Materials as Nouns
To say what something is made of, you can use the preposition van followed by the material noun.
| This building is made of wood, not of stone. | Dit gebouw is van hout, niet van steen. |
| Are the doors made of wood or of glass? | Zijn de deuren van hout of van glas? |
Material Adjectives (-en)
To use a material directly as an adjective (like a wooden table), add the suffix -en.
| Noun | Adjective |
|---|---|
| het goud (gold) | gouden (golden) |
| het hout (wood) | houten (wooden) |
| het zilver (silver) | zilveren (silver) |
| There are silver and gold rings. | Er zijn zilveren en gouden ringen. |
Standard Dutch spelling rules apply when adding -en: you might drop a vowel to keep a sound long, double a consonant to keep a sound short, or change s to z.
| Noun | Adjective |
|---|---|
| de steen (stone) | stenen (stone) |
| het glas (glass) | glazen (glass) |
| de wol (wool) | wollen (woolen) |
| We are going to build a wooden and a stone house. | We gaan een houten en een stenen huis bouwen. |
| The glass cabinet is standing next to the wooden table. | De glazen kast staat naast de houten tafel. |
Fixed Endings
Unlike regular adjectives, which add or drop an -e depending on the noun's gender and article, material adjectives ending in -en never change form. Even when describing a het-word with the indefinite article een, the -en stays fixed.
| The boss is wearing a silver watch and a gold ring. | De baas draagt een zilveren horloge en een gouden ring. |
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