Table of Contents

• Lesson 1
• Lesson 2
• Lesson 3
• Lesson 4
• Lesson 5
• Lesson 6
• Lesson 7
• Lesson 8
• Lesson 9
• Lesson 10
• Lesson 11
• Lesson 12
• Lesson 13
• Lesson 14
• Lesson 15

Grammatica 1-1 ~ Introduction to Dutch grammar

Children learn their mother tongue without knowing the parts of speech such as verbs, nouns and phrases. However these are helpful for anyone attempting to learn a second language from a book or a website. Of course the children have it right: the best way to learn a language is to listen to a mother tongue speaker and simply repeat. But such a speaker may not always be available to you. This book will try to compensate this by addition of audio files, but that is still a cumbersome substitute. We do recommend that you use them as much as you can. Firefox seems to give easier access to them than other browsers.

The main lessons Dutch/Lesson 1, 2 etc. concentrate on introducing points of grammar, although there are exercises, sound files etc. Lessons 1A, 2A etc. concentrate more on practice, pronunciation drills, more conversation etc. As of June 30 2009 they are still in construction.

English speakers will find many strong parallels between their language and Dutch. Where possible we will try to point out the similarities and exploit them.

However, as noted in the introduction, Dutch grammar is more complex than English grammar, and identifying the meaning of words in a Dutch sentence is difficult without understanding the clues to word function that come from the grammatical rules. The basic lessons of this textbook are set up to first introduce the parts of speech, and then bring in the rules that govern these. Pay particular attention to sentence word order as you progress through the lessons.

Gesprek 1-1 ~ Vrienden: Jan en Karel

Read the following conversation. Use the hover method to see an instant translation of a certain word and try to piece together the meaning of the story. Once you have an idea of the gist of the story you can open up the drop down box and read the translation to see if you were right. When learning a new language it is very important to be able to deduce meaning from limited information, because you will often not know all the words used. Picking up their meaning from context is an important skill.

You will also see that Dutch sometimes strings words together a bit differently than English. Dutch word order is quite different and a difficult aspect of the language.

Jan komt Karel op straat tegen. Ze zijn vrienden.

Jan: Hoi, Karel! Hoe gaat het met je?

Karel: Hoi! Dank je, met mij gaat het goed. En met jou?

Jan: Dank je, met mij gaat het ook goed. Tot ziens.

Karel: Tot ziens, Jan!

Dutch pronunciation varies with region and speaker, but the following gives a reasonable idea:

'jɑn.kɔmt.'ka.rəl.ɔp.'stra.'te.ɣə(n) zə.zɛɪn.vrin.də(n)

ɦɔj,'ka.rəl.ɦu.'ɣat.ət.'mɛ.cə

ɦɔj,dɑŋ.k^jə,mɛt.'mɛɪ.'ɣat.ət.xut.ʔɛn.'mɛ.'cɑʊ

dɑŋ.k^jə,mɛt.mɛɪ.'ɣat.ət.'ok.xut. tɔ.'tsins

tɔ.'tsins.jɑn

Grammatica 1-2 ~ Forms

Clitic forms(Informal)

Notice the difference between "Hoe gaat het met je"? and "En met jou?". Both translate literally into with you, but there is a difference in emphasis. Jou carries emphasis (you might use this in a more formal setting, "jou" is also more frequently used in everyday language despite it being the more emphatic version), je does not (it may be informal - if you were talking to close friends). In Dutch, there are often two forms of the same pronoun: a strong one and a weak ('clitic') one. The clitic forms cannot have emphasis and the vowel in a clitic is often reduced to a neutral 'schwa' ə or omitted entirely. In colloquial English the same thing can be heard at times: seeya! instead of see you!.

Polite forms

The above conversation was between two good friends. It utilizes the familiar form of the personal pronoun (je, jou) where English uses you. However, Dutch also has a polite or formal form of the personal pronoun for the second person (you), u. Many languages have this distinction. It is e.g. comparable with Sie in German, vous in French, usted in Spanish, or Вы in Russian . When to use one or the other is not always easy to decide. Someone unknown, particularly if older, is generally u, an old friend typically je, jou. The latter roughly corresponds with the 'first name basis' in English. Notice the use of u in the conversation below.

Regional forms

In the South of the area where Dutch is spoken (Flanders mostly), people do not distinguish between familiar and polite forms, instead they use yet another pronoun gij (clitic: ge, object: u). It is used much like you in English for both singular and plural. In the North gij is only encountered in archaic phrases like: gij zult niet stelen - thou shalt not steal. This course is mostly based on northern usage as this is most widely accepted, including in Suriname and the Antilles, but some important differences will be pointed out.

Gesprek 1-2 ~ De handelaars

Push the button and listen to the following text. It is recommended to first just listen.

• 

Please read the following conversation. It is a bit more formal than the one before. If you are not sure of the meaning of a word, hover your mouse over it, if it is underlined. A translation will pop up.

Meneer Jansen komt mevrouw De Vries tegen. Het zijn handelaars.

• Meneer Jansen: Goedendag, mevrouw De Vries!
• Mevrouw De Vries: Goedendag, meneer Jansen!
• Meneer Jansen: Hoe gaat het met u?
• Mevrouw De Vries: Zeer goed, dank u wel. En met u?
• Meneer Jansen: Ook goed.
• Mevrouw De Vries: Mooi. Kent u meneer Standish? Bent u hem al tegengekomen?
• Meneer Jansen: Uit Engeland? Nee. Is hij op bezoek?
• Mevrouw De Vries: Ja. Hij spreekt Nederlands. Tot ziens, meneer Jansen!
• Meneer Jansen: Tot ziens, mevrouw De Vries.

Have you figured out the gist yet? Then open the translation box to see if you were right:

Go back to the pronunciation, close your eyes and see how much you understand now. You may have to repeat the process a few times.

Grammatica 1-3 ~ Introduction to pronouns

A pronoun is a short word that takes the place of a noun previously mentioned in the sentence, paragraph, or conversation.

Recall: Kent u meneer Standish? Bent u hem al tegengekomen?

Hem refers back to meneer Standish. It is a pronoun that stands for (pro- !) meneer Standish.

There is a variety of pronouns like personal, possessive, relative and indefinite ones. Let's look at the personal pronouns first.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns are quite familiar in English: They are words like I,you,he,she,we,you and they.
At least this is the case for the subject (nominative case). As object (accusative) some of them are different: me,you,him,us,you,them. Compare:

I see you.

You see me.

Notice how I turns into me when used as an object. You remains the same.

Much like in English ik (subject) turns into mij as object in Dutch, whereas je remains the same in both roles:

Ik zie je.

Je ziet mij.

The system in Dutch resembles the English one quite a bit, after all the languages are close relatives:

• As in English there are three persons in Dutch grammar: first (I), second (you) and third (he)
• As in English there is a distinction in number between singular (I) and plural (we).
• As in English there are gender distinctions in the third person singular (he, she, it)
• As in English there are case distinctions between subject and object (he, him)

Nevertheless the Dutch system is a little more involved, as we have seen there are:

• familiar and polite forms: je versus u.
• weak (clitics) and strong forms: je versus jou.

In addition there are

• regional differences: (jij/jullie - u) (North) versus (gij) (South)
• a growing rift between how inanimate and animate nouns are treated

In English he and she are reserved for animate nouns -usually persons- and this is increasingly the case in Dutch as well, certainly in Northern usage.

In English all inanimate objects can be referred to as it. However, in Dutch this is only true for het-words (neuter gender) and that leaves two thirds of all nouns uncovered.... We will revisit this awkward problem later.

Subject case (nominative)

Person	singular	clitic	plural	clitic
1st	ik	('k)	wij	we
2nd (fam.)	jij	je	jullie	-
2nd (polite)	u	-	u	-
2nd (South)	gij	ge	gij	ge
3rd	hij zij het	(-i.e.) ze ('t)	zij	ze

Object case (accusative)

person	singular	clitic	plural	clitic
1st	mij	me	ons	-
2nd (fam.)	jou	je	jullie	-
2nd (polite)	u	-	u	-
2nd (South)	u	-	u	-
3rd	hem haar het	(-m) (d'r) ('t)	hen (hun*)	ze

Remarks

1. As you see not all pronouns have clitics and some of them (shown in parentheses) are not used in the written language.
2. The pronouns in italics: hij, zij (sing.), hem, haar, hen and hun are increasingly reserved for persons and animate objects. For inanimate objects these pronouns usually get replaced either by demonstrative pronouns (see lesson 4) or by a special kind of adverb, the pronominal adverb (see lesson 8)
3. *In speaking, many Dutch speakers use the dative form hun instead of the accusative hen. This is because the hen form was artificially created by the grammarians of the past ¹ In the spoken language hen is seldom used and speakers increasingly avoid the issue by opting for the clitic ze.

