The pattern
Standard Dutch is shared by both countries. Flemish informal speech adds its own word for you, a different diminutive and some typical words, and you mainly need to recognise them.
- You: in casual speech, many Flemish speakers say ge or the stronger gij instead of je and jij, for one person or a group. The object form is u and the word for your is uw, as with polite u.
- Small things: next to the usual diminutive (the "little" form of a noun) with -je, Flemish speech uses -ke: een manneke, een boekske. Parts of the southern Netherlands use it too.
- Things as she: Flemish speakers often use ze and haar for de-words that dictionaries mark as feminine, such as de deur, de soep and nouns ending in -ing. In the Netherlands, de-words that are things usually get hij and hem.
- Words: some Belgian words are standard there, like de gsm (in the Netherlands de mobiel). Others, like goesting (zin: desire), amai (wow) and allez (come on), belong to informal speech.
- Writing: in formal writing, people in Flanders use je, jij, u and -je, just like people in the Netherlands.
Examples
| Heb je zaterdag tijd om me te helpen met verhuizen? | Do you have time on Saturday to help me move? (Netherlands) |
| Hebt ge zaterdag tijd om me te helpen met verhuizen? | Do you have time on Saturday to help me move? (Flanders) |
| Waar is de afstandsbediening? Ik kan hem nergens vinden. | Where is the remote? I can't find it anywhere. (Netherlands) |
| Waar is de afstandsbediening? Ik kan ze nergens vinden. | Where is the remote? I can't find it anywhere. (Flanders) |
| Ik heb echt geen goesting om vanavond nog te koken. | I really don't feel like cooking tonight. (Flanders) |
| Amai, de trein naar Antwerpen zit weer helemaal vol! | Wow, the train to Antwerp is completely full again! (Flanders) |
| Allez, Yara, we gaan, anders missen we de bus! | Come on, Yara, let's go, or we'll miss the bus! (Flanders) |
| Wat een lief manneke! Hoe oud is hij? | What a sweet little boy! How old is he? (Flanders) |
| Ik zie u graag, dat weet ge toch? | I love you, you know that, right? (Flanders) |
Why it works this way
Gij is not a strange extra word. It is the old Dutch word for you. In the Netherlands, jij and je took over in everyday speech, and u and uw stayed on as polite forms. Flemish speech kept the whole set for daily use: gij or ge as subject, u as object, uw for your.
That makes the grammar easy: treat gij like polite u. You say Hebt u tijd? and Komt u ook? with a -t, and Flemish speech says Hebt ge tijd? and Komt gij ook? This differs from jij, which loses its -t after the verb (Werk jij?). The odd one out is zijn: u bent, but gij zijt. Like English you, gij works for one person or a whole group.
The ze for de deur has a similar logic. Dutch dictionaries still mark many de-words as masculine or feminine. Most speakers in the Netherlands no longer hear that difference for things, so de deur and de stoel both become hij. Many Flemish speakers still feel it: de deur is ze, de stoel is hij.
If you live in the Netherlands, you mainly need to recognise these forms. In Flanders, using them in casual talk sounds natural, but keep je, jij and u for anything formal.
Remember: gij behaves like u. Keep the -t, use u and uw, and mind the odd one out: gij zijt.
Watch out
NotHeb ge vanavond tijd?
SayHebt ge vanavond tijd?
with ge and gij the verb keeps its -t, even when it comes first
NotWaar hebt ge jouw auto geparkeerd?
SayWaar hebt ge uw auto geparkeerd?
the word for your that goes with ge is uw
NotJij zijt altijd zo vroeg op kantoor.
SayJij bent altijd zo vroeg op kantoor.
zijt is the gij form; with jij it is bent
NotDe afstandsbediening? Ik kan het niet vinden.
SayDe afstandsbediening? Ik kan hem niet vinden.
a de-word thing is hem in the Netherlands and often ze in Flanders, not het
Quick check
- Fill in the right form of gaan (Flemish speech): ... ge morgen ook naar de vergadering?
- Choose the form that goes with ge: Ge hebt gelijk, ik bel (jou / u) morgen terug.
- Choose the word someone in the Netherlands would use instead of goesting: Ik heb geen (zin / tijd) om te koken.
- Choose (Sanne lives in Utrecht): Mijn fiets is gestolen en ik had (hem / het) pas een week.
Show the answers
- Gaat: with ge the verb keeps its -t, also at the start of a question.
- u: the object form that belongs to ge and gij is u.
- zin: goesting means desire, which is zin in the Netherlands.
- hem: de fiets is a de-word thing, so in the Netherlands it is hem.
Use it today
Watch ten minutes of a Flemish TV series or podcast and write down every ge, gij, amai and word ending in -ke you hear. Then rewrite two of those sentences the way Daan from Amsterdam would say them.