The pattern
A compound noun is one word. You may need a linking -s- or -en- between the parts, and a hyphen mainly where two vowels clash, in many place names and next to letters, digits or most abbreviations.
- One thing, one word: het voetbalveld, de klantenservice. The last part says what it is, the first part says which kind.
- Linking -s-: write it when you hear it: het dorpsplein, het verjaardagsfeest. No s in your mouth, no s on paper: het stadhuis, het fietspad.
- Linking -en-: if you hear a neutral e between the parts and the first part has a plural ending only in -en, write -en-: de boekenkast (boeken), de pannenkoek (pannen). A few words keep just -e-, such as de zonnebril, because there is only one sun.
- Hyphen for clashing vowels: when the end of the first part and the start of the second could be read as one vowel sound: het auto-ongeluk, de zee-egel.
- Hyphen in place names: a direction word in front of the name of a region or country: Noord-Holland, Zuid-Afrika, Oost-Europa. Zee is not a name, so de Noordzee is one word.
- Hyphen with letters, digits and abbreviations: het T-shirt, het 06-nummer, het tv-programma. An abbreviation you say letter by letter takes a hyphen. One you say as a word joins up if it is written in lowercase, like de pincode, but keeps the hyphen if it has capitals: een NAVO-land.
Examples
| Carlos staat elke zaterdag langs het voetbalveld omdat zijn zoon een wedstrijd heeft. | Carlos stands by the football pitch every Saturday because his son has a match. |
| Daan zet zijn fiets in de fietsenstalling bij het station. | Daan puts his bike in the bicycle parking at the station. |
| 's Ochtends is het druk op het fietspad langs het kanaal. | In the morning the cycle path along the canal is busy. |
| Er is vanavond een markt op het dorpsplein, dus ik ga even kijken. | There is a market on the village square tonight, so I'm going to have a look. |
| Bas vraagt of je zaterdag op zijn verjaardagsfeest komt. | Bas is asking if you're coming to his birthday party on Saturday. |
| Fatima bakt pannenkoeken omdat haar dochter jarig is. | Fatima is making pancakes because it's her daughter's birthday. |
| Sanne heeft een nieuwe boekenkast gekocht, maar die past niet door de deur. | Sanne bought a new bookcase, but it doesn't fit through the door. |
| In het weekend bel je de huisartsenpost, want de praktijk is dan dicht. | At the weekend you call the out-of-hours GP service, because the practice is closed then. |
| Ahmed was te laat omdat er een auto-ongeluk op de snelweg was. | Ahmed was late because there was a car accident on the motorway. |
| Priya woont in Haarlem, de hoofdstad van Noord-Holland. | Priya lives in Haarlem, the capital of North Holland. |
Why it works this way
Think of a compound as a label for one thing. The last part is the main word, and everything in front narrows it down: a boekenkast is a kind of kast. That is also why the whole word takes the article of its last part: het voetbalveld, because of het veld (see Compound nouns take the article of the last part).
English often leaves a space (football pitch, birthday party). In Dutch, a space breaks the label in two, and readers stumble. The mistake is so common that Dutch has a name for it: de Engelse ziekte, the English disease.
The linking letters are glue, not meaning. The -en- looks like a plural, but a pannenkoek is baked in one pan, and many speakers do not even pronounce the n. The spelling simply borrows the plural (see Plurals with -en) so you can work it out on paper. The -s- goes back to an old possessive ending and today simply follows the sound. There is no complete rule, but words ending in -heid almost always take one: het gezondheidscentrum.
The hyphen is a small fence. Without it, autoongeluk shows oo, and your eye reads one long vowel. The same fence keeps letters and digits readable: tvprogramma is hard to decode. Within a word that is not a compound, such as a plural, Dutch uses a trema instead: zeeën (more in The trema in ë and ï, and the hyphen).
Remember: one thing, one word. Then ask four quick questions: do I hear an s, does the first part have a plural in -en, would two vowels bump into each other, and is there a letter, digit or abbreviation?
Watch out
Falschhet voetbal veld
Richtighet voetbalveld
a compound is one word, whatever English does
Falschde pannekoek
Richtigde pannenkoek
the plural is pannen, so write the n even if you don't say it
Falschhet verjaardagfeest
Richtighet verjaardagsfeest
you hear an s, so you write one
Falschhet autoongeluk
Richtighet auto-ongeluk
the two o's would merge into one long vowel
FalschNoord Holland
RichtigNoord-Holland
a direction word before a region name gets a hyphen
Quick check
- Fill in nothing, -e- or -en-: Yara koopt een nieuwe hond...mand.
- Fix the sentence: We hebben morgen om tien uur een team vergadering.
- Fix the sentence: Joris werkt bij een radioomroep in Hilversum.
- Fix the sentence: Ahmed werkt in Eindhoven, in Noord Brabant.
Antworten zeigen
- hondenmand: the plural of hond is honden.
- We hebben morgen om tien uur een teamvergadering.: one thing, one word.
- Joris werkt bij een radio-omroep in Hilversum.: the two o's would merge.
- Ahmed werkt in Eindhoven, in Noord-Brabant.: a direction word before a region name.
Use it today
Collect three compound words from signs at the station, in the supermarket or on the website of your gemeente, for example vertrektijden or statiegeldautomaat. Split each one into its parts and note the glue: nothing, -s-, -en- or a hyphen.