foutieve

Foutieve is a Dutch adjective meaning incorrect, erroneous, or faulty. It is used to describe something that contains a fault or error, such as data, results, or reasoning. The base form of the adjective is foutief; foutieve is an inflected form used in specific grammatical contexts.

Etymology and forms: Foutieve derives from fout, meaning fault or error, with the adjectival suffix -ief. In Dutch, adjectives are inflected to agree with the noun they modify. Foutieve is used before definite nouns or plural nouns, while the indefinite singular form is typically foutief.

Grammatical usage: In attributive position before a noun, foutieve is used when the noun is definite (de/het) or plural, for example: foutieve gegevens (incorrect data), de foutieve berekeningen (the erroneous calculations), het foutieve antwoord (the erroneous answer). In predicative position, the form foutief is commonly used: Het antwoord is foutief. De antwoorden zijn foutief. Both forms may appear in contemporary usage, but foutieve is standard after definite articles and in plural contexts.

Common contexts: The term is frequent in technical, scientific, administrative, and quality-control language. It often appears in reports, audits, and data-quality discussions to flag mistakes, inconsistencies, or miscalculations. It is synonymous with onjuist or incorrect, though foutief can carry a stronger sense of a mistake arising from an actual fault rather than a simple truth-value error.

See also: fout, foutje, onjuist, incorrect, data quality.