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- Dutch Diminutives
Introduction and Formation

• All diminutives are 'het'-words.
  het 2 3 - 't ‑>>
  (Plurals always take 'de' 2 )
• All diminutives have plurals in -S.

The Other Diminutives Pages:
Examples of Usage
List of 450 Diminutives

Dutch diminutives are formed by attaching a ‑je 2 suffix to the end of a word, but ... (more below)

Usage

tang, tangetje (de) tang 2 pliers / (het) tangetje 2 3 small pliers

(de) boor

boortjes

boor drill

boren, boortjes

boor drill, large drill bit

boortjes drill bits

(de) telefoon 2 telephone ->>

Sometimes diminutives indicate young people:
oplettende lezertjes ... 2 3 'attentive young readers ...' (Marten Toonder)
lezers 2 3 'readers'

The diminutives are mostly used in Dutch as an endearment, to show affection:
(de) baby / (het) baby'tje 2 (½English) - baby
(de) jongen / (het) jongetje 2 3 'boy'
- I sometimes still call my adult son 'jongetje.'
The endearment is also found in names: Jan / Jantje 2 - Peter / Petertje - like English Johnny and Mickey.
Girls were sometimes given names that are diminutives of boys' names.

Diminutives sometimes give a special meaning to the original 'root' word, like (het) vriendinnetje 2 can be a little girl who's the friend of a child, but the usual meaning is 'girlfriend,' like (het) vriendje can be a little boy who's a child's friend, but it usually means 'boyfriend' or sometimes 'special friend,' like a comrade.
(De) vriendin is a female friend, and (de) vriend 2 is a male friend ‑>>
In that same field, (de) afspraak is an appointment with a doctor or an official person, or an 'agreement,' while (het) afspraakje 2 is a 'date,' a romantic meeting.

Sometimes a diminutive is used to indicate something is informal, for instance:
Etentje 2 3 (from (het) eten 'food' or the verb eten to eat ‑>>) - 'festive but informal dinner, in or out'
Praatje 2 (from praten 'to talk, to chat') can be just a nice little chat, but it can also be an informal presentation, and kletspraatje 2 is a humorous nonsense speech.

Occasionally, a diminutive can be used to indicate contempt. You could use a word like taaltje 2 3 4 (from (de) taal 2 3 'language') to indicate you don't like how someone speaks.

It's not wrong to add klein 2 (kleine ) to a diminutive, like:
't kleine broertje 'the little brother.'
It's not seen as a pleonasm like 'round circle.'
It's also not wrong to further diminish a small item into a diminutive:
een (de) kleinigheid 2 'a little thing, a small gift // an unimportant, small matter // a small amount of money' to: (het) kleinigheidje 2 3 'small thing, small gift'

There's a phrase:
Voetjes van de vloer! ['(Little) Feet off the floor'] - "Get dancing!" To Dutch people, it would sound weird to say Voeten van de vloer!

Likewise, een mespuntje cayennepeper a ['knifetip'] very small amount of red pepper - it would sound weird to say 'mespunt'

Huisje boompje beestje 2 3 'a house, a tree, an animal' - 1950s ideal of owning a house with a garden (tree standing for yard) and having a pet - and recently a children's TV program

The Other Diminutives Pages:
Examples of Usage
List of 450 Diminutives

How are Diminutives Formed?

Many Dutch words can form a diminutive by just adding a ‑JE ending, but a considerable group of words add ‑TJE  after certain letters, the T added for ease of pronunciation.
And there is a second group of words, most of them one-syllable words with short vowels that will get an ‑ETJE ending - which usually causes a doubling of the last consonant of the regular ('root') word.
There's also a small number of diminutives that have vowel lengthening, and there are a few even more irregular plurals.

Examples of the various types:

The Three Common Types:

• -JE ending:
  (het) brood 2 3 / (het) broodje 2 - bread
• -TJE ending:
  (de) koe / (het) koetje 2 - cow
• -ETJE ending with doubling of consonant:
  (de) brug / (het) bruggetje - bridge

Less Common:

• -PJE ending:
  (de) duim 2 / (het) duimpje 2 - thumb
• G dropped, K inserted for -KJE ending:
  (de) haring / (het) harinkje 2 - herring ‑>>
• vowel lengthening:
  (het) pad 2 / (het) paadje - path
• -INE becomes -IENTJE:
  (de) vitamine / (het) vitamientje 2 vitamin

Very Unusual:

• vowel change:
  (het) schip / (het) scheepje - ship

When ending in certain letters, one-syllable words with a 'short' vowel (and a few words with a prefix before that) get an ‑ETJE  ending 2 - which causes a doubling of the previously final consonant, to keep the root word vowel 'short.'
The diminutive suffix added to words ending in a vowel causes a doubling of that vowel to keep it 'long.' For instance:
(de) zon - de zon / (het) zonnetje 2 sun
(de) zoon 2 3 / (het) zoontje 2 son
More about 'long' and 'short' vowels: 1 - 2 - smartphone

Vowels as the last letter of a word are always 'long,' and diphthongs are also always 'long.'

