Dutch conjugation


This article explains the conjugation of Dutch verbs.

Classification of verbs

There are two different ways in which Dutch verbs can be grouped: by conjugational class and by derivation. These two categorizations describe different aspects of a verb's conjugation and therefore are complementary to each other.

By conjugational class

Dutch verbs can be grouped by their conjugational class, as follows:
Another way to group verbs is by the type of derivation. The following can be distinguished:
Most of this article shows the conjugation of basic verbs. The differences in prefixed and separable verbs are described here, and can be applied to any verb regardless of conjugation.

Prefixed verbs

Prefixed verbs are verbs whose stem begins with an unstressed prefix. The prefix is usually one of be-, ge-, her-, ont-, ver-, but others are also possible, often derived from adverbs or prepositions. Prefixed verbs are conjugated like basic verbs, except in the past participle. In the past participle, the inflectional prefix ge- is replaced by the verb's own prefix, and it is not added on. The past participle of heropenen is heropend, and for betalen it is betaald.
In some cases, two verbs exist that are spelled identically, but with one treating an adverb as a prefix, while the other treats it as separable. Such pairs are stressed and thus pronounced differently, and accent marks are sometimes written when there is a chance of confusion: voorkómen versus vóórkomen, or ondergáán versus óndergaan.
Prefixed verbs can be derived from basic verbs or from another prefixed verb. With the prefix her-, it is also possible to derive prefixed verbs from separable verbs, but such verbs are often defective, with the separated forms often being avoided by speakers. For example, the verb herinrichten is a combination of the prefix her- and the separable verb inrichten. According to the syntactical rules, this must become Ik richt de kamer herin., but using herin as a separable particle is often avoided as it is not an independent word. Many speakers choose to rephrase it using the adverb opnieuw : Ik richt de kamer opnieuw in. In subordinate clauses or with a non-finite verb, there is less objection: Mijn vriend keek toe, terwijl ik de kamer herinrichtte. or Ik heb de kamer heringericht..

Separable verbs

Separable verbs are combinations of a main verb and a particle. This particle is usually an adverb, but sometimes it can be a direct object or adjective instead. The particle is stressed more strongly than the main verb, which distinguishes separable verbs from prefixed verbs in pronunciation. The main verb of a separable verb is conjugated like it otherwise would, and can be basic or prefixed.
The particle is treated syntactically as a separate verb, and is placed before or after the main verb as syntax dictates:
The following table shows some examples of this in practice:
InfinitiveWith V2Without V2
Without V2
omvallen
basic main verb, strong class 7		Ik val om.
I fall over.		Hij ziet niet dat ik omval.
He doesn't see that I fall over.		Ik ben omgevallen.
I have fallen over.
uitkomen
basic main verb, strong class 4		Mijn wens kwam vandaag uit.
My wish came true today.		Het is ongelooflijk dat mijn wens vandaag uitkwam.
It is unbelievable that my wish came true today.		Mijn wens is vandaag uitgekomen.
My wish has come true today.
uitbetalen
prefixed main verb, weak in -d		Gisteren betaalde zij het geld uit.
Yesterday she paid out the money.		Ik weet niet of zij het geld gisteren uitbetaalde.
I don't know if she paid out the money yesterday.		Zij heeft het geld uitbetaald.''
She has paid out the money.

Forms and endings

Dutch verbs conjugate for tense in present and past, and for mood in indicative, subjunctive and imperative. The subjunctive mood in Dutch is archaic or formal, and is rarely used. There are two grammatical numbers and three grammatical persons. However, many forms are identical to others, so the conjugation doesn't have distinct forms for all possible combinations of these factors. In particular, there is always just one form for the plural, and only in the present indicative is there a clear distinction among the different singular persons.
Each second-person pronoun may have its own form. The following can be distinguished:
All regular verbs, whether weak, strong or mixed, form the present tense in the same way. This also includes the infinitive and present participle. Only the formation of the past tense differs among regular verbs, depending on whether the verb is strong, weak or mixed. The endings are as follows:
Notes:
  1. When the stem of a verb ends in -t already, the ending -t is not added on as a word cannot end in -tt. Similarly, when the stem ends in -d the additional -d in the weak past participle is not added.
  2. When the second-person jij-form is followed immediately by the subject pronoun itself, it loses its -t: Jij werkt → Werk jij?. The -t is present in all other cases.
  3. The additional -t of the second-person gij-form is optional in the past tense for weak verbs and is usually considered archaic. For strong verbs, the -t is always required.
  4. The prefix ge- of the past participle is not added when the verb is a prefixed verb. See above for more information.
All forms of a given regular verb can be predicted from just three forms, or sometimes four. These are the principal parts of a verb.
In the sections that follow, only the principal parts of each verb are given when this is sufficient to describe the full conjugation of the verb.

