ContentsArticles

Dutch/Cover 1Dutch/Introduction 2Dutch/Lesson 1 7Dutch/Example 1 13Dutch/Lesson 1A 16Dutch/Lesson 2 18Dutch/Lesson 3 24Dutch/Lesson 4 31Dutch/Lesson 5 37Dutch/Lesson 6 42Dutch/Lesson 7 49Dutch/Lesson 8 53Dutch/Lesson 9 58Dutch/Lesson 10 61Dutch/Lesson 11 64Dutch/Lesson 12 66Dutch/Lesson 13 73Dutch/Lesson 14 76Dutch/Lesson 15 83Dutch/Lesson 16 88Dutch/Lesson 17 94Dutch/Lesson 18 105Dutch/Lesson Afrikaans 107Dutch/Lesson 2A 111Dutch/Alfabet 111Dutch/Appendix 2 118Dutch/Appendix 3 120Dutch/Websites 124Dutch/What time is it? 124Dutch/The numbers 126

ReferencesArticle Sources and Contributors 129Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 130

Article LicensesLicense 131

Dutch/Cover 1

Dutch/Cover

Dutch ~ EnglishLearning the Dutch LanguageContinue to the Main Content Page

Begin the Wikibooks Dutch Language Course!

Dutch/Introduction 2

Dutch/IntroductionInleiding ~ Introduction

Hoe Nederlands leren met dit lesboek ~ How to Study Dutch using this TextbookLes 1 >>

The Dutch LanguageDutch (Nederlands) is a member of the western group of the Germanic languages. It is spoken primarily in theNetherlands, and in a major part of both Belgium and Surinam. Continue reading about the Dutch language and itshistory at Wikipedia.There are many sound files embedded in the course, so make sure your computer can play them. Listening andspeaking yourself are an important part of language acquisition.

Dutch and EnglishIf you are an English speaker unfamiliar with Dutch, you may be surprised to learn that English and Dutch areclosely related languages and share many words that are very similar. This is particularly true for everyday words inEnglish that are Anglo-Saxon (i.e. Germanic) in origin. After 1066 English has absorbed a lot of (Norman) French.Dutch also has been exposed to contact with first vulgar Latin and then French, but the French influence has beenless pervasive.Consider the following list of English words followed by their Dutch counterparts:

arm ~ arm

book ~ boek

cat ~ kat

father ~ vader

finger ~ vinger

house ~ huis

hand ~ hand

man ~ man

mother ~ moeder

mouse ~ muis

name ~ naam

son ~ zoon

begin! ~ begin!

Many words of French origin have entered both languages and are quite recognizable:communication ~ communicatie

proclaim ~ proclameren

But in many cases Dutch retains a Germanic word, sometimes aside the Latin one:proclaim ~ uitroepen

English spelling has conserved many now silent consonants, e.g. gh in light. This may have been an obstacle when learning to write English but when learning Dutch the investment pays off. Dutch has licht and the ch is very much

Dutch/Introduction 3

still pronounced as a guttural fricative /x/ like in German Bach or Scottish Loch.Of course, even words whose spelling is no different in English and Dutch may be pronounced quite differently ormean something different (false friends):

door ~ deur

through, by ~ door

worst ~ ergst, slechtst

sausage ~ worst

Nevertheless, when reading Dutch you will see the kinship between the languages, even in many short words,common or not. For example compare:

This week, my father is on the wharf with my brother and his daughter.Deze week is mijn vader op de werf met mijn broer en zijn dochter.

These sentences consist almost entirely of cognates: words that evolved from the same source. Notice however theposition of the verb is in these two phrases. In Dutch it stands in front of the father. This is because Dutch hasretained something that English has lost: the rather complicated word order (syntax) of the West-Germaniclanguages. Many English speakers who learn Dutch find that one of the most difficult aspects to learn to docorrectly, but it hardly ever leads to miscommunication.

DialectsAs a standard language Dutch is relatively young phenomenon. The standard is based on a variety of dialects that aremuch older and show considerable differences not only in pronunciation but even in grammar and syntax. This holdsfor many languages, including for English as spoken in the UK.By urbanization, suburbanization and the influence of the mass media the standard language has been gaining groundat the cost of the dialects for over a century, so that it is now the mother tongue of most. But even in the way that it isspoken there are many regional differences in pronunciation but even in syntax and grammar. This course aims atteaching Dutch that would be received by most if not all speakers but will point out a number of importantdifferences that a non-native speaker is likely to encounter in his/her interaction with native speakers.In Brugge (Flanders), Rotterdam (Netherlands) or Paramaribo (Surinam) Dutch will sound as different as Englishdoes in Edinburgh, London or Indianapolis.

A dynamic languageDutch has undergone far more sweeping changes in grammar and syntax in the last century or two than eitherEnglish or German. It has lost most of its case endings and much of one of the three original genders (feminine).This has led to some interesting shifts in its grammar and syntax. Some of these developments are still taking placetoday. This means that Dutch grammar is less set in stone than the reader may be familiar with from other grammars.Occasionally we will have to discuss the evolution rather than the creature to explain modern Dutch usage.

Dutch/Introduction 4

Dutch and GermanBoth Dutch and German are West-Germanic languages and this means that there are many resemblances. However,Dutch is easier to learn for a speaker of English for a number of reasons. First of all, (High-) German underwent amajor shift of almost all its consonants in the early Middle Ages. In term of its consonants Dutch has been prettyconservative. Compare:

English Dutch German

water water Wasser

make! maak! mache!

pepper peper Pfeffer

This makes a major part of Dutch vocabulary easier to memorize. Secondly, German retained its system of caseendings in contrast to Dutch and English. It is not easy to master that system if your mother-tongue does not have it.Compare:

English Dutch German

the old man sees the pretty woman de oude man ziet de mooie vrouw der alte Mann sieht die hübsche Frau

the pretty woman sees the old man de mooie vrouw ziet de oude man die hübsche Frau sieht den alten Mann

Knowledge of German can certainly help in learning Dutch, but it can also be a source of confusion. A goodexample is the letter combination sch. In German it denotes the same consonant as sh in English (in IPA: [ʃ]), inDutch this sound is relatively rare. It only occurs in loans from languages like Frisian, English, French etc.In Dutch 'sch' can either denote and [s] followed by a velar spirant [x], like in schip. In the ending -isch the 'ch' ismute and it is pronounced as [-is] as in English 'fleece'.A topic where knowledge of German is a great help is syntax (word order).

Vocabulary and GrammarIn learning to read or speak any new language, two important aspects to be mastered are vocabulary and grammar(others are pronunciation and syntax, but they usually do not stop you from being understood). Acquiring vocabularyis a "simple" matter of memorization.

Learning by earChildren do it all the time, but they are at an advantage: they memorize far easier than grown-ups. Age is a definitedisadvantage in language learning. The child's learning process can be "reactivated" to some extent by immersion ina second language: a method of learning a new language by moving to a place where that language is spoken andhaving to get around and live without use of one's native tongue.If you do not have the opportunity of residing in a Dutch speaking area an alternative is to listen to recordings andwe are in process of adding bits and pieces as .ogg files so that you can learn by ear. Use them as much as you can.More than once.These files take different forms1. Single words. They are useful when you are trying to memorize vocabulary2. Spoken text of the chapter. They should be used to study the conversations3. Drills. Here you need to repeat words or utterances in the pauses.4. Translation drills. Here you are told to say something in Dutch yourself.

Dutch/Introduction 5

Of course there is also a drawback to the by-ear method: You do not get much immersion into reading Dutch. You asan internet user, will most likely want to be literate in Dutch.

Learning by eyeThis is why this course also tries to train your eyes, but this will not work without effort from your side. This is whywe often say: Your turn! (Uw beurt!)So what do you need to do? There are a variety of things. We are tackling the problem with a multi-prongedapproach.Be sure to "learn"—commit to memory—all of the vocabulary words in each lesson as they are presented. Earlylessons have simple sentences because it is assumed that the student's vocabulary is limited.To help you accumulate vocabulary there are a number of additional pages see: Dutch/Vocabulary. In part they arevisual and there are exercises to go with them (still being created).Throughout the text, more complex discourses (often as photo captions) are included to introduce the student toregular Dutch in use. It may be helpful to translate these using a Dutch-English dictionary (access to one is a must).Other sources of Dutch, such as newspapers, magazines, web sites, etc. can also be useful in building vocabulary anddeveloping a sense of how Dutch words are put together. The Dutch Wikipedia [1]provides an ever expanding sourceof Dutch language articles that can be used for this purpose. Further, a Dutch version of the English Wikibooksproject—a library of textbooks in Dutch — is available at Dutch Language Textbooks and there is a growing Dutchversion of wiktionary to which a number of words in the text have been linked for direct reference.

Learning grammar and syntaxThis is where as a grown up you are at an advantage, because you may already know how grammar works from yourmother tongue or other languages you are proficient in to some extent.Dutch grammar is sufficiently similar to English grammar that "reading" Dutch is possible with minimal vocabulary.The student should generally recognize the parts of a sentence. With a good dictionary, a sentence can usually betranslated correctly. Of course there are some notable exceptions and false friends, e.g. in the way that the passivevoice is formed:

hij wordt gezien - he is seenhij is gezien - he has been seen.

To speak and write Dutch you do need to learn its grammar and syntax. Particularly the latter (word order) is ratherdifferent. We will gradually introduce it. Do not be daunted by it. Learning a language goes bit by bit, word forword, structure by structure. Just keep at it and look at what you have gained not at what you don't understand.Children don't always understand everything either, but they are not ashamed or humiliated by that.

Dutch/Introduction 6

PronunciationA guide to pronunciation of Dutch is provided as Appendix 1. You should become familiar with this page early on,and refer to it often. Nothing can replace learning a language from a native speaker, but the text is liberally sprinkledwith audio files providing the student with valuable input from hearing spoken Dutch. Analyze the spoken wordscarefully. The pronunciation guide in Appendix 1 can only closely, not exactly, convey how Dutch words should bepronounced.

Layout of LessonsThis textbook is intended as a beginning course in the Dutch language for English speakers.Early lessons emphasize conversational subjects and gradually introduce Dutch grammatical concepts and rules. Inaddition, sound files accompany appropriate parts of each lesson.The main lessons aim at introducing grammatical topics by means of conversations, interspersed with someexercises. Of course that is not sufficient to actually start speaking the language. Therefore each lesson isaccompanied by a parallel lesson 1⇒1A that elaborates the material further in conversations, reading material, fill inthe blank exercises etc, rather than focussing on grammar. In addition there are pages intended to build upvocabulary.Which way the reader wishes to use the book may vary. People who have experience with other languages,grammars etc. might want to follow the order Lesson 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > and on to the end of the basic textOthers that want to start tackling the language in context of a situation and worry about grammar later might want tostart withLesson 1A and then check 1 to understand some of the grammatical detailsAnother strategy isLesson 1 > 1A > 2 > 2A > 3 > 3A >, etc.

The Student and the LessonThe text is designed to constitute a course of study in the Dutch language. Each lesson should be read thoroughly andmastered before moving on. Substantial text in Dutch is included and the student should read all of it, not once, butmultiple times. Complete translations into English are included only in selected places. Most of the text must betranslated by the student using his or her acquired vocabulary and the vocabulary presented at the bottom of eachlesson. As the Dutch is read (out loud is better), the student must succeed in gaining an understanding of the meaningof each sentence, and the role each word plays in establishing that meaning. To the beginner, there will seem to bemany words in a Dutch sentence that are out of place or even redundant or unnecessary. These add subtleties to thelanguage that will make sense eventually. But it is important to experience these subtleties from the very beginning.

References[1] http:/ / nl. wikipedia. org/

Dutch/Lesson 1 7

Dutch/Lesson 1Les 1 ~ Lesson 1

Eenvoudige Gesprekken ~ Simple Conversations• Simple conversations

• Grammar: Pronouns: I,me etc.

• Polite and clitic forms

<< Voorwoord | Les 1 | Les 2 >>

Grammatica 1-1 ~ Introduction to Dutch grammarChildren learn their mother tongue without knowing the parts of speech such as verbs, nouns and phrases. Howeverthese are helpful for anyone attempting to learn a second language from a book or a website. Of course the childrenhave it right: the best way to learn a language is to listen to a mother tongue speaker and simply repeat. But such aspeaker may not always be available to you. This book will try to compensate this by addition of audio files, but thatis still a cumbersome substitute. We do recommend that you use them as much as you can. Firefox seems to giveeasier 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 ofJune 30 2009 they are still in construction.English speakers will find many strong parallels between their language and Dutch. Where possible we will try topoint out the similarities and exploit them.However, as noted in the introduction, Dutch grammar is more complex than English grammar, and identifying themeaning of words in a Dutch sentence is difficult without understanding the clues to word function that come fromthe grammatical rules. The basic lessons of this textbook are set up to first introduce the parts of speech, and thenbring in the rules that govern these. Pay particular attention to sentence word order as you progress through thelessons.

Using WiktionaryThroughout the texts and in the vocabulary lists there are blue links that take you to the Dutch version of our sisterproject Wikitionary [1]. Of course the layout is in Dutch and you may not immediately understand everything, butthat is not a disaster. If you want to learn a language you also should learn to be a bit of a detective: you often needto get the gist of something with a few pieces of the puzzle missing. Don't let that scare you off! Here are a fewuseful pieces:1. There usually is an English translation of a word under the heading Vertalingen, marked Engels2. There may even be a geluidsopname (sound recording) or an phonetic description under Uitspraak. If you can:

listen to the pronunciation a few times: it will help you remember the word and become an active speaker.If you are really lost use the interwiki link to the English version (or any other language you know) as back up, butdon't give in to it too easily!We strongly encourage you to use the links to expand your vocabulary. First guess what a word means, then click!

Dutch/Lesson 1 8

HoveringSome words will be underlined. Try to hover your mouse over such words.

Gesprek 1-1 ~ Vrienden: Jan en KarelRead the following conversation. Use the hover method to see an instant translation of a certain word and try to piecetogether the meaning of the story. Once you have an idea of the gist of the story you can open up the drop down boxand read the translation to see if you were right. When learning a new language it is very important to be able todeduce meaning from limited information, because you will often not know all the words used. Picking up theirmeaning from context is an important skill.You will also see that Dutch sometimes strings words together a bit differently than English. Dutch word order isquite 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.cəɦɔj,dɑŋ.kjə,mɛt.'mɛɪ.'ɣat.ət.xut.ʔɛn.'mɛ.'cɑʊdɑŋ.kjə,mɛt.mɛɪ.'ɣat.ət.'ok.xut. tɔ.'tsinstɔ.'tsins.jɑn

Grammatica 1-2 ~ Forms

Clitic formsNotice the difference between "Hoe gaat het met je"? and "En met jou?". Both translate literally into with you, butthere is a difference in emphasis. Jou carries emphasis, je does not. In Dutch, there are often two forms of the samepronoun: a strong one and a weak ('clitic') one. The clitic forms cannot have emphasis and the vowel in a clitic isoften 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 formsThe 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 secondperson (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 namebasis' in English. Notice the use of u in the conversation below.

Dutch/Lesson 1 9

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

Gesprek 1-2 ~ De handelaarsPush 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 meaningof 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 theprocess a few times.

Grammatica 1-3 ~ Introduction to pronounsA pronoun is a short word that takes the place of a noun previously mentioned in the sentence, paragraph, orconversation.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 personalpronouns first.

Personal pronounsPersonal 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.

Dutch/Lesson 1 10

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 treatedIn English he and she are reserved for animate nouns -usually persons- and this is increasingly the case in Dutch aswell, 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 (neutergender) 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 ('k) we

2nd (fam.) -

2nd (polite) - u -

2nd (South) ge gij ge

3rd (-ie)ze('t)

zij ze

Object case (accusative)

person singular clitic plural clitic

1st me ons -

2nd (fam.) je jullie -

2nd (polite) u - u -

2nd (South) u - u -

3rd hemhaarhet

(-m)(d'r)('t)

hen (hun*) ze

Dutch/Lesson 1 11

Remarks

1. As you see not all pronouns have clitics and some of them (shown in parentheses) are not used in the writtenlanguage.

2. The pronouns in italics: hij, zij (sing.), hem, haar, hen and hun are increasingly reserved for persons and animateobjects. For inanimate objects these pronouns usually get replaced either by demonstrative pronouns (see lesson4) 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 henform was artificially created by the grammarians of the past [2] In the spoken language hen is seldom used andspeakers increasingly avoid the issue by opting for the clitic ze.

Woordenlijst 1You have already encountered quite a few words above. Now make sure you own them! Listen to theirpronunciation, sort the table by English and read back to Dutch, check the pronunciation again. Click on the bluelink to go to the Dutch wiktionary and try to figure out what you may. If you do not understand, follow the interwikilink 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 trysomething different.

Dutch word audio file English translation

de appendix appendix, supplement het bezoek visit, attendance (het) Engeland England het Nederlands Dutch de vriend, vrienden friend, friends de handelaars business people, businessmen, tradesmen, merchants (pl.)het gesprek, gesprekken conversation, conversations de grammatica grammar de les lesson de straat street de woordenlijst word list de woordenschat vocabulary op straat on (in) the street tot ziens goodbye (lit: see you again)uit Engeland from England Met mij gaat het goed I am fine (lit: With me goes it well)goedendag! Good day (greeting) (de) dag! (Good) day! Hi! Hello! goed good En met jou? And how are you? (lit: And with you?) Hoe gaat het met jou (u)? How are you (lit: How goes it with you?)hoe how gaan to go

Dutch/Lesson 1 12

het gaat it goes met with is op bezoek is visiting tegenkomen to meet, come across, encounter, run into komt ... tegen comes across , runs into, meets bezoeken to visit maar but, however ook also, too, as well dank je, dank u. thank you; bedankt thanks simpel simple het it (pronoun) mevrouw Ms., Miss, or Mrs. meneer Mr. mij me nee no ja yes correct correct al already, yet mooi beautiful (in this case, 'nice' or 'fine') zeer very en and

Your turn! Building vocabulary 1When learning a language you need to start building up your vocabulary. There are various ways of doing that. Oneis to study the above conversations well. Often words are easier to remember when put in context. But there are otherways. Wiki adds a few methods to the range of possibilities. One is the hover method. Just hover your mouse overthis. We will add vocabulary building exercises to each lesson to make it easier for you to memorize it all.You may want to study some example conversations from world literature in Voorbeeld 1.