DIMINUTIVES FOR WORDS ENDING IN:

• vowels and diphthongs: -TJE
• CH D F K P S T: -JE
• G L M N R: if one-syllable words with a short vowel: -ETJE
  • G longer words or one-syllable words with long vowel: -JE
  • L N R longer words or one-syllable words with long vowel: -TJE
  • M longer words or one-syllable words with long vowel: -PJE
• INE most words: -IENTJE
• NG one-syllable words with a short vowel: -ETJE
  NG longer words or one-syllable words with long vowel: -KJE (N-KJE) - G is dropped in writing but N still sounds as NG before the K
• W: -TJE
• vowel Y: 'TJE (apostropheTJE)

EXAMPLES One Example of Each Case
See also my list of about 500 diminutives: - more

A:	-tje	(de) la / (het) laatje 2 - drawer
B:	-etje	(de) slab 2 / (het) slabbetje 2 - bib
CH:	-je	de lach / (het) lachje 2 - laugh
D:	-je	(het) bed / (het) bedje 2 - bed
EAU:	-tje	(het) bureau / (het) bureautje - desk // office
EE:	-tje	(het) idee / (het) ideetje 2 - idea
F:	-je	(de) neef / (het) neefje - male cousin // nephew
G1:	-etje	(de) weg / (het) weggetje 2 - road, way
G2:	-je	(de) laag 2 3 4 / (het) laagje 2 - layer
I:	-tje	(de) kooi 2 / (het) kooitje 2 - cage
IJ:	-tje	(de) bij 2 / (het) bijtje 2 - bee
INE:	-ientje	(de) machine 2 (French CH) / (het) machientje 2 3 4 machine
K:	-je	(het) boek 2 3 / (het) boekje 2 - book
L1:	-etje	(de) bal / (het) balletje 2 - ball (sports)
L2:	-tje	(de) appel / (het) appeltje - apple
M1:	-etje	(het) lam / (het) lammetje 2 3 - lamb
M2:	-pje	(de) boom 2 3 / (het) boompje - tree
N1:	-etje	(de) man 2 3 / (het) mannetje - man, male person
N2:	-tje	(de) schoen / (het) schoentje 2 - shoe
NG1:	-etje	(de) ring 2 / (het) ringetje 2 - ring (on finger)
NG2:	-kje	(de) ketting 2 3 / (het) kettinkje 2 - chain // bracelet
O:	-tje	(de/het) kilo 2 / (het) kilootje - kilo (~2.2 pounds)
P:	-je	(de) lamp / (het) lampje 2 3 - lamp
R1:	-etje	(de) ster / (het) sterretje 2 - star
R2:	-tje	(de) beer / (het) beertje - bear
S:	-je	(de) vis / (het) visje 2 3 - fish
T:	-je	(de) boot 2 / (het) bootje - boat
U:	-tje	(de) paraplu / (het) parapluutje 2 3 - umbrella
W:	-tje	(het) touw 2 / (het) touwtje 2 3 - rope, string
Y:	'tje	(de) baby (English) / (het) baby'tje 2 (½English) - baby

Exceptions and Irregularities

• There are no Dutch words ending in H, Q, V or Z, and ending in J is only found in IJ
• There are no Dutch words ending in a short vowel
• Words ending in unstressed, voiceless E (the schwa) - see below
• The T is not pronounced in the consonant combinations CHTJ and STJ:
  tochtje (small tour or trip) - it's hard to say toch-t-je
  nichtje (female cousin // niece)
  luchtje (a bad smell // something fishy)
  beestje 2 (pet // bug)
  nestje (nest - small nest)
  feestje 2 (party, festivity / small party)
  (Note that these are words ending in ‑CHT or ‑ST that have gotten a ‑JE ending for the diminutive, not words with a ‑TJE diminutive ending)

Some nouns have a vowel lengthening in the plural and a few of those also have that vowel lengthening in the diminutives:
(het) blad / blaadje - leaf
(het) gat / gaatje - hole
(het) glas 2 / glaasje - glass
(het) lot 2 3 / lootje 2 - lottery ticket also: lotje (het) pad 2 / paadje - path
(het) vat / vaatje 2 - barrel, tun, vessel

