Lesson 3: P'Articles

We'll introduce the articles in the Dutch language. We'll handle some exceptions to the 'STEMen' rule introduced in lesson 2. Some prepositions are given.
Some more diphthongs are given.
Spelling
Pronunciation
Grammar
Vocabulary
Sentences

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Spelling

The Dutch language has many diphthongs (two or more vowels forming one sound together).
We'll introduce some more:
"uu", "ou", "au", "ui"

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Pronunciation

Some weirder sounding diphthongs:

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Grammar

In this lesson we'll introduce the articles. English only has two articles, the definite {the} and the indefinite {a} (and {an}).
Dutch has two forms for the definite article and one for the indefinite.
The Dutch language assigns genders to nouns. They can be either male, female, male/female or neutral. So neutral is not the same as male/female, more like unisex or something.
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There are not many general rules on which is male, female, male/female or neutral. In general things being of the male type, like {man} or {father}, are male, female things like {woman}, {sister} are female.
We'll introduce some finer rules in further lessons. Just learn them by heart for now.
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Currently it doesn't matter whether a noun is male or female, since they both use the definite article "de", the neutral definite article is "het" (same word as for {it}, remember?), the indefinite article is "een".
(The sound of "een" differs from the general EE sound - it uses the mute E form, like in "de" - to distinguish it from the sound for {one} which is written the same.)
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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).
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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.
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The article is placed before the noun, like in: "de man", "het huis", "een dag". In the vocabulary list we'll place the articles before the new nouns and use (v) for female words and (m) for male words.
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In lesson 2 we introduced the STEMen rule:
The more general form of the present tense of a regular verb is:
Where STEM is the stem of the verb, the stem for "werken" would be "werk". When the stem ends with a single consonant, this consonant is usually doubled, like in "hebben" where the stem is "heb".
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An amendment is:
When STEM ends with a "t", the second and third person (jij/hij/zij/het) don't get an extra "t" following the STEM. So for example the verb "zitten" {to sit} will be:
Another amendment is:
When the STEM ends with a single consonant the consonant is doubled in the STEMen form, only if the preceding vowel is one of the single vowels: "a", "e", "i", "o" or "u".
So "ij" isn't one of them.
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Finally we'll introduce some prepositions. Prepositions are usually placed between the verb and the subject, like in English:
{he looks through the window}
"Hij kijkt door het raam"

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Vocabulary

de the (male/female/unisex)
door through (the door), by (the author),
due to (the rain)
een a/an
het the (neutral)
hond dog [de (m)]
huis house [het]
kat cat [de]
kijken to look [kijk kijkt kijken]
kind child [het, 't]
kussen to kiss [kus kust kussen]
man man [de (m)]
naar at/to (a directional point of view)look at go to
raam window [het]
vrouw woman/wife [de (v)]
zien to see [zie ziet zien]
zitten to sit [zit zit zitten]

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Sentences

De man kijkt naar het kind. The man looks at the child.
Hij kust de vrouw. He kisses the woman.
Jullie kijken door het raam. You look through the window.
Jij ziet de hond. You see the dog.
Wij kijken door een raam naar de kat. We look through a window to the cat.

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