Dutch orthography
-⟨eon, ion, yon⟩- in French loanwords are written with a single ⟨n⟩ (mayonaise) except when a schwa follows (stationnement).
Vowel length is always indicated but in different ways by using an intricate system of single and double letters.
In the transition to early Middle Dutch, short vowels were lengthened when they stood in open syllables.
Later in Middle Dutch, the distinction between short and long consonants started to disappear.
The following table shows the pronunciation of the same three-letter sequence in different situations, with hyphens indicating the syllable divisions in the written form, and the IPA period to indicate them in the spoken form: Free ⟨i⟩ is fairly rare and is mostly confined to loanwords and names.
The spelling rules nonetheless follow the simplest representation, writing double letters only when necessary.
Such alternations commonly occur between the singular and plural of a noun or between the infinitive and the conjugated forms of verbs.
Note that free /i/ is spelled ⟨ie⟩ in native words: There are some irregular nouns that change their vowel from short/lax in the singular to long/tense in the plural.
To help memorise when to write ⟨d⟩ and when ⟨t⟩, Dutch students are taught the rule "'t kofschip is met thee beladen" ("the merchant ship is loaded with tea").
If the verb stem in the infinitive ends with one of the consonants of "'t kofschip" (⟨-t, -k, -f, -s, -ch, -p⟩), the past tense dental is a -⟨t⟩-; otherwise, it is a -⟨d⟩-.
The Genootschap Onze Taal states that accents can be put on capital letters whenever the need arises, but makes an exception for Eén.
[45] Stress on a short vowel, written with only one letter, is occasionally marked with a grave accent: Kàn jij dat?
[43] Additionally, the acute accent may also be used to mark different meanings of various words, including een/één (a(n)/one), voor/vóór (for/before), vóórkomen/voorkómen (to occur/to prevent), and vérstrekkend/verstrékkend (far-reaching/issuing), as shown in the examples below.
A diaeresis is used to mark a hiatus, if the combination of vowel letters may be either mistaken for a digraph or interpreted in more than one way: geïnd (collected), geüpload (uploaded), egoïstisch (egoistic), sympathieën (sympathies, preferences), coördinaat (coordinate), reëel (realistic), zeeën (seas), met z'n tweeën (two together; the two of them) and even until 1996 zeeëend (sea duck; now spelled zee-eend).
On a line break that separates the vowels but keeps parts of a digraph together, the diaeresis becomes redundant and so is not written: ego-/istisch, sympathie-/en, re-/eel, zee-/en, met z'n twee-/en.
The diaeresis is only used in derivational suffixes since 1996; compounds are written with a hyphen, for example auto-ongeluk (car accident).
The grave accent is used in some French loanwords and native onomatopoeic words, generally when pronunciation would be wrong without it, such as après-ski, barrière (barrier), bèta, caissière (female cashier), carrière (career) and hè?
[46] Besides being used to mark stress, acute accents are also used in many loanwords (mainly from French) such as logé (overnight guest), coupé (train compartment), oké (okay) and café.
The name of the Dutch town Enschede, pronounced [ˈɛnsxəˌde] was once upon a time written Enschedé, but later the acute accent fell off without changing the pronunciation, which has not become *[ɛnˈsxedə].
Similarly, a circumflex accent is also used in some French loanwords, including enquête (survey), and fêteren (to treat).
[47] The circumflex accent is also used the West Frisian language and so in general Dutch as well if there is no translation.
Skûtsjesilen is the most common example, where silen is West Frisian for zeilen (to sail) and a skûtsje is a specific type of sailboat.
As in English, an apostrophe is used to mark omission of a part of word or several words: Contrary to the city of Den Haag, 's-Hertogenbosch (also known colloquially as (Den Bosch) has decided to retain the more formal orthography of its name for common communication like road signing.
