Voegsel

Voegsel is a Dutch term for an affix, a morpheme that attaches to a word to alter its meaning or grammatical function. A voegsel is a bound morpheme, meaning it cannot stand alone. It can occur before the base as a voorvoegsel (prefix) or after the base as an achtervoegsel (suffix). Through voegsel, words are formed or inflected, providing information on negation, number, tense, diminutive forms, and more.

The word is derived from voeg, meaning to join, highlighting its role in joining to a stem to create another word or form. In Dutch grammar, prefixes and suffixes are central to word formation and inflection, and they are distinguished from standalone words and from other word-class elements such as clitics or conjunctions.

Common examples illustrate its function. Prefixes such as on- in onbekend (not known) or ver- in verplaatsen modify the meaning of the base. Suffixes include -tje for diminutives as in huisje (little house), -heid for abstract nouns as in vrijheid (freedom), and -ing for nominalization as in beweging (movement). Other suffixes, like -t in certain verb forms, mark grammatical categories such as person or tense, and infinitives often end in -en (lopen).

In linguistic usage, voegsels are a key topic in morphology and language teaching, helping explain how new words are formed and how grammatical relations are expressed in Dutch. They are distinct from affixed words that function as standalone or separate parts of speech, and from conjunctions or clitics that attach to larger phrases.