dutch for beginners long

7/27/2019 Dutch for Beginners Long

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Dutch for BeginnersDutch is quite a difficult language. It's not very widely spoken, but it's certainly a difficultlanguage to learn and to pronounce. Dutch is, of course the native language of TheNetherlands, and also of Northern Belgium (Flanders). The Belgians have a very typical

accent. you immediately notice whether a person is from Holland or Belgium. Dutch is alanguage of Germanic origin and besides The Netherlands and Belgium, it's also spoken onthe Netherlands Antilles, Suriname and many people in Indonesia also speak it (all formercolonies of The Netherlands). And in South-Africa, they speak a language derived fromDutch: Afrikaans.

Part one of this course is only intended for absolute beginners.

Contents

Lesson 1: To Be

Introductions Summary Vocabulary

Lesson 2: Articles and Gender

Articles Gender Hebben - to have SummaryVocabularyExercises

Lesson 3: Formal Pronouns, Possessive Adjectives, and Plural Nouns

FormalityPossesion Plural nounsVocabulary Exercises

Lesson 4: Regular Verbs and Negation

Regular verbsNegation Vocabulary Exercises

Lesson 5: Adjectives, Adverbs, and Questions

AdjectivesAdverbs Asking questions Vocabulary Exercises

Part One - The BasicsLesson 1: To BeWelcome to the Dutch course here at UniLang. We want to help you learn foreign languagesand we hope this little course can help. Of course we also have a big grammar referenceand a list of vocabulary available for you to study. These courses in part one are intendedfor absolute beginners who need a little assistance with starting to learn some basics, sothis is not a complete course. When we've shown you the most important basics we'll let goyou and then you can explore our grammar reference all by yourself.

Before you continue you must do two things. First of all, make sure you are familiar with allthe basic grammar terms. Do you know what a noun is? What a verb is? What an adverb is?

You can then secondly take a peek at the Dutch pronunciation page.IntroductionsWe'll start by teaching you how to introduce yourself in Dutch. Take a look at the followingDutch sentence and it's English translation. All Dutch text will be written in blue and theEnglish translation in green.

"Ik ben Robert""I am Robert"
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Here we see your very first Dutch sentence where you introduce yourself as Robert, afictional person. You should of course replace the name with your own name. Although thesentence consists of only three words we are going to carefully examine each word. Thefirst word "Ik" is the Dutch equivalent of the English word "I", also referred to as 1stpersonsingular. It's a subject pronoun. The second word "ben" is a verb. It's a conjugation of theirregular Dutch verb "zijn", which is the Dutch equivalent of "to be". Now we've seen how to

introduce yourself using "ik ben" but we can also introduce other people, take a look at thefollowing examples:

Ik ben Robert I am Robert

Jij bent Robert You are Robert

Hij is Robert He is Robert

Zij is Roberta She is Roberta

Het is Robert It is Robert

Wij zijn Robert en Paul We are Robert and Paul

Jullie zijn Robert en Paul You are Robert and Paul

Zij zijn Robert en Paul They are Robert and Paul

Thats alot of new words, but it's all very easy. Now that you've seen all subject pronouns inDutch, you know how to refer to people. And besides that, you've also learned your firstDutch verb, an irregular verb: "Zijn", in English "To be". There is also a small new word thatappeared in this lesson, the Dutch words "en", which means "and".

It's also a good exercise to try to pronounce every Dutch sentence you see on this page, andwhen you're uncertain of how to pronounce a certain character or group of characters thengo to the pronunciation page.

SummaryIn this lesson you've learned two aspects of Dutch grammar, you've learned the subjectpronouns and you've learned the full conjugation of the irregular Dutch verb "zijn".

Vocabulary

We'll ask you to study a number of words in each lesson , this time we'll give you a couple ofvery easy words to study. Learn them in both directions! English-Dutch and Dutch-English.

Vocabulary

vader father

moeder mother

oma grandmother

opa grandfather

Exercises

Each lesson will come with some exercises so you can practice the grammar and vocabulary of this lesson.

Exercise A: Translate to English:

1) Hij is Robert.

2) Het is vader.

3) Zij zijn Robert en Piet.

4) Zij is moeder.


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5)Jij bent oma.

6)Jullie zijn opa.

7) Wij zijn George en William.

Exercise B: Translate to Dutch:

1) We are James and Jane.

2) They are father.

3) I am mother.

4) She is grandmother.

5) They are Robert and Paul.

6) You are George and William.

7) You are grandfather.

Solutions

After you've done the exercises you can check whether your answer is correct using the following solutions:

Solution of Exercise A:

1) He is Robert.

2) It is father.

3) They are Robert and Piet.

4) She is mother.

5) You are grandmother.

6) You are grandfather.

7) We are George and William.Solution of Exercise B:

1) Wij zijn James en Jane.

2) Zij zijn vader.

3) Ik ben moeder.

4) Zij is oma.

5) Zij zijn Robert en Paul.

6)Jullie zijn George en William.

7)Jij bent opa.

Lesson 2: Articles and GenderArticlesApparently you've succesfully finished lesson one, so now we can continue with the secondlesson. In this lesson you'll learn how to describe certain objects. First of all, we are goingto teach you articles. In the previous lesson you learned how to say "He is father" but thatsounds a little bit tarzan-like. Wouldn't it sound better if you could say "He is a father" or"He is the father" ? That's what you'll learn now. Take a look at these Dutch sentences:

Hij is een vader He is a father

Zij is de moeder She is the mother

Het is de stoel It is the chair

Het is een stoel It is a chair

Het is een huis It is a house

Het is het huis It is the house

It looks pretty logical at the beginning. You'll quickly notice that "een" is the correct Dutchtranslation of "a" and "an". But what's the correct translation of "the"? You see two differentDutch word for "the", you see "de" and "het", but which one is the right one? Of course theyare both right, otherwise we wouldn't show them to you.


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GenderBut how can it be possible that the word "the" has two translations in Dutch? This has to dowith the difficult concept of noun gender, a concept not known in English but is in almostevery other language. In most other languages a noun has a certain gender. So you're tellingme a noun can be a boy or a girl? Indeed...that's what we're saying. A noun has a certaingender in Dutch (and many other Germanic languages). There are three genders: masculine,

feminine and neuter. Every noun (note that this gender concept only applies to nouns) hasone of these three genders. How to determine what gender is very hard. In Dutch gender isnot very imporant because it doesn't effect many grammar rules. But nevertheless somegrammar rules are dependent of the gender of the noun, so you'll have to learn the genderof each noun.

One grammar rule that is gender-dependent is the formation of the definite articles, inother words, how "the" is translated in Dutch. When the noun to which the article applies isa masculine or feminine noun, then "the" is translated as "de". If the article applies to aneuter noun, then the article that has to be used is "het". That's why we said "het huis" and"de stoel"; "huis" is a neuter word and "stoel" is a masculine or feminine word (most Dutchpeople can't even tell this. The difference between masculine and feminine isn't very

important in Dutch, but for those who want to know, it is a masculine word).

