Dutch/Lesson 1

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Les 1 ~ Lesson 1

Eenvoudige Gesprekken ~ Simple Conversations

• Simple conversations

• Grammar: Pronouns: I,me etc.

• Polite and clitic forms

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| ^ Contents ^ | << Voorwoord | Les 1 | Les 2 >>

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Contents 1 Grammatica 1-1 ~ Introduction to Dutch grammar 1.1 Using Wiktionary 1.2 Hovering 2 Gesprek 1-1 ~ Vrienden: Jan en Karel 3 Grammatica 1-2 ~ Forms 3.1 Clitic forms 3.2 Polite forms 3.3 Regional forms 4 Gesprek 1-2 ~ De handelaars 5 Grammatica 1-3 ~ Introduction to pronouns 5.1 Personal pronouns 5.2 Subject case (nominative) 5.3 Object case (accusative) 5.3.1 Remarks 6 Woordenlijst 1 6.1 Your turn! Building vocabulary 1

[edit] Grammatica 1-1 ~ Introduction to Dutch grammar

Children learn their mother tongue without knowing the parts of speech such as verbs, nouns and phrases. However these are helpful for anyone attempting to learn a second language from a book or a website. Of course the children have it right: the best way to learn a language is to listen to a mother tongue speaker and simply repeat. But such a speaker may not always be available to you.

English speakers will find many strong parallels between their language and Dutch. Where possible we will try to point out the similarities and exploit them.

However, as noted in the introduction, Dutch grammar is more complex than English grammar, and identifying the meaning of words in a Dutch sentence is difficult without understanding the clues to word function that come from the grammatical rules. The basic lessons of this textbook are set up to first introduce the parts of speech, and then bring in the rules that govern these. Pay particular attention to sentence word order as you progress through the lessons.

The main lessons Dutch/Lesson 1, 2 etc. Concentrate on introducing points of grammar, although there are exercises, sound files etc. Lessons 1A, 2A etc. concentrate more on practice, pronunciation drills, more conversation etc. As of June 30 2009 they are still in construction.

[edit] Using Wiktionary

Throughout the texts and in the vocabulary lists there are blue links that take you to the Dutch version of our sister project Wikitionary. Of course the layout is in Dutch and you may not immediately understand everything, but that is not a disaster. If you want to learn a language you also should learn to be a bit of a detective: you often need to get the gist of something with a few pieces of the puzzle missing. Don't let that scare you off! Here are a few useful pieces:

1. There usually is an English translation of a word under the heading Vertalingen, marked Engels
2. There may even be a geluidsopname (sound recording) or an phonetic description under Uitspraak. If you can: listen to the pronunciation a few times: it will help you remember the word and become an active speaker.

If you are really lost use the interwiki link to the English version (or any other language you know) as back up, but don't give in it too easily!

We strongly encourage you to use the links to expand your vocabulary. First guess what a word means, then click!

[edit] Hovering

Some words will be underlined. Try to hover your mouse over such words.

[edit] Gesprek 1-1 ~ Vrienden: Jan en Karel

Read the following conversation. Use the hover method to see an instant translation of a certain word and try to piece together the meaning. You will see that Dutch sometimes strings words together a bit differently than English. Once you get the gist open the translation drop box to check your understanding

Jan komt Karel op straat tegen. Ze zijn vrienden.

Jan: Hoi, Karel! Hoe gaat het met je?

Karel: Hoi! Dank je, met mij gaat het goed. En met jou?

Jan: Dank je, met mij gaat het ook goed. Tot ziens.

Karel: Tot ziens, Jan!

Dutch pronunciation varies with region and speaker, but the following gives a reasonable idea:

listen (help·info)

'jɑn.kɔmt.'ka.rəl.ɔp.'stra.'te.ɣə(n) zə.zɛɪn.vrin.də(n)

ɦɔj,'ka.rəl.ɦu.'ɣat.ət.'mɛ.cə

ɦɔj,dɑŋ.k^jə,mɛt.'mɛɪ.'ɣat.ət.xut.ʔɛn.'mɛ.'cɑʊ

dɑŋ.k^jə,mɛt.mɛɪ.'ɣat.ət.'ok.xut. tɔ.'tsins

tɔ.'tsins.jɑn

[edit] Grammatica 1-2 ~ Forms

[edit] Clitic forms

Notice the difference between "Hoe gaat het met je"? and "En met jou?". Both translate literally into with you, but there is a difference in emphasis. Jou carries emphasis, je does not. In Dutch, there are often two forms of the same pronoun: a strong one and a weak ('clitic') one. The clitic forms cannot have emphasis and the vowel in a clitic is often reduced to a neutral 'schwa' [ə] or omitted entirely. In colloquial English the same thing can be heard at times: seeya! instead of see you!.