Exercises 1-1

Woordenlijst 1

You have already encountered quite a few words above. Now make sure you own them! Listen to their pronunciation, sort the table by English and read back to Dutch, check the pronunciation again. Click on the blue link to go to the Dutch wiktionary and try to figure out what you may. If you do not understand, follow the interwiki link to go to the English wiktionary.

In short: there are many ways to use this table and you can try one thing one day and come back another to try something different.

Dutch word	audio file	English translation
de appendix	appendix (help·info)	appendix, supplement
het bezoek	bezoek (help·info)	visit, attendance
(het) Engeland	Engeland (help·info)	England
het Nederlands	Nederland (help·info)	Dutch
de vriend, vrienden	vriend (help·info)	friend, friends
de handelaars	handelaar (help·info)	business people, businessmen, tradesmen, merchants (pl.)
het gesprek, gesprekken	gesprek (help·info)|	conversation, conversations
de grammatica	grammatica (help·info)	grammar
de les	les (help·info)	lesson
de straat	straat (help·info)	street
de woordenlijst	woordenlijst (help·info)	word list
de woordenschat	woordenschat (help·info)	vocabulary
op straat	op (help·info) straat (help·info)	on (in) the street
tot ziens	tot ziens (help·info)	goodbye (lit: see you again)
uit Engeland	uit (help·info)	from England
Met mij gaat het goed		I am fine (lit: With me goes it well)
goedendag!	goedendag (help·info)	Good day (greeting)
(de) dag!	dag (help·info)	(Good) day! Hi! Hello!
goed	goed (help·info)	good
En met jou?	jou (help·info)	And how are you? (lit: And with you?)
Hoe gaat het met jou (u)?		How are you (lit: How goes it with you?)
hoe	hoe (help·info)	how
gaan	gaan (help·info)	to go
het gaat		it goes
met	met (help·info)	with
is op bezoek	bezoek (help·info)	is visiting
tegenkomen	tegenkomen (help·info)	to meet, come across, encounter, run into
komt ... tegen		comes across , runs into, meets
bezoeken	bezoeken (help·info)	to visit
maar	maar (help·info)	but, however
ook	ook (help·info)	also, too, as well
dank je, dank u.		thank you;
bedankt		thanks
simpel	simpel (help·info)	simple
het	het (help·info)	it (pronoun)
mevrouw	mevrouw (help·info)	Ms., Miss, or Mrs.
meneer	meneer (help·info)	Mr.
mij	mij (help·info)	me
nee	nee (help·info)	no
ja	ja (help·info)	yes
correct	correct (help·info)	correct
al	al (help·info)	already, yet
mooi	mooi (help·info)	beautiful (in this case, 'nice' or 'fine')
zeer	zeer (help·info)	very
en	en (help·info)	and

Gesprek 2-1

1. First push the button to simply listen to the following conversation.
2. Then study the text to find out what the meaning is. If necessary, hover your mouse over a word if you don't know it. Once you think you understand the conversation open the dropdown below to see the full translation.
3. Finally listen to the conversation again and see how much you understand. First with eyes open to see the text. Then do it with eyes closed.
4. If there are parts you do not understand when listening, go back to step 2.

Standish: Goedemorgen meneer. Hoe gaat het met u?

Jansen: Goedemorgen. Goed. Hoe heet u?

Standish: Ik heet Standish. Robert Standish. En u? Wat is uw naam?

Jansen: U heet Robert? Wat toevallig! Ik heet ook Robert. Robert Jansen.

Standish: Inderdaad toevallig! Wij heten allebei Robert. Weet u hoe die mevrouw daar heet?

Jansen: Ik geloof dat zij Alice heet.

Standish: Gelooft u dat of bent u zeker ervan?

Jansen: Vrij zeker. Ze heet Alice Koopman.

Pronunciation drill 2-1. Hoe heet u?

Grammatica 2-1 ~ Introduction to Verbs

A verb (in Dutch: werkwoord) is that part of speech that describes an action. Verbs come in an almost bewildering array of tenses, moods, voices and aspects, and there are several major types: intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, and ergative verbs.

Fortunately, the Dutch verb is not too different from the English one, although it does have a few more forms.

 I am called Standish                      Ik heet Standish 
 What are you called (named)?              Hoe heet u? 
 ...that she is named (called) 'Alice'     ...dat ze 'Alice' heet
 We are both called Robert                 Wij heten allebei Robert

The Dutch verb heten can best be translated as "to be named" or "to be called" and we see two forms of it here

1. a singular one: heet used with ik,u,ze
2. a plural one heten used for wij (as well the other plural persons).

Actually there are usually three forms. This can be seen from:

 I believe                                         Ik geloof
 do you believe?                                   gelooft u?

In the case of heten the extra -t does not get added because the stem already ends in a -t.

In a later lesson we will revisit the verb forms associated with each person.

The irregular verb to be-zijn has a few more forms in both languages.

Gesprek 2-2 ~ De Engelsman

Meneer Standish, een Engelsman, gaat naar de boekhouding.

• Meneer Standish: Goedemorgen. Bent u mevrouw Koopman?
• Mevrouw Nieman: Nee. Zij is het meisje daar. Ik ben mevrouw Nieman. En u? Hoe heet u?
• Meneer Standish: Ik heet Standish.
• Mevrouw Nieman: Aangenaam kennis te maken. Bent u Nederlander?
• Meneer Standish: Nee, ik ben een Engelsman.
• Mevrouw Nieman: Echt waar? Dat is erg interessant. Kunt u mij verstaan?
• Meneer Standish: Ja. Als u een beetje langzamer spreekt.
• Mevrouw Nieman: Goed zo! Mag ik u mijn collega voorstellen, mevrouw Koopman?
• Meneer Standish: Jazeker!

Vocabulary drill 2-1

Grammatica 2-2 ~ Inversion in questions and negations

You may have wondered about the order of the words in

ik geloof dat ze Alice heet.

Even though Dutch verbs are not so much more complicated than English ones, word order is. In fact it is quite a bit more complicated than in English. For the moment let's just leave the above sentence for what it is and start with questions.

Questions

A question sentence in Dutch simply reverses the order of subject and verb.

Recall: U heet meneer Standish ('You are named Mr. Standish).

It became: Hoe heet u? as a question

The normal word order of subject (u or "you") then verb (heten) is reversed and, in this case, an interrogative (hoe or "how") added.

Additional examples:

Hoe gaat het met u?	↔	Het gaat goed met u
Bent u mevrouw Koopman?	↔	U bent mevrouw Koopman
Bent u Nederlander?	↔	U bent Nederlander ("You are Dutch").
Verstaat u mij?	↔	U verstaat mij ("You understand me").
Gelooft u?	↔	Ik geloof

English does the same thing when using the verb to be:

I am - are you?

ik ben - bent u?

Dutch does not use the auxiliary to do as English requires in most other cases:

ik weet - weet u?

I know - do you know? (instead of "know you?")

Negations

The negative is formed by simply adding niet at the end:

Ik versta u - I understand you

Ik versta u niet - I do not understand you

Again, Dutch does not use the auxiliary to do. (In fact using it sounds very foreign.)

Even a negative question does not use to do:

Verstaat u mij niet? - Don't you understand me?

Gesprek 2-3 ~ Het nieuwe meisje

In this conversation, the parties are close friends.

• Karel: Heleen, wie is dat nieuwe meisje? Die brunette daar.
• Heleen: Ik geloof dat ze Karolien heet.
• Karel: Ze is erg mooi.
• Heleen: Ze is leuk, als je kleine meisjes met lange zwarte haren leuk vindt.
• Karel: Ja. Ik ben gek op dat haar. Wat een mooie meid!
• Heleen: Karel toch!

Grammatica 2-2 Adjectives, demonstratives and articles

Gender

Where English uses the demonstrative pronoun that, Dutch uses either dat or die, recall:

dat nieuwe meisje. Die brunette. - that new girl, that brunette

Similarly,where English uses the article the, Dutch has two possibilities: de or het, recall:

de boekhouding, het meisje. - the administration, the girl

We will revisit this phenomenon (gender) in the next lesson more extensively. There is a bit of a problem with it in Dutch.

For the moment it is enough to realize that there are two kinds of words,

ones that take de and die

ones that take het and dat

Both articles and demonstrative pronouns are a special kind of adjectives: words that are added to make the meaning of another word more precise, like new, small or exciting

Inflection

Recall that some adjectives in the dialogue ended in -e (mooie meid), sometimes they did not (is erg mooi).