• Les 1A: more conversations and practice >><< Lesson Layout Guide

Pronunciation Guide >>

[1] http:/ / nl. wiktionary. org/ wiki/ Hoofdpagina[2] "Dutch" by Jan G. Kooij in The world's major languages edt. Bernard Comrie ISBN 0-19-520521-9 Oxford University Press 1987

Dutch/Example 1 13

Dutch/Example 1The following voorbeelden (examples) accompany Les 1.

Poesje en HondjeThe following text was taken from a Mother Goose rhyme and translated to Dutch. The original appears in theProject Gutenberg [1] text 'Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading'. In order to get a literal translation, the Dutchtext was not made to rhyme.

Nederlands Poesje zit naast het vuur

Hoe kan zij braaf zijn?

Dan komt het kleine hondje binnen

"Poesje, ben je daar?

Zo, zo, mejuffrouw Poesje,

Zeg me, hoe gaat het met je?"

"Dank je, dank je, Hondje,

Het gaat heel goed met me op dit moment."

English Kittycat sits beside the fire,

How can she be fair?

In comes the little dog,

"Pussy, are you there?

So, so, dear miss Kittycat,

Pray tell me how do you do?"

"Thank you, thank you, little dog,

I'm very well at the moment."

Woordenlijst

en: and

vuur: fire

met: with

hoe gaat het met je: lit. 'How goes it with you', how are you?, how do you do?

heel: very; also whole

Dutch/Example 1 14

Opmerkingen1. Poesje is pronounced puss-yah. The digraph oe is pronounced somewhere between 'u' and 'oo'. The English word

pussy is actually a very Dutch-like diminutive of puss. Among some speakers of Dutch, pussy would be anacceptable pronunciation.

Poesje MauwThe following is a Dutch volksliedje (folk song).

Nederlands Poesje Mauw

Kom eens gauw

Ik heb lekkere melk voor jou

En voor mij

Rijstebrij

O wat heerlijk smullen wij

English Pussy Mou

Come quickly

I have tasty milk for you

And for me

Rice porridge

Oh how we will enjoy this meal

Opmerkingen1. The meter in the Dutch version is nearly perfect and should provide hints for pronouncing the words.2. Lekkere is pronounced as 'le-kre' in this case, to fit the meter (but this is non-standard pronunciation).

Woordenlijst• brij: mash• smullen: to thoroughly enjoy food

Crimes and CrimesThe following is a fragment of act 1, scene 2, The Cremerie, from the August Strindberg comedy There Are Crimesand Crimes, as translated by Edwin Bjorkman and included in Project Gutenberg [1].

Dutch/Example 1 15

DutchADOLPHE. [Komt eerst binnen; na hem HENRIETTA] Hee, daar heb je Maurice. Hoe gaat het met je? Laat medeze dame voorstellen aan mijn oudste en beste vriend. Mademoiselle Henriette--Monsieur Maurice.MAURICE. [Stijfjes groetend] Aangenaam kennis te maken.HENRIETTA. We hebben elkaar al eerder gezien.ADOLPHE. Is dat zo? Wanneer, als ik vragen mag?MAURICE. Zojuist. Hier.ADOLPHE. O-oh!--Maar nu moet je blijven en wat met ons kletsen.

EnglishADOLPHE. [Comes in first; after him HENRIETTE] Why, there's Maurice. How are you? Let me introduce thislady here to my oldest and best friend. Mademoiselle Henriette--Monsieur Maurice.MAURICE. [Saluting stiffly] Pleased to meet you.HENRIETTA. We have seen each other before.ADOLPHE. Is that so? When, if I may ask?MAURICE. A moment ago. Right here.ADOLPHE. O-oh!--But now you must stay and have a chat with us.

Woordenlijst• voorstellen: to introduce• aan: to (addressing)• aangenaam kennis te maken: lit. nice to make your acquaintance; pleased to meet you.• elkaar: each other.• kletsen, babbelen, een praatje maken: chat (compare 'prate' for the last form, although Dutch praten lacks the

negative connotation)

Opmerkingen1. The play takes place in Paris, hence the French names and phrases.2. Past participles in Dutch often end in 'd' or 't', and start with 'ge'. 'Gezien' is an irregular form, as is its English

counterpart, 'seen'.3. Generally, Dutch speakers won't use phrases such as 'how are you' and 'nice to meet you'. It is not wrong to use

them, but neither is it considered impolite to leave them out of a conversation.Such a conversation could have the following course:• Anonieme spreker: Hariette van Dorp, mag ik Jan van Galen aan je voorstellen?• Hariette: Hariette van Dorp.• Jan: Jan van Galen.

References[1] http:/ / www. gutenberg. net

Dutch/Lesson 1A 16

Dutch/Lesson 1Aback to Lesson 1

Gesprek 1A-1Let's have a look at some more conversations with everyday phrases.Some words will already look familiar. If not hover to see an instant translation. Try to memorize some phrases,particularly the greetings.

Hoe gaat het met je?Met mij gaat het prima, met jou?

Ben je gisteren naar dat concert geweest?Nee, ik had andere verplichtingen.

Is die man daar de baas van het hotel?Nee, hij is slechts een medewerker

Dan heb ik dat verkeerd begrepen.Wanneer ben je hier weer?

Ik ben hier elke week om deze tijdVorige week was ik hier ook.

Ik moet nu gaan.Het was prettig om kennis met je te maken.

Tot ziensDag!

Fill in the blank- 1A-1-FDat is de baas van het hotel niet, dat is slechts een _____.Met ____ gaat het goed, en met jou?Nee, verplichtingen zijn niet altijd ____.Ik moet nu gaan, tot ____!Ben je hier elke week om deze ____?Ben je ___ naar het concert geweest?Heb ik dat verkeerd ____?

Dutch/Lesson 1A 17

Pronunciation drill 1A-1-PListen to the following audio files and repeat what the speaker says in the pauzes.

Notice how "met" and "je" 'meld' together. This is very common in casual speech.Notice the use of the full pronoun 'mij', because emphasis is put on it. That's why the sentence starts with it.This in turn switches the words "het" and "gaat" into inverse order, much like in the question above.Did you notice how the z of ziens assimilates from [z] to [s] once it is put behind the -t of tot?. This happens alot to voiced consonants in initial position. All final obstruents are voiceless automatically and they even infectthe next word!If you are American pay attention to the [u] sound in moet, it is quite a bit more rounded than Americanspronounce a 'u' sound.

Gesprek 1A-2Jan en Mieke have a bite to eat in a small restaurant

Mieke, wil je iets drinken?Nou, eh, ja, eigenlijk wil ik ook wel iets eten. Ik heb trek.

Kijk dat lijkt wel een leuk tentje, vind je niet?Ja, dat lijkt wel aardig.

Ze gaan het restaurant binnen.

Appelpannenkoek

Goedemiddag, meneer,mevrouw, wilt u ietseten?

Ja, graag! Kunnen we op het terras zitten?Natuurlijk! Ik pak evende menukaarten.

Kijk Jan, ze hebbenappelpannenkoeken

Hmmm, ik heb liever een spekpannenkoek!Pas op, je wordt veel te dik. Je hebtal een buikje!

Ach kom, dan ga ik wel weer naar de gym.Wat wil je drinken?

Een biertje, en jij?Geef mij maar groene thee

Dutch/Lesson 1A 18

Pronunciation drill 1A-2-P

Did you notice the /w/? It is produced not between the upper and lower lips as in English or French, butbetween the upper teeth and the lower lips. At least in the Netherlands it is. In Flanders and in Surinam abilabial w is more common, so it is not a disaster if you do that one wrong.Of course the latter will test your abilities to produce gutturals... They are quite numerous in Dutch, so that youdo need to practise them. As the /r/ is concerned, this speaker still uses the oldfashioned rrolling one, but today(2009) there are many different varieties being used, producing interesting combinations if preceded orfollowed by a g or ch.

Dutch/Lesson 2Les 2 ~ Lesson 2

Onbekenden en vrienden ~ Strangers and Friends• Simple conversations II

• Grammar: Introduction to Verbs

• Grammar: Adjectives, demonstratives and articles

• Syntax: Question and negation

<< Les 1 | Les 2 | Les 3 >>

Gesprek 2-11. 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.

Dutch/Lesson 2 19

Grammatica 2-1 ~ Introduction to VerbsA verb (in Dutch: werkwoord) is that part of speech that describes an action. Verbs come in an almost bewilderingarray of tenses, moods, voices and aspects, and there are several major types: intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, andergative 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 here1. a singular one: heet used with ik,u,ze2. 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 EngelsmanMeneer 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!

Grammatica 2-2 ~ Inversion in questions and negationsYou 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 bitmore complicated than in English. For the moment let's just leave the above sentence for what it is and start withquestions.

Dutch/Lesson 2 20

QuestionsA 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 questionThe 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?")

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

Ik versta u - I understand youIk 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 meisjeIn 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!

Dutch/Lesson 2 21

Grammatica 2-2 Adjectives, demonstratives and articles

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

dat nieuwe meisje. Die brunette. - that new girl, that brunetteSimilarly,where English uses the article the, Dutch has two possibilities: de or het, recall:

de boekhouding, het meisje. - the administration, the girlWe will revisit this phenomenon (gender) in the next lesson more extensively. There is a bit of a problem with it inDutch.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 meaningof another word more precise, like new, small or exciting

InflectionRecall 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 adjectiveremains 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 careen rode auto - a red carde rode auto's - the red carsrode 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 huiseen rood huis - a red housede rode huizenrode 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)

Dutch/Lesson 2 22

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 maneen grote man - a big maneen groot man - a great man

Making nouns out of adjectivesAdjectives can be turned into nouns, by assuming their inflected form:

Dat is een groteThat is a big one

Dat is een kleineThat is a small one

Die lange heeft mijn fiets gestolenThat 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 thecorresponding 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/Lesson 2 23

Dutch word audio file English translation

de brunette brunette de Engelsman Englishman het haar, de haren hair(s) het meisje, de meisjes girl, girls de collega colleague Mag ik...voorstellen? May I introduce...? Jazeker yes, indeed Aangenaamkennis te maken

Pleased to meet you

Goed zo! That's nice! gek zijn (op) to be crazy (about) verstaan to understand verstaat u? do you understand? geloven to believe ik geloof I believe heten to name, call (a name) ze heet she is called praten to speak, to talk u praat you speak voorstellen to introduce leuk vinden to like als je ... leuk vindt if you like ... Nederlands Dutch het (neuter) the de (m/f) the dat (neuter) that die (m/f) that daar there daarginds over there daarachter over there een a, an een beetje somewhat, a bit haar her interessant interesting leuk cute kort, korte short lang, lange long langzaam slow

Dutch/Lesson 2 24

langzamer slower mijn my mij me mooi beautiful naar to nieuw, nieuwe new zwart, zwarte black zij she u you als if wie? who?

Pronunciation Guide >>

• Advanced Lesson 2 >>

Dutch/Lesson 3Les 3 ~ Lesson 3

De Getallen ~ The Numbers

<< Les 2 | Les 3 | Les 4 >>

Gesprek 3-1Mam teaches her toddler, Jeroen to count:

Mam: Hoeveel vingertjes heb je, Jeroen?Jeroen: een, twee, drie, vier, vijf.Mam: en je andere hand?Jeroen: ook vijf!Mam: Ja, tel ze maar: zes, zeven, acht, negen en tien

Leren 3 ~ Tellen van 1 tot 12In Dutch, as in English, there are both ordinal and cardinal numbers, and number formation is similar in that thefirst twelve numbers are unique. Above twelve, numbers are formed by combination. For example, 15 is vijftien and16 is zestien. Other numbers will be the subject of more advanced lessons.Note in the table how ordinals are formed from the cardinals in Dutch by adding -de. 'Ten' becomes 'tenth' inEnglish; tien become tiende in Dutch. As in English, there are several variants: eerste, derde, and achtste.

Dutch/Lesson 3 25

hoofdtelwoordencardinal numbers

rangtelwoordenordinal numbers

one een 1st eerste

two twee 2nd tweede

three drie 3rd derde

four vier 4th vierde

five vijf 5th vijfde

six zes 6th zesde

seven zeven 7th zevende

eight acht 8th achtste

nine negen 9th negende

ten tien 10th tiende

eleven elf 11th elfde

twelve twaalf 12th twaalfde

Remark: een is used both as an indefinite article (a or an) and a number (one). One often puts accents on the e'swhen one is meant in case of ambiguity: één. There is also a difference in pronunciation: /ən/ (schwa-n) for thearticle and /e:n/ (ayn) for the number.

Eerst en laatstThe ordinals are a special kind of adjectives. They always have the inflection -e. So, words like *zesd do not exist.The only exception is eerst. As in English, it can be used as an adverb:

Hij gaat eerst naar huis - he first goes homeIts opposite (antonym) is laatst as adverb and laatste as adjective:

de laatste trein - the last train.

Grammatica 3-1 ~ Telling time (hours)Knowing the numbers from 1 to 12, you can now begin asking and telling time in Dutch.

Gesprek 3-2Twee jongens, Hendrik en Karel, zijn vrienden. Op een middag komen ze elkaar tegen.• Hendrik: Karel. Hoe gaat het?• Karel: Hallo!• Hendrik: Wil je voetballen?• Karel: Graag, maar hoe laat is het?• Hendrik: Het is één uur.• Karel: Dan kan ik nog tot twee uur spelen.• Hendrik: Dat is goed. We spelen nog een uur lang!• Karel: Ja, En daarna breng je me op je motor naar huis.

Dutch/Lesson 3 26

De klokkentoren van Antwerpen

Asking for the time is accomplished by the sentence:Hoe laat is het? ("What time is it?", lit. "How late is it?").

The answer is:Het is ____ uur - "It is ____ o'clock", substituting the correctcardinal value.

Half

The half hours are indicated differently in Dutch:het is half twaalf - 11:30

it is half past eleven

Kwart

het is kwart voor zes - 5:45het is kwart over zes - 6:15

Grammatica 3-2 ~ Some more word order: inversionWe have seen that inversion of subject and verb is used to create a question:

Het is twee uurHoe laat is het?

However, recall from the conversation that inversion happens for other reasons....daarna breng je......op een middag komen ze...

These are not questions, still there is inversion. The reason is that the adverb daarna or the adverbial expression opeen middag was put before the subject + verb part for emphasis. This causes inversion. We could also have said:

Jij brengt mij daarna op je motor naar huis.Zij komen elkaar op een middag tegen.

Notice that the verb loses final -t when using the informal second person jij of je in such cases as it does in questions:jij brengt - breng je

Grammatica 3-3 ~ Introduction to naamwoordenDutch grammar uses the word naamwoord (lit. name-word) that does not translate well into English. Naamwoordenindicates a rather broad class of words, both independently used (like nouns) or used to specify another word (likeadjectives). Dutch grammar is therefore structured a bit differently from the English one. Besides naamwoordenthere are two other large classes of words in Dutch: werkwoorden (verbs) and bijwoorden (adverbs).A noun is a fundamental part of speech, occurring in sentences in two different ways: as subjects (performers ofaction), or objects (recipients of action). As a generality, a noun is the name of a "person, place, thing or concept".Nouns are classified into1. proper nouns (eigennamen): e.g. "Janet"2. common nouns (zelfstandige naamwoorden): e.g. "girl"3. cardinals (telwoorden): e.g. one, two, three, etc.

Dutch/Lesson 3 27

4. pronouns (voornaamwoorden): e.g. "she", "her"The latter group is often considered a separate class of words. They stand in for (pro-, voor-) nouns. Words like "hij"- "he" are known as personal pronouns (persoonlijke voornaamwoorden)Dutch has its own grammatical nomenclature and to use dictionaries and grammars it is useful to know it.Noun is rendered as zelfstandig naamwoord ('nameword that stands on itself'). An adjective is called bijvoeglijknaamwoord (nameword that can be added). Naamwoord is more general than noun. It derives from the Latin termnomen: nomen substantivum (zelfstandig naamwoord) and nomen adiectivum (bijvoeglijk naamwoord).Adjectives are usually added to nouns to further determine them:

"mooi" weer"beautiful" weather

Some pronouns, e.g. possessive pronouns (bezittelijk voornaamwoord) are used as adjectives:"mijn" auto"my" car

A special class of adjectives is formed by the articles (lidwoorden):"the" car"de" auto

Gender of NounsWe have seen evidence of word gender in the pronouns we have been encountering; notably 'he', 'she', and 'it' inEnglish and hij, zij, and het in Dutch. We also saw that adjectives depend on gender in Dutch.There are a few rules that help to determine a noun's gender, but mostly it must be learned as children do: word byword.Noun gender is also reflected in the definite article It should always be learned as part of the noun, as this is a goodway to memorize gender.

Definite ArticlesDefinite articles are equivalent to an English 'the', and the two basic gender forms in Dutch are as follows:

het: neuter singular (pronounce /hEt/, "h-eh-t")de: (pronounce /də/) all other cases

Animate nouns

Much like in English there are three genders for animate nouns (people, pets etc.) and this shows up clearly in theirpersonal pronouns: hij, zij and het (he, she and it) and their possessive pronouns zijn, haar and zijn (his, her, its):

To say 'the man' in Dutch, you would say de man, because man is a masculine noun.You refer to de man with hij (he): Hij is een man. Een man en zijn (his) hond

To say 'the woman' in Dutch, you would say de vrouw, because vrouw is a feminine noun.You would say: Zij (she) is een vrouw. Een vrouw en haar (her) werk

To say 'the calf' in Dutch, you would say het kalf, because kalf is a neuter noun.You would say: Het (it) is een kalf. Een kalf en zijn (its) stal

However, zijn is not used much anymore to refer to a neuter word and we will see a different way of expressing "its"later.

