Editing Dutch grammar (section)

===Cases===
{{main|Archaic Dutch declension}}

[[Noun cases]] were still prescribed in the formal written standard up until the 1940s, but were abolished then because they had long disappeared from the spoken language. Because of this, they are nowadays restricted mostly to set phrases and are [[Archaism|archaic]]. The former Dutch case system resembled that of modern [[German language|German]], and distinguished four cases: [[Nominative case|nominative]] (subject), [[Genitive case|genitive]] (possession or relation), [[Dative case|dative]] (indirect object, object of preposition) and [[Accusative case|accusative]] (direct object, object of preposition). Only the nominative and genitive are productive, with the genitive seldom used and only surviving in the margins of the language. Some examples of the three non-nominative cases in fixed expressions:

* Genitive: {{lang|nl|de dag '''des''' oordeel'''s'''}} "judgement day", {{lang|nl|Koninkrijk '''der''' Nederlanden}} "Kingdom of the Nederlands"
* Dative: {{lang|nl|in feit'''e'''}} "in fact", {{lang|nl|heden '''ten''' dag'''e'''}} "nowadays", {{lang|nl|bij deze'''n'''}} "hereby"
* Accusative: {{lang|nl|op '''den''' duur}} "eventually", {{lang|nl|goede'''n'''avond}} "good evening"

The role of cases has been taken over by prepositions and word order in modern Dutch. For example, the distinction between direct and indirect object is now made by placing the indirect object before the direct object, or by using the preposition ''aan'' "to" with the indirect object. The genitive is replaced with the preposition ''van'' "of". Usage of cases with prepositions has disappeared as well. Nowadays, the case of each noun is interpreted mainly by word order. Nominatives go first, datives after, and lastly the accusatives. Nouns after prepositions are also accusative.

Cases are still occasionally used productively, which are often [[calque]]s of existing phrases. This is particularly true of the genitive case,<ref>http://www.nytud.hu/imm14/abs/scott.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> which is still used occasionally to evoke a formal style. Speakers' awareness of how the cases were originally used is generally low. People may confuse the old masculine/neuter genitive article {{lang|nl|des}} and the corresponding noun ending {{lang|nl|-s}} with the article {{lang|nl|der}} (with no ending) used for feminine or plural nouns.