Adjectives can be used in two ways: in front of a noun and after a verb like is (a copula). In English the adjective remains the same regardless:

The house is red (copula + adjective)

The red car (adjective + noun)

Behind a copula (as predicate) this is true in Dutch as well:

Ik ben gek (I am crazy)

Ze is mooi (She is pretty)

De auto is rood (The car is red)

But in Dutch they are inflected if they occur in front of a noun (as attribute). Compare:

de rode auto - the red car

een rode auto - a red car

de rode auto's - the red cars

rode auto's - red cars

Neuter words are the ones that carry the definite article het and the demonstrative dat. They are a bit different (Again: we will revisit them in the next lesson.)

het rode huis

een rood huis - a red house

de rode huizen

rode huizen

As you see the adjective is not inflected after the indefinite article een.

This also holds if there is no article:

met groot gemak - with great ease (het gemak: neuter)

But:

in hoge nood - in desparate need (de nood)

Thus, apart from the indefinite neuter an attributive adjective is usually inflected with -e.

There are a few exceptions, compare e.g.:

de man - the man

een grote man - a big man

een groot man - a great man

Making nouns out of adjectives

Adjectives can be turned into nouns, by assuming their inflected form:

Dat is een grote

That is a big one

Dat is een kleine

That is a small one

Die lange heeft mijn fiets gestolen

That tall guy has stolen my bike

Notice that Dutch does not use 'one' in such cases.

There are a number of adjectives that can be turned into nouns by adding -te. They all carry de. In English the corresponding suffix is -th:

wijd – wijdte (wide - width)

lang – lengte (long, tall - length)

groot – grootte (big - size)

breed – breedte (broad - breadth)

eng – engte (narrow - narrowness)

zwaar – zwaarte (heavy - heaviness)

heet – hitte (hot - heat)

warm – warmte (warm - warmth)

zwak – zwakte (weak - weakness)

sterk – sterkte (strong - strength)

droog – droogte (dry - drought)

hoog – hoogte (high - height)

menig – menigte (many - crowd)

duur – duurte (expensive - dearth)

gewoon – gewoonte (usual - habit)

More about nouns in the next lesson.

Woordenlijst 2

Dutch word	audio file	English translation
de brunette		brunette
de Engelsman		Englishman
het haar, de haren	haar (help·info)	hair(s)
het meisje, de meisjes	meisje (help·info)	girl, girls
de collega	collega (help·info)	colleague
Mag ik...voorstellen?	mag ik voorstellen? (help·info)	May I introduce...?
Jazeker	jazeker (help·info)	yes, indeed
Aangenaam kennis te maken	aangenaam (help·info) kennismaken (help·info)	Pleased to meet you
Goed zo!	goedzo (help·info)	That's nice!
gek zijn (op)	gek (help·info) zijn (help·info)	to be crazy (about)
verstaan	verstaan (help·info)	to understand
verstaat u?		do you understand?
geloven	geloven (help·info)	to believe
ik geloof		I believe
heten	heten (help·info)	to name, call (a name)
ze heet		she is called
praten	praten (help·info)	to speak, to talk
u praat		you speak
voorstellen	voorstellen (help·info)	to introduce
leuk vinden	leuk (help·info) vinden (help·info)	to like
als je ... leuk vindt		if you like ...
Nederlands	Nederlands (help·info)	Dutch
het (neuter)	het (help·info)	the
de (m/f)	de (help·info)	the
dat (neuter)	dat (help·info)	that
die (m/f)	die (help·info)	that
daar	daar (help·info)	there
daarginds	daarginds (help·info)	over there
daarachter	daarachter (help·info)	over there
een	een (help·info)	a, an
een beetje	beetje (help·info)	somewhat, a bit
haar	haar (help·info)	her
interessant	interessant (help·info)	interesting
leuk	leuk (help·info)	cute
kort, korte	kort (help·info)	short
lang, lange	lang (help·info)	long
langzaam	langzaam (help·info)	slow
langzamer	langzamer (help·info)	slower
mijn	mijn (help·info)	my
mij	mij (help·info)	me
mooi	mooi (help·info)	beautiful
naar	naar (help·info)	to
nieuw, nieuwe	nieuw (help·info)	new
zwart, zwarte	zwart (help·info)	black
zij	zij (help·info)	she
u	u (help·info)	you
als	als (help·info)	if
wie?	wie (help·info)	who?

Gesprek 6

Jan: Zestienhonderd was de Slag bij Nieuwpoort, he mam?

Ma: Ja, jongen, heb je dat op school geleerd? En wat gebeurde er toen?

Jan: Prins Maurits versloeg de Spanjaarden, maar wat was er in zestienhonderdéén?

Ma: Eh nou, dat weet ik niet, hoor...

Jan: Het éénjarig bestaan van de Slag bij Nieuwpoort, natuurlijk.

Grammatica 6.1 ~ Numbers

Use the sound buttons to help you with the pronunciation.

-teen = -tien

Dutch has a similar way of constructing the numbers for 13-19 as English, it is mainly the simple number (e.g. vijf, zes) followed by -tien, which means "ten" and is very similar to English -teen

13 dertien
14 veertien
15 vijftien
16 zestien
17 zeventien
18 achttien
19 negentien

-ty = -tig

As another example of the relationship between English y versus Dutch g, the English ending -ty in twenty, thirty etc., is "-tig" in Dutch:

20 twintig

Starting at twenty one things get a little funny, Dutch puts the single unit before the ten-unit:

21 eenentwintig (literally: one-and-twenty)
22 tweeëntwintig
23 drieëntwintig
24 vierentwintig
25 vijfentwintig
26 zesentwintig
27 zevenentwintig
28 achtentwintig
29 negenentwintig

Notice that one way to deal with two subsequent vowels in Dutch spelling is the diaeresis ë.

The same system goes for 30, 40, 50....

30 dertig
32 tweeëndertig
40 veertig
50 vijftig
60 zestig
70 zeventig
80 tachtig (!!)
90 negentig

The only irregular one is tachtig.
Notice that 60 and 70 are pronounced with initial s.

Large numbers

100 honderd

Dutch does not use one as in "one hundred" or "one thousand"

101 honderdéén
111 honderdelf
112 honderdtwaalf
113 honderddertien
121 honderdéénentwintig
957 negenhonderdzevenenvijftig

In Dutch all numbers lower than one thousand are written as one word. There should be a space after '1000' (duizend), though. There's also a space before and after: miljoen, biljoen, miljard, biljard, etc.

1000 duizend
1001 duizend één
1017 duizend zeventien
1538 duizend vijfhonderdachtendertig or vijftienhonderdachtendertig
2000 tweeduizend
8000 achtduizend

100.000 honderdduizend

143.000 honderddrieënveertigduizend

143.500 honderddrieënveertigduizend vijfhonderd

1.000.000 één miljoen

2.000.000 twee miljoen

453.897.245 vierhonderddrieënvijftig miljoen achthonderdzevenennegentigduizend tweehonderdvijfenveertig

For higher power of one thousand Dutch follows the British rather than the American system

1.000.000.000 één miljard
(not: biljoen, see below)

1.000.000.000.000 één biljoen 1.000.000.000.000.000 één biljard

245.078.476.453.879 tweehonderdvijfenveertig biljoen achtenzeventig miljard vierhonderdzesenzeventig miljoen vierhonderddrieënvijftigduizend achthonderdnegenenzeventig

Notice also that the interpunction is the reverse:

English: $1,324,432.93 = Dutch: $1.324.432,93

Dutch has a decimal comma, not a decimal point.

Grammatica 6.2 ~ Past and perfect tenses

Recall:

• ..heb je dat op school geleerd?...
• ..wat gebeurde er ...
• Maurits versloeg...

These are examples of past and perfect tenses. There are three kinds of verbs in Dutch when it comes to forming them.

1. Weak verbs add either -te(n) or -de(n) to the stem of the verb.
2. Strong verbs change the vowel of the stem.
3. Irregular verbs often have a combination of the two or show other idiosyncrasies.

The numbers:

1. The vast majority (thousands) of Dutch verbs are regular weak verbs.
2. There are some 150 strong roots. Derived verbs included there are some 1500 strong verbs in total.
3. There are only about six irregular roots and about two dozen derivatives.

However, the strong and irregular verbs are amongst the most frequently used ones. The more specialized and recently formed ones are typically weak.

Weak verbs

leren - to learn

ik leer - I learn → stem is leer

Past tense

The past tense typically has a singular and a plural form:

ik, jij, hij leerde - I, you, he learned

wij, jullie, zij leerden - we, you, they learned

Notice the similarity with English: the past is formed with a dental suffix: -de (Dutch) -ed (English).

However if the root ends in a voiceless consonant (t, k, f, s, ch, p and x) the endings are voiceless in Dutch -te, -ten:

passen - to pass

ik pas - I pass → stem is pas

ik paste - I passed

wij pasten - we passed

This happens in about a third of the weak verbs.