Well, this noun gender concept might have confused you a bit. For English speaking peopleit can be a weird concept. But if English is not your native language, then it's most likelythat you are already familiar with noun gender. From now on we will also mention thearticle of a noun in our vocabulary lists. Note that the indefinite article ("a" and "an") isgender independent and is always translated with "een".

Hebben - to haveIn this lesson we'll also introduce another irregular Dutch verb, the verb "hebben", whichmeans "to have". Take a look at the full conjugation and translation of this verb:

Ik heb I haveJij hebt You have

Hij/Zij/Het heeft He/she/it has

Wij hebben We have

Jullie hebben You have

Zij hebben They have

Now you've learned a new verb, memorize it.

SummaryIn this lesson you've learned the concept of noun gender, what articles to use, and another

irregular verb.

Vocabulary

Learn the following words. The words of the previous lesson are mentioned again, but thistime we also show what definite article to use.

Vocabulary

de vader the father


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de moeder the mother

de oma the grandmother

de opa the grandfather

de stoel the chair

het huis the house

de tafel the table

de kat the cat

de hond the dog

het bot the bone

het dier the animal

het gebouw the building

Exercises


1) Een kat is een dier.

2) Het huis is een gebouw.

3) De hond heeft een bot.

4) Ik heb een kat.

5) De vader heeft een huis.

6) De vader en de moeder hebben een hond.

7)Jullie hebben een huis.


1) The grandmother has a cat.

2)A cat is an animal.

3) The table has a chair.

4) The grandmother and the grandfather have a dog.

5) The mother has a dog and the father has a cat.

6) We have a table.

7) They have the house.

Solutions


1)A cat is an animal.

2) The house is a building.

3) The dog has a bone.

4) I have a cat.

5) The father has a house.

6) The father and the mother have a dog.

7) You have a house.

Solution of Exercise B:

1) De oma heeft een kat.

2) Een kat is een dier.3) De tafel heeft een stoel.

4) De oma en de opa hebben een hond.

5) De moeder heeft een hond en de vader heeft een kat.

6) Wij hebben een tafel.

7) Zij hebben het huis.


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Lesson 3: Formal Pronouns, Possessive Adjectives, and Plural NounsFormalityBefore we teach you how to tell that something belongs to a certain person we first have toteach you how to be polite in Dutch. In Dutch and most other languages, but not in English,there exists a certain polite form of "you". In Dutch they say "U" instead of "jij" in formalspeech. "jij" is only used among friends and for children. Verbs after "U" are also conjugated

differently, usually like after 2nd person singular ("jij"), but sometimes like after 3rd personsingular ("hij"). Take a look at the following sample sentences:

Jij bent oma. You are grandmother.

U bent oma. You are grandmother.

Jij hebt een hond. You have a dog.

U heeft een hond. You have a dog.

PossesionNow that you know how to be polite we'll continue with indicating possession. We're gonnateach you the so-called "possessive pronouns" or "possessive adjectives". At the same timeyou'll learn how to translate "this" and "that" (demonstrative pronouns). Here are a couple

of new sentences:

Dat is mijn stoel. That is my chair.

Dit is jouw stoel. This is your chair.

Dat is uw stoel. That is your chair. (This is the polite/formal form)

Dat is zijn stoel.That is his chair. (Don't confuse the pronoun "zijn" with the verb

"zijn"!)

Dit is haar stoel. This is her chair.

Dat is onze stoel. That is our chair.

Dit is jullie stoel. This is your chair.Dat is hun stoel. That is their chair.

Deze stoel This chair

Dit huis This house

Die stoel That chair

Dat huis That house

You've learned a couple of things now. First of all you know that "this" is "dit" and "that" is"dat" in Dutch. But this only applies when those pronouns appear before the verb "zijn".When they are used adjectively (next to the noun) then these words become gender

dependent: "this" is "dit" (with neuter nouns) or "deze" (with masculine/feminine nouns) and"that" is "dat" (with neuter nouns) or "die" (with masculine/feminine nouns). You've alsoseen the possessive adjectives and you probably noticed that possessive adjectives alsohave a formal form.

Plural nounsNow it's time to learn plural nouns. Until now you've only seen singular nouns such as"house" and "chair", but now we'll teach you how to form a plural noun ("houses", "chairs") inDutch.


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There are several rules that apply to forming plural nouns. Take a look at the followingexamples:

"Boek - Boeken Paard - Paarden, Zak - Zakken, Tas - Tassen, Rivier - Rivieren, Oog - Ogen,Aap - Apen, Zaal - Zalen, Toon - Tonen"When a syllable ends in a consonant you can usually add -en, but you might need to repeatthe consonant when a single vowel precedes the consonant and you want the tone not to

change. You also usually need to reduce two equal vowels that immediately precede theending consonant to just one single vowel:

When a syllable ends with an S that is preceded by two vowels then the S will usually bereplaced by a Z and EN will be added: "Muis - Muizen , Kaas - Kazen, Doos - Dozen"When a syllable ends on -el, -er or -en then an S is added. Also modern words and wordsderived from English get an extra S when made plural: "Sleutel - Sleutels, Luidspreker -Luidsprekers, Vinger - Vingers, Toren - Torens, Cirkel - Cirkels"Words that end in a vowel get 'S: Foto - Foto's, Camera - Camera'sNote that with pointing at plural nouns, you use different demonstrative pronouns, just likein English. Instead of "these" the Dutch say "deze" and instead of "those" they say "die",

irregardless of the gender of the noun.To make things even more confusing, when the demonstrative pronoun is separated by aform of the verb "zijn", then the demonstrative pronoun always appears as if the noun issingular, even when it's plural.

Some samples:

Deze muizen These mice

Die huizen Those houses

BUT WHEN SEPARATED BY "ZIJN":

Dat zijn boeken. Those are books.

Dit zijn sleutels. These are keys.

About the articles: when a noun is plural then the concept of noun gender doesn't matteranymore. "het" is never used with plural nouns. Instead, "de" is used, even when the nounhas neuter gender. The indefinite article ("een") is always omitted when dealing with pluralnouns, just like in English (We never say "a houses").

That's enough material for this lesson.

Vocabulary

het boek the book

het paard the horse

de rivier the river

het oog the eye

de aap the monkey

de muis the mouse

de sleutel the key

de vinger the finger


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de toren the tower

de cirkel the circle

de foto the photo

de camera the camera

hier here

daar there

veel much/many

Exercises


1) Dat zijn mijn foto's.

2) Een aap heeft vingers.

3) Dit zijn hun sleutels.

4) Zijn boeken zijn hier.

5) Zij zijn hier.

6) Ik heb veel paarden.

7)Jij hebt onze camera.

8) Zij heeft uw sleutel.9) Dit zijn jullie foto's.

10)Jij hebt deze boeken.

11) Wij hebben die camera's.


1) We have many fingers.

2) These are my eyes.

3) That is his key.

4) This is your book and these are your dogs. (spoken to a stranger)

5) I have those photos.

6) Her books are there.

7) They have the house.

8) This house is your house. (spoken to a dear friend)

9) You are their grandmother. (use formal speech)

10) Here is our camera.

11) The houses have many keys.

Solutions


1) Those are my photos.

2)A monkey has fingers.

3) These are their keys.

