The pattern
A woman can get her own word with -es, -in, -ster or -e, but for jobs many people now use one form for everyone. Both forms take de.
- -es: leraar / lerares, zanger / zangeres, prins / prinses
- -in: vriend / vriendin, boer / boerin, koning / koningin
- -ster: mainly for -er words made from a verb (see Making nouns from verbs and adjectives). Add -ster to the verb stem (the ik form): schrijver / schrijfster, verkoper / verkoopster, kapper / kapster. Many verb words do this, but not all: zanger takes -es.
- -e: mainly words ending in -ent or -aat: student / studente, assistent / assistente, kandidaat / kandidate
- Some pairs are separate words or come from French: buurman / buurvrouw, acteur / actrice, directeur / directrice
- Plurals follow the normal rules: leraressen, vriendinnen, schrijfsters, studentes
- The female forms with these endings take de: de lerares, de vriendin, de schrijfster, de studente
The ending is not fully predictable, so learn the female form together with the word, just as you learn its article.
Examples
| Mijn lerares Nederlands vraagt altijd hoe mijn weekend was. | My Dutch teacher always asks how my weekend was. |
| Fatima is leraar op een basisschool, net als haar moeder. | Fatima is a teacher at a primary school, just like her mother. |
| Mei gaat zaterdag met een vriendin naar de markt. | Mei is going to the market with a friend on Saturday. |
| De schrijfster van dat boek woont bij ons in de straat. | The author of that book lives in our street. |
| Toen Priya studente was, woonde ze op kamers in Groningen. | When Priya was a student, she rented a room in Groningen. |
| De verkoopster vroeg of ik een tasje nodig had. | The shop assistant asked if I needed a bag. |
| Onze buurvrouw geeft de kat eten als wij op vakantie zijn. | Our neighbour feeds the cat when we are on holiday. |
| Sanne is net gekozen tot voorzitter van de voetbalclub. | Sanne has just been elected chair of the football club. |
| Yara wil huisarts worden, omdat ze graag met mensen werkt. | Yara wants to become a GP because she likes working with people. |
Why it works this way
Think of the general word as the name of the job, and the ending as a small label that adds: this person is a woman. When that does not matter, many speakers leave the label off. So Fatima is lerares and Fatima is leraar are both correct and mean the same. Both are common in everyday speech; the general form is especially common in job ads, contracts and the news. With burgemeester, hoogleraar or huisarts, the general form is the normal word for women anyway.
Outside work, the female form is usually the normal choice: a female friend is normally een vriendin, and a female monarch is de koningin. Some neutral words do exist, such as de buur for a neighbour of any gender, but most people in the Netherlands still say buurman or buurvrouw. And the general form covers mixed groups: de leraren can be men, women or both.
English has the same idea: waitress, actress, and spinster, which first meant a woman who spins. That -ster is the same old ending as in schrijfster. English has mostly dropped these endings for jobs, and Dutch is heading the same way, just more slowly.
Why de? In older Dutch, most words for people were masculine or feminine, and in modern Dutch both of those genders use de. So most words for people are de-words, but not all. The main exceptions are het kind, het lid and diminutives (the small forms with -je) such as het meisje, because a singular diminutive always takes het. More in De or het: the two words for "the".
Remember: the female ending changes the person, not the article: de leraar, de lerares. A diminutive ending does change it: de vriendin, but het vriendinnetje.
Watch out
Notde studentin
Sayde studente
-in is the German habit; student takes -e
Notde schrijveres
Sayde schrijfster
schrijver takes -ster on the stem schrijf, not -es
NotMijn broer is verpleegster.
SayMijn broer is verpleegkundige.
verpleegster is only for women; verpleegkundige is for everyone
Nottwee leraresen
Saytwee leraressen
the stressed short e of -es needs a double s before -en
Quick check
- Fill in the female form: Mijn tante schrijft kinderboeken. Ze is een bekende ... (schrijver).
- Fill in the female form: Op de bruiloft zong een ... (zanger) uit Suriname.
- Choose de or het: ... nieuwe verkoopster helpt me altijd bij de zelfscankassa.
- Fix the sentence: Ik ga vanavond met twee vriendinen naar de film.
Show the answers
- schrijfster: schrijver takes -ster, added to schrijf, the stem of schrijven.
- zangeres: zanger takes -es.
- De: female forms like verkoopster take de.
- Ik ga vanavond met twee vriendinnen naar de film. The stressed short i in -in needs a double n before -en.
Use it today
Think of three women you deal with this week, such as your GP, a colleague or your neighbour, and describe each one in a Dutch sentence: Mijn buurvrouw is kapster. For each job, decide whether you would use the female form or the general form, and say the word aloud with de.