Word classes (parts of speech)
This course is for revision and for more advanced students of Dutch. It is about individual words and briefly reviews the different word classes…
conjunctions list
This is a list of the most common co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions. This list is best consulted through the Conjunctions course.
Politeness
In English you can be polite by, for example, using please and thank you, or by being indirect . Here are three different ways…
Sentence Structure
Sentence structure has to do with the order of constituents in a sentence, also known as word order. However, it is important to bear…
Sentence Types
The three sentences below refer to the same possible event or state of affairs: the person who is being addressed walking to the shop….
Constituents
Constituents are the main grammatical functions in a sentence. This course discusses them under four broad headings: predicate, subject, object and adjunct. Think of…
Question Words
Question words are used when asking open questions, i.e. questions that need a fuller answer than just ‘yes’ or ‘no’. These questions are also…
Pronominal Adverbs
A pronominal adverbs is a combination of a preposition and one of the following adverbs of place: er, daar, hier, waar, (n)ergens and overal. The…
Prepositions
There are many prepositions in Dutch. In the first place they usually occur in front of a noun or a noun group (hence the…
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are part of a wider group of words which are all devices linking two linguistic elements in some kind of meaningful relationship. These…
Comparative and Superlative
The comparative and superlative are forms of an adjective which are used to compare two things or people with one another, to evaluate their…
Adjectives
Adjectives are words that qualify nouns. They express a particular quality of the noun, such as colour (geel, rood, zwart) or dimensions (groot, lang,…
Spelling and Pronunciation
Dutch spelling is much more systematic than, for instance, English spelling. There are some rules to learn, but once you know them they are…