<? include "http://www.elanguageschool.net/dutch-leaderboard.php"; ?> <? include "http://www.elanguageschool.net/dutch-box.php"; ?> Counting in any language is a valuable skill best learned early on. In Dutch as in English, there are both ordinal and cardinal numbers, and number formation is similar in that the first twelve numbers are unique. Above twelve, numbers are formed by combination. For example, 15 is vijftien and 16 is zestien. Other numbers will be the subject of more advanced lessons. Note in the table how ordinals are formed from the cardinals in Dutch by adding -de. 'Ten' becomes 'tenth' in English; tien become tiende in Dutch. As in English, there are several variants: eerste, derde, and achtste. cardinal numbers ordinal numbers one een 1st eerste two twee 2nd tweede three drie 3rd derde four vier 4th vierde five vijf 5th vijfde six zes 6th zesde seven zeven 7th zevende eight acht 8th achtste nine negen 9th negende ten tien 10th tiende eleven elf 11th elfde twelve twaalf 12th twaalfde Remark: een is used both as an undefinite article (a or an) and a number (one). One often puts accents on the e's when one is meant in case of ambiguity: één. There is also a difference in pronunciation: /@n/ (schwa-n) for the article and /e:n/ (ayn) for the number. Grammatica 3-1 ~ Telling time (hours) Knowing the numbers from 1 to 12, you can now begin asking and telling time in Dutch. De klokkentoren van Graz (Duitsland) Gesprek 3-1 Twee jongens, Hendrik en Karel, zijn vrienden. Op een middag komen ze elkaar tegen. * Hendrik: Karel. Hoe gaat het? * Karel: Hallo! * Hendrik: Wil je voetballen? * Karel: Hoe laat is het? * Hendrik: Het is één uur. * Karel: Dan kan ik nog tot twee uur spelen. * Hendrik: Dat is goed. We spelen nog een uur lang! * Karel: Ja, En daarna breng je me op je motor naar huis. Asking for the time is accomplished by the sentence: Hoe laat is het? ("What time is it?", lit. "How late is it?"). The answer places the hour in the line Het is ____ uur ("It is __ o'clock"), substituting the correct cardinal value. Grammatica 3-2 ~ Introduction to Nouns A noun (Dutch: zelfstandig naamwoord) is a fundamental part of speech, occurring in sentences in two different ways: as subjects (performers of action), or objects (recipients of action). As a generality, a noun is the name of a "person, place, or thing". Nouns are classified into proper nouns (e.g. "Janet") (Dutch: eigennamen), common nouns (e.g. "girl"), and pronouns (e.g. "she" and "which") (Dutch voornaamwoorden). A proper noun (also called proper name) is a noun which denotes a unique entity. The meaning of a proper noun, outside of what it references, is frequently arbitrary or irrelevant (for example, someone might be named Tiger Smith despite being neither a tiger nor a smith). Because of this, they are often not translated between languages. Proper nouns are capitalized in English and all other languages that use the Latin alphabet; this is one way to recognize them. Gender of Nouns We have seen evidence of word gender in the pronouns we have been encountering; notably 'he', 'she', and 'it' in English and hij, zij, and het in Dutch. Just like many other languages (but not English), Dutch has genders for nouns as well. Noun gender is indicated by the definite article which should always be learned as part of the noun. Definite Articles — Definite articles are equivalent to an English 'the', and the two basic gender forms in Dutch are as follows: * de: masculine or feminine (pronounce /d@/) * het: neuter (pronounce /hEt/, "h-eh-t") To say 'the book' in Dutch, you would say het boek, because boek is a neuter noun. To say 'the man' in Dutch, you would say de man, because man is a masculine noun. To say 'the woman' in Dutch, you would say de vrouw, because vrouw is a feminine noun. Noun gender does not always derive from actual gender where gender might be applicable. For example, 'the boy' is de jongen (masculine); but 'the girl' is het meisje (neuter). Also, nouns that have no inherent gender are not necessarily neuter. From this lesson: 'the clock' is de klok (feminine). It is important when learning Dutch nouns to always learn them together with their correct definite article. That is, memorize the word for 'book' in Dutch as het boek, not simply boek. Not just definite articles, but also adjectives and demonstrative pronouns have endings that must match the gender of the noun they preceed. Most speakers of the language -particularly north of the Rhine- no longer distinguish between masculine and feminine words (apart from those cases that have an obvious natural gender). This development is relatively recent and many dialects of the South still distinguish three genders. There a word like 'klok' is still regularly referred to as zij (she). Northerners, generally avoid such references (or do it wrong). For foreign speakers it is advisable to concentrate on the contrast between common gender (de) and neuter (het) There are a few general (and helpful) rules for gender: 1. Diminutives are neuter: de klok -> het klokje 2. Words on -ing are feminine (i.e. common) -> e.g. de werking, de stalling 3. Loans usually retain their gender: Lat. museum -> het museum (both neuter). Grammatica 3-3 ~ Pronouns in the accusative/dative cases / Possessive pronouns The following new familiar pronouns have been introduced: jouw – your (2nd person, singular, possessive pronoun) je – you (2nd person singular, nominative case) haar – her (3rd person singular, possessive pronoun)(Lesson 2) mijn – my (1st person singular, possessive pronoun) ze – she (3rd person, singular, nominative case)(Lesson 2) we – we (1st person, pleural, nominative case) For comparison with English, recall that the singular personal pronouns (nominative case) are "I", "you", and "he/she/it" (1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons; see Les 2). In the accusative and dative, these become "me", "you", and "him/her/it", forms used in English for both direct and indirect objects of verbs (except for the 3rd person plural). Example: 'He gave it[DO] to me[IO]'. Woordenlijst 3 het boek book het getal, de getallen number, numbers het huis house de jongen, de jongens boy, boys het leren learning, study de klok klok de klokkentoren clock tower de man man het meisje girl de middag afternoon de motor motorcycle het uur hour; also "o'clock" de vrouw woman breng je me you will take me dat is goed very well (lit.: "that is good") ik kan ... spelen I can play het is it is hoe laat is het? What time is it? op een middag one afternoon tot twee uur until two o'clock wil je ...? do you want ...? (familiar form) (also: would you like to ...?) brengen to bring spelen to play tellen to count voetballen to play soccer/football dan then daarna after that elkaar each other hallo hello jouw your je you lang long laat late mijn my naar to (as in "I'm driving to London.") tot to van x tot y from x to y (exclusive) we we Also included in the vocabulary for Lesson 2 are the ordinal and cardinal numbers 1 through 12 from the table at the begnning of this lesson. 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