caused an awkward-to-pronounce combination of sounds otherwise (huis, gen. sg. huizes), but it was also used occasionally for nouns that didn't require it. If the noun ended with a long vowel, then an apostrophe was included as in modern usage. The -e of the dative singular was frequently dropped. Some masculine and neuter nouns became feminine in the dative singular. See below under "mixed nouns". The plural could end in either -en or -s. A few had plurals in -eren (kind, pl. kinderen). This is the same as in modern Dutch, see Dutch grammar for more details. Weak nouns Some nouns retained a weak genitive in the singular, including nouns with a nominative sg. in -e and substantivised adjectives. Examples are mens (man), bode (courier), and dappere ("brave one"). Many of the weak nouns were words for people, including bediende (servant) graaf (count), heer (lord), hertog (duke), knaap (lad), prins (prince), vorst (prince). Hart (heart) belongs to the same group (but see below). Some relics remain of the weak declension in modern Dutch. The cities of 's-Gravenhage (more commonly Den Haag, The Hague) and 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) both still show the original weak genitive ending in their names. The Christian expression dag des Heren (day of the Lord) also retains it. Feminine nouns Feminine nouns had a simpler declension. When separate endings were used, the genitive and dative singular forms would end in -e. Female proper names did not follow this declension, but were declined as strong masculine/neuter nouns instead. Mixed nouns Some nouns mixed several types of declension. The most common irregularity was a feminine dative singular replacing the masculine or neuter one. hart (heart) was a weak neuter noun, but was feminine in the dative singular: der harte oor (ear) was a strong neuter, feminine in the dative singular: der ore uur (hour) was a strong neuter, feminine in the genitive and dative singular: der ure gunst (favour) was a strong masculine noun, feminine in the genitive and dative singular: der gunste tijd (time) was a strong masculine, but alternatively feminine in the genitive and dative singular: der tijd alongside des tijds/den tijde wereld (world) was a strong masculine, alternatively feminine in the genitive singular: der wereld alongside des werelds Adjectives The older standard distinguished between predicative and attributive adjectives, much as the modern standard. It also distinguished definite and indefinite declensions. However, the difference was three-way rather