Dutch/Lesson 3 28

In the plural the gender distinctions are absent: de mannen, de vrouwen, de kalveren are all refered to by zij (they)and hun (their).As you see the definite article is the same for masculine and feminine, but it is not just definite articles, but alsoadjectives and pronouns that must match the gender of the noun they are related to.

Inanimate nouns

In the Netherlands (the North) the distinction between masculine and feminine was lost for inanimate nouns (things,concepts etc.) in the 17th century. The feminine and the masculine have merged into a common gender north of degrote riveren (the Great Rivers: the Meuse, the Rhine and its branches) almost entirely. Someone learning thelanguage therefore best considers Dutch a two-gender language for anything but persons:

the clock is de klok, because it is common gender

the book is het boek, because it is neuter gender

This does not hold for the South, where a "de klok" may still be referred to as "zij" (she), but it is acceptable standardDutch to disregard the masculine-feminine distinction.By contrast, the twofold split common-neuter is still very much alive in Dutch and this must be mastered by anybeginner to learn the language well. Therefore, it is important when learning Dutch nouns to always learn themtogether with their correct definite article. That is:

Memorize the word for 'book' in Dutch as het boek, not simply boek.Memorize the word for 'clock' in Dutch as de klok, not simply klok.

This is by far the most important thing you should do right now. The fine distinctions between the varieties of thelanguage can wait.

The reference problem

As we saw above the personal pronouns (hij,zij,het) still show the three-gender distinction that Dutch inherited fromits Indoeuropean ancestry. That makes it hard to use personal pronouns for an inanimate common gender word.Nowadays hij and zij are pretty much restricted to people or their pets, so they indicate natural rather thangrammatical gender, certainly in the North. In the South de klok may still be called a she, but Northerners avoid suchreferences and so should you. Notice that you cannot resort to het (it) as done in English, because de klok is notneuter...This leaves roughly two thirds of all inanimate nouns without a personal pronoun to refer them by. For possessivepronouns (his, her, its) a similar problem exists.We shall see three common ways that speakers use to avoid this reference problem:• using demonstratives• using pronominal adverbs• using diminutives (always neuter)These three aspects of the language play a more prominent role in Dutch than they do in English. One could say thatthe merger of m/f into common gender has triggered a number of shifts in the language, that for example German orEnglish do not have and must be mastered to speak Dutch well.

Dutch/Lesson 3 29

Rules for genderThere are a few general (and helpful) rules for gender:1. Diminutives are neuter: de klok → het klokje2. Words in -ing, -heid, -teit, -te carry de. (they are actually feminine, but do not worry about that).3. Loans usually retain their gender: (Latin) museum → het museum (both neuter).Another helpful fact is that all genders behave the same in the plural, all use de, die, zij etc.Apart from these general rules, nouns should be memorized together with their definite article. So, learn "de klok",not just "klok" and "het paard" not just "paard"

Double genderThere is an interesting group of words for which the natural gender is in conflict with the grammatical gender, e.g.diminutives of people:

The girl: het meisje

The (little) boy: het jongetje

Grammatically they are neuter and their articles, adjectives and demonstratives follow the neuter pattern. Howeverthe personal and possessive pronouns follow the natural gender:

Een mooi (n!) meisje en haar (f!) moederDat (n!) jongetje? Hij (m!) is niet hier

Woordenlijst 3

Dutch word audio file English translation

het boek book het getal, de getallen number, numbers het huis house de jongen, de jongens boy, boys de klok clock de klokkentoren clock tower de man man het meisje girl de middag afternoon de motor motorcycle het uur hour; also "o'clock" de vrouw woman breng je me... you take me... dat is goed very well (lit.: "that is good") Ik kan... spelen I can play... Het is It is Hoe laat is het? What is the time? op een middag one afternoon tot twee uur until two o'clock

Dutch/Lesson 3 30

Wil je... ? Do you want... ? (familiar form; also: Would you like to... ?) van x tot y from x to y (exclusive) brengen to bring spelen to play tellen to count voetballen to play soccer/football dan then daarna after that elkaar each other hallo hello jouw your je you lang long laat late mijn my naar to (as in "I'm driving to London.") tot to/until we we

Also included in the vocabulary for Lesson 3 are the ordinal and cardinal numbers 1 through 12 from the table at thebeginning of this lesson.Pronunciation Guide>>

• Advanced Lesson 3>>

Dutch/Lesson 4 31

Dutch/Lesson 4Les 4 ~ Lesson 4

<< Les 3 | Les 4 | Les 5 >>

Gesprek 4-1Peter is een student medicijnen. Hij gaat naar de universiteit. Hij wil Elly uitnodigen voor een etentje, maar hijheeft geen geld. Hij kan er niks aan doen; studeren is duur.Pa, ik heb geld nodig!

Alweer?Ja, sorry hoor, maar ik heb echt stoelen en een tafel nodig!

Ja, ja, tafels en stoelen zeker. Feesten zul je bedoelen.He Pa, toe nou... Die heb ik echt nodig, hoor.

Nou, vooruit dan maar weer...

Grammatica 4-1 ~ The indefinite articles een en geen...chairs and a table ... stoelen en een tafel

...has no money... heeft geen geld

In the previous lesson you were introduced to the definite articles—'the' in English and het or de in Dutch. Indefinitearticles precede nouns in the same way that definite articles do, but convey a general or indefinite sense. These are 'a'or 'an' in English. Thus, 'the book' or het boek refers to a definite or specific book, whereas 'a book' or een boek isindefinite about which book is referred to. Dutch indefinite articles only come in one form (een), so they don'tdisplay gender.

tafel

The use of definite and indefinite articles is virtually the same asin English. The few deviations are best learned when listening tothe language or speaking it.

Dutch/Lesson 4 32

stoel

een de masculine/feminine de tafel - een tafel (the table - a table)

een het neuter het raam - een raam (the window - a window)

Please note (see also previous lesson) that the indefinite article has the same form as the numeral one (één). Onecould argue that one is a clitic form of the other. To denote the difference, one could place accents on the numeral.Also, there is a difference in pronunciation. The numeral één (one) is pronounced /e:n/, the article een (a) with amuch weaker /ən/. Occasionally Dutch has one and English the other:

op een middag - one afternoonNotice that one is used here in the meaning of a certain, not say in contrast to two or three.There is an inflected form ene that is used independently:

Occasionally Dutch has one, English the other.Soms heeft Nederlands het ene, Engels het andere

NegationIn English a negative of an indefinite article is simply formed by adding not:

this is a carthis is not a car

Alternatively one can drop the article and say:this is no car.

In Dutch there is a special negative of een: geen.dit is een autodit is geen auto.

The combination niet + een is only used in contrasting things:dit is niet een fuut maar een eend.this is not a grebe but a duck.

Dutch/Lesson 4 33

Grammatica 4-2 ~ Possessive and demonstrative pronounsRecall the following from Gesprek 3-1:

Ja. En daarna breng je me op je motor naar huis.Which translates as:

'Yes. And after that take me home on your motorcycle'.The sentence demonstrates one of the possessive pronouns. These are (singular) 'my', 'your', and 'his/her/its' inEnglish and mijn, jouw or je, and zijn/haar/(zijn) in Dutch.The pronoun je is a weak form of jouw and it is used when the emphasis is on something else, such as the motorcyclein this case.Dutch does not have a possessive case as English does. In English one could say this house of mine, where mine (andyours, hers, his, ours, yours, theirs) is possessive case. Dutch uses objective case for this: dit huis van mij as if 'van'(of) is a preposition.See Dutch/Appendix 3 for a table of the possessive pronouns.In English, this is used as demonstrative pronoun to indicate something in proximity. That indicates greaterdistance. In Dutch a similar distinction exists, but gender plays a role:

de trein → deze trein - this trainhet huis → dit huis - this house

So, one replaces 'de' by deze and 'het' by dit.At a greater distance:

de trein → die treinhet huis → dat huis

Notice that often when English has th, Dutch will have d:the - dethat - datthink - denk

A third, even more distant pronoun exists (gene, gindse), but it is about as common as its English equivalent yon,yonder.Again, the two languages betray their kinship. In some words, a g in Dutch corresponds to a y in English.. Compare:

gisteren - yesterdayde gist - the yeastgeel - yellow

Dutch/Lesson 4 34

Using demonstrative pronouns instead of personal pronounsRecall:

Die heb ik echt nodig, hoor!As we have seen Dutch is on its way to a two-gender system. For inanimate nouns, this makes demonstrativepronouns a more attractive choice to refer things by than personal pronouns. Compare:

close far def. indef.

gender personal demonstrative article

neuter het dit dat het een

masculine hij deze die de

feminine zij

(plural) zij --

As you see demonstratives do not distinguish whether a word is feminine or masculine and follow the samecommon-neuter pattern as the articles. Compare:

Ik zie Jan. Hij is sterk - I see John. He is strong.Ik zie zijn auto. Die is duur. - I see his car. It is expensive.

Note: because de auto is not neuter, it is not correct to say: Het is duur. But saying hij is duur or zij is duur makes theword specifically masculine or feminine. Using die avoids the issue, because die follows the common gender patternof the definite article.Increasingly, personal pronouns are reserved for reference to persons (natural gender as in English). To refer tothings people resort to substituting the demonstratives.

Grammatica 4-3 Plural of nounsAs seen above the plural definite article is always de (for all genders), there is no indefinite article and thedemonstratives are deze and die and the personal pronoun is zij or its weak form ze. Forming the plural of the nounitself is a bit more complicated.Recall: ...tafels en stoelen...

With few exceptions like ox - oxen pretty much all words simply get an -s in English. Dutch however has two mainways to form a plural: by adding -s and by adding -en. The latter is pronounced /-ən/, /-ə/ or even as a syllabic /-n/depending on the region.Which plural applies is best learned case by case as gender is, although we can attempt a general rule:

All words of more than one syllable get -s, if they end in:

1. e+liquid: -el, -em, -en, -er,2. vowels: -a, -e, -i, -o, -u and -y ,

All others get -en.

The ones in -a, -o, -i and -y get an apostrophe before the -sbaby - baby's

Unfortunately there are lots of exceptions. Many recent (latinate) loans from English or French and all diminutivesget a -s.

de tafel - de tafelsde familie - de families

Dutch/Lesson 4 35

het meisje - de meisjes

Words in -te and -laar usually get -s:de hoogte - de hoogtesde kandelaar - de kandelaars

Amongst the many words that get -en are the ones in -ing:de helling - de hellingen

Vowel changesMost monosyllabic words have -en in the plural:

de stoel - de stoelen

het raam - de ramen

In the latter case, notice that one of the a's is dropped in the spelling of the plural. This difficulty is related to the factthat most Dutch vowels occur in two varieties, a closed one and an open one. Dutch spelling has a rather ingeniousand systematic way of denoting which one is intended. It involves the doubling of either vowels or consonants.Compare:

het bot /bɔt/ (the bone) has an open vowel /ɔ/ like British pot (or American paw)de boot /bot/ (the boat) sounds much like British boat.

In this case the vowels remain the same in the plural, but notice the doubling:het bot - de botten ['bɔtə(n)] (bot-ten)de boot - de boten ['botə(n)] (bo-ten)

It is customary to call the first sound [ɔ] a 'short o' and the second [o] a 'long o', but this terminology can be ratherconfusing. There are languages like Czech where vowels are indeed distinguished purely on their length. In Dutch,however, the difference in length (quantity) is actually pretty negligible, but the difference in vowel sound (quality)is not. This presents a problem for speakers of the many languages with a five-vowel system, like Italian, Russian,Arabic or isiXhosa whose ears are not accustomed to this kind of difference. Anglophones usually do quite well.

The Dutch spelling rule

The Dutch Spelling Rule is:

an 'open' syllable that ends in a vowel such as bo- sounds like boat /o/,

a 'closed' one bot- like pot (/ɔ/).

If the opposite is desired, either the vowel is doubled (→ boot) or the consonant (botten).

For non-native speakers a complication arises in those cases where the actual vowel changes ('lengthens') in theplural, compare:

dat pad (/pɑt/) - die paden (/'padən/ - vowel changes) (that path - those paths)die pad (/pɑt/) - die padden (/'pɑdən/ - no vowel change) (that toad - those toads)

The vowel /ɑ/ in pad and padden is approximately as in father. Paden has a vowel /a/ like in broad American 'Oh, myGod' (In Dutch the spelling would be: Gaad). Also, notice the gender difference of the two words.Vowel change is systematic in the plural of the past of certain strong verbs (see 6).

ik zat (/zɑt/) - wij zaten (/zatən/) (I sat - we sat)A few words show vowel changes other than between the open and closed variety of the same vowel:

de stad - de steden (city).

Dutch/Lesson 4 36

Words ending in -heid get -heden:beleefdheid - beleefdheden

There are about a dozen plurals in Dutch that end in -eren:het kind - de kinderen (child - children)het lam - de lammeren (lamb)

The ending -eren is essentially a double plural. It derives from a plural in -er and in some compounds that is stillvisible:

de kinderkamer - the children's roomde lammergier - a species of vulture

Some words in -ie have an -en plural that requires a diaeresis (trema in Dutch). The spelling depends on where thestress falls:

de kolonie - de koloniënde dynastie - de dynastieën

A trema is also used after -ee:de zee - de zeeënde diatomee - de diatomeeën

Occasionally a Latin or Greek plural is preserved in Dutch:het museum - de museade chemicus - de chemici

Woordenlijst 4

Dutch term Audio file English translation

de tafel table de stoel chair het geld money de student student (university) de universiteit university het medicijn the medication, the drug kan er niks aan doen cannot help it nodig necessary Ik heb nodig I need bezoeken attend (as a student) verkopen sell wat some niks nothing nog still duur expensive weer again vooruit ahead, 'let's go'

Dutch/Lesson 4 37

te weinig too little

Pronunciation Guide>>

• Advanced Lesson 4>>

Dutch/Lesson 5Les 5 ~ Lesson 5

<< Les 4 | Les 5 | Les 6 >>

Gesprek 5-1

Station Valkenburg

The beautiful train station

John is te voet op zoek naar het station enspreekt een voorbijganger aan.

Kunt u mij vertellen waar ik hetstation kan vinden?

Zeker, neem de derde straat aanuw rechterhand.Als u de weg volgt, dan vindt uhet station aan de linkerkant.Het is een prachtig gebouw. Ukunt het niet missen.

Ik vind het wel.

Hij volgt de weg en vindt zijn bestemming.Dat gebouw ziet er inderdaad mooi uit.Vind je ook niet?

Grammatica 5-1 ~ Conjugation of verbs; the four moodsDutch has a relatively simple system of verbs with four moods and eight tenses. The Dutch verb has a few moreendings than the English one. We will focus on three forms:1. stem2. stem + -t3. stem + -en

Dutch/Lesson 5 38

Imperative moodThe simplest form is the imperative mood. As in English it is simply the stem of the verb:

Neem! - take!There is a (rather archaic) plural of the imperative, that takes an extra -t:

Neemt! - take (you all!).

Indicative mood in the present tenseBy far the most important mood is the indicative one and its tenses. We will look at the present tense only here. Thefirst person singular has the same form as the imperative:

neem! - take!ik neem - I take

The third person (he/she) singular acquires a final -t in the present. In English it gets a -s instead:ik volg - I followhij volgt - he follows

In contrast to English this also applies to the second person singular:jij vindt - you find (informal)U kunt - you can (formal, polite)

However, the -t ending is lost for the informal jij form, when the word order is reversed, e.g. when asking a question:Vind je dat ook niet?

The Dutch verb has a 'plural' form that generally ends in -en, which is used for all plural persons and for theinfinitive as well:

vertellen - to tellwij nemen - we takejullie volgen - you (all) followzij kunnen - they can

Notice that the vowel usually does not change and therefore we are doubling either consonants or vowels when wego from one syllable to two:

vertel - vertelt - vertelˑlen => single e remains [ɛ] in syllable closed by extra l.loop - loopt - loˑpen => o remains [o], even in the closed syllable, as indicated by "oo".

Brief exercise

Choose the correct form of the verb, then hover you mouse over the verb to see the right answer.

Dutch/Lesson 5 39

jij (werken) ik (lopen) wij (lopen)

jullie (werken) u (graven) zij (kijken)

wij (volgen) ik (bereiken) (verkopen) ik?

(werken)!! (zitten) wij? (halen) jij

hij (verstoppen) het (waaien) wij (begrijpen)

Infinitive moodThe plural form is also the infinitive of the verb:

wij maken - we makemaken - to make

It occasionally takes 'te' as in English 'to' but that is more exceptional in Dutch and not usually considered part of theinfinitve:

dat is moeilijk te maken - that is hard to makeThe infinitive can be used as a noun where English uses the gerund in -ing. It is always neuter in gender:

het vertellen van volkverhalen is een leuk tijdverdrijf.the telling of folktales is a nice pastime.

het eten - the food, the mealhet eten is klaar! - dinner's ready!het leven - life

There is a present participle, it ends in -end(e) rather than -ing. It is used mostly as an adjective:de week die volgt → de volgende week

the week that follows → the following weekvolgend jaar

next yearThere are forms ending in -ing in Dutch but they are (feminine) nouns of action only loosely associated with the verbthey derive from, e.g.

vertalen - to translatede vertaling - the translation

We will revisit verbal nouns much more extensively in one of the later lessons.Some verbs are monosyllabic, e.g.

zien - to seeik zie - I seehij ziet - he seeszij zien - they see

Dutch/Lesson 5 40

Subjunctive moodThe subjunctive mood is even rarer in Dutch than it is in English. It only exists in third person singular and (with fewexceptions) present tense. It looks like the infinitive minus -n:

Men neme twee pond gehaktlit. (May) one take two pounds of ground beef (minced meat)Het zij zo - be it so

It is only mentioned here for the sake of completeness. It is only used in a few wishes and recipes.

Some irregular verbsOf course, there are a number of irregular verbs in Dutch, but often they are the same ones as in English. In Englishcan and may do not take an -s in the third person. In Dutch a similar thing happens:

kunnenik kan - I canjij kunt - you canhij kan - he can (no t - no s)mogenik mag - I mayjij mag - you mayhij mag - he may (no t - no s)

We will revisit irregulars later.