4) His books are here.

5) They are here.

6) I have many horses.

7) You have our camera.

8) She has your key.

9) These are your photos.

10) You have these books.

11) We have those cameras.


1) Wij hebben veel vingers.

2) Dit zijn mijn ogen.

3) Dat is zijn sleutel.

4) Dit is uw boek en dit zijn uw honden.

5) Ik heb die foto's.

6) Haar boeken zijn daar.


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7) Zij hebben het huis.

8) Dit huis is jouw huis.

9) Uw bent hun oma.

10) Hier is onze camera.

11) De huizen hebben veel sleutels.

Lesson 4: Regular Verbs and NegationYou've already worked your way through three chapters. Make sure you understoodeverything that appeared in those chapters. Make sure you understand the grammar andvocabulary and do make the exercises to practice. Also make sure you try to pronounceevery Dutch sentence so you can practice your pronunciation.

Regular verbsLet's start now by learning a regular Dutch verb: "zeggen" ("to say" in English). In Dutch aregular verb in the present tense always has the same ending. That ending is underlined inthe following example. The part of the verb that's not underlined is called the stem, thepart of the verb that always remains the same (although it might occur that the last

consonant of the stem is repeated so the vowel before it retains the same sound. This is thecase with this verb).

Ik zeg I say

Jij zegtYou say also applies to the formal

form "u"

Hij/Zij/Het zegt He/She/It says

Wij zeggen We say

Jullie zeggen You say

Zij zeggen They say

We'll now discuss this conjugation somewhat more. The first person singular ("Ik") is easy. Ituses the full stem without any specific ending. The second person singular ("Jij") gets anextra T behind the stem. So does the 3rdperson singular ("Hij/Zij/Het"). Now all the pluralforms have the same conjugation. Usually EN is added, except when the stem already endsin an E. Then only N is added. When the stem ends in a T it's also unnecessary to addanother T. But something strange can occur. The last consonant of the stem has to berepeated when it's preceded by a vowel that would otherwise get a different sound. "zeg" ispronounced somewhat like "zech" (pronounce the ch like in the scottish word "loch"). And"zeggen" is pronounced like "zech-un". When the last consonant wasn't repeated it wouldsay "zegen" and would be pronounced like "zai-chun". So you see that's you have to repeatthe consonant in some occasions because the sound of the stressed vowel might changeotherwise, and that never happens with regular verbs. Now a simpler verb: "kijken",meaning "to look/to watch".

Ik kijk I watch

Jij kijkt You watch

Hij/Zij/Het kijkt He/She/It watches

Wij kijken We watch

Jullie kijken You watch


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Zij kijken They watch

Note that the infinitive verb (the unconjugated form, in English preceded by "to" as in "tosee") ends on EN in Dutch. Drop the EN and you have the stem of the verb. Then you can goconjugate it.

You already know that the stressed vowel in a regular verb always has the same sound. Thissound is copied from the infinitive verb. So besides adding an extra consonant there is alsothe matter of adding an extra vowel. Before you continue reading, make very sure youunderstand everything about the Dutch pronunciation. Let's take a look at the verb "praten"("to speak / to talk") for example. The infinitive verb is pronounced as "pra-tun" (with the Apronounced differently than in English, with a long open sound). It has this special longsound because the A appears at the end of a syllable. When you would say "Ik prat" thenthat special sound would be lost because an "A" in the middle of a syllable has a verydifferent sound. That's why instead of "ik prat" they say "ik praat", to retain the same soundas in the infinitive verb. Remember this! Note that in the 1st person plural ("wij"), it's notneeded to use this double vowel (double vowels never occur at the end of a syllable): "Wijpraten". The full conjugation of "praten" can be found below:

Ik praat I speakJij praat You speak

Hij/Zij/Het praat He/she/it speaks

Wij praten We speak

Jullie praten You speak

Zij praten They speak

There are actually three types of regular verbs (strong verbs and two types of weak verbs)but this only effects the past tense of the verb. The present tense is equal to all threetypes, so we won't look into this matter now.

NegationNow we're going to talk about negation, because you might want to say: "That is NOT ahouse", "and that is NO dog". In Dutch there are two word for "no": "geen" and "niet". "geen"is used when talking about nouns. It's a kind of adjective. "niet" is used with verbs. It's akind of adverb. For example, when denying quantity of a specific noun you use "geen", as in"ik heb geen hond" ("I have no dog"). "niet" can be used to deny a verb. "Ik kijk niet" ("I amnot looking"). It then appears after the verb and the direct object (at the end of thesentence). "geen" always appears directly after the verb and before the direct object. Alittle trick to remember whether to use "geen" or "niet": "geen" applies to having "none" ofsomething; "niet" can never be substituted by "none".

That's enough material for now. Make sure you understand it. It's quite hard, so don'thesitate to reread this lesson a couple of times.

Vocabulary

Learn the following words. From now on there will also be regular verbs (or at least verbsthat are regular in the present tense) in the list.


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Vocabulary

kijken to watch / to look

weten to know

praten to speak

zeggen to say

lopen to walk

rennen to run

zien to see

het kind het child (plural: de kinderen)

de man the man

de vrouw the woman

de appel the apple

nederlands dutch

engels englishExercises


1) Ik zie de foto's.

2) De man rent.

3) Het kind wil jouw boeken.

4) De vrouwen zien de man niet.

5) Ik zie geen kinderen.

6) Hij heeft geen paarden.

7) Het kind weet veel.

8) Wij weten veel.

9) Dit zijn geen dieren.

10) De vrouw kijkt niet.

11) U spreekt Nederlands.

12) Zij spreken Engels.

Exercise B: Fill in the blanks, "NIET" or "GEEN" ?

1) Ik heb ...... appels.

2) Ik zie de stoel .......

3) De man heeft ....... hond.

4) De vrouw ziet ......... kinderen.

5) Ik kijk ..........

6) De vrouw ziet de kinderen ...........

Exercise C: Translate to Dutch:

1) I see a tree.

2) You do not see this child.

3) We speak Dutch.4) I have no children.

5) She sees this man.

6) This isn't her grandfather.

7) You speak Dutch.

8) They see my house.

9) They know this.

10) I am not Dutch.

11) We do not have those keys.


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Solutions


1) I see the photos.

2) The man runs.

3) The child wants your books.

4) The women do not see the man.

5) I see no children.

6) He has no horses.

7) The child knows much.

8) We know much.

9) These are not animals.

10) The woman doesn't look.

11) You speak Dutch.

12) They speak English.


1) Ik heb GEEN appels.

2) Ik zie de stoel NIET.

3) De man heeft GEEN hond.

4) De vrouw ziet GEEN kinderen.

5) Ik kijk NIET.

6) De vrouw ziet de kinderen NIET.Solution of exercise C:

1) Ik zie een boom.

2) U ziet dit kind niet. ORJij ziet dit kind niet.

3) Wij spreken Nederlands.

4) ik heb geen kinderen.

5) Zij ziet deze man.

6) Dit is haar opa niet.

7) U spreekt Nederlands. ORJij spreekt Nederlands.

8) Zij zien mijn huis.

9) Zij weten dit.

