Nominalization
Nominalization
Dutch turns verbs and adjectives into nouns with unusual ease: any infinitive becomes a neuter noun with het, and adjectives become nouns for people and abstractions. Formal writing runs on this machinery.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
het + infinitive makes a noun from any verb
het lezen van boeken, het roken, na het eten
the reading of books, smoking, after dinner
Put het in front of an infinitive and you have a fully functioning neuter noun: het zwemmen, het wachten, het reizen. To add an object, Dutch uses van: het lezen van boeken. English does the same thing with its gerund ('the reading of books') but far more often just uses the '-ing' form directly, so Dutch nominalizations tend to look heavier in translation.
Adjectives become nouns for people and abstractions
de armen, het goede, het mooie van deze stad
the poor, the good, the nice thing about this city
With de, an adjective refers to people: de armen ('the poor'), de werklozen ('the unemployed'), de oudere ('the elderly person'). With het, it becomes an abstraction: het goede, het onbekende. The construction het ... van is the standard way to say 'the ... thing about': het moeilijke van deze taal.
iets, niets and wat take an adjective with -s
iets moois, niets nieuws, wat lekkers
something beautiful, nothing new, something tasty
After iets, niets, wat, veel and weinig, an adjective takes an -s ending: iets moois, niets bijzonders, veel interessants. This is a genitive survival with no counterpart in English, which simply places the adjective after the pronoun. The pattern is completely regular and instantly marks fluent usage.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- reading
- English
- waiting
- English
- the unemployed
- English
- the good
- English
- something beautiful
- English
- nothing new
- English
- the increase
- English
- the decrease
- English
- the introduction
- English
- the development
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