Exercise 5.1Read conversation 5.1 again and underline all verbs. Mark all endings as 0) - none 1) - t and 2) -en and identify ineach case why this ending is used.

Exercise 5.2Translate into Dutch:

Grammatica 5-2

Clitics revisitedAs shown before many personal pronouns have a strong and a weak form:

mij,me - me (object)jij,je - you (subject)jou,je - you (object)wij,we - wezij,ze - they or shehen,ze - them

The weak forms me, je, we and ze are used when the emphasis lies on some other part of the sentence. The strongform expresses mild emphasis.

Hij ziet me in de spiegel - He sees me in the mirror (not on television).

Dutch/Lesson 5 41

Hij ziet mij in de spiegel - He sees me in the mirror (not my mother).In the spoken language there are more weak forms than in the written one, e.g. for he (ie), him ('m) and for her (d'r or'r)

Dat heeft-ie niet gedaan - He ain't done it

Hij heeft 'r geslagen - He beat 'r up

Ze hebben 'm gezien -- They spotted him

For possessive pronouns the same holds. Compare:Mijn motor is een Honda. Wat is jouw motor? - My bike is a Honda. What is your bike?Ik wil graag een ritje op je motor maken. - I'd love to ride y'r bike!mijn, m'n - myjouw, je - yourzijn, z'n - hishaar, (d'r)- her

Again the spoken language has a clearer distinction than the written one. The forms m'n, z'n, and especially d'r areoften written as mijn, zijn and haar in formal writing. The form je is pretty much the only clitic possessive generallyaccepted in writing.

Woordenschat 5

Dutch term Audio file English translation

de tafel table zeker certain(ly), sure inderdaad indeed vertellen to tell missen to miss volgen to follow zien to see U kunt You can de bestemming (f.) the destination prachtig beautiful mooi fine, pretty, beautiful het station the train station de kant (m.) the side de weg (m.) the road de spiegel (m.) the mirror het gebouw the building

Dutch/Lesson 6 42

Dutch/Lesson 6Les 6 ~ Lesson 6

<< Les 5 | Les 6 | Les 7 >>

The Spanish general is led before Prince Maurits at Nieuwpoort

Gesprek 6Jan: 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 ~ NumbersUse the sound buttons to help you with the pronunciation.

-teen = -tienDutch 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 -teen13 dertien14 veertien15 vijftien16 zestien17 zeventien18 achttien19 negentien

Dutch/Lesson 6 43

-ty = -tigAs another example of the relationship between English y versus Dutch g, the English ending -ty in twenty, thirtyetc, is "-tig" in Dutch:20 twintigStarting at twenty one things get a little funny, Dutch puts the single unit before the ten-unit:21 eenentwintig (literally: one-and-twenty)22 tweeëntwintig23 drieëntwintig24 vierentwintig25 vijfentwintig26 zesentwintig27 zevenentwintig28 achtentwintig29 negenentwintigNotice 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 dertig32 tweeëndertig40 veertig50 vijftig60 zestig70 zeventig80 tachtig (!!)90 negentigThe only irregular one is tachtig.Notice that 60 and 70 are pronounced with initial [s].

Large numbers100 honderdDutch does not use one as in "one hundred" or "one thousand"101 honderdéén111 honderdelf112 honderdtwaalf113 honderddertien121 honderdéénentwintig957 negenhonderdzevenenvijftigIn 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 duizend1001 duizend één1017 duizend zeventien1538 duizend vijfhonderdachtendertig or vijftienhonderdachtendertig2000 tweeduizend8000 achtduizend100.000 honderdduizend

Dutch/Lesson 6 44

143.000 honderddrieënveertigduizend143.500 honderddrieënveertigduizend vijfhonderd1.000.000 één miljoen2.000.000 twee miljoen453.897.245 vierhonderddrieënvijftig miljoen achthonderdzevenennegentigduizend tweehonderdvijfenveertigFor higher power of one thousand Dutch follows the British rather than the American system1.000.000.000 één miljard(not: biljoen, see below)1.000.000.000.000 één biljoen 1.000.000.000.000.000 één biljard245.078.476.453.879 tweehonderdvijfenveertig biljoen achtenzeventig miljard vierhonderdzesenzeventig miljoenvierhonderddrieënvijftigduizend achthonderdnegenenzeventigNotice also that the interpunction is the reverse:English: $1,324,432.93 = Dutch: $1.324.432,93Dutch has a decimal comma, not a decimal point.

Grammatica 6.2 ~ Past and perfect tensesRecall:• ..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 formingthem.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 andrecently formed ones are typically weak.

Weak verbsleren - to learnik 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 learnedwij, 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:

Dutch/Lesson 6 45

passen - to passik pas - I pass → stem is pas

ik paste - I passedwij 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 learnedIf 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 fitik pas - I pass → stem is pas

ik heb gepast - I have passedDutch has "final obstruent devoicing", a fancy term for the fact that a consonant at the end of a word is alwayspronounced as voiceless. That means that both the -d of "geleerd" and the -t of "gepast" as actually pronounced thesame, 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 learnedGepaste 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 - gefeestbaden - 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?

Dutch/Lesson 6 46

Auxiliaries

The auxiliary is usually a form of hebben like it is to have in English (see below for its forms). However, unlikeEnglish 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 expresseither a process or a movement. Compare:

type Dutch English

process zijn de sneeuwballen zijn gesmolten have the snowballs have meltedmovement zijn ze zijn gegaan have they have gone

action hebben ze hebben dat gedaan have they have done that

Strong verbslopen - to walk (cf. leap)Ik loop - I walkIk 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 morethan 1500 strong verbs in Dutch. There are seven distinct patterns (classes) of vowel change. The most commonone (Class I) has ..ij... - ..ee.. - ..e..:

schrijven - schreef - geschrevenblijven - bleef - geblevenlijden - leed - geleden

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

spreken - to speaksprak - spokegesproken - spoken

We will come back to strong verbs later. Fortunately for all Dutch verbs except a handful it is enough to memorizede 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 isspecified. Compare:

Ik ben naar huis gelopen - I walked homeIk 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 tothe 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 homeThe past of some of the strong verbs has a plural that undergoes lengthening of the vowel:

Dutch/Lesson 6 47

breken-brak-gebrokenik 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 ofIndo-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 + infinitivethat can be used to describe continuity rather emphatically:

Ik was naar huis aan het lopen, toen ik hem zagI 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. Theytake te + infinitive:

Ik zat te denken - I was thinking (while sitting)Ik stond te bellen - I was on the phone (while standing)

Irregular verbsThere are only a few verbs (actually 6) that demand more knowledge than that which is contained in the threestamtijden (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-gehadhebben - to haveik heb - I havejij hebt - you havehij heeft - he haswij, jullie, zij hebben - we, you, they have

Past tense

ik, jij, hij had - I, you, he hadwij, jullie, zij hadden - we, you, they had

Perfect

ik heb gehad

The auxiliary to be

zijn-was-geweestzijn, wezen - to beik ben - I amjij bent - you arehij is - he is

Dutch/Lesson 6 48

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

Past tense

ik waswij waren

Perfect

ik ben geweest - I have beenNotice that to be is seen as an ergative: it is not an action, but a 'process'.

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

verslaanik verslaik versloegik 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 - gebrachtdenken - dacht - gedacht

The vowel of these roots also changes, but historically these verbs are weak. Notice that English has somethingsimilar (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 forall Dutch verbs bar six it is customary to represent a verb whether weak, strong or irregular by these primitive tensesand reserve the term irregular for the handful cases where this does not suffice.

Woordenschat 6

Dutch word audio file English translation

de school school het jaar year jarig zijn having a birthday de slag blow, battle de natuur nature de jongen boy natuurlijk naturally, of course schrijven-schreef-geschreven s to write lezen-las-gelezen s to read leren-leerde-geleerd w to learn, to teach bedoelen-bedoelde-bedoeld w to mean, to aim at lopen-liep-gelopen s to walk bestaan-bestond-bestaan s to exist

Dutch/Lesson 6 49

zijn-was-geweest irr to be hebben-had-gehad irr to have weten-wist-geweten irr to know zien-zag-gezien s to see zwemmen-zwom-gezwommen s to swim vinden-vond-gevonden s to find eten-at-gegeten s to eat zitten-zat-gezeten s to sit denken-dacht-gedacht s to think slapen-sliep-geslapen s to sleep

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

Dutch/Lesson 7Les 7 ~ Lesson 7

Samenstellingen en Verkleinwoorden ~ Compounds and Diminutives• I want an ice cream

• Grammar: compound nouns

• Diminutives

<< Les 6 | Les 7 | Les 8 >>

Gesprek 7Ma, 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 CompoundsIn this chapter you will learn how to glue words together. Dutch, like German, Norwegian and Danish, is oftenmocked for the (theoretical) possibility of creating long words such asrandjongerenhangplekkenbeleidsambtenarensalarisbesprekingsafspraken (the agreements for the negotiationsconcerning the salary of public officials who decide on the policy regarding areas where unemployed youth areallowed to hang out).Actually compounds are seldom so excessive and the compounding of words happens in English as well. However inEnglish, compounds are written as separate words, so English speakers are often not aware that a word like "applejuice" is a compound, much like its Dutch counterpart "appelsap". Notice that when you pronounce "apple juice" youpronounce the word "juice" with much less emphasis than you pronounce "apple" with. This is what signals wordcompounding in English and Dutch alike.

Dutch/Lesson 7 50

Sometimes, compounds are spelled as a single word even in English. For example, the word "database" is acompilation of the words "data" and "base". For some words, such as "mailbox", a double spelling can be used: "mailbox" 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 besturingssysteemShould a word get unreadable by writing it together, you can use a dash to make it more readable. In the latter caseLinux-besturingssysteem is more usual because Linux is a brand name. Dashes are used sparingly and never insimple compounds like deurbel (door bell).This rule even applies to words imported from English into Dutch:• sciencefiction• businessunitThis dash is required when one of the elements in a compound is an acronym:• DNA molecule → DNA-molecuul, wrong: DNA molecuulIf 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 becomesambiguous; it can no longer be seen from the text itself whether "standard" applies to just to the temperature, or tothe 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 revisionsDutch orthography -in contrast to the English one- used to be changed every half century or so, but recently we haveseen revisions every decade. It is fair to say that there is a government (i.e. tax payer) sponsored craze for change andnot always for the better. The question whether something is written separately, together, with a diaeresis (trema inDutch) or with a hyphen seems to be a favorite playground for this kind of activity. A good example can be foundhere [1]. This is a comparison of the changes between 1995 and 2005. Many of these words had already changed in1995. The result of this kind of changing is that most speakers and writers of the language do not know what to doanymore. The Genootschap Onze Taal (Society 'Our Language') has even published an alternative spelling guide (thelittle white book) in opposition to the governmental one (the little green book). Many publishers and mediarepresentatives 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 anymorebut with a dash. There is a verb for "to imitate" that literally means "to ape after" someone. It used to be written asnaäpen, now it is na-apen.

Dutch/Lesson 7 51

Grammatica 7.2 DiminutivesApart from a plural the Dutch noun generally also has a diminutive. It is formed by adding -je to the noun and isalways neuter in gender:

de vaas - het vaasjeDiminutives have a plural in -s:

het vaasje - de vaasjes.

UsageHet vaasje literally means the little vase, but the usage in Dutch is quite pervasive. One reason is that turning a wordinto a diminutive is another way of avoiding the m/f gender problem. Often the diminutive is as frequently or evenmore 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 becarried with both hands.In some cases the diminutive has acquired a life of its own (become 'lexicalized'). Compare:

het ijs - the icehet ijsje - the ice creamde meid - the maidhet meisje - the girlde kaart - the (geographic, road) map, the postcardhet 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, theoriginal 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 betweeneen tussendoortje - a snack

Adverbs can be formed from adjective by adding an extra -s:zacht - softzachtjes - 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 darlingEven cardinal numbers are not safe:

We gaan met z'n tweetjesWe'll go the two of us

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

Dutch/Lesson 7 52

• de moord - the murder• de begrafenis - the funeralPutting these in the diminutive is downright disrespectful and morbid. If would indicate that the speaker is involvedwith such things for fun on a daily basis. In other words diminutives in Dutch express a whole lot more than justsmall size. They are a major mechanism of producing derived terms.

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

het eten - the foodhet etentje - taking someone out for dinnerde bloem - the flowerhet bloempje - the little flower

In some cases the vowel changes like it does in the plural:het pad - the pathde paden - the pathshet paadje - the little path, the trail

but:de schildpad - the turtlede schildpadden - the turtleshet schildpadje - the little turtle

In other cases an extra syllable is inserted:de kom - the bowlhet 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 dialectspronounce -je as -ie /i:/. In others, the suffix tends to be -ke: meiske, blommeke.

Woordenschat 7

Dutch word audio file English translation

het ijs ice het ijsje ice cream braaf good, obedient vooruit ahead, come on, to the front krijgen - kreeg -gekregen s get, obtain de appelsap apple juice de room cream (milk fat) de slagroom whipped cream de postbus mail box het molecuul molecule de grens border, limit

Dutch/Lesson 7 53

de temperatuur temperature de druk pressure, print edition de vaas vase het meisje girl de kaart map, postcard zacht soft zachtjes softly de schat treasure, darling de moord murder de begrafenis funeral de bloem flower het pad path de pad toad de kom bowl

References[1] http:/ / taalunieversum. org/ spelling/ archief/ overzicht_trefwoorden_met_spellingwijziging/

Dutch/Lesson 8Les 8 ~ Lesson 8

Er en de voornaamwoordelijke bijwoorden ~ Er and the pronominal adverbs• Is there coffee?

• Grammar: Pronominal replacement

• Use of the locative er

<< Les 7 | Les 8 | Les 9 >>

Gesprek 8Marjo?

Ja, wat is er?Is er al koffie?

Nee ik heb er nog geen gezet.Nou, dan doe ik dat wel even. Zijn er zakjes?

Ja, in de kast. Zie je de broodtrommel? Ze liggen er vlak onder.Heb je er ook nog een pak koekjes bij?

Ja, er zijn er zelfs twee.

Dutch/Lesson 8 54

Grammatica 8 ~ Er and the pronominal adverbs

Locative adverbsThe word er is one of the most ubiquitous words in the Dutch language and often rather hard to translate, because itdoes not have an exact counterpart in most other languages, French being an exception with the words y and en.Compare:

Dutch English

Type Pronoun Locative adverb Pronoun Locative adverb

Personal het er it ??

Demonstrative (close) dit hier this here

Demonstrative (far) dat daar that there

Rel./Interrogative wat waar what where

Indefinite iets ergens something somewhere

Negative indefinite niets nergens nothing nowhere

General alles overal everything everywhere

Er relates to more specific indications of place like here, there, where, or somewhere in a similar way as the word itdoes to the more specific this, that or what. The word is a kind of locative wildcard.

In computer terms you could say that er is *ere, with * being a wildcard for h-,th- or wh-.Another way of putting it is that er is a clitic (weak) form of hier or daar. Indeed it never carries emphasis.Historically, however, the word only partly originated as a weakening of hier or daar. In part it also reflects anold genitive of the pronoun "het". The two sources have coalesced so strongly that they cannot bedistinguished anymore.

In many cases where Dutch uses er, English will resort to a more specific there:Is er koffie - Is there coffee?Ken je Londen? Ja, ik ben er geweest. - Do you know London? Yes, I have been there

This is also true in the relatively few cases that English uses pronominal adverbs like thereof, therefore, thereafteretc. Dutch will distinguish a more general (clitic) ervan, ervoor, erna from a more specific (accentuated) daarvan,daarvoor and daarna.

Pronominal adverbsIn English pronominal adverbs like therein or hereby are a remnant from the past. They are quite old and occur inmost Germanic languages, both of the Western and the Northern (Scandinavian) group. However, pronominaladverbs are much more prominent in Dutch than in English or the other Germanic languages. Their formation is stillan active mechanism. If anything their use is increasing (due to the gender problem). They form an important part ofthe grammar and have to be mastered to speak the language properly.Pronominal adverbs are commonly used in Dutch to replace the combination of preposition + pronoun, particularlyif the latter is an inanimate it or them:

of it → thereof = ervanfor it → therefore = ervoor

Notice how the elements swap place: the prepositional part moves to the end. This is true in both languages.While rare in English, in Dutch this replacement/swap is not just common, in many cases it is mandatory .

Dutch/Lesson 8 55

Pronominal replacement

Although in the spoken language even this is slowly changing, it is uncommon, even somewhat disrespectful toapply pronominal replacement to people (animate nouns):

after her = na haar (not erna)for them = voor hen (not ervoor)

In all other cases pronominal replacement is frequent or even mandatory. It is a major way of avoiding m/f genderreferences for inanimate nouns, because er is genderless. This means that replacement can also be applied tocommon gender words that do not really have a personal pronoun to refer them by.The most common pronominal replacements (from the table above) are:

van het huis → (van het)* → ervanvan dit huis → van dit,deze → hiervanvan dat huis → van dat,die → daarvanvan welk huis → (van wat)*, van welk(e) → waarvanvan iets → ergens vanvan niets → nergens vanvan alles → overal van(...)*: In this case the replacement is so common that not using the replacement is simply bad Dutch.

Notice that if the replaced pronoun is personal (het), demonstrative (dit, dat) or interrogative/relative (wat) theresulting pronominal adverb is written as one word (ervan, hiervan, daarvaan, waarvan). In other cases an adverbialexpression with two separate adverbs results.

Translating its by replacement

In English it is common to use the possessive pronoun its to refer to a noun that indicates a thing. In Dutch, apronominal adverb like ervan is used instead, again representing a convenient way to avoid the gender issue:

This tale is nice. Its beginning is spectacular.Deze vertelling is leuk. Het begin ervan is spectaculair. (Yes, please..)Deze vertelling is leuk. Haar begin is spectaculair. (No, please..)

