Even though the Dutch are among the tallest people on the planet, we still love our small and cute things. We even have a word type for it, called the verkleinwoord, or diminutive. Although something similar can be found in English, we brought it to a whole new level, which means you get plenty of options, as well as the accompanying ambiguous grammar rules. Let’s dive into them!
What is a verkleinwoord?
Verkleinwoord literally means word to make something smaller, or smallification word, if you will. In English, it’s called a diminutive. It is used to put emphasis on the lack of size of something, to make something sound less harsh or serious, or to make something appear all cute and adorable.
The very basics of it is to add the suffix -je, or a variation of it, to a noun. Where a tak can be a branch of various sizes, a takje is a somewhat smaller version of it. How small is impossible to tell, but perhaps smaller than usual, smaller than expected, smaller than the rest of them, or simply very, very small indeed.
This verkleinen can be done with every common noun, although it makes more sense for some and less for others (a very small universe is just a bit odd, isn’t it?).
English has a similar thing, though it’s less official. Still, you can easily call someone a girly or girlie to put emphasis on how small or cute they are compared to other girls. Dutch diminutives work in a similar fashion, though they’re much more elaborate.
The fun thing (for us Dutchies, not necessarily for you as a foreign language speaker) is that you might ask a thousand Dutch people if they know the general rules, and not a single one would say yes – and yet, we barely make any mistakes in it. It’s one of those things that just make sense on a deep, rule-less level that might be a bit hard to comprehend when you’re trying to learn the language. But let’s give it a go anyway, shall we?
Different suffixes for different letters
As stated before, simply adding -je to a noun won’t do the trick, at least not in many cases. There are several versions of the suffix:
- -je
- -tje
- -pje
- -kje
- -etje
As I was researching this, I was kind of baffled by the amount of rules that come into play, but I’ll explain most of them here. -je is the basic version, the mother of all the others. It’s the simplest one to explain, too, so let’s get to it.
-je
-je is used when the noun it’s going to shrink to adorable or tiny proportions ends in either a p, t, k, d, s, f, or x. (This kind of reminds me of the taxikofschip rule, about which I wrote an entire article too, but not quite). Examples:
potje (small jar)
rokje (short skirt)
wijsje (cute little song or tune)
It’s important to note that this is not a matter of spelling, but rather of pronunciation: the Dutch word cake, with a similar-ish meaning to the one in English, can be smallified into cakeje, for the e is silent, leaving the k as our focus point.
-pje
-pje pops up in more ambiguous ways. It’s only used for words ending in m, but not always. The rule is: if the m is preceded by a long vowel sound or a silent e sound, we use -pje. It’s also always -pje when the noun ends in -lm or -rm. Examples:
boompje (small tree)
bodempje (small floor/bottom of something)
wormpje (small worm)
-etje
Now we enter a somewhat stranger realm. -etje is kind of a misnomer, as there’s usually another letter added – which one depends on the noun you’re trying to shrink – but it’s a good starting point. It’s used when the noun ends in a nasal sound (m, n, or ng), or it ends in an l (an L, for clarity), and it’s preceded by a short vowel sound that isn’t a silent e. Still with me? Despite all of these parameters, it happens quite a lot.
When the original word doesn’t end in ng but in one of the others mentioned above, the consonant it ends in is doubled, for pronunciation purposes. Also, ng has an important exception, but we’ll get to that in the next paragraph. Examples:
kommetje (small bowl)
balletje (small ball (the Dutch word is bal, with one l))
dingetje (small thing)
The same is the case for words that end in r and consist of only a single syllable and that syllable contains a short vowel sound (but no silent e). Compound words (read all about those here, we love them!) ending in such words have the same rule applied, no matter how long or where the emphasis is – only the last compound matters. Examples:
karretje (small cart)
sterretje (small star)
popsterretje (small/young popstar)
-kje
Thought you were done? I’ve got one more basic rule for you – and then it’s off to the really weird stuff. Remember how ng usually follows the -etje rule? That’s not necessarily the case when it comes to words ending in ing. Just like English, Dutch has quite a lot of nouns ending in that, and some of them get a different suffix. If the noun ends in ing and it has more than one syllable and the emphasis is on the second-to-last syllable, something magical happens. The suffix turns into -kje, but more importantly: the g disappears entirely. Examples:
koninkje (small king, the original word is koning)
kettinkje (small necklace, ketting)
ontploffinkje (small explosion, ontploffing)
If, however, the word consists of three or more syllables, and the emphasis is not on the second-to-last one, we go back to the -etje rule:
tekeningetje (small drawing)
wandelingetje (short walk)
Long wandeling for a short drink, isn’t it?
-tje
Words that don’t adhere to any one of these rules mentioned above, usually use -tje. Examples:
maantje (small moon)
bekertje (small cup/drinking glass)
banaantje (small banana)
This is also true for multiple-syllable words that end in r and that syllable is a short vowel sound that isn’t a silent e, like motortje (small motor/motorbike), words that literally end in a vowel sound without any consonant to seal the deal (koetje, small cow), words that end (pronunciation-wise) in a w or j (kooitje / duwtje, small cage / small push) and some other somewhat common or much less common exceptions.
Some fun stuff
If your brain isn’t total mush by now, you might enjoy a few more interesting dingetjes. Single-syllable words ending in b, p or g that feature a short vowel sound do work with the first -je rule mentioned way at the top of this post, but it’s also allowed to use -etje instead, again doubling the last consonant for pronunciation purposes. So these are both correct:
kipje (small chicken)
kippetje (small chicken)
Some single-syllable words get an extra vowel to change the pronunciation: blad turns into a blaadje (small leaf), glas turns into glaasje (small drinking glass). Sometimes the meaning can even depend on whether you add an extra vowel or not: gaatje means small hole, while gatje means small butt) – both have gat as their basic, non-shrinked form.
Verkleinwoorden based on abbreviations where every character is pronounced like a single letter, as well as abbreviations that end in numbers, get an apostrophe to separate the suffix from the word itself: mp3’tje (small MP3 file), sms’je (small SMS text message). For these two examples, and some others, it’s even more common to use the diminutive than to use the original term.
One last thing – I promise I’ll let you go after this – is that Dutch contains a few words that only exist as a diminutive, and the supposed original form simply doesn’t make sense. The most common one of these is meisje, Eng: girl, which is in fact a diminutive, but the original form meis is never used – we do use meid, which means slightly older girl, and that does make some sense, but meisje is always just meisje. My absolute favorite one of these is lieveheersbeestje (Eng: ladybug/ladybird). Technically, you should be able to have a horrifically gigantic lieveheersbeest, but be honest: have you ever seen one, and would you even want to?
(There’s also the winterkoninkje, a type of bird, which technically is called winterkoning but everybody just calls it by its diminutive name. This may happen more often in names of animal and plant species.)
Long storytje short
Phew. Are your eyelids still attached? Verkleinwoordjes (see, you can even do a diminutive form of the word itself!) in Dutch aren’t an easy feat. There are tons of rules on which one to use, and, as per usual, tons of exceptions to those rules, too.
When used properly, though, they can definitely make your language use more elaborate. Dutch people love to throw them into conversation, not necessarily to make something sound smaller, but also cuter, less annoying, less dangerous, or less harsh. It’s a tricky skill to obtain, and you may want to wait until you’ve reached fairly fluent levels before attempting it, but at least now you know how it’s done – unless you’re fast asleep by now, for which I shall not even remotely blame you. If you’re still awake, you definitely deserve a little tap on the shoulder, or as we like to say it in a way that’s almost exclusively used as a diminutive: een schouderklopje.
