Residual case forms

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In short

Modern Dutch has no living case system, but a handful of frozen genitive and dative forms survive in fixed phrases, names and formal style. Your job is to recognise and reuse these set chunks, not to decline nouns.

The rule

Centuries ago Dutch articles changed shape by case (like German). That system died, but some phrases froze and kept the old endings. You will meet them mainly in three shapes:

Genitive (“of the”) with old articles des / der / den and often an -s or -e on the noun: de dag des oordeels (the day of judgement), in naam der wet (in the name of the law), het rijk der hemelen (the kingdom of heaven).
The contraction ‘s = the old genitive des. The apostrophe marks the dropped letters: ‘s morgens (= des morgens, “in the morning”), ‘s-Hertogenbosch (a city name).
Archaic datives ten / ter = te + den and te + der (“at/to the”): ten slotte (finally), ten minste (at least), ter plaatse (on the spot), ter sprake (up for discussion).

The choice ten vs ter follows the old gender: ten (= te + den) goes with masculine/neuter, ter (= te + der) with feminine. Today you simply learn each phrase as a whole.

Forms & patterns

Old form	From / Van	Old meaning	Survives in / Leeft voort in
des / ‘s	genitive m./n. sing.	”of the”	des oordeels, des huizes, ‘s morgens, ‘s avonds
der	genitive f. sing. or plural	”of the”	in naam der wet, het rijk der hemelen
den	dative/acc. m. sing.	object / after prep.	in den beginne, om den brode
dien	dative/acc. of die	object / after prep.	met dien verstande dat (“on the understanding that”), van dien aard
dezen	dative of deze	after prep.	in dezen (“in this matter”), bij dezen (“hereby”)
ten = te + den	dative m./n.	”at / to the”	ten slotte, ten minste, ten dele
ter = te + der	dative f.	”at / to the”	ter plaatse, ter sprake, ter wereld
des te	adverbial genitive + te	”by that much”	des te beter, des te vervelender

Des te + comparative (“all the more”) holds a second, frozen des, not the “of the” one: it usually answers a hoe + comparative clause (hoe stiller de straat is, des te beter slaap ik), but it also stands alone. Fronted like any other phrase, it takes the verb straight after it.

Frozen noun/adjective endings still appear too: genitive -s (des tijds, blootshoofds), dative -e (ten tijde van, in groten getale, te allen tijde, in koelen bloede).

Time expressions with ‘s: ‘s morgens / ‘s ochtends, ‘s middags, ‘s avonds, ‘s nachts, ‘s zomers, ‘s winters, ‘s maandags. Place names with ‘s-: ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch), ‘s-Gravenhage (Den Haag).

Examples

Nederlands	English
’s Morgens drink ik altijd koffie.	In the morning I always drink coffee.
We zijn ‘s avonds meestal thuis.	In the evening we’re usually at home.
Hij komt uit ‘s-Hertogenbosch.	He’s from ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch).
Ten slotte wil ik iedereen bedanken.	Finally, I’d like to thank everyone.
Het kost ten minste honderd euro.	It costs at least a hundred euros.
De politie was snel ter plaatse.	The police were quickly on the scene.
Dat punt komt later nog ter sprake.	That point will come up later.
In naam der wet: doe open!	In the name of the law: open up!
Je kunt te allen tijde opzeggen.	You may cancel at any time.
Dit is de mooiste stad ter wereld.	This is the most beautiful city in the world.

Common mistakes

ten plaatse -> ter plaatse - feminine noun takes ter (te + der); masculine/neuter takes ten (te + den). Learn the pair, don’t reason it out.
‘S morgens… -> ‘s Morgens… - the ‘s always stays lowercase; at the start of a sentence you capitalise the next word instead.
de auto des buurmans -> de auto van de buurman - des/der/den are dead; never decline live nouns. Use van for “of” in normal Dutch.
in de naam van de wet -> in naam der wet - keep set phrases frozen; don’t modernise the grammar inside them.
mixing ten minste and tenminste - ten minste (two words) = “at least” with an amount (ten minste drie); tenminste (one word) = “at any rate / at least” as a sentence adverb. Same split for ten slotte (finally) vs tenslotte (after all).

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