Yes, in principle the latter is correct. A word in -ing is feminine, but who remembers? Occasionally a writer will tryto dazzle the reader with this kind of superior knowledge, often only to get it wrong... Please use the adverbial ervan,especially if the noun is inanimate. This is true for neuter nouns as well

Dit verhaal is leuk. Het begin ervan is spectaculair (Yes, please..)Dit verhaal is leuk. Zijn begin is spectaculair. (No, please..)

The latter is strictly speaking correct Dutch, but a neuter (inanimate) possessive zijn is so uncommon that it is betteravoided. Possessives like zijn and haar are more and more reserved for animate masculine and animate femininenouns (person, pets) and indicate natural rather than grammatical gender, just like the personal pronouns hij and zij.

Dutch/Lesson 8 56

Formation

A pronominal adverb is formed from the locative adverb that corresponds to the replaced pronoun + the prepositionin adverbial form. Usually this prepositional adverb is the same as the preposition itself

(van het)* → ervan

(tussen het)* → ertussen

But this is not always the case:(met het)* → ermee (arch. ermede)(tot het)* → ertoe

Pronominal adverbs can be formed from most prepositions. Words like ertussenin (lit. thereinbetween) or ergensachter (lit. somewhere behind) or even nergens onderuit (lit. nowhere from under out) do not raise any eyebrows.A few adverbial forms do not have a corresponding prepositions:

eraf (off of it)erheen (expresses a direction: to)

Conversely, some prepositions (like via, behalve, mits etc.) do not have a corresponding prepositional adverb. Thismakes it difficult to use them in relative clauses or in combination with it. Compare:

Dit is de weg waarlangs ik naar huis fiets.Dit is de weg via dewelke ik naar huis fiets.

This is the road along which I ride my bike on the way home.Because via does not have a prepositional adverb one is forced to use a relative pronoun like dewelke that is moreand more experienced as awkward and archaic, because in most constructions it is replaced (langs dewelke →waarlangs).

Separation

To further confuse the enemy, pronominal adverbs are usually split apart in the sentence. Compare:He has a remedy for it.Hij heeft een remedie *(voor het).Hij heeft een remedie ervoor.Hij heeft er een remedie voor'.

The first translation is unacceptable. The second one is awkward, the third one is what most people would say.In the case of the preposition van (of), the van-part may be omitted, giving the word er a partitive flavor:

He has seven of them.Hij heeft zeven *(van ze).Hij heeft zeven ervan.Hij heeft er zeven van.Hij heeft er zeven.

The four translations are unacceptable, awkward, reasonable and most common respectively.The partitive flavor extends to the negative:

Is er koffie - Is there coffee?Ik heb er nog geen (van) gezet - I have there(of) yet none made - I haven't made any yet.

Sometimes the two parts of the pronominal adverb can end up quite far apart. Notice what happens to "by it" (door*het) => "erdoor":

Dutch/Lesson 8 57

Lance Armstrong heeft kanker gehad.Lance Armstrong had cancer.

Hij heeft zich er echter, blijkens zijn zeven opeenvolgende overwinningen in de Tour de France, op geenenkele manier in zijn loopbaan als 's werelds sterkste wielrenner door laten weerhouden.

However, given his seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France, he did not in any way allowhimself to be thwarted by it in his career as the world's strongest cyclist.

Getting used to understanding such sentences, let alone producing them in speech, takes a lot of practice. As anexercise: identify all the parts of this sentence to see how different the word order is.

Exercise 8.1Replace the object by a pronominal adverb:e.g. Het boek ligt in de kast → Het boek ligt erin.

Exercise 8.2Translate the above sentences into English in both forms.

Woordenschat 8van of, from

met with

door by, through

voor for, before

achter after, behind

tussen between

onder under, beneath

over over

boven above

tot to, until

na after

naar to

de overwinning victory

de loopbaan career

het koekje cookie (loanword of New York/Dutch origin)

de wielrenner cyclist

het wiel wheel

de zak bag

het zakje baggie

de koffie coffee

de wereld world

zetten to put

koffie zetten to make coffee

weerhouden to keep from, to thwart

schrijven to write

behalen to score, to obtain

Dutch/Lesson 8 58

echter though, however

even quickly, with no effort, even

al already

nog niet not yet

geen no

geen enkel not a single

eenvoudig simple

See also nl:wikt:Categorie:Nederlands voornaamwoordelijk bijwoord

Dutch/Lesson 9Les 9 ~ Lesson 9

• Annemiek has her passport extended

• Grammar: Future tense

• Modal verbs: Kunnen and laten

• Stative verbs: Staan, zitten, liggen, lopen.

<< Les 8 | Les 9 | Les 10 >>

Gesprek 9Annemiek wil op reis naar Zuid-Afrika. Daarvoor heeft zij een paspoort nodig, maar haar paspoort is verlopen. Zijgaat 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 zultU 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

FutureThe official future tense is formed using the auxiliary zullen + the infinitiveIn 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').

Dutch/Lesson 9 59

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 zaljij zult, u zult (u zal)hij zalwij zullenjullie zullenzij zullen

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

ik zeg - I sayik zou zeggen - I would sayik zoujij zou, u zoudt/zouhij zouwij zoudenjullie zoudenzij zouden

Infinitives instead of participlesThe 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

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

ik kan dat niet - I cannot do thatik 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.

Dutch/Lesson 9 60

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 konwij, jullie, zij konden (could)hij kon niet meer - he was exhausted (lit. he could no more)

LatenThe 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 driveDat zul je laten! - no, you won't!Ik heb het zo gelaten - I left it the way it wasHij 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, lopenAll of these are strong verbs:

staan - stond - gestaan — to standzitten - zat - gezeten — to sitliggen - lag - gelegen — to lielopen - 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 tableEr zitten nog drie koekjes in de doos - there are still three cookies (sitting) in the boxEr loopt een goeie film - there is a good movie on.

Dutch/Lesson 9 61

Doen: to doAs 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 intoan active construction:

Het vet stolt - the grease solidifiesDe 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

Dutch/Lesson 10Les 10 ~ Lesson 10

Meer over werkwoorden ~ More about verbs

<< Les 9 | Les 10 | Les 11 >>

Gesprek-10Jan, 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 verbsA 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. Thisbecomes 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 meanhij bedoelde

Dutch/Lesson 10 62

hij heeft bedoeldThe primitive tenses of a separable verb look like:

afgaanhet ging afhet 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 insome cases there are two different verbs that look deceptively the same, one separable, the other not, with differentmeanings. In the spoken language they differ by wordaccent, but this is not visible in the written one unless accentsare deliberately added to avoid confusion. Compare:

voorkomen - kwam voor - voorgekomen - to occurvoorkomen - voorkwam - voorkomen - to preventde 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 verbcan 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 adverbsIn fact the comparison between pronominal adverbs and separable verbs is rather pertinent. Many prepositionaladverbs 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.

Dutch/Lesson 10 63

SubclausesIn 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.

Woordenschatuitdoen - 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

even quickly

Dutch/Lesson 11 64

Dutch/Lesson 11Les 11 ~ Lesson 11

<< Les 10 | Les 11 | Les 12 >>

Word orderMany 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 politeto 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 hasabandoned it in favor of one that resembled that of the French-speaking nobility that ruled the land after 1066. We'llexamine a number of aspects.

InversionWe 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 occursin 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 thebeginning 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 samesentence, 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 averbal expression and verbs tend to end up at the end of the sentence.

Dutch/Lesson 11 65

Verbs in final positionAnother feature we have already encountered is that in tenses that use an auxiliary the participle or infinitive is put atthe 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 auxilliary (heb ik..., zal ik...) and that in compounds with morethat one infinitive as gaan kijken (go have a look) they both end up at the end. Whether gaan or kijken goes firstvaries 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 conjunctionsIn Dutch, word order is used to mark what role a clause plays with respect to the rest of the sentence. The indirectclause has a different order, particularly in the position of the the verb.

jij hebt een mooi huisik 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 to theend 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 auxilliary:

jij bent gisteren met de trein naar huis gegaanik 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 nevenschikkendNot 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 gegaanJe 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 hebtgelijk (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 assubordinating 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 Germanwiktionary), but in English where the distinction is of no consequence for the syntax this is unusual.)

Dutch/Lesson 11 66

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 longersentences in Dutch without generating ambiguity. In English compound sentences become confusing and ambivalentmore 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)

Dutch/Lesson 12Les 12 ~ Lesson 12

De telefoon• Grammar: The use of the verb worden.

• Grammar: Transitives and the passive voice

• Grammar: The use of the auxiliary zijn

• Grammar: Ergatives and unergatives

<< Les 11 | Les 12 | Les 13 >>

Gesprek 12 De telefoonMirjam: 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 haargezeur.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.

Dutch/Lesson 12 67

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

Ik word pilootI (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!

Dutch/Lesson 12 68

The perfect of worden

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

Hij is piloot gewordenHe has become a pilot.

Use as an auxiliaryAs an auxiliary + past participle it expresses the passive voice:

Hij verslaat me ==>Ik word door hem verslagen

He beats me ==> I am beaten by himNotice 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 passiveThe perfect tense of the passive can cause some confusion because of the ergative conjugation with zijn and the factthat the participle geworden is usually omitted:

Ik ben door hem geslagen (geworden)Ik ben door hem geslagenI 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.

Dutch/Lesson 12 69

UsageParticularly in the imperfect tenses, the passive voice is quite common in Dutch, probably more so than in Englishbecause the auxiliary worden makes it easily recognizable. It often occurs without a clear subject in conjunction withthe 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 gelachenThat joke has been much laughed at.

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

men verwacht dat je meedoetlit. one expects that you participate – they expect you to participate

men lacht erom / ze lachen eromthey laugh at it

Indirect objects and ditransitive verbsThe transition to the passive construction normally involves the direct object. However for some verbs it is alsopossible 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 pseudopassiveconstruction. 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 ratherthan door in the pseudopassive.

Dutch/Lesson 12 70

Ergatives (+zijn) and unergatives (+hebben)A verb that carries a direct object is called a transitive verb. In Dutch these verbs can form passive voiceconstructions 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 inDutch.There are the ergative verbs like gaan, komen, smelten, gebeuren, worden and a few others. They take zijn as theiractive(!) 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. Takesmoking:

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 voiceIn contrast to English intransitive verbs, Dutch unergatives such as "roken" do form a passive of sorts, but it is animpersonal 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" isa clumsy rendering of the meaning of the impersonal passive sentence. In Dutch however such constructions are verycommon. 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 typicallyresorts 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 thefocus is not on the actor. Impersonal passives are not limited to unergative intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs alsoform 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 dein 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 knownor not of interest. English would often use a word like some.

Some burglar was seen by the cop.

Dutch/Lesson 12 71

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 similarsituation.)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 processesSuch verbs often only occur as ergatives:

Stollen - to solidifyergative 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 Englishdoes.Sometimes however "process" verbs occur both in an ergative and in an active transitive form.

Smelten - to meltactive: Ik smelt het ijs - I melt the ice

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

active: Ik heb het ijs gesmolten - I have melted the iceergative: 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 gesmoltenpassive 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 thepassive are very similar. The difference is the presence of an agent ("door mij").

Dutch/Lesson 12 72

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

Lopen - to walkergative: Ik ben naar huis gelopen. - I walked homeunergative: 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 ofmotion 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, usuallywith "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 attimes be formed:

Rijden - to driveergative: Ik ben naar huis gereden - I drove homeunergative: Ik heb vandaag veel gereden - I have done a lot of driving todaytransitive active: Ik heb hem naar huis gereden - I took him home in my cartransitive passive: Hij is door mij naar huis gereden - He was taken home by me (in my car)

Exercise 12-1:For solution see: ../Lesson 12/Key

Woordenschatde regering government

de wet law

de piloot pilot

de ellende misery

het gebruik usage, custom

in gebruik nemen take into use

de dief thief

de inbraak burglary

de oplichter fraud, conman

de twijfel doubt

de voldoening satisfaction

de oorlog war

de nalatigheid negligence

de tegenslag setback, misfortune, disappointment

het gat the hole

de eeuw century

gesloten closed

met behulp van by means of

verwachten, -te to expect

raken, raakte to touch

terugzetten, zette terug put back

Dutch/Lesson 12 73

in de gaten houden to keep an eye on

onlangs recently

aannemen - nam aan - aangenomen to adopt

doorzien - doorzag - doorzien to comprehend

winnen - won - gewonnen to win

lijden - leed - geleden to suffer

verwijten - verweet - verweten to blame

vliegen - vloog - gevlogen to fly

vergeten - vergat - vergeten to forget

Dutch/Lesson 13Les 13 ~ Lesson 13

<< Les 12 | Les 13 | Les 14 >>

Gesprek 13Nathalie is een Franse toeriste die korte tijd op bezoek is in de Nederlandse hoofdstad Amsterdam. Zij heeft veelgoeds gehoord over de plaatselijke musea en besluit het bekende Rijksmuseum te gaan bekijken. De uitgebreideverzameling Oude Meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw is wereldberoemd. Een jongeman spreekt haar aan in een van deachterste 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 hetmidden. 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 adjectivesDutch adjectives are only a little more complicated than their English counterparts. An adjective generally occurs intwo forms, an undeclined one and a declined one, ending in -e. Which one is used depends on a number of factors.

Predicative versus attributiveIn 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 gorgeousattributive: dit prachtige huis - this beautiful house

Dutch/Lesson 13 74

Gender and indefinitenessThere is an important exception to the above main rule. If an adjective is used attributively before a singular neuterword 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 useDutch adjectives can be used as adverbs without further ado, this contrasts with English where the ending "-ly" isusually required. Compare:

attributive

een langzame afdaling - a slow descentpredicative

de afdaling is langzaam - the descent is slowadverbial

hij daalde langzaam af - he descended slowly

SubstantivesThe 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 superlativesIn English a few adjectives form comparatives and superlatives by adding "-er" and "-(e)st". Dutch follows thesame pattern.

hoog - hoger - hoogsthigh - higher - highest

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

interessant - interessanter - interessantst

interesting - more interesting - most interestingAfter "-r" often a dental is inserted:

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

fantastisch - fantastischer - meest fantastischComparatives and superlative receive the ending -e as all adjectives:

de mooiste bloemen

Dutch/Lesson 13 75

de meest fantastische webstekAs in English a few adjectives have irregular forms:

goed - beter - bestgood - better - bestweinig - minder - minstlittle/few - less/ fewer - least/ fewestveel - meer - meestmuch/many - more - most

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

gekookte aardappelskokende 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 delayedDe van perron 6 vertrekkende trein is vertraagdDe 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.

MaterialsAs in English adjectives that indicate a material end in "-en":wollen - woolenThey are indeclinable and are only used attributively:

de wollen mutsTo express the predicate, the preposition van is used:

de muts is van wol.

Dutch/Lesson 13 76

Other endingsDutch 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 faithin koelen bloede (dat neut. sg.) -- in cold bloodgoedenavond! (acc masc. sg.) -- good evening!van ganser harte (dat. fem. sg., despite hart being neuter) -- with all my heartte 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 wasgetting 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 anadjective gets a genitive (partitive) "-s":

iets moois - something beautifulveel liefs - a lot of loveiets wikibooksachtigs - something like wikibooks

Dutch/Lesson 14Les 14 ~ Lesson 14

Naamwoorden van handeling ~ Verbal nouns

<< Les 13 | Les 14 | Les 15 >>

Verbal nounsNa de zware aardbeving in de Indische Oceaan en de erdoor veroorzaakte vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh iszoals gevreesd het dodental nog steeds stijgend. De verwoesting en het verlies aan mensenlevens isuitzonderlijk groot, vooral de sterfte onder kinderen. De behoefte aan hulp van allerlei aard is enorm maar hetuitvallen van vrijwel alle verbindingen is een grote hindernis voor een toereikende hulpverlening.

The -ing problemIn English the -ing form is used extensively for a number of rather different functions. Although Dutch also has anending -ing it does not correspond to the English one in most situations:1. he is singing

hij is aan het zingen2. he walked out of the room singing

hij liep zingend de kamer uit3. singing is her profession

zang is haar beroep

In the above examples singing is used as:1. part of the present continuous tense

Dutch/Lesson 14 77

2. as a participle3. as a verbal noun (gerund).In Dutch different nouns are used in these three cases none of which ends in -ing

Properly rendering -ing forms in Dutch may therefore present a bit of a problem for an English speaker.

Continuous tensesIn the strict sense Dutch does not have continuous times and in many cases where English uses them Dutch will usea simple present or past.

he was walking to school when he saw the UFO

hij liep naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag

hij was onderweg naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag

To emphasize continuity Dutch can use the infinitive as a neutral noun preceded by the preposition aan:hij was aan het wandelen

he was going for a walk

zij waren aan het verhuizen

they were busy moving

Another common construction is to use an auxiliary verb like zitten,staan,liggen, lopen

de voetballer liep op de scheidsrechter te schelden.

the soccer player walked around fuming at the umpire.ik zat te denken

I was just thinking (on my chair)The "on my chair" or "on my feet" distinction is often of negligible importance and the verbs zitten, liggen etc areused more or less interchangeably as auxiliaries of the continuous aspect.

Present participlesThe present participle in Dutch is formed by adding -d(e) (not: -ing) to the infinitive:

lopen – lopend(e)staan – staand

As in English it can be used as adjective:flying saucer

vliegende schotel

But it is rarely used as a (static) predicate:kinine is koortswerend

quinine has the property of abating fever

Using it in a continuous tense construction as in English sounds odd and rather ironic.ach, was jij schrijvende?

roughly: Wow, did I catch you in writing mode?

Present participles are seldom used to initiate a clause as is common in English:The second car moving at greater speed could not stop

De tweede auto die sneller reed kon niet stoppen

Dutch/Lesson 14 78

De tweede, sneller rijdende auto kon niet stoppen

Either the participle rijdend is used as a preceding adjective or it is avoided by paraphrase.

