ending in a suffix that derives a noun for a female person from either a masculine noun or from another word: -a – politica "female politician" and theoretica "female theoretician" - this suffix can only be used on masculine loan words of Latin origin ending on -us, like politicus "male politician" or theoreticus "male theoretician". -e – advocate "female lawyer" -ege/-egge – dievegge "female thief" - this suffix is no longer productive; it can also be encountered in its contracted form -ei, e.g., klappei and labbei -es – zangeres "female singer" -in – godin "goddess" -ster – verpleegster "nurse" The Dutch language leaves in many cases some liberty to individual users on how to derive the female form of a noun; for example apothekeres, apothekerin and apotheekster would all be considered correct forms for "female apothecarian". A recent interesting development with respect to professions has been the return to the masculine gender (in this case apotheker) for practitioners of either sex, combined with pronouns based on the natural gender of the practitioner. However, diminutives such as meisje "girl" are neuter (but see below). Words for abstract concepts ending with the following suffixes are feminine: -de – liefde "love" -erij – brouwerij "brewery" -heid – waarheid "truth" -ij – voogdij "custody" -ing – opleiding "education" -nis – kennis "knowledge" -schap – vriendschap "friendship" -st – winst "profit" -te – ziekte "illness" There are a few exceptions, e.g. dienst "service", which is masculine, or vonnis "verdict", which is neuter. There are also many nouns ending in -schap that are neuter, such as gereedschap "tool", landschap "landscape". These usually refer to concrete objects rather than abstract concepts, but the distinction is not always clear. For example, ouderschap "parenthood" is neuter but abstract, whereas gemeenschap "community" is feminine but concrete. Suffixes that are borrowed from Latin or Greek often retain their feminine gender from those languages. This includes: -ade – tirade "tirade" -age – tuigage "rigging" -ica – logica "logic" -ide – asteroïde "asteroid" -ie – filosofie "philosophy" -iek – muziek "music" -ine – discipline "discipline" -logie – zoölogie "zoology" -ode – periode "period" -se – analyse "analysis" -sis – crisis "crisis" -suur – censuur "censorship" -teit – kwaliteit "quality" -theek – bibliotheek "library" -tis – bronchitis "bronchitis" -tuur – natuur "nature" -ude – amplitude "amplitude" -xis – syntaxis "syntax" There are, as always, a few exceptions. For example, kanarie "canary" is masculine and