10) Ik ben niet Nederlands. ("Nederlands" is not a direct object)

11) Wij hebben die sleutels niet.

Lesson 5: Adjectives, Adverbs, and QuestionsAfter the difficult lesson you've just done we'll make things a little easier. In this lessonwe'll teach you how to use adjectives in Dutch.

AdjectivesAn adjective tells something about a noun, it describes a property of a noun. It usuallyappears next to the noun, although it can also be separated from the noun using the verb"zijn" (in English: "to be"). Note that in such a construction the "independent" adjective isnever a direct object!

Het huis is groot. The house is big.

Het kind is jong. The child is young.

De vrouw is oud. The woman is old.

De appels zijn rood. The apples are red.

This is an easy construction. The Dutch adjective is never conjugated in any way in such aconstruction. A somewhat more difficult but more common construction is to use the


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adjective next to the noun. In this case the Dutch adjective conjugates and gets one extraE. Note that you might have to drop one vowel of a double vowel to retain the same sound:

Het grote huis. The big house.

Het jonge kind. The young child.

De oude vrouw. The old woman.

De rode appels. The red apples.

Well..this isn't all very complicated. Just add an E and don't forget to remove a doublevowel if it would otherwise appear at the end of a syllable. But there's one exception. Ifthe the noun is neuter and the indefinite article (een) is used, or if no article at all is used,then the E is not added! So:

Het grote kind The big child

Een groot kind A big child

groot kind big child

Adverbs

Now we can move on to the matter of adverbs. An adverb can be compared to an adjectivebut instead it says something about a verb instead of a noun. It's easy to form an adverb inDutch, because an adverb remains unconjugated and is the same as the full unconjugatedadjective form.

Hij rent snel He runs fast

Ik praat langzaam I speak slowly

Hij vliegt laag He flies low

Zij zwemmen diep They swim deep

Now you also know how to form adverbs. It's really easy.

Asking questionsWe can continue with asking question in Dutch. To tell things is nice, but once in a whileyou might need to ask something of someone. We'll teach you.

The word order in a Dutch question is almost the same as in English, although in English weuse the helper verb "do". In Dutch, there's no such helper verb. Where in English we'd use"do", the Dutch use the real main verb, in the correct conjugation that matches with thesubject. Some questions:

Wat is uw huis? What is your house?

Waar is hij? Where is he?

Wanneer komt hij? When does he come?

Wie is die oude man? Who is that old man?

Wat zie je? What do you see?

Wat zien we? What do we see?

Wat ziet hij? What does he see?


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This is also easy to understand. Just remember that the Dutch don't use a helper verb suchas "do". Instead of it they use their main verb in the corresct conjugation. You've also seensome interrogative pronouns now (the words used to ask question: such as: "what?" etc...)

Vocabulary

Learn the following words. From now on there will also appears adjectives and adverbs inthe list (as well as interrogative pronouns in this lesson).

Vocabulary

vliegen to fly

zwemmen to swim

willen to want

spelen to play

komen to come

snel fastlangzaam slow

old oud

jong young

goed good

slecht bad

leuk nice

aardig kind

nieuw new

de fiets the bike

wat? what?

wie? who?

van wie? whose?

welke? which?

waarom? why?

wanneer? when?

hoeveel? how much/many?

heel very

Exercises


1) Dat is een aardige man.

2) Wie is dat leuke kind?

3) Waarom vlieg jij laag?

4) Wat is dat?

5) Dat grote huis is hun huis.

6) Hij rent snel.


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7) Mijn oude oma is heel aardig.

8) Ik wil een nieuwe fiets.

9) Dit zijn hele leuke aardige dieren.

10) Wat zie jij daar?

11) Mijn oude opa rent heel snel.


1) I want a new chair.

2) I see an old woman.

3) The kind man says: "who are you?"

4) She is not old.

5) They fly fast.

6) Our grandmother is an old woman.

7) These children play.

8) The young child sees a high table.

9) What does the bad dog see?

10) When does that kind cat come here?

Solutions


1) That is a kind man.

2) Who is that nice child?

3) Why do you fly low?4) What is that?

5) That big house is their house.

6) He runs fast.

7) My old grandmother is very kind.

8) I want a new bike.

9) These are very nice kind animals.

10) What do you see there?

11) My old grandfather runs very fast.


1) Ik wil een nieuwe stoel.

2) Ik zie een oude vrouw.

3) De aardige man zegt: "Wie ben jij?"OR De aardige man zegt: "Wie bent u?"

4) Zij is niet oud.

5) Zij vliegen snel.

6) Onze oma is een oude vrouw.

7) Deze kinderen spelen.

8) Het jonge kind ziet een hoge tafel.

9) Wat ziet de slechte hond?

10) Wanneer komt die aardige kat hier?

Dutch for Beginners: Part II

IntroductionIn part one of this course you have seen some of the basics of the Dutch language. You haveseen the verb "zijn", personal pronouns, articles and gender, formal pronouns, possessiveadjectives and plural nouns, regular verbs and negation and adjectives, adverbs andquestions. In this second part we will expand our knowledge and go deeper into thematerial.Contents


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Lesson 6: More pronouns

More pronounsColloquial UseVocabularyExercises

Lesson 7: Prepositions and Conjunctions

Prepositions Conjunctions Relative pronounsVocabularyExercises

Lesson 8: Verb Tenses

Past tense Strong verb conjugationPerfect TenseFuture tenseConditional tense Verbs with PrefixesExercises

Lesson 9: Reflexive Verbs, Gerund, and Degrees of Comparison

Reflexive Verbs Gerunds Degrees of Comparison Exercises

Lesson 10: Filling the gaps

Small Nouns Counting Days of the week The months of the year Imperative CorrelativesExercises

Lesson 6: More pronounsMore pronounsIn Lesson One we learned about personal pronouns, we can remember the following list:

Ik I

Jij You

U You (formal)

Hij He

Zij She

Wij We

Jullie You (plural)

Zij They

Note that all of these pronouns appear in the subject position of the sentence:

Ik zie de man I see the man

We all know that personal pronouns have a different form when they are inthe object position of the sentence. Theobject is the part of the sentence that isundergoing the action of the verb while the subject is the one initiating the action of theverb. If we would simply move a personal pronoun from subject position to object position,then we would get a wrong sentence, as the following example illustrates:

*I see he

Because "he" appears in object position in this case, we have to change it's form to "him".Likewise "we" changes to "us", etc.. The same principle applies to Dutch. We can constructthe following table for Dutch object pronouns:

Mij MeJou You

U You (formal)

Hem Him

Haar Her

Ons Us

Jullie You (plural)
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Hen Them

So the example sentence would translate as follows:

I see him Ik zie hem

So you get the idea: in object positions you have to use the object pronoun becauseotherwise you will get an ill-formed sentence, just like in English.

