Gender Agreement in Dutch

Geslachtscongruentie in het Nederlands

Introduction

Introductie

Grammatical genders are merely a system of categorizing nouns. While grammatical and biological gender often coincide, it is not always necessary that they do. For example objects that are not people or animals do not have biological gender, so it is merely the words used to describe them that have gender, not the objects themselves.

Unlike most European languages which make a distinction between masculine and feminine nouns, modern Dutch for the most part uses the grouping common and neuter.

Historically Dutch was much more similar to German, having three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) as well as marked declension for case. Modern Dutch however has lost most of these distinctions. The masculine and feminine genders have all but combined and case is no longer marked except for personal pronouns.
Masculine
Mannelijk
Common
Neuter
Onzijdig
Feminine
Vrouwelijk

Related Lessons

Gerelateerde lessen

Change language Flag fr French Flag es Spanish Flag en English Flag it Italian Flag de German Flag pt Portuguese