[edit] Polite forms

The above conversation was between two good friends. It utilizes the familiar form of the personal pronoun (je, jou) where English uses you. However, Dutch also has a polite or formal form of the personal pronoun for the second person (you), u. Many languages have this distinction. It is e.g. comparable with Sie in German, vous in French or Вы in Russian . When to use one or the other is not always easy to decide. Someone unknown, particularly if older, is generally u, an old friend typically je, jou. The latter roughly corresponds with the 'first name basis' in English. Notice the use of u in the conversation below.

[edit] Regional forms

In the South of the area where Dutch is spoken (Flanders mostly), people do not distinguish between familiar and polite forms, instead they use yet another pronoun gij (clitic: ge, object: u). It is used much like you in English for both singular and plural. In the North gij is only encountered in archaic phrases like: gij zult niet stelen - thou shalt not steal. It is recommended that you learn Northern usage if you plan to go to the Netherlands.

[edit] Gesprek 1-2 ~ De handelaars

Please read the following conversation. It is a bit more formal than the one before. If you are not sure of the meaning of a word, hover your mouse over it, if it is underlined. A translation will pop up.

Meneer Jansen komt mevrouw De Vries tegen. Het zijn handelaars.

• Meneer Jansen: Goedendag, mevrouw De Vries!
• Mevrouw De Vries: Goedendag, meneer Jansen!
• Meneer Jansen: Hoe gaat het met u?
• Mevrouw De Vries: Zeer goed, dank u wel. En met u?
• Meneer Jansen: Ook goed.
• Mevrouw De Vries: Mooi. Kent u meneer Standish? Bent u hem al tegengekomen?
• Meneer Jansen: Uit Engeland? Nee. Is hij op bezoek?
• Mevrouw De Vries: Ja. Hij spreekt Nederlands. Tot ziens, meneer Jansen!
• Meneer Jansen: Tot ziens, mevrouw De Vries.

[edit] Grammatica 1-3 ~ Introduction to pronouns

A pronoun is a short word that takes the place of a noun previously mentioned in the sentence, paragraph, or conversation.

Recall: Kent u meneer Standish? Bent u hem al tegengekomen?

Hem refers back to meneer Standish. It is a pronoun that stands for (pro- !) meneer Standish.

There is a variety of pronouns like personal, possessive, relative and indefinite ones. Let's look at the personal pronouns first.

[edit] Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns are quite familiar in English: They are words like I,you,he,she,we,you and they. At least this is the case for the subject (nominative case). As object (accusative) some of them are different: me,you,him,us,you,them. Compare:

I see you.

You see me.

Notice how I turns into me when used as an object. You remains the same.

Much like in English ik (subject) turns into mij as object in Dutch, whereas je remains the same in both roles:

Ik zie je.

Je ziet mij.

The system in Dutch resembles the English one quite a bit, after all the languages are close relatives:

• As in English there are three persons in Dutch grammar: first (I), second (you) and third (he)
• As in English there is a distinction in number between singular (I) and plural (we).
• As in English there are gender distinctions in the third person singular (he, she, it)
• As in English there are case distinctions between object and subject (he, him)

Nevertheless the Dutch system is a little more involved, as we have seen there are:

• familiar and polite forms: je versus u.
• weak (clitics) and strong forms: je versus jou.

In addition there are

• regional differences: (jij/jullie - u) (North) versus (gij) (South)
• a growing rift between how inanimate and animate nouns are treated

In English he and she are reserved for animate nouns -usually persons- and this is increasingly the case in Dutch as well, certainly in Northern usage.

In English all inanimate objects can be referred to as it. However, in Dutch this is only true for het-words (neuter gender) and that leaves two thirds of all nouns uncovered.... We will revisit this awkward problem later.