GerundsThe term gerund is seldom used in Dutch grammar. One could argue that Dutch does not have one in the Englishsense of the word, despite the presence of a rich variety of verbal nouns.First of all, in many cases Dutch uses the infinitive as a neutral noun where English uses a gerund in -ing and onecould argue that this is the Dutch gerund:

addition and subtraction are the basis of arithmetic

optellen en aftrekken vormen de grondslag van het rekenen

There are subtle differences associated with the use or omission of the neutral article het, but the same holds inEnglish:

singing is healthy – zingen is gezondthe singing finally ended – het zingen hield eindelijk op

There is typically no plural. In times past the word did get inflected -as Latin gerunds do-, e.g.:Tot ziens! - See you!Willens en wetens - Deliberately.

The -s ending is an old genitive.

Suffix -ing

Many Dutch verbs do form a (feminine) verbal noun in -ing, but it usually corresponds more to an English noun with(latinate) ending -ion than to a gerund with -ing:

deze aftrekking is niet juist

this subtraction is incorrect

Note that de aftrekking denotes a particular case of subtraction, where het aftrekken denotes the general process ofsubtractingThe formation of a verbal noun is -ing is quite common, particularly for verbs with prefixes like ver-, be-, af- etc. Itis also a productive suffix, which means that newly formed verbs tend to form their verbal noun this way. It has aplural in -en:

zegening – zegeningenblessing – blessings

However, the -ing form is certainly not as ubiquitous as in English where only a few verbs like can or must do notpossess one. Not all Dutch verbs have an -ing form as there is a number of older ways to form verbal nouns,although most of them are no longer productive.The -ing verbal noun is feminine and occurs frequently with "ter" (te + the old feminine dative der), which translatesroughly into "in order to".

Hij besprak maatregelen ter verbetering daarvan - He discussed methods that could be used to improve that.This process is still productive:

ter wikifiëring -- to be wikifiedInterestingly, this means that even north of the Great Rivers feminine gender is not quite dead yet...

Dutch/Lesson 14 79

Verbal stemsMany strong verbs have a verbal noun based on the stem of the verb with ablaut (vowel change) and lack an -ingform:

helpen – de hulpna drie dagen kwam er eindelijk hulp

after three days help finally arrived

wreken – de wraak:wraak is zoet

revenge is sweet

zingen – de zanghij studeert zang

he is studying voice

Notice that in these cases forms in -ing like *helping, *zinging do not exist in Dutch.Sometimes the vowel does not change:

lopen – de loopin de loop van het proces

in the course of the process

These nouns are typically common gender and often lack a plural, but this does not always hold. For example a weakverb like werken has het werk and a plural de werken

Other endingsSome verbs add -t or -st to the stem, a process not entirely unfamiliar in English:

vliegen – de vlucht – plural: de vluchtento fly – the flight

telen – teelt (no plural)cultivate – cultivation

At times, there is more than one verbal noun:graven – graf – gracht (<graft 1600's)to dig – grave – canal

Plurals:graf – gravengracht – grachten

After nasals -st is more common:dienen – de dienst – plural: de diensten

to serve – servicekomen – de komst – no plural

come – advent, arrivalvangen – de vangst

catch – catchde vangst van kabeljauw bij de Canadese kust is gestaakt

Dutch/Lesson 14 80

cod fishing has been suspended off the coast of Canada

A few verbs have -te:behoeven – de behoefte

need – needbaren – geboorte

give birth – birthPlurals have -s: behoeftes, geboortes, sometimes also -n:

denken – gedachten, gedachtesthink – thought(s)

Other verbs have -nis, -enis or -tenis

kennen – kennisto know – knowledge / acquaintance

gebeuren – gebeurtenisto happen – event

bekennen – bekentenisto confess – confession

hinderen – to obstruct, to botherhindernis – obstacle

Plurals get -sen:kennissen (acquaintances), bekentenissen

In English this ending is more common after adjectives like bald(ness), good(ness). In Dutch this is rare:sad – sadnessdroef – droefenis

Usually Dutch has -heid in such cases: droefheidDutch also has latinate endings—as English does—that sometimes compete with the germanic ones:The latin -tio(n) ending is -tie in Dutch and usually pronounced as [tsi] or [si] ('see')

communiceren – communicatiecommunicate – communication

but:achiveren – archiveringto archive – archiving

Dutch/Lesson 14 81

Prefix ge-Another way to form a verbal noun is to add ge- to a stem. It forms a neuter noun from verbs without prefixes.

vallen – het geval – de gevallento fall – the case

missen – het gemis - (no plural)to miss – the lack, missing

spreken – het gesprek – de gesprekkento speak – the conversation

voelen – het gevoel – de gevoelensto feel – the feeling

This type is still productive, at least for verbs that do not carry prefixes. Newly formed nouns carry the connotationof annoying repetition and they usually have no plural:

dat onophoudelijk geblaf moet afgelopen zijn!

enough of that incessant barking!

hij viel op het toneel: gelach en boegeroep in het publiek...

he fell on stage: laughter and boos in the audience...

wat een gedoe!

what a hassle!

Notice the difference with the past participle:gelach – gelachen

laughing,laughter – laughed

Verbal nouns with ge- tend to have a dysphemic connotation and some are better avoided by a non-native speaker:gezeur, geëtter, gezeik, gezwam (all ~ bull s#$t)zeuren – to nagetter – pusszeik – urine (four letters..)zwam – fungus

Subjects and objectsAs in English the -er suffix denotes the subject of the verb:

geven – geverto give – giver

As in English the plural is in -s: gevers.There usually is a feminine version in -ster as well, although under feminist influence it is under considerablepressure especially for functions in society:

voorzitten – voorzitter – voorzitsterto chair a meeting – chairman – chairwoman

Voorzitter is increasingly used, regardless the gender of the chairperson.There are other feminine endings, e.g. -eres: (plural -eressen)

zingen – zanger – zangeres

Dutch/Lesson 14 82

to sing – singer (m) – singer (f)There is also an infrequent -sel suffix indicating an object, e.g.:

scheppen – schepping - schepper - schepsel

to create – creation - creator – creatureNote that in this case English has completely shifted to latin roots and endings where Dutch has remained faithful toits germanic roots altogether, at least in religious context. Otherwise creation is often creatie.The number and type of available verbal nouns differs from verb to verb.

Verbal adjectivesApart from the two participles the verb can form various adjectives as it can in English. One suffix that correspondsto the English latinate ending -able is -baar:

verstaan – verstaanbaarunderstand – understandable

Another suffix -heid (cf. English -hood) can be added to turn the adjective into a (feminine) noun:danken – dankbaar – dankbaarheid

to thank – grateful – gratitudeThe -heid suffix (plural -heden) can also be used behind participles.

bergen - geborgen – geborgenheidto secure – secured, safe – feeling at ease

opletten – oplettend – oplettendheidto wacht out – attentive – attention

There is also a suffix -elijk , cognate with -ly. (The 'ij' is usually pronounced as a schwa.)bewerken – bewerkelijk

to process -requiring much worksterven – sterfelijk - sterfelijkheid

to die – mortal - mortality

ExerciseIn the above text identify all verbal nouns and adjectives and the verbs they derive from. Dutch/Lesson 14/answer

Dutch/Lesson 15 83

Dutch/Lesson 15Les 15 ~ Lesson 15

<< Les 14 | Les 15 | Les 16 >>

Gesprek 15Marjan en Jessica zijn gezellig aan het winkelen maar Jessica merkt tot haar grote schrik dat ze haarportemonee verloren heeft. Er zit weinig anders op dan om het winkelen voorlopig maar te vergeten en opzoek te gaan naar Jessicas geld en haar pinpas. Ze hadden zojuist een broodje gegeten in een restaurantje. Hetligt dus voor de hand dat ze het daar heeft laten liggen. Zij haasten zich terug naar de mogelijke plek desonheils.Marjan: Ober, wij hebben hier zojuist wat gegeten en mijn vriendin hier is haar portemonnee kwijt. Heeft udie hier soms gevonden?

Ober: Het spijt me dames, maar ik ben nog maar net begonnen met mijn werk. Weet u nog wie ubediend heeft?

Jessica: Ik weet de naam niet, maar ik weet wel dat het een jongeman was met hoogblond kort haar.Ober: Dan weet ik wel wie u bedoelt. Dat is Pim, maar die is net vertrokken, vrees ik. Ik heb hemnamelijk afgelost. Ik zal wel even vragen of hij iets afgegeven heeft. Een ogenblik alstublieft.

De ober verdwijnt naar achteren, de vriendinnen nerveus achterlatend.Jessica: Ik hoop nu maar dat het gevonden is. Wat moet ik anders, Marjan?Marjan: Nou. maak je nu maar geen zorgen. Het komt allemaal best wel goed.

De ober keert terug met een grijns op zijn gezicht.Ober: Wat is uw naam precies, mevrouwtje?

Jessica: Hoezo, heeft u het gevonden?Ober: Ja we hebben wat gevonden, maar ik weet natuurlijk niet of dat wel van u is, he? Dus hoe heet u?

Jessica: O ja natuurlijk, daar heeft u wel gelijk in. Ik heet Jessica van den Heuvel.Ober: Mooi zo, nou, dan heeft u geluk gehad. Dan heb ik hier inderdaad uw portemonnee.

Grammatica 15 Modal particlesRecall:

.. Er zit weinig anders op om het winkelen voorlopig maar te vergeten ..

.. maar ik ben nog maar net begonnen met mijn werk ..

..Ik weet de naam niet, maar ik weet wel ..

.. Dan weet ik wel wie u bedoelt ..

.. Ik zal wel even vragen of ..

..Dus, zegt u mij uw naam eens?..

Dutch has a variety of adverbs that function as modal particles. They are often hard to translate exactly. They do nothave so much a clear 'meaning', but add a certain flavor to the phrase they are in.wel

Dutch/Lesson 15 84

The adverb wel is strictly speaking the adverbial form of the adjective goed, just as English well and good.Nevertheless it is used rather differently in Dutch. One meaning it has is to negate the words niet (not) and geen (nota, no):

dit is niet uw portemonneethis is not your wallet

Wel! Dit is wel mijn portemonneeyes, it is!

..Ik weet de naam niet, maar ik weet wel ..

I do not know the name, but I do know...It is often used to introduce but:

ik heb wel gezegd dat ... maar...I did say that ... but...

It is often added to a sentence to indicate that he speaker is making an admission or is volunteering something:Ik zal wel vragen..

let me go ask.. (I volunteer)Another use is to indicate that something is exceptional:

er waren wel dertig tornado's!there were thirty tornadoes (no less!)

eveneven indicates that the action will not cost much time or effort. Adding it to a sentence adds an implicit no problemto the utterance:

.. Ik zal wel even vragen of ..

Let me go ask, no problem, will take just a momenteensliterally eens means once, but it is often added to add a flavor of an exceptional occasion.

heb je wel eens..? - did you ever.. ?zal ik eens koffie zetten? - (for a change) would you like me to make coffee?

maarThe word maar can be used as a (nevenschikkend) conjunction and is usually translated by but. It is also an abverbwith the meaning of only, just:

ik heb maar zeven euro op zakI only have seven euro on me

Geeft u mij maar een biertjeJust give me a beer

However it can also be a modal adverb that indicates a certain measure of resignation or lack of choice of thespeaker:

ik heb maar gezegd dat ...I said that ..., because I did not know what else to say.. Er zit weinig anders op dan om het winkelen voorlopig maar te vergeten ..

lit : there is little else on (the list of options) than to forget (sigh..) the shopping spree temporarily

Dutch/Lesson 15 85

Adding maar can also 'soften' the sentence and indicate that the speaker is trying to be polite or friendly.geef hier! - give it (..or else!)geef maar hier! - why don't you give it to me (Don't worry: I'll take care of it)

With a more ironic intonation it could also mean:just give it up - (you're busted)

combinationsIn Dutch modal particle can be heaped up into interesting combinations of flavors, e.g.:

hij zou wel eens even laten zien hoe sterk hij was - he was going to show off how strong he was (but ..)

Grammatica 15-2 The old casesRecall : de plek des onheils – an old genitive.

Indo-European languages, to which both English and Dutch belong were originally highly inflectional with eightcases, three genders and usually four or five declensions. Both languages have lost this system, Dutch however a bitlater than English. In fact in the written standard language Dutch retained four cases and three genders up to thespelling reform of 1947. In the spoken language the case endings and the masculine-feminine distinction had beengone for much longer, but prior to the second world war the educational and political establishment tenaciously triedto preserve the case system, even tried to introduce forms that never existed in the language artificially.The discrepancy between written standard and spoken language led to serious educational problems with equallyserious social consequences. After the destruction by the second world war spelling modernization was imperativeand a lot of old baggage was thrown overboard. Since then case endings are a bit of an unpopular subject. They areoften seen as oldfashioned, even harmful to 'progress'. Nevertheless, there is a fair bit of remnants left in the modernlanguage even though case endings have definitely ceased to be part of a system. The leftovers are idiom more thangrammar. To understand the remnants it is useful to have a peek at the definite article as it was before 1947:

case masculine feminine neuter plural

nominative de de het de

genitive des der des der

dative de(n) de(r) den den

accusative den de het de

The above implies that prior to 1947 one had to write:ik zien den manik zie de vrouw

Worse than that, it was:ik vereer de deugd (f)ik haat den leugen (m)

Most people above the Rhine had to use a dictionary to do the latter right, because the m-f contrast was no longeralive in their spoken mother tongue and neither were the -n and -r endings.In 1947 a small (but sweeping) change was allowed in the spelling: the n in the masculine accusative was madeoptional. With a sigh of relief everybody promptly stopped using the infamous buigings-n and it has has not beenused since... This change obliterated both the accusative-nominative distinction and the masculine-feminine one.The dative only occurred when indirect objects were used without a preposition. All prepositions had come to use the accusative which was now identical to the nominative for anything but personal pronouns. The genitive was still a bit

Dutch/Lesson 15 86

more common although it was always possible to use a construction with van to avoid it:de vloek der mensheid –> de vloek van de mensheid

Thus the change of 1947 basically put an end to the case endings as a system.Still, there are numerous relics that are difficult to understand, let alone use properly, without some knowledge of theold system.

GenitivesAs in English, genitives are regularly used to indicate possession with proper names:

Jans autoJohn's car

There is a growing tendency to extend this usage to female proper names (in defiance of the old case endings) instead of a construction using the clitic form of the possessive pronoun.

Annies auto - Annie d'r autoFor inanimate nouns the genitive is clearly on its way out, although the plural can occasionally still be seen:

het Koninkrijk der Nederlandende prins der dievenhet periodiek systeem der elementen – the periodic system of the elements

Occasionally people deliberately opt to use the odd archaic expression like plek des onheils as a stylistic gadget.The adjective still has a productive partitive genitive in -s that occurs after words like wat, iets, veel etc.:

iets lekkers – something yummyThe genitive occurs in various fossilized forms -usually functioning as adverbs- like:

's ochtends – in the morning, at day break's morgens - in de morning's middags – in the afternoon's avonds – in the evening's nachts – in the night's winters – during the wintertweemaal daags - twice a daybarrevoets - barefootblootshoofds – with bare headgrotendeels – for the most parteen ieder ging zijns weegs - each went in his own direction

Notice the vowel change in dag – daags and weg - weegs

The form 's is a clitic form of des, the masc/neuter genitive article. Notice the -n of grotendeels. The adjective hadhad both strong and weak endings (as it still does in German) and the -n is weak ending.

Dutch/Lesson 15 87

DativesOne preposition had stubbornly retained the dative and it still occurs mostly in petrified dative forms. It is the wordte – at, to. The noun originally received an -e in this case. The proposition often occurs fused with the old dativearticles:

te + den -> ten (masc and neut. sg.)te + der -> ter (fem sg. and plural)ten tijde van - in the days of..ten hoogste - at the mostten dele – partlyten eerste - firstlyterdege - thoroughlyter gelegenheid – on the occasion ofter aarde bestellen – commit to earth, bury

Interestingly the old feminine dative ter still enjoys a measure of productivity in combinations with verbal nouns in-ing:

ter wikifiëring - to be wikifiedThis also holds for words in -heid

ter gelegenheidThis is one reason why words ending in -ing, -te, -tie, -heid are recognized as feminine proper and Dutch does nothave a common gender like a number of Scandinavian laguages..te also occurs without articles:

te allen tijde – at all timeste zijner tijd – in due coursete gelegener tijd – at a convenient moment

Notice that tijd is feminine in the latter two, masculine in the other, a good example of how corrupt the case/genderhad become in the end. The feminine is probably a German influence (die Zeit is feminine). There are more oddities:

het hart – ter harte (neuter -feminine)Te also has a few non-archaic usages. It is used in combination with infinitives as to does in English:

Dat is goed om te weten – that is good to knowHij begon af te vallen – he began to lose weight

It is also used to indicate excess, as English too:Dit is te veel – This is too much.

Or with locations, as English at or in :te A'dam – in Amsterdam

A few other prepositions had taken the dative in a previous phase of the language and some forms remain:van den bloede - of (royal) bloodvan harte! - from all my heartmet verve – with passionin den beginne – in the beginning (Genesis)in koelen bloede

Dutch/Lesson 15 88

Accusative relics are rare because the case resembled the nominative, but a greeting like:goedenavond

has an extra -n- because it was an accusative ending of the adjective goed.

Dutch/Lesson 16Les 16 ~ Lesson 16

<< Les 15 | Les 16 | Les 17 >>

Les 16

Verhaal: Zijn zieke moederHet sneeuwde hard, de oostenwind gierde over de vlakte en sneed door alle kleding. Jan rilde, maar hij vermandezich en trok zijn muts wat verder over zijn oren. Hij gaf zijn Harley wat meer gas. Toen het bericht hem bereikte dater naar hem gevraagd was, had hij gezegd dat hij, als het maar even kon, komen zou. Dit was en bleef zijn moedertenslotte. Wat er ook gebeurd mocht zijn, hij moest er niet aan denken dat zij zou kunnen sterven zonder haar nogeen laatste keer te zien. Daarvoor herinnerde hij zich te veel goede tijden met haar.De kamer waar ze lag was niet groot en had een echte ziekenhuislucht. Plichtmatig groette hij zijn zus en die zwagerwaar hij nooit mee op had kunnen schieten.

Ma?Jongen, ben je toch gekomen?

