Editing Middle Dutch (section)

===Nouns===
Middle Dutch nouns inflected for number as well as [[Grammatical case|case]]. The weakening of unstressed syllables merged many different Old Dutch classes of nominal declension. The result was a general distinction between strong and weak nouns. Eventually even these started to become confused, with the strong and weak endings slowly beginning to merge into a single declension class by the beginning of the modern Dutch period.

====Strong nouns====

The strong nouns generally originated from the Old Dutch a-stem, i-stem and u-stem inflections. They mostly had a nominative singular with no ending, and a nominative plural in ''-e'' or, for some neuter nouns, with no ending. Most strong nouns were masculine or neuter. Feminines in this class were former i-stems, and could lack an ending in the dative singular, a remnant of the late Old Dutch inflection. In some rare occasions, the genitive singular was also endingless. Some nouns ended in ''-e'' in the singular also; these were primarily former ja-stems, which were masculine or neuter. A few were former i-stems with short stems. Nouns of this type tended to be drawn into the weak inflection by analogy.

The following table shows the inflection of the masculine noun {{wikt-lang|dum|dach}} "day", feminine {{wikt-lang|dum|daet|dâet}} "deed" and neuter {{wikt-lang|dum|broot|brôot}} "bread".

{| class="wikitable"
|
! Singular
! Plural
! Singular
! Plural
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! Nominative, Accusative
| dach
| dāge
| dâet
| dâde
| brôot
| brôot, brôde
|-
! Genitive
| dāechs, dāges
| dāge
| dâets, dâdes
| dâde
| brôots, brôdes
| brôde
|-
! Dative
| dāge
| dāgen
| dâet, dâde
| dâden
| brôde
| brôden
|}

====Weak nouns====

Weak nouns were characterised by the ending ''-en'' throughout the plural. The singular ended in ''-e''.

The following table shows the inflection of the masculine noun {{wikt-lang|dum|bōge}} "bow, arc".

{| class="wikitable"
|
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! Nominative, Accusative
| bōge
| bōgen
|-
! Genitive
| bōgen
| bōgen
|-
! Dative
| bōge
| bōgen
|}