Present tense

As noted above, the present tense of all regular verbs is formed the same, and follows the same rules. The following table shows the conjugation of two verbs in the present tense:
If the stem ends in -v or -z, then these are spelled -f and -s at the end of a syllable.
If the stem ends in -t, then no additional -t ending is added when this would otherwise be required, as a word cannot end in a double consonant in Dutch spelling. This makes all present singular forms identical.

Past tense

The past tense is formed differently depending on whether the verb is weak, strong or mixed.

Weak verbs

Weak verbs are the most common type of verb in Dutch, and the only productive type. They form their past tense with an ending containing a dental consonant, -d- or -t-.
Whether -d- or -t- is used depends on the final consonant of the verb stem. If the stem ends in a voiceless consonant, then -t- is used, otherwise -d-. It is often summarised with the mnemonic "'t kofschip": if the verb stem ends with one of the consonants of t kofschip, then the past tense will have -t-. However, it also applies for c, q and x and any other letter that is voiceless in pronunciation.
The following tables show the past tense forms of a weak verb with a past tense in -d-, and with a past tense in -t-.
If the stem ends in -v or -z, then these are spelled -f and -s at the end of a syllable, as in the present tense. However, they are still pronounced as voiced and when the past tense ending is added, so the stem is still considered voiced, and the past endings have -d-:
If the stem ends in -d or -t, then no ending is added in the past participle, as a word cannot end in a double consonant in Dutch spelling. The past tense stem will be pronounced the same as the present, but it is still spelled with -dd- or -tt-, even when the spelling rules would allow this to be simplified. Thus:
Compare this to English set, which has a similar homophony between present and past.

Strong verbs

Strong verbs form their past tenses by changing the vowel of the stem, a process known as ablaut. There are far fewer strong verbs than weak verbs in Dutch, but many of the most commonly used verbs are strong, so they are encountered frequently. There are about 200 strong roots, giving rise to about 1500 strong verbs in total, if all derived verbs with separable and inseparable prefixes are included.
Strong verbs use a different set of endings from weak verbs. However, the same rules for final -t, -v, -z apply.
The vowels that occur in present and past are not random, but follow clear patterns. These patterns can be divided into seven "classes", some with subgroups. Some verbs are a mixture of two classes or belong to none of the existing classes.
In the following subsections, the vowel patterns of each class are described. For clarity, long vowels are always written doubled in the patterns. In the actual conjugated verb, they will be single or double according to normal Dutch spelling rules.

Class 1

Class 1 follows the vowel pattern ij-ee-ee:
Class 2 is divided into two subclasses.
Class 2a follows the vowel pattern ie-oo-oo:
Class 2b follows the vowel pattern ui-oo-oo:
The verbs vriezen and verliezen show grammatischer Wechsel, with s/z changing to r in the past tense:
Class 3 is divided into two subclasses.
Class 3a follows the vowel pattern i-o-o:
The vowel is usually followed by m or n and another consonant.
Class 3b follows e-o-o:
The vowel is usually followed by l or r and another consonant.

Class 4

Class 4 follows the vowel pattern ee-a/aa-oo:
The vowel in these verbs is usually followed by l, r, m or n and no other consonant.
The verb komen has an irregular pattern with short o in the present singular, long oo in the remaining present tense, and an additional w in the past:
Class 5 follows the vowel pattern ee-a/aa-ee, with the same change in length as in class 4:
The vowel is usually followed by an obstruent consonant.
The verbs bidden, liggen and zitten follow the pattern i-a/aa-ee instead:
These three verbs are descended from the old Germanic j-present verbs, which had an additional suffix -j- before the endings in the present tense. This suffix caused doubling of the preceding consonant and changed the preceding vowel from e to i.
The verb eten is regular but has an extra -g- in the past participle:
Originally, it was simply geten, contracted from earlier ge-eten. An additional ge- was added on later. Compare German essen, gegessen, which shows the same development.

