I sometimes proofread documents for my (Dutch) supervisor. When he refers to something that comes from the Netherlands he would, for example, write: the Netherlands windmills as opposed to the Dutch windmills. I have sometimes seen this weird form written elsewhere, but I was wondering if this is really a correct way of saying this.
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1The Netherlands is the country. The Dutch are people that live in the Netherlands. So are you trying to refer to the people or the country?– KillingTimeCommented Jan 18, 2020 at 17:33
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@KillingTime I'm trying to say that the windmills are in the Netherlands.– Joe 2.0Commented Jan 18, 2020 at 18:23
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1Netherlands is the name of the country and can also be used in noun compounds, like Netherlands cities. Dutch is a slang word and doesn't always refer to Netherlanders.– John LawlerCommented Jan 18, 2020 at 18:37
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1 Answer
The official name of the country is The Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Its government has recently been making an effort to have people around the world use Netherlands rather than Holland - which is the name of two of its provinces "North Holland" and "South Holland".
They aim to reinforce this idea at both the Eurovision Song Contest - to be held in Rotterdam this year, and at the Olympic Games.
However there appears to be no effort to move away from the adjectival "Dutch", which is the word that most Dutch people themselves use, when speaking English.
This latter always seems a little surprising to me, since until as recently as the mid-nineteenth century the word (in English) included both German and Dutch. (And one thing the Dutch are likely to be offended about, is being merged in anyone's thinking, in any way with Germany.) Indeed in the US, Pennsylvania Dutch, is a dialect not based on Dutch but German. It could be that some Dutch people are sensitive to this and hence those such as your supervisor speaks of "Netherlands windmills".
If I were you I would be guided by your supervisor's use - the person is after all Dutch (or a Netherlander*).
*If you call them "Netherlanders", they are unlikely to be offended, though they may look at you a littler strangely, as Scots might if you called them "Scotlanders"!
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1For me, Netherlands windmills sounds as clunky and off as England windmills, France windmills, Germany windmills, and Spain windmills all do.– tchrist ♦Commented Jan 18, 2020 at 22:21
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@tchrist How well do you know the Dutch? They do love their Netherlands name. "Dutch" is just another form of "Deutsch". Netherlander, Netherlandic, and Netherlandish all have entries in the OED with relatively recent examples: e.g. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Nov. 1429/1 There is also one [series of books] of international studies and translations, including a Dutch (or, as the publishers call it, Netherlandic) section.1985 D. Dunn Elegies 54 The trees are wintry, Netherlandish brushwork. 1999 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 18 Nov. 53/1...a Netherlandish goldsmith.*– WS2Commented Jan 19, 2020 at 0:23
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2Your Dutch supervisor is wrong and @tchrist above is correct when he says that the Dutch like "[The] Netherlands." Unfortunately, the English language does not like adjectives related to "The Netherlands" and uses the adjective "Dutch". As you are writing in English, you should use "Dutch". You could tell your supervisor that although I live in the United Kingdom, I am British and, whereas he was born in The Netherlands, he is Dutch - and so are the windmills... Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 19:32
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"The Netherlands is spelt with a small ‘t’ in running text (They live in the Netherlands). In an address form (i.e. each part of a new line), the Netherlands has a capital ‘T’" ISS spelling guide Commented Oct 10, 2021 at 21:38