Plattdüütsch Grammar

Generally speaking, Low German grammar shows similarities with the grammars of Dutch, Frisian, English, and Scots, but the dialects of Northern Germany share some features (especially lexical and syntactic features) with German dialects.

### Nouns

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Low German declension has only two morphologically marked noun cases, where accusative and dative together constitute an oblique case, and the genitive case has been lost.

Example case marking: Boom (tree), Bloom (flower), Land (land)  | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter

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Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural
Nominative  | een Boom, de Boom | Bööm, de Bööm | een Bloom, de Bloom | Blomen, de Blomen | een Land, dat Land | Lannen, de Lannen
Oblique  | een Boom, den Boom | Bööm, de Bööm | een Bloom, de Bloom | Blomen, de Blomen | een Land, dat Land | Lannen, de Lannen

### Dative dän

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In most modern dialects, the nominative and oblique cases are primarily distinguished only in the singular of masculine nouns. In very few Low German dialects, the dative case is distinguished as well (e.g. varieties of Mennonite Low German.) It is marked in the masculine gender by changing the masculine definite determiner 'de' from de to dän. By contrast, German distinguishes four cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative. So, for example, the definite article of the masculine singular has the forms: der (nom), den (acc), des (gen), and dem (dat.) Thus case marking in Low German is simpler than German's.

### Verbs

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In Low German verbs are conjugated for person, number, and tense. Verb conjugation for person is only differentiated in the singular. There are five tenses in Low German: present tense, preterite, perfect, and pluperfect, and in Mennonite Low German the present perfect which signifies a remaining effect from a past finished action. For example "Ekj sie jekomen", "I am come", means that the speaker came and he is still at the place to which he came as a result of his completed action.

Example verb conjugation: slapen, "to sleep"  | Present | Preterite | Perfect

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Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural
1st Person  | ik slaap | wi slaapt/slapen | ik sleep | wi slepen | ik hebb slapen | wi hebbt/hebben slapen
2nd Person  | du slöppst | ji slaapt/slapen | du sleepst | ji slepen | du hest slapen | ji hebbt/hebben slapen
3rd Person  | he, se, dat slöppt | se slaapt/slapen | he, se, dat sleep | se slepen | he, se, dat hett slapen | se hebbt/hebben slapen

Unlike Dutch, German, and southern Low German, the northern dialects form the participle without the prefix ge-, like the Scandinavian languages, Frisian and English. Compare to the German past participle geschlafen. This past participle is formed with the auxiliary verbs hebben "to have" and ween/wesen/sien "to be". It should be noted that e- is used instead of ge- in most Southern (below Groningen in the Netherlands) dialects, though often not when the past participle ends with -en or in a few oft-used words like west (been).

The reason for the two conjugations shown in the plural is regional: dialects in the central area use -t while the dialects in East Frisia and the dialects in MecklenburgTemplate:Examples and further east use -en. The -en suffix is of Dutch influence.

There are 26 verb affixes.

There is also a progressive form of verbs in present, corresponding to the same in the Dutch language. It is formed with ween (to be), the preposition an (at) and "dat" (the/it).

| Low German | Dutch | English

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Main form  | Ik bün an't Maken. | Ik ben aan het maken. | I am making.
Main form 2  | Ik do maken.1 | - | \-
Alternative form  | Ik bün an'n Maken.2 | Ik ben aan het maken. | \-
Alternative form 2  | Ik bün maken.3 | Ik ben makende. | I am making.

1 Instead of 'to wesen, wean (to be) Saxon uses doon (to do) to make to present continious.
2 Many see the 'n as an old dative ending of dat which only occurs when being shortened after prepositions. This is actually the most frequently-used form in colloquial Low German.
3 This form is archaic and mostly unknown to Low German speakers. It is the same pattern as in the English example "I am making." The present participle has the same form as the infinitive: maken is either "to make" or "making".

## Links

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