[edit] Subject case (nominative)

Person	singular	clitic	plural	clitic
1st	ik	('k)	wij	we
2nd (fam.)	jij	je	jullie	-
2nd (polite)	u	-	u	-
2nd (South)	gij	ge	gij	ge
3rd	hij zij het	(-ie) ze ('t)	zij	ze

[edit] Object case (accusative)

person	singular	clitic	plural	clitic
1st	mij	me	ons	-
2nd (fam.)	jou	je	jullie	-
2nd (polite)	u	-	u	-
2nd (South)	u	-	u	-
3rd	hem haar het	(-m) (d'r) ('t)	hen (hun*)	ze

[edit] Remarks

1. As you see not all pronouns have clitics and some of them (shown in parentheses) are not used in the written language.
2. The pronouns in italics: hij, zij (sing.), hem, haar, hen and hun are increasingly reserved for persons and animate objects. For inanimate objects these pronouns usually get replaced either by demonstrative pronouns (see lesson 4) or by a special kind of adverb, the pronominal adverb (see lesson 8)
3. *In speaking, many Dutch speakers use the dative form hun instead of the accusative hen. This is because the hen form was artificially created by the grammarians of the past ^[1] In the spoken language hen is seldom used and speakers increasingly avoid the issue by opting for the clitic ze.

[edit] Woordenlijst 1

Dutch word	audio file	English translation
appendix	appendix (help·info)	appendix, supplement
bezoek	bezoek (help·info)	visit, attendance
Engeland	Engeland (help·info)	England
Nederlands	Nederland (help·info)	Dutch
vriend, vrienden	vriend (help·info)	friend, friends
handelaars	handelaar (help·info)	business people, businessmen, tradesmen, merchants (pl.)
gesprek, gesprekken	gesprek (help·info)|	conversation, conversations
grammatica	grammatica (help·info)	grammar
les	les (help·info)	lesson
straat	straat (help·info)	street
woordenlijst	woordenlijst (help·info)	word list
woordenschat	woordenschat (help·info)	vocabulary
op straat	op (help·info) straat (help·info)	on (in) the street
tot ziens	tot ziens (help·info)	goodbye (lit: see you again)
uit Engeland	uit (help·info)	from England
Met mij gaat het goed		I am fine (lit: With me goes it well)
goedendag!	goedendag (help·info)	Good day (greeting)
dag!	dag (help·info)	(Good) day! Hi! Hello!
dag		day
goed	goed (help·info)	good
En met jou?	jou (help·info)	And how are you? (lit: And with you?)
Hoe gaat het met jou (u)?		How are you (lit: How goes it with you?)
hoe	hoe (help·info)	how
gaan	gaan (help·info)	to go
het gaat		it goes
met	met (help·info)	with
is op bezoek	bezoek (help·info)	is visiting
tegenkomen	tegenkomen (help·info)	to meet, come across, encounter, run into
komt ... tegen		comes across
bezoeken	bezoeken (help·info)	to visit
maar	maar (help·info)	but, however
ook	ook (help·info)	also, too, as well
dank je, dank u.		thank you;
bedankt		thanks
simpel	simpel (help·info)	simple
het	het (help·info)	it (pronoun)
mevrouw	mevrouw (help·info)	Ms., Miss, or Mrs.
meneer	meneer (help·info)	Mr.
mij	mij (help·info)	me
nee	nee (help·info)	no
ja	ja (help·info)	yes
correct	correct (help·info)	correct
al	al (help·info)	already, yet
mooi	mooi (help·info)	beautiful (in this case, 'nice' or 'fine')
zeer	zeer (help·info)	very
en	en (help·info)	and

[edit] Your turn! Building vocabulary 1

When learning a language you need to start building up your vocabulary. There are various ways of doing that. One is to study the above conversations well. Often words are easier to remember when put in context. But there are other ways. Wiki adds a few methods to the range of possibilities. One is the hover method. Just hover your mouse over this. We will add vocabulary building exercises to each lesson to make it easier for you to memorize it all.

You may want to study some example conversations from world literature in Voorbeeld 1.

• Les 1A: more conversations and practice >>

<< Lesson Layout Guide
      Pronunciation Guide >>

1. ↑ "Dutch" by Jan G. Kooij in The world's major languages edt. Bernard Comrie ISBN 0-19-520521-9 Oxford University Press 1987