Dutch possessives provide a more extensive example of enclitic elements.
The English possessive mentioned above is also present in Dutch:
Jans boek (John's book)
Maries boek (Mary's book)
(Unlike in English, it cannot be used with the
plural.)
The "standalone" possessive forms in Dutch are zijn, haar and hun:
zijn boek (his book)
haar boek (her book)
hun boek (their book)
When unstressed they must be pronounced with a schwa, and the female singular with a leading d. There is an established convention to express
this in spelling, although its use is completely optional:
z'n boek (his book - when the stress is on "book")
d'r boek (her book - when the stress is on "book")
hun boek (same spelling - the pronunciation isn't very different)
In spoken, informal Dutch, the standard way to form the possessive is the following, rather than the 's mentioned above:
Jan z'n boek (John's book)
Marie d'r boek (Mary's book)
Jan en Marie hun boek (John and Mary's book)
It is also used to replace the stressed forms:
Die z'n boek (his book, with stress on "his")
Die d'r boek (Mary's book)
(I'm not sure what the plural form would be;
Hun hun boek
it definitely isn't, but
Hun d'r boek may be used.)
When used in this way, the Dutch possessive is a clear example of an enclitic element: it never carries stress and doesn't occur on its own.