We can distinguish another grammaticality. Pronouns can appear in, the so-called indirectobject. An indirect object is the receiverof the action. Consider the following:

I give the man a present Ik geef de man een kado

You will note that de man is obviously the receiver in this example, and therefore it is theindirect object. Like there are direct object pronouns, which we've just seen, there arealso indirect object pronouns. Fortunately, there happens to be no difference between thetwo in Dutch, so we see the same table for indirect object pronouns:

Mij Me

Jou You

U You (formal)

Hem Him

Haar Her

Ons Us

Jullie You (plural)

Hen Them

And thus we can replace "de man" with an indirect object pronoun, obtaining the followingresult:

I give him a present Ik geef hem een kado

We can even construct double pronouns now:

I give the man a woman Ik geef de man een vrouw

I give him a woman Ik geef hem een vrouw

I give him her Ik geef hem haar

Like in English, the indirect object pronoun comes first in this case and is followed by thedirect object pronoun.

We have cleverly omitted the neutral pronoun in our discussion, but we will need to bring itinto the picture as well because it is often used. The neutral pronoun in Dutch, theequivalent of the English pronoun "it" is "het". This pronoun has the same form in subject,

object and indirect object position, just like English. A small exception in word order occurshowever when we deal with double pronouns:

I give the man a present Ik geef de man een kado

I give him a present Ik geef hem een kado

I give him it Ik geef het hem

You see that in the last Dutch example, the two pronouns have swapped position, unlike inEnglish. In English this can be done to: "I give it to him", but that introduces an extra


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preposition "to". And in Dutch the words HAVE TOare swapped, because otherwise thesentence would be incorrect.Colloquial UseYou have to be aware of the fact that the forms we have discussed so far are often replacedwith simpler versions where the ij or ou sound is replaced by a neutral e. The followingforms are all equivalent:

Official AlternativeJij Je

Zij Ze

Mij Me

Jou Je

Wij We

You might expect "hij" to change into "*he", but that never happens and it would produce anincorrect sentence. Below are some sentences that are all exactly the same in meaning:

Ik zie jou Ik zie je

Jij ziet mij Je ziet me

Jij ziet mij Je ziet mij

Jij ziet mij Jij ziet me

Zij zien jou Ze zien je

Using the formal ij or ou form has a highlighting result. You stress explicitly the pronounand make it more obviously present. In daily speech, you will find the colloquial form moreoften.Vocabulary

Geven To give

Het kado The presentExercises

Note that we will mainly use the colloquial pronoun forms from now on.

Exercise A: Translate to English

1) Ik geef de aardige man een groot kado.

2) Hij geeft mij een nieuwe fiets.

3) Wij zien hen goed.

4) Wat wil ze?

5) Waarom lopen ze snel?

6) U ziet haar niet.

7) We geven het hen.

8) Ze zien het niet.

9) Het is goed.

Exercise B: Translate to Dutch

1) I see her.

2) Her dog sees me well.

3) You give me a present.

4) They see it.

5) What does she give him?

6) Why don't you see it?

7) They give me her.

Solutions

In this lesson, we will list both the official pronoun forms as well as the colloquial ones, In next lessons we will only list one of them.


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Solutions to Exercise A

1) I give the nice man a big present.

2) He gives me a new bike.

3) We see them well.

4) What does she want?

5) Why do they walk fast?

6) You don't see her.

7) We give it to them.

8) They don't see it.

9) It is good.

Solutions to Exercise B

1) Ik zie haar.

2) Haar hond ziet mij/me goed.

3)Je eeft mij/me een kado.

4) Zij/Ze zien het.

5) Wat geeft zij/ze hem?

6) Waarom zie jij/je het niet?

7) Ze geven mij/me haar.

Lesson 7: Prepositions and ConjunctionsUntil now we've managed to stay away from prepositions. But now the time has come todiscuss this issue, because prepositions are such a vital part of a language and it's hard tobuild a sentence without them.

PrepositionsPrepositions are those little words that mark places in space or time. The prepositions arebest explained when envisioning a birdcage and a bird, and the ways they relate to eachother:

The bird can be in the cage. ("in" being a preposition) But it can also be on top ofthe

cage, under the cage, it can flythrough the cage. Or fly out ofthe cage. It can bestuck between two cages or it can take a nap in front ofthe cage. You see that there are alot more possibilities! All those bold-faced words are prepositions.Prepositions are quite abstract and therefore different languages have entirely differentprepositions. There is not a simple one-to-one relation between pronouns in differentlanguages so they will have to be discussed separately.

PossessionLet us start our discussion with possession. In English we use the pronoun "of", in Dutch weuse: "van".

Het huis van mijn vader The house ofmy father

But like in English, Dutch also has an analogous way of expressing this without apreposition:

Mijn vader's huis My father's house

Origin

Ik kom uit Nederland I come from the Netherlands

Ik krijg een kado van mijn vader I get a present from my father

Here you already see two possible translations for the English prepositions. "uit" is usedwith countries/cities. But "van" is a more common translation in other situations. It's often


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hard to know what preposition to use, and differences between languages are huge. Oftenonly experience and practice can help you.Destination

Ik ga naar school I go to school

Ik ga naar mijn vader I go to my father

Location

We will discuss now some simple prepositions specifying a location:Ik ben in het huis I am in the house

Ik sta voor het huis I stand in front ofthe house

Ik sta achter het huis I stand behind the house

Ik sta op het huis I stand on the house

Ik sta naast het huis I stand on the side ofthe house

Ik sta bij het huis I stand near the house

Ik sta onder het huis I stand under the house

Ik sta boven het huis I stand above the house

Ik sta boven op het huis I stand on top ofthe houseIk sta tussen de huizen I stand between the houses

MovementNote that when it comes to movement, Dutch sometimes uses postpositions instead ofprepositions, meaning that the word comes after the complement it applies to.

Ik ga het huis in I go into the house

Ik ga het huis uit I go out ofthe house

Ik spring over het huis I jump over the house

Ik spring op het huis I jump onto the house

Ik ga door het huis I go through the house

The Dutch prepositions above are more-or-less used in the same situation as their Englishcounterparts.

Horizontal vs. Vertical Placement

Het schilderij ligt op de tafel The painting lies on the table

Het schilderij hangt aan de muur The painting hangs on the wall

You see that for horizontal placement, the Dutch use "op", while for vertical placementthey use "aan", whereas English only uses one preposition.Company

Ik ga met jou I go with you

Ik ga zonder jou I go without you

MeansIk ga met de fiets I go by bike

Ik eet met mijn handen I eat with my hands

Creator

Gemaakt door mij Made by me

Being with people

Ik ben bij mijn ouders I am with my parents

Ik ben bij mijn ouders I am at my parents'


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Time

Ik ga na jou I go after you

Ik ga voor jou I go before you

Ik blijftot vanavond I stay until tonight

Ik ben hiersinds gisteren I am here since yesterday

Ik ben hiervoor drie dagen I am here for three days

Ik kom over drie dagen I come in three days

Ik schrijf je binnen drie dagen I write you within three days

When you use a personal pronoun after a preposition, you have to used the forms equal tothose you use as a direct object, but in this case you have to use the long formswith ij and ou and can never shorten them to e!ConjunctionsWe have now shown you the most common prepositions. Try to practice a lot with thembecause that's the best way to learn them. We will now move on to conjunctions.Conjunctions are the words that glue sentences together. The most obvious one we havealready dealt with: "en" meaning "and". But there are far more such words which can glue

sentences together in a certain way. Like we did with the prepositions, we will discussthese through examples...