Ja natuurlijk. Hoe is het nou?Ach, gaat wel.. Ze zorgen goed voor me hier.

Heeft de dokter nog wat gezegd?De dokter? Ja, ik mag weer naar huis. Was het niet veel te koud? Je bent helemaal nat..

Ja het sneeuwt een beetje. Mag je weer naar huis? Zo! Wanneer?Vrijdag, geloof ik...

Ze zuchtte. Haar ogen sloten zich en gingen niet meer open.

Introduction to werkwoorden

The second large family of words besides the naamwoorden is that of the verbs, the werkwoorden. The types that areimportant in Dutch are basically the same ones as in English:1. transitive verbs - overgankelijke werkwoorden2. intransitive verbs - onovergankelijke werkwoorden3. reflexive verbs - wederkerende werkwoorden4. auxiliary verbs - hulpwerkwoorden5. modal verbs - modale werkwoorden6. impersonal verbs - onpersoonlijke werkwoorden7. copulas - koppelwerkwoorden

Dutch/Lesson 16 89

Transitive verbs – Overgankelijke werkwoorden

A transitive verb has a direct object which can be converted into an object in the passive voice. They are the onlyones that can undergo this transition (overgang).

Ik zie het paard → Het paard wordt door mij gezien

Ditransitive verbs

The verb can have other objects, like indirect ones or prepositional ones. In English these can be transposed into apassive construction where the indirect object becomes the subject

He gives me - I am given by himHe sent for me - I was sent for by him

Notice that me is transposed into I in English.In such cases it is possible to construct an impersonal passive without a subject in Dutch. Often the locative adverber is used to open the sentence.

Hij geeft mij - Mij wordt door hem gegeven / Er wordt door hem aan mij gegevenHij vroeg naar mij - Er werd door hem naar mij gevraagd

Notice that the object does not become subject. There are some verbs where it can become the subject but in Dutch.However, this is done not with worden but with krijgen (to get) as auxiliary:

De kok schotelde de man een ovenschotel voor - The cook served the man an oven dish.Door de kok werd aan de man een ovenschotel voorgeschoteld - An oven dish was served ..De man kreeg een ovenschotel voorgeschoteld - The man got served ....

Intransitive verbs – Onovergankelijke werkwoorden

An intransitive verb does not have a direct objectHij gaat naar Amerika - he goes to AmericaJij geneest - you get well

Such phrases cannot be transposed into a passive voice constructionSometimes the same verb can be used as a transitive, that does have a passive:

Jij genas hem - you heal himHij werd door jou genezen - he is healed by you.

Another way of making a verb transitive is to prefix be-:Ik kijk naar de tekening - I look at the drawingIk bekijk de tekening - I examine the drawing

In Dutch there are really two types of intransitives: ergatives and inergatives.

Dutch/Lesson 16 90

Ergatives

Ergatives take the auxiliary zijn in the perfect:Jij geneest.Jij bent genezen. - you have healed.

Genezen kan also be transitive, but some verbs are only ergatives:het vet stolt - the grease solidifieshet vet is gestold.

Ergatives typically express autonomous processes that happen and the typically do not have a clear agent.The causative auxiliaries doen en laten are used to transform ergatives into transitives:

Ik doe het vet stollen.Vice versa the auxiliary raken can be used to create an ergative sentence from an adjective or participle:

Hij raakte verwond. - He got wounded.

Inergatives

Inergatives take the auxiliary hebben in the perfect. There is a clear agent:De hond blaftDe hond heeft geblaft.

That darned dog is the culprit!These verbs are not entirely intransitive, but form an impersonal passive with er:Er wordt geblaft - There is barking.

Reflexive verbs – Wederkerende werkwoorden

In a sense, reflexive verbs are intermediary between active and passive. Their subjects equal their direct objects. InDutch they are accompanied by the reflexive pronoun zich in its various forms.Verbs can occur both as reflexive and as an ordinary transitive verb, albeit with a different meaning:

ik herinner me - I rememberdat herinnert me aan.. - this reminds me of..

Others occur only in reflexive form:zich gedragen - to behavehij wist zich niet te gedragen - he did not know how to behavezich vermannen - to pull oneself together (lit. to make oneself a man)

Reflexive verbs do not have a passive voice, but they can have a second direct object besides the reflexive pronoun:hij herinnerde zich dat.

Zich is a relatively recent loan from German -Afrikaans does not have it e.g.- and only used for the third person andoccasionally together with u. The other reflexives are identical to the object forms of the personal pronouns.It is possible to add -zelf to a reflexive pronoun to make the reflexive relationship more emphatic. Thus I washmyself can be expressed with four subtle degrees of emphasis:

ik was me -- I'm washing not dressing e.g.ik was mij -- I don't wash youik was mezelf -- You don't wash meik was mijzelf -- I neither wash you nor do you touch me: buzz off!

Dutch/Lesson 16 91

The addition of -zelf is only possible if the verb is optionally reflexive. E.g. you can also wash someone else. If thereflexiveness is mandatory forms with -zelf are not possible.

Auxiliary verbs - Hulpwerkwoorden

Auxiliary verbs are used to form the various compound tenses and voices of the verb. In Dutch they are:hebben: forms active perfect tenseszijn: forms active perfect tenses of some verbs and passive perfect tenses of transitive verbsworden: forms passive imperfect tenseszullen: forms the future tenses

Occasionally gaan is used for immediate future constructions.In contrast to English to do the verb doen is not used as an auxiliary, although there are expressions like:

hoop doet leven - lit. 'hope makes one to live' - where there is hope there is lifedit doet vermoeden dat... - this makes one suspect that...

Modal verbs – Modale werkwoorden

Modal verbs are closely related to auxiliary verbs. They are verbs like kunnen, moeten and mogen

ik kan komen - I can come, I am able to comeik zou kunnen komen - I would be able to come

In the latter case the word order is a bit more restricted in dependent clauses:ik wist dat ik komen konik zei dat ik kon komen

are both possible, but:ik zei dat ik zou kunnen komen

In this case it is unusual to put zou at the end

Impersonal verbs – Onpersoonlijke werkwoorden

Some verbs only occur in the third person singular with the neuter personal pronoun het. Weather phenomena are agood example:

het regent - it rainshet sneeuwt - it is snowinghet dooit - it is thawinghet waait - the wind blows

Impersonal verbs are not limited to the weather:het spijt me - I'm sorry

Impersonals always take hebben:het heeft gewaaidhet heeft me gespeten.

Dutch/Lesson 16 92

Copulas – Koppelwerkwoorden

Copulas couple two concepts, the subject and what in Dutch is known as het naamwoordelijk deel van het gezegde,the nominal part of the compound verb. The naamwoordelijk deel can be either zelfstandig or bijvoeglijk. The mostcommon copula is zijn (to be):

Jan is pilootJan is sterk

Worden can be used as a copula in Dutch, corrsponding to to become:Jan wordt piloot

There is a few more copulas such as:blijven: dit blijft moeilijk – this remains difficultlijken: dit lijkt mooi - this seems beautifulblijken: dit bleek onmogelijk – this proved impossibleschijnen: het scheen eenvoudig – it appeared easy

The four contrasts of the verb

Indicative moodThe forms of the Dutch verb in the indicative mood are determined by the four contrasts:1. is the action now or in the past (tegenwoordig - verleden)2. is the action finished or not (onvoltooid - voltooid)3. is the action real or predicted / hypothetical (niet toekomend - toekomend)4. is the action performed by or applied to the subject (bedrijvend - lijdend)The first contrast is rendered synthetically, the other three require auxiliary verbs:1. -2. hebben or zijn3. zullen4. worden

The contrasts can be combined freely. This leads to 2x2x2x2 = 16 forms for a transitive verb, for an intransitive onethe passive voice (contrast 4) does not apply and there are 8 forms.

(niet toekomend) toekomend

tegenwoordig verleden tegenwoordig verleden

bedrijvend onvoltooid ik zie ik zag ik zal zien ik zou zien

voltooid ik heb gezien ik had gezien ik zal gezien hebben ik zou gezien hebben

lijdend onvoltooid ik word gezien ik werd gezien ik zal gezien worden ik zou gezien worden

voltooid ik ben gezien ik was gezien ik zal gezien zijn ik zou gezien zijn

Note that in the prefect passive tenses worden takes zijn as its auxiliary. In the passive voice construction its pastparticiple geworden is typically omitted, rendering zijn the auxiliary of the perfect passive by default.In Dutch the tenses are indicated by their contrasts, e.g. ik zou gezien zijn is de voltooid verleden toekomende tijd vande lijdende vorm. As this nomenclature leads to rather lengthy names it is usual to use an acronym: vvtt van delijdende vorm

Dutch/Lesson 16 93

Notice that in Dutch grammar the past future tenses replace what is known in other grammars as the conditional(mood). It is thought of as a future tense uttered in the past:

Yesterday I said: "he will come" => yesterday I said that he would come.

Infinitive moodIn the infinitive mood the present-past contrast is missing:

(niet toekomend) toekomend

bedrijvend onvoltooid zien zullen zien

voltooid gezien hebben gezien zullen hebben

lijdend onvoltooid gezien worden gezien zullen worden

voltooid gezien zijn gezien zullen zijn

Compound infinitives are rather more prominent in Dutch than in English, especially in combination with theparticle te:

Hij was bang door de wachters gezien te zullen worden

He was afraid that he would be seen by the guardsNa hem gezien te hebben sloegen zij alarm

After they had spotted him they sounded the alarmNotice that in the latter example the infinitive is part of an adverbial expression of time, using the preposition na, butthat it still carries a direct object: hem. In the first example the compound infinitive is accompanied by aprepositional object door de wachters. Infinitives thus do function as verbs in Dutch. They allow their action to beencapsulated inside another sentence without putting the action in a separate clause starting with a relative pronoun(that, who etc.) or a conjunction (after, because etc.)

Subjunctive and imperative moodsThe other two moods are far more limited. There is usually only one form in the active present. For the imperativethat is the second person singular, for the -all but extinct- subjunctive the third person singular. For the subjunctivetense, only a few forms have managed to stay alive in our modern world.

Leve de koning! Opdat hij lang moge leven.Long live the king! May he live long.

Wat de reden dan ook zij, je moet je huiswerk afhebben.Whatever the reason be, you must have your homework done.

Ik zou eerder zijn gekomen, ware het niet voor het slechte verkeer.I would have come earlier, had it not been for the bad traffic.

The subjunctive has now rather more disappeared over time, and isn't practiced any longer. Only a few fossiledexpressions might still contain a trace of what used to be the subjunctive, which is now practically forgotten about.

Dutch/Lesson 17 94

Dutch/Lesson 17Les 17 ~ Lesson 17

Bijwoorden en Voorzetsels ~ Adverbs and Prepositions

<< Les 16 | Les 17 | Les 18 >>

BijwoordenWe have seen two major groups of words in the Dutch language: naamwoorden (nouns, adverbs, pronouns etc.) andwerkwoorden (transitive verbs, intransitives, copula's, auxiliaries). The third group that comprises all the rest isknown as bijwoorden (adverbs) and again they occur in a number of forms. Unfortunately it is not possible toclassify them quite as thoroughly as the other two groups. In fact it is a bit of a miscellaneous rest group, a kindgarbage can into which anything is flung that does not fit in the other two.We have already seen a few groups of words that fall under the denominator bijwoord in the more extensive sense ofthe word and we will examine a few more1. prepositional adverbs, like in, voor, mee, toe, heen, af etc.2. prepositions like in, op, bij, over, met, tot3. conjunctions (including subjunctions)4. modal adverbs (particles) like wel, maar, eens, ...5. adverbs of place and time, like nu, toen, dan or daar, waar6. interjections, like oh, hoi, ach, dag, nou

Prepositions and prepositional adverbsPrepositions are often hard to translate exactly because which one is used in which case often differs between thelanguages.Historically, prepositions developed from adverbs that were put before an object to clarify the meaning of a caseending. Later they supplanted the use of the case endings completely.In Dutch many propositions have an—often identical—adverbial form, the prepositional adverb, that occurs eitheras the separable part of verbs or as the prepositional part of the pronominal adverb. As we have seen the latter plays aconsiderable role in Dutch grammar. Thus the separation between prepositions and adverbs is not as sharp in Dutchas it is in some other languages.There is a number of forms that were formed by prefixing be- and often end in -(e)n, cf.

in - binnenuit - buitenover - boven(neder) - beneden

English has a few comparable forms like before, between, beside, below and behind

Dutch/Lesson 17 95

IN, BINNEN

In translates mostly as its cognate inhij woont in dat huis - he lives in that househij gelooft in spoken - he believes in ghosts

Its identical adverb in often occurs pronominal replacement: erin, daarin (in it, in there) etc. as well as in separableverbs as will be shown below.Notice that Dutch does not have an equivalent of into but uses in as prepositional adverb to express the concept ofmovement 'into' something.An alternative is to use binnen which often translates into inside

hij is binnen - he is insidebinnenlopen:

e.g. Hij liep het huis binnen. ‘’He entered the house.’’binnen twee minuten - within two minutes

To emphasize movement naar can be added:hij liep naar binnen - he walked inhij liep er naar binnen - he entered it

Notice that Dutch has no hangups about ending sentences in 'prepositions'. A word like binnen is not considered apreposition unless it actually precedes a noun. Otherwise it is an adverb and there is no law against ending a sentencein an adverb...

Separable verbs

inademene.g. Ik adem in. I breathe in.

inlopene.g. Hij loopt het huis in. He walks into the house.

Inseparable verbs

None.

DOOR

door is a cognate of through and often corresponds to it:Het licht valt door het raam. The light shines through the window.

In many cases the correct translation is by particularly when it is used with the passive voice:Hij is door de wol geverfd. lit. He has been dyed by the wool. (He is a veteran, old hand.)

Together with heen the meaning is through and through or passage through:Hij stak de naald door het vel heen. He stuck the needle (all the way) through the skin.

Dutch/Lesson 17 96

Separable verbs

doorhakken:e.g. Hij hakte de knoop door. He cut the knot through.

Inseparable verbs

doorzien:e.g. Hij doorzag de list. He saw through the ruse.

BIJ

Although the word is cognate of by it often is used rather differently. It indicates a location slightly to the side ofsomething.

Schiphol ligt bij Amsterdam - Schiphol is near Amsterdambij de les blijven - stay with the lessonbij slecht weer - in the case of bad weatherhet is bij vijven - it is around five o'clockhij bleef erbij - he stuck to it

Separable verbs

bijkomen:e.g. Hij kwam eindelijk bij. He finally regained consciousness.

Inseparable verbs

bijwerken:e.g. Ik heb het bijgewerkt. I have updated it.

OP

Although cognate of up it usually translates as on or upon

hij is op vakantie - he is on vacationhet boek ligt op de tafel - the book lies on the table.op je gezondheid - a toast to you health (not : up your .. etc.)

Separable verbs

opnemen:e.g. Hij nam op. He picked up, answered (the phone), he recorded, he absorbed.

ophoepelen:Ach , hoepel toch op! Ow, get lost!, lit. to hoop up; to get lost

Inseparable verbs

None.

Dutch/Lesson 17 97

NAAST

naast translates mostly into next to, beside

Jan en Elly wonen naast John en Heleen. Jan and Elly are the neighbors of John and Heleen.

Zij wonen ernaast.

Separable verbs

None.

Inseparable verbs

None.

OVER, BOVEN

over translates mostly as it identical cognate:hij vloog over het koekoeksnest - he flew over the cuckoo's nest

(The latter is an unlikely occurrence given the fact that this bird does not build nests).There are both separable and inseparable verbs (see below).boven translates as its cognate above

hij zette er een punt boven: he put a dot above it.Its identical adverb usually means up, upstairs

hij is boven : he is upstairsTo indicate movement Dutch uses naar

hij liep naar boven - he went upstairs, he went up the hill etc.

Separable verbs

overlopen:e.g. Het bad liep over. The bathtub overflowed.

Inseparable verbs

overziene.g. Ik overzag het slagveld. I oversaw the battlefield.

TEGEN

tegen usually translates as against

hij was tegen dit wetsvoorstel - he opposed this propositionde fiets stond tegen de muur - the bike stood against the wall

but:hij zei tegen haar - he said to her

Dutch/Lesson 17 98

Separable verbs

tegenwerken: to thwart, to work againste.g. Hij werkte me altijd tegen. He always blocked me.

tegenkomen - to encounter, to run into

Inseparable verbs

None.

ZONDER

zonder means without

hij drinkt koffie zonder suikerIt did not have an adverbial form but increasingly pronominal adverbs like waarzonder are used.

Separable verbs

None.

Inseparable verbs

None.

TEGENOVER

tegenover means on the opposite side of.Het hotel staat tegenover het conferentiecentrum. The hotel is opposite the conference center.

Separable verbs

tegenoverstellen - put against, balance, add an objection

Inseparable verbs

None.

ACHTER

Some dialects, e.g. in Zeeland and West Flanders have a form bachten in the meaning of behind but it is notconsidered part of standard Dutch.

Separable verbs

achterstellen - to discriminate, to marginalizee.g. Deze groep is eeuwen lang achtergesteld. This group has been marginalized for centuries.

Dutch/Lesson 17 99

Inseparable verbs

achterhalene.g. Ik achterhaalde de waarheid. I retraced the truth.

ACHTERIN

achterin translate mostly into in the back of

achterin de auto liggen nog wat boodschappen - in the trunk of the car there a still a few groceriesIt is often used as an adverb together with in:

Het lag achterin in de auto

Separable verbs

None.

Inseparable verbs

None.

ACHTEROP

achterop is mostly used to indicate the passenger seat of a bike and is used more as an adverb than as a prepositionmet z'n meisie achterop - with his girl on the back

Separable verbs

None.

Inseparable verbs

None.

NE(D)ER, BENEDEN

The form beneden can be used as preposition in the meaning of below, under underneath, south of

beneden de rivieren - south of the rivers (i.e. Rhine, Meuse etc.)beneden de Iridiumlaag vind je dinosaurusbotten - below the Iridium layer you find dinosaur bones

With naar it indicates downward movement:hij viel naar beneden - he fell down

The form neer (<neder) is not used as a preposition but occurs as an adverb with the meaning of down in separableverbs.

