Plattdüütsch Grammar

Generally speaking, Low German grammar shows similarities with the grammars of Dutch, Frisian, English, and Scots, but the dialects of Northern Germany share some features (especially lexical and syntactic features) with German dialects.

Nouns

Low German declension has only two morphologically marked noun cases, where accusative and dative together constitute an oblique case, and the genitive case has been lost.

Example case marking: Boom (tree), Bloom (flower), Land (land)

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	een Boom, de Boom	Bööm, de Bööm	een Bloom, de Bloom	Blomen, de Blomen	een Land, dat Land	Lannen, de Lannen
Oblique	een Boom, den Boom	Bööm, de Bööm	een Bloom, de Bloom	Blomen, de Blomen	een Land, dat Land	Lannen, de Lannen

Dative dän

In most modern dialects, the nominative and oblique cases are primarily distinguished only in the singular of masculine nouns. In very few Low German dialects, the genitive case is distinguished as well (e.g. varieties of Mennonite Low German.) It is marked in the masculine gender by changing the masculine definite determiner 'de' from de to dän. By contrast, German distinguishes four cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative. So, for example, the definite article of the masculine singular has the forms: der (nom), den (acc), des (gen), and dem (dat.) Thus case marking in Low German is simpler than German's.

Verbs

In Low German verbs are conjugated for person, number, and tense. Verb conjugation for person is only differentiated in the singular. There are five tenses in Low German: present tense, preterite, perfect, and pluperfect, and in Mennonite Low German the present perfect which signifies a remaining effect from a past finished action. For example "Ekj sie jekomen", "I am come", means that the speaker came and he is still at the place to which he came as a result of his completed action.

Example verb conjugation: slapen, "to sleep"

	Present		Preterite		Perfect
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st Person	ik slaap	wi slaapt/slapen	ik sleep	wi slepen	ik hebb slapen	wi hebbt/hebben slapen
2nd Person	du slöppst	ji slaapt/slapen	du sleepst	ji slepen	du hest slapen	ji hebbt/hebben slapen
3rd Person	he, se, dat slöppt	se slaapt/slapen	he, se, dat sleep	se slepen	he, se, dat hett slapen	se hebbt/hebben slapen

Unlike Dutch, German, and southern Low German, the northern dialects form the participle without the prefix ge-, like the Scandinavian languages, Frisian and English. Compare to the German past participle geschlafen. This past participle is formed with the auxiliary verbs hebben "to have" and ween/wesen/sien "to be". It should be noted that e- is used instead of ge- in most Southern (below Groningen in the Netherlands) dialects, though often not when the past participle ends with -en or in a few oft-used words like west (been).

The reason for the two conjugations shown in the plural is regional: dialects in the central area use -t while the dialects in East Frisia and the dialects in MecklenburgTemplate:Examples and further east use -en. The -en suffix is of Dutch influence.

There are 26 verb affixes.

There is also a progressive form of verbs in present, corresponding to the same in the Dutch language. It is formed with ween (to be), the preposition an (at) and "dat" (the/it).

	Low German	Dutch	English
Main form	Ik bün an't Maken.	Ik ben aan het maken.	I am making.
Main form 2	Ik do maken.1	-	-
Alternative form	Ik bün an'n Maken.2	Ik ben aan het maken.	-
Alternative form 2	Ik bün maken.3	Ik ben makende.	I am making.

¹ Instead of 'to wesen, wean (to be) Saxon uses doon (to do) to make to present continious.
² Many see the 'n as an old dative ending of dat which only occurs when being shortened after prepositions. This is actually the most frequently-used form in colloquial Low German.
³ This form is archaic and mostly unknown to Low German speakers. It is the same pattern as in the English example "I am making." The present participle has the same form as the infinitive: maken is either "to make" or "making".

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