Ik ga en ik wil reizen I go and I want to travel

Ik ga ofik wil reizen I go or I want to travel

Ik ga want ik wil reizen I go because I want to travel

Ik ga, maar ik wil reizen I go, but I want to travel

These are the so-called coordinating conjunctions. The sentences that are glued togetherare of equal importance. There is also a second type of conjunction, which is morecommon: the subordinate conjunction. It also glues sentences together but the sentencesare not of equal importance. One sentence is called the subordinate clause and is more or

less integrated into the main clause using a subordinate conjunction. In the followingexample we demonstrate what a subordinate clause is by highlighting that part of thesentence:

I go because I see you Ik ga omdat ikje zie

Note that the word order in the Dutch subordinate clause is different from what we areused to! This is the case in all Dutch subordinate clauses. In a normal sentence we wouldexpect to see:

ik ziejeWhich is a SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECTorder which we also see in English. However, subordinateclauses in Dutch have a different word-order, namely: SUBJECT-OBJECT-VERB, as in thefollowing example:.........ikje zieThis is obligatory and a crucial fact of many Germanic languages: subordinate clauses havedifferent word order. Now we know about this we can start discussing the subordinateconjunctions.

Ik ga omdat ik je zie I go because I see you

Ik ga hoewel ik je zie I go although I see you

Ik ga tenzij ik je zie I go unless I see you


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Ik ga als ik je zie I go ifI see you

Ik ga terwijl ik je zie I go while I see you

Ik ga wanneer ik je zie I go when I see you

Ik ga zodat ik je zie I go in order to (so) I see you

Relative pronounsThis now takes us to a similar issue where subordinate clauses are involved. Thesubordinate clause in this case is related to a part of the main clause or the main clauseentirely. Take a look at the following example:

Ik weet dat ik je zie I know [that] I see you

Ik weet wat ik zie I know what I see

De stad waar ik ben The city where I live

De man die je ziet The man who sees you

De stoel die groot is The chairwhich is big

Het huis dat groot is The house which is big

Note that while "that" in English can often be omitted, it can never in Dutch.

The use of "dat" or "die" depends, just like with the demonstrative pronouns we've seen inpart one, on the gender and number of the noun it applies to.

Vocabulary

ook also/too

nog [steeds] still

al already

alleen [maar], slechts only, just

nu now

de stad the cityde vrouw the woman, the wife

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English

1) Hij komt ook uit Nederland.

2) Zie jij dat ik je zie?

3) Ik ben al in mijn huis.

4) Ik ga met mijn vader naar Amsterdam omdat het een grote stad is.

5) Ik zie een oude man die naar het huis rent.

6) De stoel die ik zie is niet groot.

7) Ik loop voor het huis.

8) Ik zie het gebouw na jou.

9) Ik zie alleen een man met een hond die door mijn nieuwe huis loopt.

10) Ik heb een stoel voor deze hond.


1) Do you see that man with his wife?

2) I walk to the city so I can see my new house.

3) My father's house is big although he is a small man.

4) I go to school by bike because my bike is fast.

5) He has a cat, but he wants to have a dog.

6) They go into the house that is new.

7) She goes when he goes into the house.


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Solutions

We will use either the official or colloquial form of the pronouns, so multiple answer are possible.


1) He also come from The Netherlands.

2) Do you see that I see you?

3) I am already in my house.

4) I go to Amsterdam with my father because it is a big city.

5) I see an old man who runs to the house.

6) The chair which I see is not big.

7) I walk in front of the house.

8) I see the building after you.

9) I only see a man with a dog who walks through my new house.

10) I have a chair for this dog.


1) Zie je die man met zijn vrouw?

2) Ik loop naar de stad zodat ik mijn nieuwe huis kan zien.

3) Mijn vader's huis is groot, hoewel hij een kleine man is.

4) Ik ga naar school met de fiets omdat mijn fiets snel is.

5) Hij heeft een kat, maar he wil een hond hebben.

6) Zij gaan het huis dat nieuw is in, Zij gaan het huis in dat nieuw is.

7) Zij gaat wanneer hij het huis in gaat.

Lesson 8: Verb TensesOur knowledge of Dutch is already improving gradually! It is time we now move on frompresent tense and discuss other verb tenses as well. We will start with the past tense:

Past tenseDutch past tense of regular verbs comes in three groups: Strong verbs, Weak verbs with T,Weak verbs with D. The strong verbs have an irregular stem in the past tense, but areconjugated regularly, the only issue is remembering the correct stem. Weak verbs are

completely regular and come in two flavors: a T-flavor and a D-flavor. The flavor it takesdepends on the final consonant of the verb's stem. If the final consonant is one appearing inthe mnemonic word 'T KOFSCHIP then it belongs to the T-group, otherwise it belongs to theD-group, provided that is isn't a strong or irregular verb. Can you still follow it? Let's startconjugating each of the three groups as an example:Strong verb conjugation

LOPEN (liep) TO WALK

Ik liep I walked

Jij liep You walked

Hij/zij liep He/she walked

Wij liepen We walked

Jullie liepen You walked

Zij liepen They walked

Above you see the past tense conjugation of the strong verb "lopen". Since the verb isstrong it has an irregular stem in the past tense: "liep". You see that the rest of theconjugation is quite straightforward and there are in fact only two different forms. It isimportant that when you learn a strong verb, you memorize it's stem in past tense, just likeyou do for English verbs like "bite - bit - bit". Now let's take a look at the weak verbs. The


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two left columns show a T-group weak verb (since it's final consonant is one of 'TKOFSCHIP). The two right columns show a D-group weak verb:

HOPEN TO HOPE DELEN TO SHARE

Ik hoopte I hoped Ik deelde I shared

Jij hoopte You hoped Jij deelde You shared

Hij/zij hoopte He/she hoped Hij/zij deelde He/she sharedWij hoopten We hoped Wij deelden We shared

Jullie hoopten You hoped Jullie deelden You shared

Zij hoopten They hoped Zij deelden They shared

You notice the similarities in conjugation between the two types of weak verbs, one uses aT, and one uses a D. That's all there's to it, and with 'T KOFSCHIP you have an easymnemonic tool for determining whether a verb uses the T or the D form, provided of coursethat you can rule out that it is a strong verb. There are no tricks for knowing that, so thatwill have to be memorized.Now things will get even more confusing: you probably just grabbed the concept of when

the double consonants and vowels and when to make them single again; it all has to do withretaining the sound of the vowel. However, when it comes to strong verbs, this principle isset aside partially. When a past verb stem contains a short vowel, then it is no problem ifthis short vowel gets replaced by a long one for the plural forms. Consider the followingexample of a strong verb:

SPREKEN (sprak) TO SPEAK

Ik sprak I spoke

Jij sprak You spoke

Hij/zij sprak He/she spoke

Wij spraken We spokeJullie spraken You spoke

Zij spraken They spoke

Notice that because of the Dutch pronunciation rules, the A-vowel in "sprak" soundsdifferent than the A-vowel in "spraken". But also note that although you are used tocompensating this by adding a consonant, this is not done when conjugating strong verbs inthe past tense. However, the other way round still applies, if the vowel in the stem is a longone, then it has to remain long even after addition of-EN.Below we will quickly show how to conjugate some irregular and strong verbs we have seenin past lessons. The irregular verbs are fully conjugated. For the strong verbs we only

mention the stem, since you can do the rest yourself with what you have learned in thislesson.

