Lesson 2
Noun and article
A
noun is a word that is used in language to designate concrete or abstract objects. Examples of nouns are 'house', 'car', 'cat' (concrete objects) and 'marriage', 'bank account' (abstract objects). All languages make use of nouns, the Dutch language is no exception.
An
article is a word that precedes the noun and is used to denote whether we speak of an object in general e.g. 'a house', 'a car', 'a cat' or a specific object, e.g. 'the house', 'the car', 'the cat'. The 'a' article is called an
indefinite article and the 'the' article is called an
definite article.
Dutch uses the same system of nouns and articles. Let's start with the indefinite article. That's quite easy. The Dutch always use the word
een. In Dutch we would say:
een huis (a house),
een auto (a car),
een kat (a cat).
The definite article is unfortunately more complicated in Dutch. In English there is only one definite article 'the'. In Dutch, there are two:
de en
het. When to use these articles depends on the gender of a noun. For male and female words, we use the
de article and for neutral words we use the
het article. You have to learn by heart when to use what article. Examples are:
het huis (the house),
de auto (the car) and
de kat (the cat).
personal pronoun as subject
A personal pronoun is used in language to designate persons. Examples are the words I, you, he, she, they, et cetera. These are personal pronouns used as a subject in a sentence: '
I have a car'. There are also personal pronouns such as 'me', 'him', 'her'. These pronouns are used as object in a sentence: 'I give the book to
him'. In this chapter, we discuss the personal pronouns that are used as subject. They are comparable to English with some exceptions. Here is the overview:
| personal pronoun as subject |
| first person, singular | ik | I |
| second person, singular | jij, je, U | you |
| third person, singular | hij, zij, het | he, she, it |
| first person, plural | wij | we |
| second person, plural | jullie, U | you |
| third person, plural | zij | they |
Important to note is:
- jij and je are informal. They can both be used. jij sounds a bit more impolite so be careful!
- U is a very formal, polite way of saying 'you', comparable to the old English 'thou'. It is quite often used in formal Dutch when a person is addressed you respect very much or do not know that well. It is polite to use U. It can even be interpreted as very rude when you use jij the first time you meet a person that is older than you.
- In Dutch, there is a difference between 'you' in singular and 'you' in plural. When I want to address a single person, I use jij or U. When I want to address more than one person, I use jullie (informal) or U (formal).
the verb zijn (to be)
In most languages, the verb 'to be' is an irregular verb, that means, there are no rules to conjungate it into the forms 'I am', 'you are', et cetera. The same holds in Dutch. You have to learn the verb
zijn (to be) by heart:
Imporant to note: When you address a group of persons in formal way, you use the personal pronoun
U. The verb is always conjungated in singular form, the same as if you would speak to one person:
U bent.
Topics discussed
And what will you learn here? I have written 25 lessons, each consisting of a small explanation, interactive vocabulary (60 words per lesson) and exercises
(about 50 questions per lesson). When you have finished your exercises for a lesson, you may proceed to the next lesson. This system assures that you will really learn the language!
- Les 2 - noun and article, personal pronoun, the verb zijn (to be)
- Les 3 - adjectives, prepositions in, op, bij, the verb hebben (to have)
- Les 4 - pronunciation of long and short vowels, plural form of nouns
- Les 5 - simpel present tense
- Les 6 - nouns, plural form continued
- Les 7 - word order in simpel sentences
- Les 8 - reprise
- Les 9 - possessive pronoun, some adverbs
- Les 10 - adverbs hier, daar, er, reflexive pronoun
- Les 11 - simpel past tense
- Les 12 - reciprocal pronoun, simpel past of hebben, zijn
- Les 13 - present perfect tense
- Les 14 - compound verbs
- Les 15 - demonstrative pronoun die, dat, deze, dit
- Les 16 - reprise
- Les 17 - interrogative pronoun wie?, waar? et cetera
- Les 18 - infinitive, continuous
- Les 19 - composite sentences I
- Les 20 - composite sentences II
- Les 21 - Numbers and counting
- Les 22 - time
- Les 23 - future tense
- Les 24 - reprise
- Les 25 - diminutives
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