Old case forms in formal Dutch: des, der, den, ten and ter

A formal notice may say De stukken staan ter beschikking van de commissie. (The documents are available to the committee.); ter preserves an old case form inside the fixed expression ter beschikking. Modern Dutch no longer has a productive case system, but its older forms survive in set phrases.

Treat the historical pattern as a reading aid and the complete expression as the unit you need to learn.

1. Spot a signal such as des, der, den, ten, ter, or an unexpected ending in -s, -e, -en, or -er.
2. Use des and der as a first clue for an old genitive, often equivalent to modern van de or van het (of the).
3. Read ten as historical te + den and ter as historical te + der, but translate the whole phrase rather than the two old pieces.
4. Check the expression as a fixed unit. Do not use the historical gender table to invent a new ten, ter, des, or der phrase.

The old masculine/feminine distinction explains the history, not a productive choice for present-day writers. Learn ten aanzien van and ter beschikking exactly as they stand. The normal modern possession patterns are covered under possession with van and -s.

A fixed phrase may preserve endings on an adjective, noun, or pronoun as well as on an article. Those endings belong to the phrase; they do not follow the ordinary modern adjective rule.

Do not “correct” a documented variant back into the older form. Both bij dezen and bij deze are correct, and both op den duur and op de duur occur. A fixed expression can wear down over time without becoming an error.

Historical des also lies behind the spelling 's in expressions such as 's morgens. That spelling and its word order belong to the apostrophe page; the aim here is only to recognise the connection.

• Expect them in official decisions, legal writing, ceremonial language, titles, and long-established expressions.
• Reproduce a familiar fixed expression exactly when it is conventional in your context.
• Verify an unfamiliar phrase in a reliable dictionary or language-advice source instead of extending an old case pattern yourself.
• Choose a modern equivalent for a broad audience when the old phrase adds no useful precision: altijd for te allen tijde, over for ten aanzien van, or hierbij for bij dezen.
• Keep an old form when you are quoting a title, law, name, or established formula whose wording matters.

• Do not swap ten and ter: write ten aanzien van and ter beschikking, not ter aanzien van or ten beschikking.
• Do not modernise only one ending inside a fossilised phrase. The established form is te allen tijde, not ten alle tijden.
• Do not read in groten getale as an ordinary plural noun phrase. Its fixed noun is singular getale.
• Do not mark bij deze as wrong merely because bij dezen is historically older. Both are standard.
• Do not create new case forms from a noun's historical gender. Recognition and accurate reuse of established phrases are the safe operating rules.

Compare these relics with ordinary modern articles and possession with van or -s. Review demonstratives used on their own for modern deze and die, and use the apostrophe page for 's morgens and related spellings.