Grammatica - loco

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-s (formerly -sch and still found in pre-war books as such, see
2.1 (a))
1 common ending for nationalities, e.g. Nederlands, Zweeds,
Engels, Frans.
2 for adjectives derived from placenames, e.g. Amsterdams,
Leids (< Leiden), Londens, Gouds (< Gouda), Gronings
(< Groningen) (see Geographical Names in Appendix 2).
3 it is sometimes added to nouns other than proper nouns,
e.g. kerks ‘churchy’, hemels ‘heavenly’, duivels ‘devilish’,
aards ‘earthly’, kinds ‘senile’, schools ‘pedantic’, speels
‘playful’.
It is this ending which one employs in the very commonly
used expressions formed with op z’n + adjective + s which are
similar in meaning to the French ‘à la + adjective’, e.g. op z’n
Frans ‘à la française’ (i.e. as the French do, in the French
way). Colloquially one can invent such adjectives forming
them from the names of people or firms, e.g. op z’n
McDonalds ‘as McDonalds would do it’.
-(e)lijk a very common suffix which has no adverbial qualities despite
its historical connections with English ‘-ly’ (compare ‘lovely’,
‘homely’). 8 The e is usually included but not always, e.g.
onafhankelijk ‘independent’, vriendelijk ‘friendly’,
maatschappelijk ‘social’, menselijk ‘human(e)’, ongelooflijk or
ongelofelijk 9 ‘unbelievable’, vreeslijk or vreselijk 9 ‘terrible’
(usually the latter), gevaarlijk ‘dangerous’, persoonlijk
‘personal’.
-zaam a common ending usually added to verbal stems,
e.g. langzaam ‘slow’, buigzaam ‘flexible’, gehoorzaam
‘obedient’.
-vol similar to English ‘-ful’, e.g. succesvol ‘successful’, talentvol
‘talented’, waardevol ‘valuable’.
8 Only the couplet gewoon/gewoonlijk ‘ordinary/ordinarily’ commonly makes a
distinction between the adjective and the adverb by means of this ending. It is otherwise
most unusual for any distinction to be made between the adjective and the adverb in
Dutch, e.g. respectief – respectievelijk (also an adj.) ‘respectively’, vrij – vrijelijk ‘freely’.
(see chapter 10).
9 Notice that the final consonant of what was the verbal stem remains unvoiced, despite
the fact that it stands between two vowels.
Formation of
adjectives
125