(De) dag 2 'day' has a vowel lengthening in the plural: dagen 2
- the diminutive dagje 2 also has that vowel lengthening in its plural: daagjes 2 3
(Het) kind 2 'child' has the irregular  plural kinderen 2
-the diminutive of kind  is: kindje 2 which has the plural kindjes - but it can also have the plural kindertjes 2 3 4
(Het) rad 2 is an old-fashioned word for 'wheel,' now mostly used for cogwheels. It has the irregular plural  raderen - hear: rad / raderen - the diminutive of 'rad'  is radertje 2 'small cogwheel' - example

Of the four words that have a vowel change in the plural
only one has that vowel change for the diminutive:
(het) schip / (het) scheepje ship
schip / schepen ship / ships

Diminutives are usually formed from nouns. For some of the common diminutives the nouns are no longer in use. Some diminutives have become the common words, like for instance meisje 'girl' and zusje 'sister'
Some diminutives were formed from other word types, like kleintje 2 3 'little, small one,' - from the adjective klein 2 ('small, little.')
Groot 2 3 4 5 is 'big, tall, large, great' ‑>> but grootje 2 3 is not 'little big one' or 'dear big one' but 'granny, grandma' from grootmoeder
Moetje 2 ('marriage forced by pregnancy') is from the verb moeten 2 ('have to, being forced to') ‑>>

uitje
1. small onion - from:  (de) ui 2 3 onion
2. (small) outing, trip - from:  uit 2 out

Words Ending in Unstressed, Voiceless E (the schwa)
In the about 600 Dutch diminutives that I'd recorded over the years, I did not find any diminutives with the original ('root') word ending in unstressed, voiceless E (the schwa) . Trying out I could at first not find one 'Good Dutch' diminutive of a word like that. They all sound 'wrong' to me. (Foreign students may not see (hear) a problem with them.) For instance: (de) gedachte ('thought') but the diminutive sounds wrong: (wrong!)(het) gedachtetje 2 3(wrong!)
Writing this page I thought of one word in this group that doesn't feel completely wrong: (het) turbinetje 2 3 'very small turbine' - from (de) turbine 2 3 but it's unusual and actually an exception to the rule that endings in ‑INE change to ‑IENTJE as diminutives

My G's seem to be stronger, more pronounced before the JE, for example:
bedragje - amount of money
kuchje - cough
oogje - eye
(Usually I don't put those strong G's on the website)

It's not uncommon to put klein 2 / kleine ('little, small') before a diminutive. It's not seen as a pleonasm like 'round circle.'
't kleine broertje - 'the little brother'
een beetje / een klein beetje 2 - a little, a little bit
een heel klein beetje 2 - a very small amount, very little ‑>>

There is a very small number of words ending in -je that are not diminutives:
(de) franje 2 3 (unnecessary decorations)
(de) bonje 2 (trouble, fighting - slang)
(de) kastanje (chestnut - both the tree and its fruit)
plural:  kastanjes 2
(de) kornoelje (cornel - a tree)
((het)) Spanje (Spain)
[(het)] oranje 2 3 (orange - the color)

There are a few adverbs ending in -jes:  for instance:

• netjes (neat, looking proper)
  from:  net neat, proper ‑>>
• zachtjes (softly)
  from:  zacht soft (not hard) ‑>>
• eventjes 2 for a moment, for a very short time
  from:  even 2 3 for a moment, a short time ‑>>
• stilletjes 2 3 quietly, low sound // without fuss, without display, inconspicious, unostentatious ‑>>

Opgeruimd staat netjes [Cleared up, out of the way and stored looks neat] 'Out of the way looks good' Hij zei heel zachtjes 'ja' 2 3 4 5 He said 'yes' very softly Zachtjes aan, dan breekt het lijntje niet slow Go softly so the [line] rope doesn't break (Easy does it) Hij is eventjes weg 2 3 He stepped out for a moment Heel stilletjes zeg ik daar nu bij: 'En niet ten onrechte,' maar dat mag niemand horen Very, very quietly I'll now add 'and rightly,' but I wouldn't want anybody to hear that - Nescio

In closing I'd like to mention a tiny detail: words ending in a single vowel double that vowel before their ‑TJE  ending to keep that vowel 'long.' (There are no Dutch words ending in a 'short' vowel.) But when breaking off those words at a line break, there will only be one vowel before the hyphen, and just the suffix on the next line:
(de) paraplu (umbrella) 
(het) parapluutje 2 - paraplu‑
tje

But words ending in a single vowel have 'S (apostropheS)  plurals:
(de) camera / camera's (picture) camera
(de) kolibri / kolibri's hummingbird
(de) foto / foto's picture, photograph
(de) auto / auto's 2 car
(de) paraplu / paraplu's 2 umbrella

• All diminutives are 'het'-words.
  (Plurals always take 'de')
• All diminutives have plurals in -S.

The Other Diminutives Pages:
Examples of Usage
List of 450 Diminutives

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