Perfect tense

The past participle on -d and -t

The perfect uses an auxiliary + the past participle. It is formed by prefixing ge- and suffixing -d in the case of leren:

the perfect

ik heb geleerd - I have learned

If the root ends in a voiceless consonant (t, k, f, s, ch, p and x) the ending is a voiceless -t:

passen - to pass, to fit

ik pas - I pass → stem is pas

ik heb gepast - I have passed

Dutch has "final obstruent devoicing", a fancy term for the fact that a consonant at the end of a word is always pronounced as voiceless. That means that both the -d of "geleerd" and the -t of "gepast" as actually pronounced the same, as t.

However, as in English the participle can also be used as an adjective. As such it also has an inflected form with -e:

De geleerde les - the lesson learned

Gepaste eerbied - fitting reverence

In this case the /d/ of geleerde is actually also pronounced d and the /t/ of gepaste as t.

If the root already ends in -d or -t the ending is omitted:

feesten - gefeest

baden - gebaad

Word order

In contrast to English the participle is put at the end of the sentence:

Ik heb dat op school geleerd.

Prefixes

If the verb already has a prefix like be- or ver-, the ge- prefix is omitted:

Wat bedoel je? - What do you mean?

Ik heb dat zo niet bedoeld. - I did not mean it that way.

Wat gebeurt er?

Wat gebeurde er?

Wat is er gebeurd?

Auxiliaries

The auxiliary is usually a form of hebben like it is to have in English (see below for its forms). However, unlike English there is a group of verbs (ergative verbs) that take zijn (to be) instead.

Notice that gebeuren (to happen) is one such case: It is an ergative verb. Instead of an action such verbs express either a process or a movement. Compare:

type	Dutch		English
process	zijn	de sneeuwballen zijn gesmolten	have	the snowballs have melted
movement	zijn	ze zijn gegaan	have	they have gone
action	hebben	ze hebben dat gedaan	have	they have done that

Strong verbs

lopen - to walk (cf. leap)

Ik loop - I walk

Ik liep - I walked (notice the vowel change)

Ik heb gelopen

The participle ends in -en in the case of strong verbs.

There are more than 150 strong roots and including all derived forms lopen, belopen, verlopen etc. there are more than 1500 strong verbs in Dutch. There are seven distinct patterns (classes) of vowel change. The most common one (Class I) has ..ij... - ..ee.. - ..e..:

schrijven - schreef - geschreven

blijven - bleef - gebleven

lijden - leed - geleden

English has far fewer strong verbs left and they have become irregular, i.e. the patterns are no longer very recognizable, although sometimes the resemblance is still striking, compare:

spreken - to speak

sprak - spoke

gesproken - spoken

We will come back to strong verbs later. Fortunately for all Dutch verbs except a handful it is enough to memorize de stamtijden (the primitive times):

lopen-liep-gelopen (infinitive - past tense - past participle)

Lopen is a verb of movement. This is why is uses to be as auxiliary if a direction of the movement process is specified. Compare:

Ik ben naar huis gelopen - I walked home

Ik heb altijd veel gelopen - I always did a lot of walking

In the latter case the verb takes "hebben" because the emphasis is not on the movement process but on the activity (action).

Notice that Dutch often uses the perfect tense where English uses a simple past. The past tense corresponds more to the past continuous in English, although the division of labor between the tenses is different in the two languages.

Ik liep naar huis - I was walking home

The past of some of the strong verbs has a plural that undergoes lengthening of the vowel:

breken-brak-gebroken

ik brak (as in father)

wij braken (as in Gaad)

(Thus the verb has four stages of vowel change. This is a very ancient aspect of the language. It stems straight out of Indo-European. Anglo-Saxon had something similar.)

Past continuous

Dutch does not have a past (or present) continuous as such, although there is a construction using aan het + infinitive that can be used to describe continuity rather emphatically:

Ik was naar huis aan het lopen, toen ik hem zag

I was (busy) walking home when I saw him

Verbs like lopen, staan, zitten, liggen (walk, stand, sit and lie) can also be used to express continuous action. They take te + infinitive:

Ik zat te denken - I was thinking (while sitting)

Ik stond te bellen - I was on the phone (while standing)

Irregular verbs

There are only a few verbs (actually 6) that demand more knowledge than that which is contained in the three stamtijden (primitive tenses)

They are: zijn, hebben, zullen, mogen, kunnen and willen

The auxiliary to have

The most important irregular verbs are hebben and zijn:

hebben-had-gehad

hebben - to have

ik heb - I have

jij hebt - you have

hij heeft - he has

wij, jullie, zij hebben - we, you, they have

Past tense

ik, jij, hij had - I, you, he had

wij, jullie, zij hadden - we, you, they had

Perfect

ik heb gehad

The auxiliary to be

zijn-was-geweest

zijn, wezen - to be

ik ben - I am

jij bent - you are

hij is - he is

wij, jullie, zij zijn - we, you, they are

Past tense

ik was

wij waren

Perfect

ik ben geweest - I have been

Notice that to be is seen as an ergative: it is not an action, but a 'process'.

Strong and weak verbs with irregularities

Some strong and weak verbs do not completely follow any of the regular patterns. We have seen one:

verslaan

ik versla

ik versloeg

ik heb verslagen

Notice that the present tense and the infinitive do not have a "g".

There is also a group of weak verbs ends in -cht rather than just -t:

brengen - bracht - gebracht

denken - dacht - gedacht

The vowel of these roots also changes, but historically these verbs are weak. Notice that English has something similar (brought, thought).

In these cases it is still enough to know the three primitive tenses to reconstruct the entire verb. As this is the case for all Dutch verbs bar six it is customary to represent a verb whether weak, strong or irregular by these primitive tenses and reserve the term irregular for the handful cases where this does not suffice.

Woordenschat 6

Dutch word	audio file	English translation
de school	school (help·info)	school
het jaar	jaar (help·info)	year
jarig zijn	jarig (help·info)	having a birthday
de slag	slag (help·info)	blow, battle
de natuur	natuur (help·info)	nature
de jongen	jongen (help·info)	boy
natuurlijk	natuurlijk (help·info)	naturally, of course
schrijven-schreef-geschreven s	schrijven (help·info)	to write
lezen-las-gelezen s	lezen (help·info)	to read
leren-leerde-geleerd w	leren (help·info)	to learn, to teach
bedoelen-bedoelde-bedoeld w	bedoelen (help·info)	to mean, to aim at
lopen-liep-gelopen s	lopen (help·info)	to walk
bestaan-bestond-bestaan s	bestaan (help·info)	to exist
zijn-was-geweest irr	zijn (help·info)	to be
hebben-had-gehad irr	hebben (help·info)	to have
weten-wist-geweten irr	weten (help·info)	to know
zien-zag-gezien s	zien (help·info)	to see
zwemmen-zwom-gezwommen s	zwemmen (help·info)	to swim
vinden-vond-gevonden s	vinden (help·info)	to find
eten-at-gegeten s	eten (help·info)	to eat
zitten-zat-gezeten s	zitten (help·info)	to sit
denken-dacht-gedacht s	denken (help·info)	to think
slapen-sliep-geslapen s	slapen (help·info)	to sleep

Also see Dutch/The numbers for a synopsis and the hover test based on it.

Gesprek 7

Ma, krijg ik een ijsje?

Ach vooruit dan maar, je bent braaf geweest. Wil je een vanilleijsje?

Nee, ik wil een bananenframbozenmokkaijsje met vanilleslagroom.

Een kleintje?

Nee, een grote.

Grammatica 7.1 Compounds

In this chapter you will learn how to glue words together. Dutch, like German, Norwegian and Danish, is often mocked for the (theoretical) possibility of creating long words such as randjongerenhangplekkenbeleidsambtenarensalarisbesprekingsafspraken (the agreements for the negotiations concerning the salary of public officials who decide on the policy regarding areas where unemployed youth are allowed to hang out).

Actually compounds are seldom so excessive and the compounding of words happens in English as well. However in English, compounds are written as separate words, so English speakers are often not aware that a word like "apple juice" is a compound, much like its Dutch counterpart "appelsap". Notice that when you pronounce "apple juice" you pronounce the word "juice" with much less emphasis than you pronounce "apple" with. This is what signals word compounding in English and Dutch alike.

Sometimes, compounds are spelled as a single word even in English. For example, the word "database" is a compilation of the words "data" and "base". For some words, such as "mailbox", a double spelling can be used: "mail box" is also acceptable in English.

In Dutch, the rule for spelling compounds is simple: if two nouns form a compound, write them together. Always.

Examples:

• apple juice → appelsap, wrong: appel sap
• mail box → postbus, wrong: post bus
• Linux operating system → Linuxbesturingssysteem, wrong: Linux besturingssysteem

Should a word get unreadable by writing it together, you can use a dash to make it more readable. In the latter case Linux-besturingssysteem is more usual because Linux is a brand name. Dashes are used sparingly and never in simple compounds like deurbel (door bell).

