Substantiële

Substantiële is a Dutch adjective meaning substantial, significant, or material in scope or importance. It is used to describe something that has real substance or a meaningful degree, such as a substantial change, a substantial amount of money, or substantial evidence. In everyday and formal language, it connotes robustness, significance, or real impact rather than superficiality.

The word derives from Latin substantialis, from substantia meaning substance. Through historical language contact, it entered Dutch as substantieel and has since developed inflected forms such as substantiële in certain grammatical contexts. It is closely related to English substantive and substantially, and it shares the core sense of relating to substance or real importance.

Substantiële is common in journalism, economics, policy, and professional writing to qualify the magnitude or quality of something. Typical collocations include substantiële kosten (substantial costs), substantiële veranderingen (substantial changes), substantiële bewijslast (substantial burden of proof), and substantiële resultaten (substantial results). It is important to distinguish substantiële from statistical terms; for example, statistical significance is expressed as statistisch significant in Dutch, not substantieel.

Grammatically, substantieel is the base form, and substantiële is an inflected form used before certain nouns, particularly feminine singular and plural forms, depending on article and noun class. In practice, you will encounter both substantieel and substantiële in different contexts, with substantiële often appearing before plural nouns or feminine singular nouns.