The city of Amsterdam has one of the most important intact historical
city centres in the world.The distinctive Amsterdam cityscape is dominated by canal houses, most of them built as residences for wealthy citizens. These mansions are characterised by narrow, relatively tall facades, crowned by richly ornamented gable tops.
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Amsterdam heeft één van de belangrijkste en gaafste historische stadskernen
van de wereld. Karakteristiek voor het Amsterdamse stadsgezicht zijn de grachtenpanden, de meeste gebouwd als woonhuizen voor rijke burgers. Deze huizen zijn gekenmerkd door smalle, relatief hoge gevels, met vaak rijk geornamenteerde geveltoppen.
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Articles
Dutch has three articles, two definite articles, de and het (the), and one indefinite article een (a or an).
Definite articles 'de' and 'het':
'De' is used before masculine and feminine nouns and 'het' before neuter nouns.
We usually talk about de-words and het- words. There is no way to tell from a
given word whether it is one or the other. It is advisable therefore to learn
the article together with the new noun that is being learned.
Two useful rules may be worth remembering:
Indefinite article 'een':
'Een' is pronounced very much like "an" in "an apple" and also has the same
meaning and function as the indefinite article in English: a child in English
is 'een kind' in Dutch; an accident is 'een ongeluk' in Dutch.
Note:
In written form also another form for 'een' is used,
the "ee" is replaced by a single quote ('), like in "'n" (it is pronounced the same).
There is also a different written form for 'het', just like "'n",
the first two characters are replaced by a single quote, like in "'t".
This is pronounced differently than 'het', it uses a mute "e".
In spoken language the "'t" form is frequently used,
since it's shorter and easier to say.
Personal Pronouns
Note: stressed, meaning here accentuated or emphasised :-))
Het werkwoord zijn (The verb to be):
Possessive Adjectives:
Het werkwoord hebben (The verb to have):
'Ze' is often used in the object form in Dutch, so the literal
translation of "them" is both 'hen' and 'ze'.
"I see them" is indeed normally translated as 'Ik zie ze'.
'Ze' would ususally be the less emphasized form; 'hen' being the more
emphasized form eg. in a comparison:
'Praat je met ons of met hen ?' (Do you talk with them or with us ?).
The polite form for "you" is 'u'.
It is used for both the singular and plural form.
It uses the verb form of 'hij'/'zij'/'het', but for 'zijn' usually the 'jij' form ('bent') is used.
Whether the singular or plural form is used, must be deduced from the context.
The polite form is used when talking to older people or people higher in the hierarchy,
ie. people who need respect.
There may come a moment when you start using the 'jij' or 'jullie' form when you get
to know people better.
It is written with a capital 'U' when talking to divine and god-like creatures.
Today's society (especially the youth) is using the polite form less and less.
De vragende vorm (The question form):
In questions the order of subject and verb is reversed:
Jij hebt een huis - Heb jij een huis? (huis - house)
Hij is een man - Is hij een man?
English plurals wich are singular in Dutch
The following nouns are singular in Dutch and are followed by a verb in the singular when one item is referred to. Those with ( ), containing the plural form, can be used in the plural when more than one itme is referred to.
ashes - as binoculars - verrekijker (verrekijkers) economics - economie holidays - vakantie (vakanties) the Netherlands - Nederland pants - broek (broeken) politics - politiek pyjamas - pyjama (pyjama's) scissors - schaar (scharen) spectacles - bril (brillen) tongs - tang (tangen) vegatables - groente (groenten)
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