Friday, July 16, 2010

Dutch verbs (part 1?)

This is for Arty <3

Present
Step 1: remove –en from the infinitive (werken)
Step 2: add the right ending
That’s how easy it is :)
ik
jij, u, hij, zij, het
wij, jullie, zij
werk
werkt
werken

Some rules for the stem:
·         Long vowel infinitives require long vowel stems  (praten -> praat)
·         A stem never ends in two identical consonants (stoppen -> stop)
·         A stem never ends in v or z (schrijven -> schrijf, lezen -> lees)
·         The stem of an '-iën verb' ends in ie (also zien -> zie)

Irregular

ik
jij, u
hij, zij, het
wij, jullie, zij
zijn (to be)
ben
bent
is
zijn
hebben (to have)
heb
hebt
heeft
hebben
gaan (to go)
ga
gaat
gaat
gaan

Past
Weak verbs
Step 1:remove –en from the infinitive to get the stem
Step 2:check if the last letter is t, k, f, s, ch, p
Step 3:add the right ending to the ik-form of the verb (not the stem!)
ik
jij, u, hij, zij, het
wij, jullie, zij
werkte
werkte
werkten
leerde
leerde
leerden

So, when do you use –te(n) and when do you use –de(n)? You use –te(n) when the last letter of the stem is t, k, f, s, ch (only this combination, not c or h), and p. There’s a word to remember this:

t kofschip

Only use the consonants! The word is a little hard to remember if you don’t speak Dutch I guess.

Strong verbs

Strong verbs are, unfotunately, a little harder. You can’t add –ed to every verb in English, and the same goes for Dutch. Strong verbs change a vowel in the past tense. For example, in English it’s: I drink -> I drank. In Dutch it’s: ik drink -> ik dronk.
You’ll just need to learn what verbs are strong and what they change to. Some examples:


singular
plural
lopen (to walk)
liep
liepen
eten (to eat)
at
aten
blijven (to stay)
bleef
bleven
liegen (to lie)
loog
logen
Irregular (although there are a lot of verbs that are irregular and don’t just change a vowel, these are the common ones, irregular in the present too)

singular
plural
zijn (to be)
was
waren
hebben (to have)
had
hadden
gaan (to go)
ging
gingen

To be continued I guess! And I know this is incredibly boring, I don't know who is actually interested in this.... o_o

2 comments:

  1. this isnt boring :) i love this its so easy to learn like this ^^' hopefully i get to remember everything today :p and THANK YOU SO MUCH for this :) <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know if you still check this, but this was very helpful and not boring at all - thanks! :).
    Chris

    ReplyDelete