Grammatica - loco

1111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1011
1
12111
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
20111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
30111
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
40
41111
Note that the current use of non-sexist ‘their’ in English to avoid an unwieldy
‘his/her’ is not possible in Dutch; indefinite pronouns like iemand ‘somebody’,
niemand ‘nobody’, iedereen ‘everybody’ require zijn/z’n as their
possessive form. There is no easy way in Dutch of avoiding what appears
to be sexism here, but it is not perceived as such as it is in English:
Iedereen wilde zijn mening geven.
Everyone wanted to give their opinion.
8.2.1
Inflection of possessives
(a) Only ons is inflected (i.e. becomes onze) before singular common
gender nouns and before all plurals:
onze vriend, onze boeken but ons boek.
(b) In very formal style all possessives can take -e before feminine
singular nouns and plural nouns:
Uwe Excellentie Your Excellency
Hare Majesteit Her Majesty
Mijne Heren Dear Sirs
(c) Possessives sometimes take case endings in formal style or in
standard expressions that have preserved such archaisms:
een uwer afgevaardigden
one of your representatives (genitive plural)
mijns inziens
in my opinion (masculine genitive singular)
te zijner tijd
in the course of time (feminine dative singular)
8.2.2
Colloquial possessives
Expressions such as de auto van mijn broer/mijn broers auto, het huis
van mijn moeder/mijn moeders huis, de kleren van die mensen, have an
alternative form which one often hears but usually avoids in writing.
mijn broer z’n auto
mijn moeder d’r oom
die mensen d’r kleren/die mensen hun kleren
Possessive
pronouns
81