This rule even applies to words imported from English into Dutch:

• sciencefiction
• businessunit

This dash is required when one of the elements in a compound is an acronym:

• DNA molecule → DNA-molecuul, wrong: DNA molecuul

If you use two compound words in the same phrase that have an element in common, you can replace it by a dash:

• "ondergrens en bovengrens" (lower boundary and upper boundary) can be replaced by "onder- en bovengrens". (lower and upper boundary)

Remember that you can do this in English as well: "standard temperature and standard pressure" is often replaced by "standard temperature and pressure". But note that by omitting the second occurrence of "standard", the text becomes ambiguous; it can no longer be seen from the text itself whether "standard" applies to just to the temperature, or to the pressure as well. The exact meaning will have to be gathered from the context.

In Dutch orthography however, by means of the dash, the difference is made clear:

• "Standaardtemperatuur en -druk" means standard temperature and standard pressure
• "Standaardtemperatuur en druk" means standard temperature, and pressure

Spelling revisions

Dutch orthography -in contrast to the English one- used to be changed every half century or so, but recently we have seen revisions every decade. It is fair to say that there is a government (i.e. tax payer) sponsored craze for change and not always for the better. The question whether something is written separately, together, with a diaeresis (trema in Dutch) or with a hyphen seems to be a favorite playground for this kind of activity. A good example can be found here. This is a comparison of the changes between 1995 and 2005. Many of these words had already changed in 1995. The result of this kind of changing is that most speakers and writers of the language do not know what to do anymore. The Genootschap Onze Taal (Society 'Our Language') has even published an alternative spelling guide (the little white book) in opposition to the governmental one (the little green book). Many publishers and media representatives have joined the revolt.

Obviously, no Dutch speaker will dare to fault a non-native for doing such things wrong.

One aspect of the new spelling is that in compounds a "collision of vowels" in not resolved with a diaeresis anymore but with a dash. There is a verb for "to imitate" that literally means "to ape after" someone. It used to be written as naäpen, now it is na-apen.

Grammatica 7.2 Diminutives

Apart from a plural the Dutch noun generally also has a diminutive. It is formed by adding -je to the noun and is always neuter in gender:

de vaas - het vaasje

Diminutives have a plural in -s:

het vaasje - de vaasjes.

Usage

Het vaasje literally means the little vase, but the usage in Dutch is quite pervasive. One reason is that turning a word into a diminutive is another way of avoiding the m/f gender problem. Often the diminutive is as frequently or even more frequently used than the noun itself.

A handsize vase will generally be called vaasje. The word 'vaas' is more reserved for something that needs to be carried with both hands.

In some cases the diminutive has acquired a life of its own (become 'lexicalized'). Compare:

het ijs - the ice

het ijsje - the ice cream

de meid - the maid

het meisje - the girl

de kaart - the (geographic, road) map, the postcard

het kaartje - the ticket, the business card

This implies that a big cone of ice cream becomes: een groot ijsje (lit. a big little ice). In the case of meisje, the original word meid can be rather derogatory:

Die meid hoort in het gevang!

lit. That 'broad' belongs in jail!

It can also be a somewhat colloquial term of endearment:

Wat 'n leuke meid! -- What a cutie!

Grote meid! -- Atta-girl!

Lexicalized diminutives are even formed from other parts of speech than nouns.

tussendoor - in between

een tussendoortje - a snack

Adverbs can be formed from adjective by adding an extra -s:

zacht - soft

zachtjes - softly

Even the names of persons are at times turned into the diminutive, usually as a term of endearment:

Marietje, je bent een schat

Mary dear, you are a darling

Even cardinal numbers are not safe:

We gaan met z'n tweetjes

We'll go the two of us

Some words are better left alone, e.g.:

• de moord - the murder
• de begrafenis - the funeral

Putting these in the diminutive is downright disrespectful and morbid. If would indicate that the speaker is involved with such things for fun on a daily basis. In other words diminutives in Dutch express a whole lot more than just small size. They are a major mechanism of producing derived terms.

Formation

The formation of the diminutive sometimes requires the addition of -tje or -pje, the latter after m:

het eten - the food

het etentje - taking someone out for dinner

de bloem - the flower

het bloempje - the little flower

In some cases the vowel changes like it does in the plural:

het pad - the path

de paden - the paths

het paadje - the little path, the trail

but:

de schildpad - the turtle

de schildpadden - the turtles

het schildpadje - the little turtle

In other cases an extra syllable is inserted:

de kom - the bowl

het kommetje

The suffix -je often causes consonants to be more or less pronounced as palatals. (Paadje as IPA /'pacə/ rather than /'patje/). There is considerable variation between the dialects in the formation of the diminutives. Many dialects pronounce -je as -ie /i:/. In others, the suffix tends to be -ke: meiske, blommeke.

Woordenschat 7

Dutch word	audio file	English translation
het ijs	ijs (help·info)	ice
het ijsje	ijsje (help·info)	ice cream
braaf	braaf (help·info)	good, obedient
vooruit	vooruit (help·info)	ahead, come on, to the front
krijgen - kreeg -gekregen s	krijgen (help·info)	get, obtain
de appelsap	appelsap (help·info)	apple juice
de room	room (help·info)	cream (milk fat)
de slagroom	slagroom (help·info)	whipped cream
de postbus	postbus (help·info)	mail box
het molecuul	molecuul (help·info)	molecule
de grens	grens (help·info)	border, limit
de temperatuur	temperatuur (help·info)	temperature
de druk	druk (help·info)	pressure, print ion
de vaas	vaas (help·info)	vase
het meisje	meisje (help·info)	girl
de kaart	kaart (help·info)	map, postcard
zacht	zacht (help·info)	soft
zachtjes	zachtjes (help·info)	softly
de schat	schat (help·info)	treasure, darling
de moord	moord (help·info)	murder
de begrafenis	begrafenis (help·info)	funeral
de bloem	bloem (help·info)	flower
het pad	pad (help·info)	path
de pad	pad (help·info)	toad
de kom	kom (help·info)	bowl

Gesprek 9

Annemiek wil op reis naar Zuid-Afrika. Daarvoor heeft zij een paspoort nodig, maar haar paspoort is verlopen. Zij gaat daarom naar het gemeentehuis en vraagt een ambtenaar om inlichtingen

A.: Dag meneer, zou u mij kunnen zeggen waar ik mijn paspoort zou kunnen laten verlengen?

ambtenaar: Goedemiddag, mevrouw. Zeker, u kunt het beste de lift naar de derde verdieping nemen. Daar zult U een loket vinden. Het zal alleen nog niet open zijn. Het is nog lunchtijd.

A.: Wanneer zal ik er dan terecht kunnen?

ambtenaar:Dat zal maar een paar minuten duren. Dan is het half twee.

A.: Weet u misschien hoe lang een verlenging gaat vergen?

ambtenaar: Dat zou ik niet precies durven zeggen, maar het zal een weekje of twee duren.

Grammatica 9.1 ~ Zullen, kunnen and laten

Future

The official future tense is formed using the auxiliary zullen + the infinitive

In Dutch this tense is called: de onvoltooid tegenwoordige toekomstige tijd (ottt), the imperfect present future tense. We shall revisit this nomenclature later.

ik vind - I find.

ik zal vinden - I'll find.

But you can also express the future by using a present, if futurity is declared in the sentence by an adverb (like 'tomorrow').

ik vind het - I find it.

ik zal het vinden - I'll find it.

ik vind het morgen wel - I'll find it tomorrow

Occasionally, Dutch resorts to the use of gaan:

dat gaat twee weken kosten - that is going to take two weeks.

In both cases the infinitive ends up at the end of the sentence.:

je zult het op de derde verdieping vinden - you will find it on the third floor

zullen is an irregular verb (shall):

ik zal

jij zult, u zult (u zal)

hij zal

wij zullen

jullie zullen

zij zullen

Conditional

Its past tense forms what it known as the onvoltooid verleden toekomstige tijd (ovtt), the imperfect past future tense that roughly corresponds to the conditional tense in English.

ik zeg - I say

ik zou zeggen - I would say

ik zou

jij zou, u zoudt/zou

hij zou

wij zouden

jullie zouden

zij zouden

Infinitives instead of participles

The verb zullen does not have a past participle, instead its infinitive is used in phrases like:

Ja, ik heb dat zullen doen, maar ik had geen tijd meer.

Yes I had intended to do so, but I ran out of time

Kunnen

There is a number of verbs that show this phenomenon, A good example is kunnen (can) although this verb does have a past participle and it can be used in separation:

ik kan dat niet - I cannot do that

ik heb dat nooit gekund - I have never been able to.

ik heb dat nooit kunnen doen - I have never been able to do that.

Sometimes this leads to lengthy strings of infinitives:

waar ik het zou hebben kunnen laten verlengen.

where I would have been able to have it extended.