Zijn: Ik was, jij was, hij was, wij waren, jullie waren, zij waren

Hebben: ik had, jij had, hij had, wij hadden, jullie hadden, zijhadden

Weten: wist

Zien: zag


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Zeggen: Ik zei, jij zei, hij zei, wij zeiden, jullie zeiden, zij zeiden

Doen: deed

Spreken: sprak

Lopen: liep

Kijken: keek

Vliegen: vloog

Zwemmen: zwom

Komen: kwam

Geven: gaf

Perfect Tense

Like in English, this is not the only kind of past tense the Dutch language knows. There isalso the perfect tense (which in turn comes in two different forms). Your head might bespinning right now, but don't worry about it because perfect tense in Dutch is very similar toperfect tense in English. Let's first refresh your memory by showing what perfect tense is,

we will show both forms, present perfect and past perfect and illustrate this with theexample verb "to speak".

Present Perfect Past Perfect

I have spoken I had spoken

You have spoken You had spoken

He/she has spoken He/she had spoken

We have spoken We had spoken

You have spoken You had spoken

They have spoken They had spoken

You see that perfect tense is composed of a form of the verb "to have" + the so-called participle of the verb in question, in this case the participle is: " spoken", which is anirregular verb. For regular verbs, the participle looks just like the past tense, for example:"hoped".In Dutch the participle of strong verbs is again, irregular. Most Dutch participles start withthe prefix "ge-". Participles of weak verbs are formed like this:For D-group verbs:: GE- + PRESENT-TENSE-STEM + DFor T-group verbs:: GE- + PRESENT-TENSE-STEM + TSo the participles of the two weak verbs we have discussed will be "gehoopt" and "gedeeld",since the present-tense stem of "hopen" is "hoop", and that of "delen" is "deel". Theparticiple of the strong verb is, as we already explained, irregular. In the case of our

example it would be: "gelopen".The Dutch present perfect and past perfect is composed exactly the same as in English. Itconsist of a form of the verb "hebben", and a participle. For our three example verbs wecan construct the following scheme for the present perfect:

HOPEN DELEN LOPEN

Ik heb gehoopt Ik heb gedeeld Ik heb gelopen

Jij hebt gehoopt Jij hebt gedeeld Jij hebt gelopen

Hij/zij heeft gehoopt Hij/zij heeft gedeeld Hij/zij heeft gelopen


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Wij hebben gehoopt Wij hebben gedeeld Wij hebben gelopen

Jullie hebben gehoopt Jullie hebben gedeeld Jullie hebben gelopen

Zij hebben gehoopt Zij hebben gedeeld Zij hebben gelopen

The past perfect tense is almost the same. The only difference is that the auxiliary verb"hebben" is conjugated in the past tense, just like in English ("have" vs "had"). Consider the

following table:HOPEN DELEN LOPEN

Ik had gehoopt Ik had gedeeld Ik had gelopen

Jij had gehoopt Jij had gedeeld Jij had gelopen

Hij/zij had gehoopt Hij/zij had gedeeld Hij/zij had gelopen

Wij hadden gehoopt Wij hadden gedeeld Wij hadden gelopen

Jullie hadden gehoopt Jullie hadden gedeeld Jullie hadden gelopen

Zij hadden gehoopt Zij hadden gedeeld Zij hadden gelopen

While direct object and indirect objects in English appear after the HAVE + PARTICIPLE

construction, they appear between them in Dutch. The participle is often last in thesentence.

We've already shown you the past-tense stem for the strong verbs (which are irregular)which we've seen in these lessons. Now we will show you the participle of these strongverbs:

Zijn: geweest

Hebben: gehad

Weten: geweten

Zien: gezien

Zeggen: gezegd

Doen: gedaan

Spreken: gesproken

Lopen: gelopen

Kijken: gekeken

Vliegen: gevlogen

Zwemmen: gezwommen

Komen: gekomen

Geven: gegeven

Future tense

Now we've covered some quite difficult material it's time for something easy, andfortunately Dutch future tense is just that. In English future tense is made by "will" plus theinfinitive form of the verb in question (meaning the full unconjugated form). In Dutch it isexactly the same. Verbs are made by a form of the verb "zullen" plus the infinitive form ofthe verb. Strong verbs, weak verbs, D's and T's are all out of of the picture here. Take a lookat the table below:


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Ik zal zien I will see

Jij zult/zal zien You will see

Hij/zij zal zien He/she will see

Wij zullen zien We will see

Jullie zullen zien You will see

Zij zullen zien They will see

Note that you can say both "Jij zult zien" and Jij zal zien". It means exactly the same.Conditional tense

Strongly related to the future tense it the conditional tense, where instead of "will", thepast tense "would" is being used. The same applies to Dutch by using the past tense of theverb "zullen". The following table will show this:

Ik zou zien I would see

Jij zou zien You would see

Hij/zij zou zien He/she would see

Wij zouden zien We would seeJullie zouden zien You would see

Zij zouden zien They would see

Verbs with Prefixes

Before we end this lesson, we are going to have to take a closer look at the formation ofparticiples. We learned that we can construct a participle for a weak verb by using theprefix "ge-", the present tense verb-stem and a final D or T. This is often the case, but notalways.There are verbs which already start with a common type of prefix. If this prefix is ameaningless one, the three most common ones being: "be-" and "ver-" and "ont-", then the

prefix "ge-" is not needed anymore. For example, the participle of the verb "vertrouwen"("to trust") is "vertrouwd" and never "*gevertrouwd". Another example: the participle of"bewaren" ("to save/to conserve") is "bewaard" and never "*gebewaard".It is also possible that the verb start with a meaningful prefix derived from a preposition,such as the verb "uitstappen" ("to exit from something"). This verb starts with the prefix"uit" which is derived from the preposition "uit". Such verbs are quite common in Dutch andother Germanic languages. In this case you do use the prefix "ge" to form the participle, butthe prefix is inserted AFTERthe already existing prefix. So in this case we will obtain theparticiple: "uitgestapt" instead of "*geuitstapt"In more cases you will see that the prefix derived from a preposition can take anotherposition not directly attached to the other part of the verb. This is already immediately

obvious in the present tense conjugation of such verbs:Ik stap uit I exit

Jij stapt uit You exit

Hij/zij stapt uit He/she exists

Wij stappen uit We exit

Jullie stappen uit You exit

Zij stappen uit They exit


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And also in past tense, this behavior continues:

Ik stapte uit I exited

Jij stapte uit You exited

Hij/zij stapte uit He/she existed

Wij stapten uit We exited

Jullie stapten uit You exited

Zij stapten uit They exited

It can go even further. If the verb can take a direct object and/or and indirect object, thenthe prefix moves all the way over those. The following is an example with the verb"uitzoeken" ("to select").

