Grammatica - loco

106
Chapter 9
Adjectives
Bijvoeglijke naamwoorden
9.1
9.1.1
Rules for inflection
Verbuiging
An adjective used attributively (i.e. before the noun) will always take an
-e ending except in the following cases, all of them indefinite:
(a) Before a singular neuter noun preceded by een, elk, enig, geen, genoeg,
ieder, menig, veel, welk, zo’n, zulk, e.g.:
een klein huis ‘a small house’, geen klein huis ‘not a small house’,
elk/ieder klein meisje ‘every/each small girl’, genoeg wit papier
‘enough white paper’, welk wit papier ‘which white paper’
(b) Before singular neuter nouns preceded by nothing, i.e. oud brood
‘stale bread’, zoet water ‘fresh water’. 1
Note that in all other cases an ending is required, e.g. het oude brood ‘the
stale bread’, zulke oude huizen ‘such old houses’, stoute kinderen ‘naughty
children’, dit/dat stomme ding ‘this/that stupid thing’, mijn witte papier
‘my white paper’ etc.
It should be noted that in expressions such as ‘Jan’s large house’, ‘Jan’s’
acts as a possessive (i.e. = zijn) and thus the adjective following it is inflected,
i.e. Jans grote huis.
1 In expressions such as Witte Huis te koop ‘White House for sale’, Rode Kruis ‘Red
Cross’ and Engelse pond gedevalueerd ‘English pound devalued’ the meaning is definite
even though the neuter article has been omitted for the sake of brevity and therefore
the adjective is inflected.