Family
குடும்பம்
Dutch grammatical gender doesn't track a person's actual sex at all, unlike Spanish or German — but family words for people still map naturally onto Tamil's அவன்/அவள் pronoun split, since it's the pronoun, not the noun's own gender class, that tracks who someone is.
Grammar Comparison
இலக்கண ஒப்பீடு
Family words are almost all de-words, regardless of the person's sex
de moeder (mother), de vader (father), de zoon (son), de dochter (daughter) — all 'de', no masculine/feminine split
அவள் தாய் / அவன் தந்தை (பாலினம் பிரதிபெயரில் தெரியும், சொல்லில் அல்ல)
Unlike Spanish or German, Dutch grammatical gender doesn't track a person's sex at all — de moeder and de vader take the exact same article de, even though one refers to a woman and the other to a man. Dutch gender (de vs. het) is a leftover classification with almost no logical pattern, closer to how Tamil's அஃறிணை (non-human) gender ignores biological sex for objects — except Dutch ignores it for people too. The person's actual gender only shows up in the pronoun you'd use to refer to them (hij/zij), exactly like Tamil's அவன்/அவள்.
Possession with van instead of an ending
de moeder van Jan (Jan's mother, lit. 'the mother of Jan')
ஜான்னுடைய அம்மா (ஜான் + உடைய, ஒரு உரிமைப் பின்னொட்டு)
Dutch shows possession with the separate word van ('of') placed after the noun and before the owner's name — de moeder van Jan, not a Jan's-mother word order. Tamil instead adds a possessive suffix directly onto the owner (ஜான்னுடைய), keeping it in front of what's possessed. Expect the Dutch 'possessed thing van owner' order to feel backwards until it becomes automatic.
Vocabulary
சொற்கள்
| Dutch | Pronunciation | Tamil | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| de moeder | duh MOO-der | அம்மாammā | mother |
| de vader | duh VAH-der | அப்பாappā | father |
| de broer | duh broor | சகோதரன்sagōdharan | brother |
| de zus | duh zuhs | சகோதரிsagōdhari | sister |
| de oma | duh OH-mah | பாட்டிpāṭṭi | grandmother |
| de opa | duh OH-pah | தாத்தாthāththā | grandfather |
| de zoon | duh zohn | மகன்magan | son |
| de dochter | duh DOKH-ter | மகள்magaḷ | daughter |