary verbs or other additional words. The use of auxiliary verbs, particularly of the perfect tenses and the passive voice -if extant-, depends on the transitivity class of the verb.

0–9

The numbers from 0 to 9 are:

een is the same word as the indefinite article in the written language. When confusion is possible, the number is often written as één to distinguish it from the article. The pronunciation differentiates them in speech: the article is /ən/, the numeral is /eːn/.

10–19

The numbers 10, 11 and 12 are irregular. 13 to 19 are formed by adding -tien ("-teen") to the base number. Two are slightly irregular: 13 is dertien with metathesis (compare English thirteen), and 14 is veertien.

20–99

The decades 20 to 90 are formed by adding -tig ("-ty") to the base number. However, some are slightly irregular: 20 is twintig, 30 and 40 are dertig and veertig (comparable to 13 and 14 above), 80 is tachtig. The remaining decades, although spelled beginning with v and z, are often pronounced beginning with voiceless /f/ and /s/ even in dialects that do not devoice these consonants normally.

Combinations of a decade and a unit are constructed in a regular way: the unit comes first, followed by en ("and"), followed by the decade. No spaces are written between them, and a diaeresis is added when necessary. For example:

• 28 achtentwintig ("eight and twenty")
• 83 drieëntachtig ("three and eighty")
• 99 negenennegentig ("nine and ninety")

Hundreds

100 is honderd. Multiples of 100 are expressed by placing the multiple before honderd, without any spaces: 200 tweehonderd, 300 driehonderd and so on. Sometimes multiples higher than 10 can be used as synonyms for the thousands, such as 1100 elfhonderd, 2500 vijfentwintighonderd.

Combinations of a hundred and a lower number are expressed by just placing them together, with the hundred coming first. Sometimes, en is added in between, but this is optional and not commonly done nowadays.

• 112 honderdtwaalf or honderdentwaalf
• 698 zeshonderdachtennegentig
• 1258 twaalfhonderdachtenvijftig

Thousands

1000 is duizend. Unlike in English, this is not preceded by an article. The same system used for naming the hundreds applies to the thousands as well, so multiples of 1000 are expressed by writing the multiple right before: 2000 tweeduizend, 3000 drieduizend, 20000 twintigduizend, 999000 negenhonderdnegenennegentigduizend.

Combinations of a thousand and a lower number are expressed by placing them together, with the thousand coming first. A space is written between them.

• 1 258 duizend tweehonderdachtenvijftig
• 9 001 negenduizend een
• 32 348 tweeëndertigduizend driehonderdachtenveertig
• 123 456 honderddrieëntwintigduizend vierhonderdzesenvijftig

Millions and above

Dutch always uses the long scale system.

• 1 000 000 miljoen
• 1 000 000 000 miljard
• 1 000 000 000 000 biljoen
• 1 000 000 000 000 000 biljard
• etc.

Multiples of any of these are similar to the thousands, but a space is written between the multiple and the "million": 2 000 000 twee miljoen, 420 000 000 000 vierhonderdtwintig miljard. If the multiple is 1, it must also be present, unlike with the thousands where it is left out: 1 000 000 een miljoen.

Combinations with lower numbers are much the same as with the thousands.

• 117 401 067 honderdzeventien miljoen vierhonderdeenduizend zevenenzestig
• 10 987 654 321 tien miljard negenhonderdzevenentachtig miljoen zeshonderdvierenvijftigduizend driehonderdeenentwintig

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers behave and inflect like superlative adjectives. Unlike normal adjectives, they always appear in the inflected form; always ending in -e ignoring whether the following noun is neuter or not, and are usually preceded by a definite article of some kind.

The ordinal adjectives are formed by adding either -de or -ste to the base number. Which one is added depends on the word. The numbers 1 and 3 have irregular ordinals.

When a number is composed of multiple parts, the ending is added only to the last part of the word, and follows the rules for that word. Thus, 21st eenentwintigste, 409th vierhonderdnegende, 9001st negenduizend eerste.

Fractional numbers

Fractional numbers are expressed using a cardinal number for the numerator, and an ordinal for the denominator, like in English.

• 1/5 een vijfde
• 3/8 drie achtste

1/2 and 1/4 are een half ("a half") and een kwart ("a quarter") respectively, although the regular een tweede and een vierde are also possible, but rarer. In 3/4, the space is often left out: driekwart.

When combined with a full cardinal, the full cardinal comes first and they are separated by en and spaces. The word en can be left out if the numerator is not 1.

• 9 3/4 negen (en) driekwart
• 5 1/6 vijf en een zesde
• 3 1/2 drie en een half

The combination 1 1/2 is usually expressed irregularly as anderhalf, which literally means "other half" (ander was originally a synonym of tweede, and this combination meant "second, minus a half").

Iterative numbers

These express repetition, like "once" or "five times". They are formed with a cardinal number followed by maal or keer (both meaning "times").

• twee maal/keer ("two times, twice")
• negen maal/keer ("nine times")
• honderd maal/keer ("a hundred times")

The space is often left out for the combinations eenmaal ("once"), tweemaal ("twice") and driemaal ("thrice"), but not with keer.

There are also ordinal forms of these, which express an iteration within a sequence of repetitions. They are formed with an ordinal instead of a cardinal, and act as masculine nouns.

• de eerste keer/maal ("the first time")
• de dertigste keer/maal ("the thirtieth time")

Multiplicative numbers

These express a multiple of something. They are formed with the suffix -voud '-fold' and are neuter nouns.

• tweevoud 'a twofold, multiple of two'
• drievoud 'a threefold, multiple of three'
• honderdvoud 'a hundredfold, multiple of hundred'

For the number 1, enkelvoud 'singular(ity), a onefold' is used, which is derived from enkel 'single' rather than een. The "regular" form eenvoud instead means 'simpleness, uncomplicatedness, ease'.

Adjectives are formed by adding -ig to this, giving the combination -voudig.

• tweevoudig 'double, twofold'
• drievoudig 'triple, threefold'
• honderdvoudig 'hundredfold'

Again, enkelvoudig 'single, simple, onefold' is used for 1, and eenvoudig means 'simple, uncomplicated, easy'. Alternatively, the word enkel 'single' can be used alone. A synonym for tweevoudig is dubbel.