Kunnen is an irregular verb as we have seen before. Its past tense is:

ik, jij, hij kon

wij, jullie, zij konden (could)

hij kon niet meer - he was exhausted (lit. he could no more)

Laten

The verb laten corresponds to the English verb to let but is used somewhat differently. It is a regular strong verb:

laten-liet-gelaten

Laat mij maar rijden - just let me drive

Dat zul je laten! - no, you won't!

Ik heb het zo gelaten - I left it the way it was

Hij liet zich niet kisten - He fought back. (lit. he did not let himself be put in a coffin.)

Iets laten maken - Have something fixed.

Laat maar! - Don't bother!

Hij kan het roken niet laten - He can't stop smoking.

Stative verbs: staan, zitten, liggen, lopen

All of these are strong verbs:

staan - stond - gestaan — to stand

zitten - zat - gezeten — to sit

liggen - lag - gelegen — to lie

lopen - liep - gelopen — to walk

Scholars do not agree whether to consider these verbs as auxiliaries. Some do consider them aspect auxiliaries, because but they often serve to express continuity:

Ik zit te lezen - I am reading (while on my chair)

Ik loop te denken - I am thinking (while going somewhere)

The prefect of these expressions drop the "te" and use an infinitive to replace the past participle:

Ik heb zitten denken - I have been thinking (on my chair)

We hebben staan bellen - We have been on the phone (while on our feet)

These verbs also frequently replace to be in impersonal expressions with er:

Er liggen drie boeken op tafel - there are three books (lying) on the table

Er zitten nog drie koekjes in de doos - there are still three cookies (sitting) in the box

Er loopt een goeie film - there is a good movie on.

Doen: to do

As in English this verb is irregular.

doen - deed - gedaan

Its role is much more restricted than in English, but at times it can be used as an auxiliary that turns an ergative into an active construction:

Het vet stolt - the grease solidifies

De koude doet het vet stollen - the cold makes the grease solidify

Again the perfect has an infinitive:

De koude heeft het vet doen stollen. - the cold has made the grease solidify

Gesprek-10

Jan, heb je het licht uitgedaan?

Nee schat, ik doe het straks wel uit, ik heb dat karweitje nog niet afgemaakt.

Maar Jan, dat levert zo weer een dikke stroomrekening op. Wanneer ga je het afmaken?

Ik moet alleen even naar de WC, dan ga ik weer naar beneden.

Als je het af hebt, ruim je dan ook even op?

Ja hoor, wees maar niet bezorgd, alles wordt keurig opgeruimd.

Grammatica 10-1 ~ Separable verbs

A lot of verbs in English have fixed adverbial complements and a comparable association often holds in Dutch. Compare:

the bomb went off.

de bom ging af.

the light went on.

het licht ging aan.

In English one could consider to go off as the infinitive of a distinct verb. In Dutch the association is even stronger, because in some of the forms of such a verb, e.g. the infinitive, the adverb af is actually written as a prefix. This becomes clear in the future tense:

the bomb will go off.

de bom zal afgaan.

This means that there are two types of prefixes to a Dutch verb: inseparable ones (such as be-) and separable ones (like af-). The first kind we have seen before:

bedoelen - to mean

hij bedoelde

hij heeft bedoeld

The primitive tenses of a separable verb look like:

afgaan

het ging af

het is afgegaan.

Notice that the separable verb does take the ge- marker of the past participle whereas the inseparable ones do not.

There is another difference, at least in the spoken language: the accent of the word lies on the prefix if it is separable, i.e. one says áfgaan, but bedóélen.

Some prefixes can occur both separably and inseparably such as door- (through, by) and voor- (for,before) and in some cases there are two different verbs that look deceptively the same, one separable, the other not, with different meanings. In the spoken language they differ by wordaccent, but this is not visible in the written one unless accents are deliberately added to avoid confusion. Compare:

voorkomen - kwam voor - voorgekomen - to occur

voorkomen - voorkwam - voorkomen - to prevent

de kluut komt meer in Nederland voor dan in Engeland.

wij moeten er het verdwijnen van zien te voorkomen.

the Avocet is more numerous in the Netherlands than in England. (lit. ...occurs more in NL than...)

we have to prevent its disappearance.

Notice that just like in the case of the pronominal adverb ervan that translates its, the two parts of the separable verb can end up rather far apart in the sentence.

Another example:

een school doorlopen - to walk through a school building (takes 5 minutes)

een school doorlopen - to absolve one's education at a school (takes 5 years).

Relationship to the prepositional adverbs

In fact the comparison between pronominal adverbs and separable verbs is rather pertinent. Many prepositional adverbs occur both as part of pronominal adverbs and of separable verbs:

meelopen met... => loop mee met ... (to march along with) (verbal separation)

met alles => overal mee (with everything) (pronominal replacement)

aanzitten aan ... (to partake in an official dinner party)

aan alles => overal aan (at everything) (pronominal replacement)

Thus, occasionally the same prepositional adverb appears twice at the end of the phrase:

hij liep overal mee mee. (he went along with anything at all)

hij zat overal aan aan. (he was a high level social tiger)

The latter should not be confused with:

hij zat overal aan. (he could not keep his hands off of anything)

zitten aan (to touch, to not being able to keep your hands off something.)

The comedian Toon Hermans exploited this oddity once to great effect in one of his One Man Shows.

Subclauses

In a dependent subclause, e.g. a clause that starts with dat ("that") the separated forms of a separable verb reunite

ik doe het licht uit. - I switch the light off.

ik zeg "dat" ik het licht uitdoe. - I say "that" I switch off the light.

Notice also the peculiar position of the verb in the subclause: it moves to the end of the phrase in its entirety.

Woordenschat

uitdoen - deed uit - uitgedaan   extinguish, switch off
opruimen - ruimde op - opgeruimd clean up
opleveren                        deliver produce
afmaken                          finish finialize

karweitje                        fixing job
stroom                           current, electricity
rekening                         bill

keurig                           neat, well groomed
bezorgd                          worried

straks                           in a moment
weer                             again
zo                               thus, so, before you know it

Word order

Many English speakers who set out to learn the Dutch language succeed in their effort to a considerable extent. Some of them become quite fluent. They do encounter a few problems. One is that Dutch speakers consider it polite to reply in English when detecting an English accent and it takes some insisting to break through that barrier. Another major stumbling block is the fact that Dutch has retained West-Germanic word order and English has abandoned it in favor of one that resembled that of the French-speaking nobility that ruled the land after 1066. We'll examine a number of aspects.

Inversion

We have already seen a number of examples of inversion. For example, that of the of verb and subject in questions:

Jij hebt een mooi huis.

Heb je een mooi huis?

Apart from the fact that the final -t is lost for the jij-form of the verb, this is not unfamiliar, as inversion also occurs in some English phrases like:

Hi, how goes it?

How are you?

Another example of inversion occurs when the order is changed for the sake of emphasis by putting an item at the beginning of the sentence.

Een mooi huis heb je!

That's a fine house you've got!

Morgen ga ik naar huis.

Tomorrow I'm going home.

Sometimes this is not so much a question of emphasis. It is more a way to stuff a few more items in the same sentence, particularly adverbs or adverbial expressions.

Zonder twijfel gaat hij morgen naar huis.

Undoubtedly he will go home tomorrow.

Notice that the adverb of time (morgen) precedes the indication of place here, because naar huis gaan is felt as a verbal expression and verbs tend to end up at the end of the sentence.

Verbs in final position

Another feature we have already encountered is that in tenses that use an auxiliary the participle or infinitive is put at the end of the sentence:

Ik heb gezien

Gisteren heb ik vanaf de dijk een aantal kluten gezien

Morgen zal ik nog eens op de dijk gaan kijken.

Notice that in this case the inversion is applied on the auxiliary (heb ik..., zal ik...) and that in compounds with more that one infinitive as gaan kijken (go have a look) they both end up at the end. Whether gaan or kijken goes first varies a little from region to region; one can also hear—particularly in the south:

Morgen zal ik nog eens op de dijk kijken gaan.

Indirect clauses and conjunctions

In Dutch, word order is used to mark what role a clause plays with respect to the rest of the sentence. The indirect clause has a different order, particularly in the position of the verb.

jij hebt een mooi huis

ik zie dat je een mooi huis hebt

In this case it is the persoonsvorm, i.e. the conjugated part of the verb (that carries the -t ending) that moves to the end of the clause to indicate that it has become the direct object of the main clause ik zie....

This is also true if the persoonsvorm is an auxiliary:

jij bent gisteren met de trein naar huis gegaan

ik betwijfel dat je gisteren met de trein naar huis gegaan bent

Again there is some variation possible:

ik betwijfel dat je gisteren met de trein naar huis bent gegaan.