Ikzoekeen mooi boekuit I select a nice book

Well, that's enough material for this lesson. We have discussed some very important aspectsof Dutch grammar, not all easy or obvious.

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English1) Ik zag de hond die jij ook had gezien.

2) Ik zal naar huis lopen tenzij ik al in het huis ben.

3) Ik hoopte dat jij het met me zou willen delen.

4) Hij liep door het huis tot hij bij de hond kwam.

5) Wij hebben de hond gezien.

6) Ik keek naar mijn vader terwijl hij liep.

7) Ik zal naar het huis kijken.

8) Hij zou komen als ik ook kom.


1) I spoke with my father while we walked.

2) She had seen the man before you saw him.

3) We will come to your house.

4) I trusted him.

5) I choose/select a bike for my father.

6) They would see the house.

7) He came because he saw me.

Solutions


1) I saw the dog that you saw too.

2) I will walk to the house unless I already am in the house.

3) I hoped you would share it with me.

4) He walked through the house until he came to the dog (until he reached the dog).

5) We have seen the dog.

6) I looked at my father while he walked.

7) I will look at the house.

8) He would come if he come too.


1) I sprak met mijn vader terwijl we liepen.

2) Ze had de man gezien voor jij hem zag.

3) We zullen naar jouw huis komen.

4) I vertrouwde hem.

5) Ik zoek een fiets uit voor mijn vader.

6) Zij zouden het huis zien.

7) Hij kwam omdat hij me zag.


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Lesson 9: Reflexive Verbs, Gerund, and Degrees of ComparisonIn our previous lesson we have obtained a lot of information about Dutch verbs. However,we have not yet found the time to discuss reflexive verbs. That we will do now.

Reflexive Verbs

Reflexive verbs are accompanied by a so-called reflexive pronoun. The following tableillustrates the reflexive verb "to wash oneself" and the Dutch equivalent "zich wassen". Notethat in these infinitive verbs forms, we can already note the reflexive pronoun "zich"("oneself")

Ik was me I wash myself

Jij wast je You wash yourself

Hij wast zich He washes himself

Zij wast zich She washes herself

Wij wassen ons We wash ourselves

Jullie wassen je You wash yourselvesZij wassen zich They wash themselves

Every Dutch reflexive pronoun can also be found with the suffix " -zelf" which will makethem resemble the English form more.GerundsIn English, we are all familiar with the continuous tense, better known as the "-ing" tense.In Dutch you will find this less, but it does exist. While in English we use " to be +ing", theDutch use "zijn aan het +infinitive". Consider the following example:

Ik ben aan het lopen I am walking

Jij bent aan het lopen You are walking

Hij/zij is aan het lopen He/she is walking

Wij zijn aan het lopen We are walking

Jullie zijn aan het lopen You are walking

Zij zijn aan het lopen They are walking

Do not forget though, that this is used far less than in English, so you shouldn't substituteevery English continuous tense with this Dutch construction. Instead, the Dutch presenttense usually suffices.

Degrees of ComparisonAdjectives and adverbs can be modified according to degrees of comparison to their

meaning BIGGERor BIGGEST. In English we obtain sets of three like: "late - later - latest".In Dutch this is exactly the same: "laat - later - laatst". There is no difference whatsoever.And the analogy goes further. We can say "the latest" in English. In Dutch we get: "hetlaatst" and when we are using it adjectively we have to make it agree with the noun genderand number, so the article can change and the adjective can get an extra E as the followingtable illustrates:

Het laatste uur The latest hour

De laatste minuut The latest minute


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De laatste uren The latest hours

When used as an adverb we don't need the extra E but we can't omit the article as inEnglish.

Ik kom het laatst I come [the] latest

Now we will take a look at comparisons of inequality and later we will discuss comparisons

of equality. The sentence below illustrates a comparison of inequality:Ik ben groterdan jij I am biggerthan you

Hij is kleinerdan wij He is smallerthan we

And an example of comparisons of equality:

Ik ben even groot als jij I am as big as you

Hij is even klein als wij He is as small as we

An alternative way of saying this is possible too:

Ik ben net zo groot als jij I am [just] as big as you

Hij is net zo klein als wij He is [just] as small as we

Exercises

There are no exercises anymore...

Lesson 10: Filling the gapsIn this lesson we will discuss some small issues we haven't gotten around yet. You will seethings you might have been wanting to know all along..

Small NounsIn Dutch there is a suffix "-je" that will make a noun small. For example, adding "-je" to"huis" generates "huisje", meaning "little house". You will often see such small nouns in

Dutch. Note that they all are of neuter gender and therefore use the article " het" insingular.Counting

0 nul

1 n

2 twee

3 drie

4 vier

5 vijf

6 zes

7 zeven

8 acht

9 negen

10 tien

11 elf

12 twaalf

13 dertien

14 veertien


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15 vijftien

16 zestien

17 zeventien

18 achttien

19 negentien

20 twintig21 nentwintig

22 tweentwintig

23 drientwintig

24 vierentwintig

30 dertig

40 veertig

50 vijftig

60 zestig

70 zeventig

80 tachtig

90 negentig

100 honderd

123 honderddrientwintig

200 tweehonderd

1000 duizend

10000 tienduizend

100000 honderdduizend

1000000 [n] miljoen

Days of the week

Unlike in English, the days of the week do not receive a capital first letter.

Monday maandag

Tuesday dinsdag

Wednesday woensdag

Thursday donderdag

Friday vrijdag

Saturday zaterdag

Sunday zondag

The preposition used to point at day is always "op". However, there is also an alternativeconstruction using "'s" and the name of the day appended by an extra S.

Ik kom op maandag I come on Monday

Ik kom 's maandags I come on Monday


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The months of the year

Like the days of the week, the months of the year are never capitalized:

January januari

February februari

March maart

April april

May mei

June juni

July juli

August augustus

September september

October oktober

November november

December decemberThe preposition used to point at a month is "in", just like in English.Imperative

There is still a verb tense we have left undiscussed: the so-called imperative tense/mood.This is used to give commands and is very easy to use in Dutch because like in English, itsimply consists of the present tense stem:

Kom! Come!

Loop! Walk!

We can also form this into a "Let's ..." expression using "Laten we" plus the infinitive verb:

Laten we lopen! Let's walk!

Laten we vliegen! Let's fly!

Correlatives

Below you will see a very extensive scheme that will show you words like "somebody":

Unspecific Interrogative Specific All-inclusive All-exclusiv

Quality

Some/any kind of What kind of?That kind of,

such a

Every kind of,

all kinds ofNo kind of

Een soortWat voor soort

?

Dat soort,

zo'n [soort]Elk soort Geen [enkel] soo

ReasonFor some reason Why?

Therefore,so

For every reason For no reason

Om n of andere reden Waarom? Daarom Om alles Nergens om

Time

Sometime, anytime,

everWhen? Then Always Never

Ooit, eens Wanneer? Dan Altijd Nooit

LocationSomewhere, anywhere Where? There Everywhere Nowhere

Ergens Waar? Daar Overal Nergens

Direction Somewhere, anywhere Where to? [to] there [to] everywhere [to] nowhere


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dutch for beginners long

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