The examples in (67) show that, next to the prepositions, there is a smaller set of postpositions, which follow their complement. A comparison of (64a) and (67a) will reveal that some adpositions can be used both as a preposition and as a postposition. Broadly speaking, the most conspicuous semantic difference between pre- and postpositions is that the former refer to a certain position in space or on the time line, whereas the latter refer to a path; see Section 1.3.1 for a more precise and detailed discussion.

Table 7 provides a list of spatial postpositions. When we compare this set of postpositions to the set of spatial prepositions in Table 5, we see that the former is practically a subset of the latter; the only adposition that cannot be found in Table 5 is the postposition af'off' (although the Van Dale dictionary mentions that af is used as a preposition in certain varieties of Dutch).

postposition	example	translation
af	de berg af	from the mountain
binnen	het huis binnen	into the house
door	het hek door	through the gate
in	het huis in	into the house
langs	het huis langs	along the house
om	de hoek om	around the corner
op	de berg op	onto the mountain
over	het grasveld over	across the lawn
rond	het plein rond	around the square
uit	de auto uit	out of the car
voorbij	het huis voorbij	past the house

In addition to the forms in Table 7, the adposition onder'under' seems to occur as a postposition in the southern and Flemish varieties of Dutch (Liliane Haegeman, p.c.). Standard Dutch has constructions such as (68), but there the noun kopje is clearly not the complement of the adposition; the adposition instead seems to have a cognate complement corresponding to the water in the English renderings. The phrases kopje onder gaan and iemand kopje onder duwen should be seen as fixed idiomatic expressions.

      Table 8 shows that the set of temporal postpositions is even smaller than the set of spatial postpositions. The set seems to be exhausted by the adpositions door, in and uit.

postposition	example	translation
door	het hele jaar door	throughout the year
in	het nieuwe jaar in	into the new year
uit	dag in dag uit	lit: into day out of day 'continuously'

Occasionally, the elements geleden and terug in (69) are also included in the set of temporal postpositions. These elements differ from door, in and uit, however, in that they do not express the notion of path (on the time line), but simply refer to some fixed position on the time line.

      A final note may be needed on the expression het klokje rond, which refers to a span of time of approximately twelve hours. It seems wrong to interpret the adposition rond as a temporal postposition here, since what is implied is that the hour hand of the clock has traversed the path around the clock; therefore we are dealing with a spatial postposition. Note that besides (70a), (70b) is also possible; this may be due to the fact that a year can be measured by means of the zodiac, which is generally represented as a circle.