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UNIT EIGHT
Demonstratives
Introduction
In Unit 9 of Basic Dutch we introduced the basic demonstrative pronouns
deze, die, dit and dat, and their usage with a noun or independently without
a noun. The table shows demonstrative pronouns with de-words,
het-words, and in the plural.
dichtbij close, ver weg far away,
hier here daar there
de-words deze auto this car die auto that car
plural deze auto’s these cars die auto’s those cars
het-words dit huis this house dat huis that house
plural deze huizen these houses die huizen those houses
This unit introduces you to three more demonstratives: zo’n, zulk, and
zulke.
Zo’n
The pronoun zo’n, which is an abbreviated form of zo een ‘such a’, is used
with countable de-words and het-words in the singular. Used with an
adjective, it makes the meaning of that adjective stronger, and used with
a noun, it puts that noun into a certain category, it classifies the noun.
Examples:
Erik en Sanne hebben zo’n mooi huis!
Erik and Sanne have such a beautiful house!
Mag ik van u zo’n broodje met kaas en ham?
Could I have one of those sandwiches with cheese and ham?
Met zo’n man zou ik niet getrouwd willen wezen.
I wouldn’t want to be married to such a man.