Folksprak/Grammar/Pronouns

Article and Possessive pronouns

The definite article de and the indefinite article en precede the noun. Both have a short e.

• de hus (the house)
• en hus (a house)

The plural form of the definite article is de, too.

• de husen (the houses)
• husen (houses)

Pronouns

Pronouns of things, times and places

The asking pronouns for things, times and places are respectively wat, wen and wer (what, when and where). Only wer has a long vowel. Analogous, the answering pronouns are dit, dan and dar (that, then and there). The respective referencing pronouns (i. e. pronouns for things, times and places that are already known to the listener) are het, hin and hir (it, now, here).

• wat, dit, het (what, that, it)
• wen, dan, hin (when, then, now)
• wer, dar, hir (where, there, here)

Instead of hin, nu (now) is used normally.

Particularly, wat and dit are used as asking and answering articles.

• Wat bok is din bok? (Which book is your book?)
• Dit bok. (That book.)

Pronouns of third person

In order to refer to third persons, the asking pronoun we (who) is used. There are two answering pronouns for third persons: hi and de (this one respectively these) for singular and plural.

• we (who)
• hi <-> de (this one <-> these)
• hidag (today)

In order to specify gender, hun and han can be used instead of (gender-neutral) hi.

• Hun sej ham for hans hus. (She sees him in front of his house.)
• Han sej hum for huns hus. (He sees her in front of her house.)

Personal pronouns in general (like third-person pronouns, too) change, when they are used as an object of a preposition or a verb. The third-person pronouns then end in -m. The stem vowel is shortened then.

• De gæ to him. (They go to her/him.)
• Hi gæ to dem. (She/he goes to them.)

The possessive third-person pronouns end in -s.

• his hus (her/his house)
• des hus (their house)
• wes hus (whose house)

Pronouns of the first and second person

The forms of the first and second-person pronouns are quite irregular (both for singular and plural).

• ik, mi, min (I, me, my)
• du, di, din (you, you, your)
• wi, ons, onser (we, us, our)
• ji, ju, jor (you, you, your)

NB: The form ik has a short vowel.

Pronouns of kind

The pronouns of kind are quite strange, too.

• wæ, so (how, so)

Particularly, wæ and so are used in the asking and answering adjectives welk and solk ('what kind of and this/that kind of).

• welk bok (what kind of book)
• solk bok (this/that kind of book)