Tag Archives: Dutch prescriptivism

Hun or hen? A Dutch shibboleth hitting the news

Hun and hen: these are third person plural pronouns in Dutch, but the distinction – hun for indirect object and hen for direct object – is hard to remember (for me it definitely is). And anyway, the distinction was only … Continue reading

Posted in Dutch prescriptivism, news, usage features | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Singular ‘they’ in Dutch?

“Will everyone put down their phone?” is quite common in English today. It has been around as a construction since at least the 14th century, developed into quite a controversial feature in the language, but as our Usage poll #10 … Continue reading

Posted in Dutch prescriptivism, news, usage features | Tagged , | Leave a comment