The same principle applies after a conjunction like omdat (because).

Je hebt gelijk omdat ik met de auto gegaan ben.

Onderschikkend and nevenschikkend

Not all conjunctions produce a hierarchical relationship. Conjunctions (voegwoorden) like want (for) of (or) and en (and) maar (but) simply link two equivalent phrases. Compare:

Je hebt ongelijk want ik ben gisteren wel degelijk met de trein naar huis gegaan

Je hebt ongelijk omdat ik gisteren wel degelijk met de trein naar huis gegaan ben

In the case of want (for) the two clauses are on equal footing, in the case of omdat (because) the first part je hebt gelijk (you are right) is the master program and the rest a subroutine initiated with omdat (because).

Conjunctions that produce a subordinate clause are known as onderschikkend, in English, they are known as subordinating conjunctions; the ones that link two phrases in equality are called nevenschikkend, in English, co-ordinating conjunctions.

(Sometimes the onderschikkend kind is called subjunctions rather than conjunctions (see e.g. the German wiktionary), but in English where the distinction is of no consequence for the syntax this is unusual.)

Onderschikkend	Nevenschikkend
omdat	want
hoewel	en
zodat	maar
of (if,whether)	of (or)
wanneer	dus

Most other voegwoorden are onderschikkend

Because the relative role of the clauses is more clearly marked by their word order, it is possible to make longer sentences in Dutch without generating ambiguity. In English compound sentences become confusing and ambivalent more easily. When writing English, a speaker of Dutch needs to fight the tendency to produce convoluted sentences. Conversely Dutch may look somewhat long-winded to an English speaker.

Exercise:

Use the conjunction in brackets to unify into one sentence:

Het is niet mogelijk. Dit is niet op deze manier gebeurd. (omdat)

Het is niet mogelijk. Het is wel op deze manier gebeurd. (hoewel)

Het is heel erg. Het is wel op deze manier gebeurd. (maar)

Jan is met de trein gekomen. Hij is met de auto gekomen. (of)

Jan is met de trein gekomen. Hij blijft hier een paar dagen. (en)

Jan is met de trein gekomen. Hij blijft hier een paar dagen. (zodat)

Gesprek 12 De telefoon

Mirjam: Jan, er wordt gebeld!

Jan: Ja, ik hoor het. Is het antwoordapparaat ingeschakeld?

Mirjan: Nee, het is uit. Neem even op, het zal ma zijn. Anders wordt ze weer kwaad.

Jan: Ach ja, je moeder. Wanneer zal ze eens door je vader tot de orde geroepen worden? Ik word naar van haar gezeur.

Mirjam: Ze bedoelt het goed, Jan. Maar ze is al vaak door mensen teleurgesteld.

Jan: Ja ik zal wel een grote teleurstelling geweest zijn. Je wordt bedankt.

Jan neemt de telefoon op.

Jan: U spreekt met Jan Snijders.

....

Jan: Ja, mam, ..

...

Jan: Ja, mam , ik hoor je wel, maar wat is er nou gebeurd? Is het..

.....

Jan: Maar wie is er ..

....

Jan: Oh, de kat! Is de kat weggelopen?

Grammatica 12-1. Worden and the Passive Voice

In most languages transitive verbs can be put in the passive voice. In English for example:

Active: The cook prepares dinner.

Passive: Dinner is prepared by the cook.

The object dinner of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive one. It is this 'transition' that makes the verb to cook a transitive one.

The passive voice is formed by means of its own auxiliary worden in Dutch. It is a regular strong verb:

worden – werd – geworden

Use as a copula

The verb can also be used as a verb (copula) in its own right rather than as an auxiliary and then it translates into to become or to get. Compare:

Ik word piloot

I (will) become a pilot

Hij werd zo rood als een kroot!

He became as red as a beet (He blushed for shame).

Je schilderij wordt erg mooi!

Your painting is turning out very well!

Niet kwaad worden!

Don't get mad!

The perfect of worden

As worden describes a process rather than an action, it is itself an ergative verb. (More about those below). In Dutch that means that it takes the verb zijn in the perfect and not to have as in English.

Hij is piloot geworden

He has become a pilot.

Use as an auxiliary

As an auxiliary + past participle it expresses the passive voice:

Hij verslaat me ==>Ik word door hem verslagen

He beats me ==> I am beaten by him

Notice the change in word order:

1. As in the case of the perfect tenses the past participle moves to the very end of the sentence.
2. As in English the subject (he) and the object (me) swap places.
3. The old subject becomes an expression with door (English: by)

The perfect tense of the passive

The perfect tense of the passive can cause some confusion because of the ergative conjugation with zijn and the fact that the participle geworden is usually omitted:

Ik ben door hem geslagen (geworden)

Ik ben door hem geslagen

I have been beaten by him.

Thus, in such cases ik ben does not translate into I am, but into I have been!.

Notice that this imparts to the verb zijn and its forms (ben, bent, is, was, waren etc.) three rather different roles:

1. copula (the verbal equal sign =)
2. active perfect auxiliary for ergative verbs, i.e. those of motion or those describing a process instead of an action.
3. passive perfect auxiliary for transitive verbs.

Compare:

Ik ben piloot. (copula)

Ik ben naar huis gelopen (ergative perfect of directed motion)

Dit ongeluk is gisteren gebeurd (ergative perfect of a process)

Ik ben door hem geslagen (passive perfect)

The latter sentense is a transpostion of:

Hij heeft mij geslagen (active perfect)

Notice that the agent of the action ("hij") reappears as a prepositional object with door: "door hem" in the passive. The ergative perfects do not have such an agent. They also generally take "to have" in English.

Usage

Particularly in the imperfect tenses, the passive voice is quite common in Dutch, probably more so than in English because the auxiliary worden makes it easily recognizable. It often occurs without a clear subject in conjunction with the adverb er (8) to describe circumstance.

Er wordt veel van je verwacht. (veel is subject)

Much is expected from you.

Er wordt van je verwacht dat je meedoet (dat je meedoet is subject)

It is expected of you that you partake.

Er wordt vaak om gelachen (no subject)

It is often laughed at.

Er is veel om die grap gelachen

That joke has been much laughed at.

The active version of such expressions requires the use of the indefinite personal pronoun men that translates into one or an impersonal they

men verwacht dat je meedoet

lit. one expects that you participate – they expect you to participate

men lacht erom / ze lachen erom

they laugh at it

Indirect objects and ditransitive verbs

The transition to the passive construction normally involves the direct object. However for some verbs it is also possible to make the indirect object the new subject. Such verbs are usually called ditransitive.

In English the same auxiliary "be" or "have been" is used to construct the new sentence. In Dutch that is not the case: a different auxiliary is used krijgen instead of worden. Such a construction is usually called a pseudopassive construction. Compare the following sentence where "him" is the indirect and "house" the direct object:

construction	English	Dutch
active	I give/donate a house to him	Ik schenk hem een huis.
passive	A house is given to him by me	Een huis wordt door mij aan hem geschonken.
pseudopassive	He is given a house by me	Hij krijgt van mij een huis geschonken.
construction	English	Dutch
active perfect	I have given him a house	Ik heb hem een huis geschonken.
passive perfect	A house has been given to him by me	Een huis is door mij aan hem geschonken.
pseudopassive perfect	He has been given a house by me	Hij heeft van mij een huis geschonken gekregen.

The pseudopassive construction with krijgen is relatively rare in Dutch. Notice that the agent usually gets van rather than door in the pseudopassive.

Ergatives (+zijn) and unergatives (+hebben)

A verb that carries a direct object is called a transitive verb. In Dutch these verbs can form passive voice constructions much like in English:

De politieman ziet een inbreker ==> De inbreker wordt door de politieman gezien.

The cop sees a burglar ==> The burglar is seen by the cop.

Verbs that do not have an direct object are often called intransitive in English, but there are really two kinds in Dutch.

There are the ergative verbs like gaan, komen, smelten, gebeuren, worden and a few others. They take zijn as their active(!) auxiliary in the perfect and they have no passive voice at all.

Ik ben gisteren gekomen - I have come yesterday.

Dit is gisteren gebeurd - This (has) happened yesterday

A different group is called unergative. These verbs do take hebben in the active perfect, as English does. Take smoking:

Hij rookt. - He smokes.

Hij heeft vele jaren gerookt - He has smoked for many years.

These sentences -indicating that someone is a smoker- do not have a direct object.

Impersonal passive voice

In contrast to English intransitive verbs, Dutch unergatives such as "roken" do form a passive of sorts, but it is an impersonal passive usually initiated with er.

Hij rookt -> Er wordt door hem gerookt.

Unfortunately, there is not really much of an English equivalent for this. Something like "smoking is done by him" is a clumsy rendering of the meaning of the impersonal passive sentence. In Dutch however such constructions are very common. Actually, the most common usage is to leave the actor out altogether:

Er wordt hier gerookt -- People smoke here.

