Parts of speech - Woordsoorten

Verbs according to conjugation

For purposes of conjugation Dutch verbs can be divided into regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs follow a certain pattern in the way they are conjugated, and irregular verbs do not follow a pattern at all. The group of regular verbs is the largest, and this group can be divided further into weak verbs and strong verbs. The conjugation of a new verb (e.g. a verb borrowed from English) normally follows the rules of Dutch.

WEAK VERBS

This is the most regular type of verb. The rules for forming the present tense, the imperfect and the past participle of the perfect tense are the same. Examples of weak verbs are wonen, bellen, fietsen and koken.

infinitive	stem	imperfect (singular, plural)	past participle	type
wonen	woon	woonde, woonden	gewoond	weak	to live
bellen	bel	belde, belden	gebeld	weak	to ring
fietsen	fiets	fietste, fietsten	gefietst	weak	to cycle
koken	kook	kookte, kookten	gekookt	weak	to cook

The imperfect tense of the weak regular verbs is formed by adding a suffix to the stem of the verb. This takes either the form -de (plural -den ) or the form -te (plural -ten), depending on the last sound of the stem. The rule that determines the choice between -de(n) or -te(n) is the same rule that is applied to determine the ending of the past participle of the (weak) perfect tense:

stem + te(n) and past participle ending in -t	if stem ends in a consonant from SoFT KeTCHuP	fietsen, koken
stem + de(n) and past participle ending in -d	in all other cases	wonen, bellen

STRONG VERBS

These are also regular, but their regularity works in quite a different way. The patterns that occur in strong verbs have to do with vowel changes in the past tense and/or with the ending of the past participle. Examples of strong verbs are kijken, blijven, zwijgen, winnen, vinden and zingen. The past tenses of strong regular verbs also have a pattern, but these patterns have to be learnt.

infinitive

stem

imperfect (singular, plural)

past participle

type

kijken	kijk	keek, keken	gekeken	strong	to look
blijven	blijf	bleef, bleven	gebleven	strong	to stay
zwijgen	zwijg	zweeg, zwegen	gezwegen	strong	to be silent
winnen	win	won, wonnen	gewonnen	strong	to win
vinden	vind	vond, vonden	gevonden	strong	to find
zingen	zing	zong, zongen	gezongen	strong	to sing

IRREGULAR VERBS

Irregular verbs do not follow a pattern and therefore must be learnt. Most auxiliary verbs are irregular. The most common irregular verbs are:

infinitive	imperfect (singular, plural)	past participle
zijn	was, waren	geweest	to be
hebben	had, hadden	gehad	to have
kunnen	kon, konden	gekund	can
mogen	mocht, mochten	gemogen	may
moeten	moest, moesten	gemoeten	must
kopen	bleef, bleven	gebleven	to stay
gaan	ging, gingen	gegaan	to go
doen	deed, deden	gedaan	to do
komen	kwam, kwamen	gekomen	to come

CONJUGATION OF 'NEW' VERBS

Verbs are regulary borrowed from other languages when the Dutch equivalent may not (be considered to) be adequate, or when there is no Dutch equivalent. Examples are checken ('to check') and skaten ('to roller blade').

Occasionally, verbs are also 'invented' to fill a gap in the lexicon. An example of this is the late 1990s verb montignaccen: to follow a diet designed by a person called Montignac.

We fitnessen ons te pletter, eten minder vlees en meer tofoe, stoppen met roken (of maken plannen in die richting), montignaccen, en richten ons huis in volgens de laatste Feng Shui-principes.

We do fitness like mad, eat less meat and more tofu, stop smoking (or make plans in that direction), follow a diet, and furnish our house according to the latest Feng Shui principles.

Whenever verbs have been successfully adopted by the Dutch language, they are also adapted: they follow the same rules for verb formation as 'normal' Dutch verbs. The past tenses of these imported verbs are formed in the same way as weak Dutch verbs.

So, to give the conjugation of just two verbs:

	faxen (present - imperfect - perfect)	skaten (present - imperfect - perfect)
ik jij u hij/zij wij jullie u zij	fax - faxte - heb gefaxt faxt - faxte - hebt gefaxt faxt - faxte - hebt gefaxt faxt - faxte - heeft gefaxt faxen - faxten - hebben gefaxt faxen - faxten - hebben gefaxt faxt - faxte - hebt/heeft gefaxt faxen - faxten - hebben gefaxt	skate - skatete - heb geskatet skatet - skatete - hebt geskatet skate - skatete - hebt geskatet skate - skatete - heeft geskatet skaten - skateten - hebben geskatet skaten - skateten - hebben geskatet skate - skatete - hebt/heeft geskatet skaten - skateten - hebben geskatet

The pronunciation of such verbs is adapted to the Dutch pronunciation: ik /ske:t/; ik /ske:t?/; ik heb /geske:t/.

The following example shows how some originally English verbs have been adapted by the Dutch system for verb formation:

Op het clipboard kunnen records uit verschillende zoekacties (tijdelijk) worden bewaard om van daaruit te worden geprint, gesaved en/of geë-maild.

Records from various searches can be saved (temporarily) on the clipboard in order to be printed, saved and/or emailed from there.

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