Class 6

Class 6 follows the vowel pattern aa-oe-aa. It is the smallest of the strong verb classes, with only a few verbs.
Class 7 follows the vowel pattern X-ie-X, where the two X's are identical. There were originally five subgroups depending on the vowel of the present tense. Class 7a has disappeared in Dutch, so only four subgroups remain.
Class 7b has oo in the present tense:
Class 7c has a in the present tense:
Two verbs have shortened the past tense vowel to i:
In present tense of the verb houden, the original combination -ald- underwent L-vocalization, and became -oud-.
It also has an alternative form which lacks -d when it occurs at the end: hou alongside the regular houd.
Class 7d has aa in the present tense:
Class 7e has oe in the present tense:
Several strong verbs have vowel patterns that don't fit with any of the above types.
A number of class 3b strong verbs have replaced their original past tense vowel with the -ie- of class 7, creating a "hybrid" class. The past participle vowel o of class 3 remains.
The verb worden also belonged to class 3b, but the past and present vowels appear to have been swapped:
Contrast this with German werden, which kept the older vowel.
Class 6 originally had three j-present verbs, like liggen of class 5. These verbs originally followed the pattern e-oe-aa. All three have changed this in one way or another in modern Dutch:
three verbs appear to follow a class 3b pattern, but have a long vowel instead of a short one:
The verb uitscheiden is the only remaining class 7a verb, but it now has a class 1 past :
Even the form scheed uit is falling out of use, and is being replaced with a weak past scheidde uit, making it a mixed verb.

Mixed verbs

Some verbs have a mixture of strong and weak forms. These are called "mixed verbs" and are relatively common in Dutch. Most mixed verbs are originally strong verbs that have replaced some strong forms with weak forms. However, a few were originally weak but have become strong by analogy.
The most common type of mixed verb has a weak past tense, but a strong past participle in -en. Most mixed verbs of this type have the same vowel in the present and in the past participle, and therefore appear to be original class 6 and 7 verbs. A few still have the older strong past as an archaic form.
Mixed verbs that originally had class 6 pasts:
Mixed verbs that originally had class 7 pasts:
Mixed verbs from other classes:
A smaller group of verbs, all belonging to class 6, has the reverse situation. The past tense is strong, but the past participle is weak.
The following verbs are very irregular, and may not fit neatly into the strong-weak split.
An important subset of these verbs are the preterite-present verbs, which are shared by all Germanic languages. In the present tense, they originally conjugated like the past tense of a strong verb. In Dutch, this means that they lack the -t in the third-person singular present indicative, much like their English equivalents which lack the -s. Their past tense forms are weak, but irregularly so. Most of these verbs have become auxiliary verbs, so they may be missing imperative forms, and perhaps the participles as well.

''zijn''

The verb zijn "to be" is suppletive, and uses a different root in the present and past. Its present tense is highly irregular, and the past shows grammatischer Wechsel like the strong verb vriezen.

''hebben''

The verb hebben "to have" is weak in origin, but has many other irregularities.

''weten''

The verb weten is regular in the present. The past ends in -st.

''moeten''

The verb moeten is very similar to weten.

''mogen''

The verb mogen is relatively regular. It has a vowel change in the present between singular and plural, reflecting the original vowel change between the singular and plural strong past. The past ends in -cht.

''kunnen''

The verb kunnen also has a vowel change in the present, and a variety of alternative forms. In the past tense, it has both a vowel change and, in the plural, the weak dental suffix. With 'u' and 'jij' both 'kunt' and 'kan' are possible. While 'kan' is usually used in speech, in writing 'kunt' is preferred in the Netherlands. 'Kan' is considered to be more informal.

''zullen''

The verb zullen is the most irregular of the preterite-presents. In the present, the forms strongly resemble those of kunnen. The past is different, and has changed earlier -old- to -oud-, and then dropped the -d- in many forms.
Like its English equivalent would, the past tense zou does not literally indicate past time. Instead, the distinction is one of certainty: the present indicates certain future time, while the past indicates a conditional event. Compare:
The verb willen is not a preterite-present verb in origin, but nowadays it inflects much the same.
There are two different past tense forms. The original form wou has a change of -old- to -oud-, like in zullen, but this form is now considered colloquial or dialectal. The newer, regular form wilde is considered more standard.

Contracted vowel stems

A handful of common verbs have a stem ending in a vowel in the present tense. The endings contract with the stem, losing any -e- in the ending. The following table shows an example.
The verbs have a variety of past tense forms, reflecting their differing origins:
A few verbs form their past with irregularly because of an early Germanic development called the "Germanic spirant law". Both the vowel and the consonant change, sometimes in rather unexpected ways. However, these verbs are still weak even though the vowel changes, because the past tense and participle have a dental suffix. The vowel change is not caused by ablaut, but by an entirely different phenomenon called Rückumlaut.
Six verbs have this type of conjugation. Note that their English equivalents often have similar changes.
The verb zeggen is weak, but is often conjugated irregularly in the past. There is also a regular conjugation, which is more common in the south. In some dialects, a similar conjugation is followed for leggen.