Er wordt gebeld! -- Someone is calling.

Neither sentence possesses a subject in Dutch, and a real direct translation does not really exist. English typically resorts to an active sentence using someone or uses an entirely different construction like:

I hear the bell.

In Dutch, such impersonal passives are a very common way to indicate that it is not clear who the actor is or that the focus is not on the actor. Impersonal passives are not limited to unergative intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs also form them:

Er werd door de politiagent een inbreker gezien.

In this case een inbreker is the subject. Notice that this sentence has the indefinite article een rather than definite de in the sentence above. A sentence like:

Er werd door de politiagent de inbreker gezien*.

is not possible, because the impersonal passive expresses the idea that the identity of the burglar is either not known or not of interest. English would often use a word like some.

Some burglar was seen by the cop.

When is a verb ergative?

As we saw above ergatives take zijn (to be) in their (active) perfect tense, where English takes to have:

ik ben gekomen - I have come.

het is gebeurd - it has happened.

This presents a problem for native English speakers. (Germans have no problem, their language has a very similar situation.)

How do you know what to use? There are two main groups of verbs that are ergative.

1. One is the verbs that express motion like coming, going, driving, floating etc.
2. The other is verbs that express a process or event that happens autonomously (not: a deliberate action), without a clear party who is to blame for it like happening, melting, flowing, solidifying, sinking.

Obviously the examples floating and sinking show that the two groups overlap.

Verbs describing processes

Such verbs often only occur as ergatives:

Stollen - to solidify

ergative present: Het vet stolt- The grease solidifies.

ergative perfect: Het vet is gestold - The grease has solidified.

Because this verb involves a process, not an action, Dutch uses "to be" to form the perfect, not "to have" as English does.

Sometimes however "process" verbs occur both in an ergative and in an active transitive form.

Smelten - to melt

active: Ik smelt het ijs - I melt the ice

ergative: Het ijs smelt - The ice melts

Notice that in this case English has the same active - ergative switch. The subject of the latter (ijs/ice) is the object of the former. Ergativity itself is not the problem: English has that too. The problem only arises when putting the verb in the perfect, because Dutch opts for a different auxiliary:

active: Ik heb het ijs gesmolten - I have melted the ice

ergative: Het ijs is gesmolten - The ice has melted

Notice that the active can also be switched into a passive using "worden"

passive: Het ijs wordt door mij gesmolten

passive perfect: Het ijs is door mij gesmolten geworden

As "geworden" is typically omitted in Dutch (in contrast to German "worden") the perfects of the ergative and the passive are very similar. The difference is the presence of an agent ("door mij").

Verbs of motion

Verbs of motion are often more complicated, because can be used both as ergatives and as unergatives.

Lopen - to walk

ergative: Ik ben naar huis gelopen. - I walked home

unergative: Ik heb vandaag veel gelopen - I have walked a lot today

In general one can say that if the sentence focuses on a directed process of movement (e.g. "home") the verb of motion is ergative (i.e. uses zijn). If the focus is on the action (exercising in the park or so) the verb takes hebben.

The ergative version does not possess a passive, but the unergative version can have an impersonal passive, usually with "er":

impersonal passive: Er wordt hier veel gelopen.

Besides the ergative and unergative there can also be a transitive variant, in which case a personal passive can at times be formed:

Rijden - to drive

ergative: Ik ben naar huis gereden - I drove home

unergative: Ik heb vandaag veel gereden - I have done a lot of driving today

transitive active: Ik heb hem naar huis gereden - I took him home in my car

transitive passive: Hij is door mij naar huis gereden - He was taken home by me (in my car)

Gesprek 13

Nathalie is een Franse toeriste die korte tijd op bezoek is in de Nederlandse hoofdstad Amsterdam. Zij heeft veel goeds gehoord over de plaatselijke musea en besluit het bekende Rijksmuseum te gaan bekijken. De uitgebreide verzameling Oude Meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw is wereldberoemd. Een jongeman spreekt haar aan in een van de achterste zalen van het museum.

Goedemiddag, heeft U dat prachtige doek van Rembrandt gezien?

Goedemiddag, welk doek bedoel je? Het linkse of het rechtse?

Ik bedoel dat linkse daar, waarvan de donkere delen zo sterk afsteken tegen dat gouden, lichte deel in het midden. Is het niet fantastisch hoe enorm Rembrandt je blik weet vast te houden?

Ja, dat is waar. Je blijft kijken en hoe langer je kijkt des te meer het beeld gaat leven.

Ja, het is een waar wonder te zien hoe die mensen die al lang dood zijn toch weer tot leven komen.

Het is prachtig. Je houdt erg van deze bijzondere stijl, geloof ik?

More about adjectives

Dutch adjectives are only a little more complicated than their English counterparts. An adjective generally occurs in two forms, an undeclined one and a declined one, ending in -e. Which one is used depends on a number of factors.

Predicative versus attributive

In general the undeclined form is used for a predicate, the declined form if the adjective is used as an attribute:

predicative: dit huis is prachtig - this house is gorgeous

attributive: dit prachtige huis - this beautiful house

Gender and indefiniteness

There is an important exception to the above main rule. If an adjective is used attributively before a singular neuter word in the indefinite case, it remains undeclined:

het mooie huis (definite)

een mooi huis (indefinite)

mooi werk ! (indefinite uncountable)

The 'indefinite' case includes words like geen, welk?, ieder etc.:

dit is geen mooi huis.

Adverbial use

Dutch adjectives can be used as adverbs without further ado, this contrasts with English where the ending "-ly" is usually required. Compare:

attributive

een langzame afdaling - a slow descent

predicative

de afdaling is langzaam - the descent is slow

adverbial

hij daalde langzaam af - he descended slowly

Substantives

The adjective can be made independent as a substantive, in which case it does carry an -e in the predicate:

dat is een mooie - that is a nice one

(Notice that Dutch does not add 'one' in this case).

The same holds for possessive pronouns, e.g.:

dat is de mijne - that's mine.

Comparatives and superlatives

In English a few adjectives form comparatives and superlatives by adding "-er" and "-(e)st". Dutch follows the same pattern.

hoog - hoger - hoogst

high - higher - highest

However, in contrast to English this pattern is used for almost all Dutch adjectives, even for long ones and when formidable consonant clusters form.

interessant - interessanter - interessantst

interesting - more interesting - most interesting

After "-r" often a dental is inserted:

helder - helderder - helderst

For a few words ending in "-s" or "-isch" Dutch resorts to paraphrase as English does far more often;

fantastisch - fantastischer - meest fantastisch

Comparatives and superlative receive the ending -e as all adjectives:

de mooiste bloemen

de meest fantastische webstek

As in English a few adjectives have irregular forms:

goed - beter - best

good - better - best

weinig - minder - minst

little/few - less/ fewer - least/ fewest

veel - meer - meest

much/many - more - most

Participles

As in English a participle behaves as an adjective and in most cases it receives the suffix "-e" as described above:

gekookte aardappels

kokende olie

An exception is the past participle of a strong verb that ends in "-en", it remains undeclined:

gebakken aardappels

Only as a substantive does it receive "-e":

dit is een gevangene - this is a prisoner (lit. a 'caughtee')

In contrast to English the present participle is seldom used to initiate a clause:

The train departing from platform 6 is delayed

De van perron 6 vertrekkende trein is vertraagd

De trein die van perron 6 vertrekt is vertraagd.

Vertrekkende would not be used after trein.

Past participles are occasionally found in such a construction, particularly if other attributes are already prefixed:

Het uitgestrekte gebied verloren bij het verdrag van XXX werd heroverd.

The vast territory lost at the treaty of XXX was regained by conquest.

Materials

As in English adjectives that indicate a material end in "-en":

wollen - woolen

They are indeclinable and are only used attributively:

de wollen muts

To express the predicate, the preposition van is used:

de muts is van wol.

Other endings

Dutch lost its case endings more recently than English did and it is not uncommon to encounter endings like "-er", "-en" etc. in frozen expressions:

te goeder trouw (dat. fem. sg.) -- in good faith

in koelen bloede (dat neut. sg.) -- in cold blood

goedenavond! (acc masc. sg.) -- good evening!

van ganser harte (dat. fem. sg., despite hart being neuter) -- with all my heart

te gelegener tijd (dat fem. sg.) -- at a convenient time

The latter contrasts with ten tijde van where tijd in shown as a masculine dative... Clearly the case system was getting pretty corrupt before most of it got abolished in official spelling (1947).

Partitive -s

One form of case ending is still productive. After words that indicate a quantity such as iets, wat, niets. veel an adjective gets a genitive (partitive) "-s":

iets moois - something beautiful

veel liefs - a lot of love

iets wikibooksachtigs - something like wikibooks