Arabic to Dutch: our changes with the target noun, not with the owner
Ons and onze can describe the same group of owners
Arabic first-person plural possession identifies our through a suffix that does not alternate according to a Dutch noun category. Dutch distinguishes ons before a singular het-word from onze before a singular de-word or a plural noun. A change between these forms therefore need not change the people who own the item.
Ons huis means our house, while onze huizen means our houses. For an Arabic description of an organisation’s buildings, determine the target noun’s number and grammatical category before choosing the possessive form. Do not read onze as evidence for a larger owner group or ons as evidence for one owner. The ownership group and the number of possessions are separate facts. If the Arabic text changes one item into several, the Dutch possessive may need to change even though the source’s owner suffix remains recognisably the same.
Arabic gender does not choose between de and het
Arabic distinguishes masculine and feminine grammatical nouns, but the Dutch article system does not map those categories directly onto de and het. The target noun has its own classification. Both a male person and a female person can be named by de-words, while some expressions naming people are grammatically neuter.
Dutch diminutives are het-words in the singular, regardless of the base noun’s article. This makes it particularly unreliable to choose an article from the sex of a person or from the gender of the Arabic source word. Also distinguish a required diminutive form from an added tone of smallness or familiarity: translating an ordinary Arabic noun does not justify making every Dutch object a diminutive to simplify its article. Preserve the source meaning and choose the normal target expression, then let that expression determine agreement and reference. A grammatical shortcut should not alter the description the writer intended.
A negative noun phrase may require geen
Arabic negative constructions do not select Dutch niet or geen through a single word-for-word rule. Dutch geen commonly negates an indefinite noun expression, whereas niet can negate a predicate or the proposition more broadly. The correct choice depends on what the Arabic sentence denies.
Ik heb geen geld means I have no money. An Arabic statement denying possession of money should not be checked only for the presence of a target negative word; the indefinite noun phrase matters. A sentence denying that a particular known payment arrived has a different structure and scope. In some Dutch contexts both negative choices are possible with different emphasis. Preserve whether the source denies the existence of an item, rejects a description, or says an expected action did not occur. A plausible Dutch negative can otherwise turn a specific complaint about one missing payment into a general statement that the writer has nothing.
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