Dutch/Lesson 17 100

Separable verbs

neerzien op:e.g. Hij zag neer op die mensen. He looked down upon these people.

neerzitten bij:e.g. Hij zat bij de pakken neer. He surrendered to resignation. (He gave up.)

Inseparable verbs

None.

UIT, BUITEN

uit is represented by out of or from

uit dit erts wordt goud gewonnen - out of this ore gold is produced

hij komt uit Utrecht - he is from Utrecht

buiten usually means outside

buiten de stad - outside the city

hij is buiten - he is outside

hij ging naar buiten - he went ouside'Both uit and buiten have separable verbs. Uit often means off in these.

Separable verbs

uitdraaien:e.g. Hij draaide de radio uit. He turned the radio off.

uitdoen:e.g. Zij deed het licht uit. She switched off the light.

e.g. Zij deed haar jas uit. She took her coat off.

Inseparable verbs

Buiten often means out in verbs:buitensluiten - to lock out

BEZIJDEN

bezijden is comparable to besides but occurs mostly in the expression.bezijden de waarheid - aside of the truth (i.e. not true)

Separable verbs

None.

Dutch/Lesson 17 101

Inseparable verbs

None.

BENEVENS

benevens is a rather formal alternative to naast (besides, next to).benevens de aandelen is er het huizenbezit - besides the stocks is there the real estate

Separable verbs

None.

Inseparable verbs

None.

ONDER

onder is the cognate of under and has similar applications:de hond ligt onder de tafel - het dog lies under the table

It can also be used in the meaning of among:onder professoren - in the circle of professors

Separable verbs

ondergaan:e.g. De zon gaat onder. The sun sets.

Inseparable verbs

ondergaan:e.g. Hij ondergaat een operatie. He undergoes surgery.

MET

met usually means with.hij gaat met zijn vrouw naar Canada - he goes to Canada with his wife

Its adverbial form is mee (from: mede).

Separable verbs

meegaan:e.g. Hij ging mee. He joined.

hij ging mee met haar. He accompanied her.

Inseparable verbs

None.

NAAR, TOT, TOE, HEEN, WEER

naar translates mostly as to or at:hij kijkt naar het schilderij - he looks at the painting

hij kijkt ernaar - he looks at it.

Dutch/Lesson 17 102

hij gaat naar Kaapstad - he is going to Cape Town

In the sense of to rather than at naar is often reinforced by adding the adverb toe:hij gaat naar Kaapstad toe

In pronominal replacement the addition is mandatory:hij gaat ernaartoe

Alternatively, however, one can say:hij gaat erheen - he is going there

heen is an adverb that indicates movement. It does not occur as preposition but there are separable verbs:heengaan - to leave (usually permanently)

hij ging heen - he left

Its opposite is weer (from: we(d)er- that means back or again)heen en weer - back and forth

It occurs in separables like:weerkeren

hij keerde weer - he came back

de wederkomst - the second coming

It is related to with as in withstand and forms inseparable verbs as in English:weerstaan - withstand

toe is the adverbial form of the preposition tot that mostly means until or to:dit is geldig tot het eind van de maand - this is valid until the end of the month

dit dient tot versterking van de dijk - this serves to reinforce the dyke

dit is waartoe het dient - this is the purpose it serves

Another meaning of toe is closing, narrowing.Somewhat archaic is:

doe dat eens toe - please would you close that

af en toe - occasionally, now and then

but it occurs in a separable verb like:zich toespitsen - become more acute - coming to climax

e.g. Het geweld spitst zich toe. The violence is exacerbating.

Dutch/Lesson 17 103

TUSSEN

tussen means mostly between

tussen Maryland en Noord-Carolina ligt Virginia

Separable verbs

Tussenvoegen - to insert.

Inseparable verbs

None.

VAN, AF

van translates mostly into of and from:van verse tomaten is een heerlijke soep te bereiden - a delicious soup can be made of fresh tomatoes

het westen van het land - the west of the country

hij komt van ver - he comes from far

hij viel van zijn stoel - he fell off his chair

When a downwards motion or fall is implied as in the latter case, the adverb af (cognate of off) can be added:hij viel van de trap - he fell off the stairs

hij viel eraf - he fell off

het water komt van die berg af - the water comes from that mountain

het komt er vanaf - it comes off of it

af does not occur as proposition, but is part of separable verbs:afvallen - lose weight, fall off (sailing)

van does not occur in verbs.

AAN

aan has various translations such as to, at, on or is implied in an English verb. It typically implies a touching orreaching until contact is made.

zij gaven geld aan deze organisatie - they gave money to this organization

hier komt deze laag aan de oppervlakte - here this layer reaches the surface

aan deze feiten valt niet te twijfelen - these facts can not be doubted

er valt weinig aan te doen - there is little we can do about it

wat is er aan de hand? - what is at hand? what is happening?

hij zit aan het schilderij - he is touching the painting

hij zit eraan - he is touching it

nergens aan zitten! - hands off!

af is the opposite of aan in:af en aan - off and on

But uit can also be the opposite:Is het licht aan of uit? Is the light on or off?

Dutch/Lesson 17 104

Separable verbs

aankomen - to arrive, gain weight

e.g. Hij is gisteren aangekomen. He arrived yesterday.

e.g. Hij is tien kilo aangekomen. He gained 10 kilos.

Inseparable verbs

aanbidden - to worship

e.g. In het Oude Egypte werd de god Horus aanbeden. In Ancient Egypt the god Horus was worshipped.

OM

om can mean around:hij deed een nieuwe band om de velg - he put a new tire around the rim

om de burcht ligt een gracht - there is a moat around the castle

In this meaning it is often reinforced with heen:er ligt een gracht om de stad heener ligt een gracht omheen

It can also have less literal meaning of about, because of, for:dit werd om onduidelijke redenen afgelast - this was cancelled for unclear reasons

There are separable verbs:omdoen - wrap around

e.g. Zij deed een sjaal om. She put a shawl around her neck.

Under German influence om can also imply change, inversion.hij liet zich ompraten - he allowed himself to be persuaded to change his mind

wegomlegging - detour

LANGS

langs evokes a parallel position or motion and is mostly translated by along.langs de rivier loopt een weg - there is a road along the riverhij liep erlangs - he passed by it

Separable verbs

langskomen - drop by

Inseparable verbs

None.

Dutch/Lesson 18 105

Dutch/Lesson 18Les 18 ~ Lesson 18

Scheidbare werkwoorden in bijzinnen~ Separation and Subordination

<< Les 17 | Les 18

More word orderWe have seen that word order depends on quite a few factors in Dutch:1. inversion

1. in questions2. for emphasis

2. separation1. of compound verbs

1. auxiliary2. rest of the verbal cluster

2. of prefixed verbs3. of pronominal adverbs

3. subordination

Separation and subordinationWhat happens when the above factors are combined, for example if a separable verb is put in a subordinate clause?Notice what happens to the persoonvorm: that part of the verb that carries the ending:Inseparable vertrekken

Direct:Hij vertrekt morgen naar Berlijn

Indirect:Ik zeg dat hij morgen naar Berlijn vertrekt

Separable aankomen

Direct:Hij komt morgen in Berlijn aan

Hij komt morgen aan in BerlijnIndirect:

Ik geloof dat hij morgen in Berlijn aankomt

As you see in the subordinate clause the verb is put at the end and is no longer separated.At least this is true for the present and simple past tense. If we use the future tense the situation is somewhatdifferent:Inseparable vertrekken

Direct:Hij zal morgen vertrekken

Indirect:

Dutch/Lesson 18 106

Ik betwijfel of hij morgen vertrekken zalIk betwijfel of hij morgen zal vertrekken

Separable aankomen

Direct:Hij zal morgen aankomen

Indirect:Ik zeg dat hij morgen aan zal komen

Ik zeg dat hij morgen aankomen zalIk zeg dat hij morgen zal aankomen

There is considerable variation in word order possible, some with separation, some without and usage varies fromregion to region and person to person.In general we can say that all parts of the verb like to be at the end of the sentence, except the persoonsvorm of adirect phrase. When there are many bits and pieces at the end they tends compete for last place.There are a few restrictions to the latter in the case of modal verbs:

ik weet dat hij nog komen moetik weet dat hij nog moet komen

Both are fine in Dutch, but if we add another auxilliary:ik denk dat hij nog zal moeten komenik denk dat hij nog komen moeten zalik denk dat hij nog moeten komen zal

The first is fine, the second rather awkward, the third is not acceptable.

Separable versus inseparable in dependent clausesRecall that some verbs occur in both a separable and an inseparable form, e.g. doorlopen.

Ik loop de school door - takes five minutes to walk through the school physicallyIk doorloop de school - takes five years and ends in graduation

In a dependent clause the only difference between the two is in the stress pattern, so that in written language thefollowing sentence can have two pronunciations and two meanings:

Ik geloof dat hij de school doorlooptIn such cases of ambiguity Dutch spelling allows the addition of stress marks:

Ik geloof dat hij de school dóórloopt - takes five minutesIk geloof dat hij de school doorlóópt - takes a number of years

Dutch/Lesson 18 107

Separable infinitives and teInfinitives are at times used with te, much like in English they are with to:

Dat is moeilijk te lezen - that is hard to readIn such cases separable verbs do separate:

Dat is onmogelijk op te schrijven

Such infinitives can express an action that must be performed (as in English something to do). They can even used inan adjectival construction:

De onmogelijk op te schrijven tekst werd ter zijde geschovenThe text that was impossible to write down, was pushed aside.

Dutch/Lesson AfrikaansWelkom by die Afrikaans les

Daar is 'n eie wikiboek vir Afrikaans, hierdie is net 'n vergelyking van die twee tale.Er is een eigen wikiboek voor Afrikaans, dit is slechts een vergelijking van de twee talen.

Afrikaans has its own wikibook. This page discusses the relationship between the two sisterlanguages.

Afrikaans & NederlandsDutch is used in the countries The Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles & Aruba, sometimes inIndonesia and some neighbouring parts of Germany and France. But if you speak Standard Dutch you can also holdconversations very easily in Southern Africa, in South Africa and Namibia.Since the founding of Kaapstad (Capetown) in 1652 a variety of Dutch was spoken at the Cape, gradually spreadingover much of Southern Africa. Since 1806 the political ties were severed and the spoken languages evolved in theirown directions, much as English did in the U.S. and French did in Quebec. Some Dutch dialects and Afrikaans arestill very close to each other and the differences between Dutch dialects are at least as big as between Dutch andAfrikaans. In fact, until 1925 there was only one written standard legally recognized both in South Africa and inBelgium and the Netherlands.Unfortunately, this written standard was rather artificial and archaic and did not reflect what people actually spoke.For example the standard still had case endings and three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter). Only certaindialects of Flanders and the southern part of the Netherlands still had at least three genders in the spoken language.The northern Netherlands only had two genders and South Africa only one. The inflectional system was alreadygradually becoming disused in the Middle Ages, but later grammarians decided that it had to be preserved— evenbrought back— at all costs. On top of that the spoken language of South Africa had a much simplified verbal system,e.g. it no longer used the simple past tense. There were also numerous differences in pronunciation and semantics.The discrepancies between the single written standard and what people actually spoke were so large that they createdserious educational problems and formed an impediment to social progress both in Africa and in Europe.This was why the Kollewijn spelling (1891) proposed radical changes for the spelling of the language. It is alsoknown as "Schrijf zoals je praat / Skryf hoe jy praat-spelling" (Write-as-you-talk spelling). In South Africa, wherethe discrepancies were the most conspicuous, his ideas were implemented in the 1920's with considerable vigor.In the Netherlands and Belgium (and their colonies) his ideas were dismissed as outrageous and iconoclastic. It wasalso feared that what had been one language would splinter into many, each of which would be unable to compete inthe modern world.

Dutch/Lesson Afrikaans 108

In 1925 Afrikaans was officially recognized as a separate language with its own spelling and grammar, much closerto what people actually spoke. In Europe it was only after the Second World War that the educational and politicalestablishment finally threw in the towel and followed the Afrikaans example. In 1947 the spelling was revised insuch a way that case endings (notably the -n in the masculine singular accusative: den) were made optional. Rapidlyit disappeared from use. Many silent and superfluous letters were omitted, e.g.:

de menschen wenschen → die mense wensde boeken van dien aardigen kleinen jongen → die boeke van die aardige klein jong

The reform of 1947 was not quite as sweeping as the one in 1925.For example the word for at home is still written as thuis (from: te huis) in Dutch, but as tuis in Afrikaans. Similarly,thans (from te hands: now) is written as it is pronounced in Afrikaans: tans.In part the reluctance to reform had to do with the fact that earlier ideas in Flanders to create a separate standardcloser to what was spoken there had largely been abandoned. In Belgium the language was under considerablepressure from a French speaking elite and could ill afford further fragmentation. Despite considerable variety in thespoken language there was clearly a desire to keep the written umbrella unified. This led to increased linguisticcooperation between Flanders and the Netherlands and the creation of the Taalunie.The ties with South Africa in the mean time become all but severed because the Apartheid government there -amongst other things - emphasized the uniqueness of the Afrikaans language. In fact in 1961 all linguistic ties werebroken. The Netherlands and Belgium increasingly joined the boycott against apartheid. Since 1994 there is a slowprocess of renewal of ties but the languages have continued to evolve in different directions in the meantime.

InleidingAfrikaans: Afrikaans is een van die elf amptelike tale in Suid-Afrika en is ook die grootste, maar nie amptelike taalnie van Namibië. Afrikaans, 'n betwiste kreool van Nederlands, word gepraat deur 6 miljoen mense in Suid-Afrika ashuistaal. Naas die 6 miljoen is daar ook 10 miljoen wat Afrikaans praat as tweede taal, vaak naas Engels, Xhosa ofZoeloe

Let op: Hierdie mense wat Afrikaans praat is nie alleenlik blanke Suid-Afrikaners van Nederlandse afkomsnie maar word ook gepraat deur die sogenaamde kleurlinge en swarte Suid-Afrikaners.

Tot 1925 het Afrikaans as Nederlands gereken, maar in 1961 het Afrikaans Nederlands offisieel vervang. Tot dié tydhet die mense Afrikaans en Nederlands beskou as sinonieme. Na 1961 heet die taal Afrikaans. Nederlands isoorspronklik die taal van die Nederlandse koloniste, toe die Boere en nou die Afrikaners. Deesdae word die taal deurmense van alle kleure gepraat. Die taal is die meest verspreide taal in Suidelike Afrika en meer as 60% van dieNamibiërs kan 'n proffesionele gesprek in Afrikaans voer.

Dutch/Lesson Afrikaans 109

Standard Dutch and Afrikaans

Introduction

English: Afrikaans is one of the eleven official languages in SouthAfrica and also the biggest, but not an official language of Namibia.Afrikaans, a creole of Dutch, is spoken by 6 million people in SouthAfrica as a mother tongue. Beside those 6 million there are also 10million people that speak Afrikaans as a secondary language, often nextto English, Xhosa or Zulu.

Note: This is not only the white South Africans of Dutch descentbut also the "coloureds" and also many black South Africans.

It was in 1925 that Afrikaans was recognized as Dutch in South Africa,but in 1961 Afrikaans replaced Dutch officially, till those times it wasconsidered as synonyms. After 1961 the language is called Afrikaans.Dutch was originally the language of the Dutch colonists, later Boers andnow Afrikaners. But these days the language is used by people of all colours. The language is the most spread outlanguage in Southern Africa and more than 60% of the Namibians can have a professional conversation in Afrikaans.

Differences between Dutch and Afrikaans

Grammar

Verbs

One major difference between the two languages is that Dutch retains the simple past tense, Afrikaans does not:I learn - I learned - I have learnedik leer - ik leerde - ik heb geleerdek leer - ............ - ek het geleer

In the present tense Dutch typically has three forms:ik leer

jij, hij leert

wij, jullie, zij leren

In Afrikaans there is only one: leer

Dutch/Lesson Afrikaans 110

Examples of Afrikaans (on left) and Dutch (on right)

Dutch/Lesson 2A 111

Dutch/Lesson 2Aback to lesson 2

Exercise 2A-1 InflectionAs you have seen in lesson two, Dutch adjectives have two main forms, an uninflected one and an inflected one in-e. In the sentences below chose the right form.1. Deze auto is rood/rode. Het is een rood/rode auto.2. Dit huis is groot/grote. Ik heb een groot/groot huis.3. Is de weg erg lang/lange? Is het een lang/lange of een kort/korte?4. Is het huis mooi/mooie? Ja het is een prachtig/prachtige huis!5. Hij heeft een beter/betere manier gevonden.

Dutch/Alfabet^ Les 1 ^

Appendix 1 ~ Alphabet and Pronunciation Guide

Het alfabet ~ The alphabetThe Dutch alphabet, like English, consists of 26 basic letters. However, there are also a number of lettercombinations. The following table includes a listing of all these letters and a guide to their pronunciation. As inEnglish, letter sounds can differ depending upon where within a word the letter occurs. The first pronunciation givenbelow (second column) is that in English of the letter (or combination) itself. Reading down this column andpronouncing the "English" words will recite the alphabet in het Nederlands (in Dutch). Note that letter order isexactly the same as in English, but pronunciation is not for many of the letters.SAMPA-orthography: see SAMPAA (ah) Long 'a' in French 'bateau', but longer (SAMPA /a:/); short 'a' as in 'arm' (/A/)

B (bay) Pronounced like 'p' when at the end of a word

C (say) Like 's' preceding i, e and y; like 'k' preceding a, o, u and consonants

D (day) Pronounced like 't' when at the end of a word

E (ay) Long 'e' as 'a' in 'late' (/e:/); short 'e' as 'e' in 'pet' (/E/)

F (ef)

G (khay) 'g' as 'ch' in Scottish 'loch', but voiced (/G/)

H (hah) Usually voiced.

I (ee) Long 'i' as 'e' in 'seen' (ee) (/i:/); short 'i' as 'i' in 'pit' (/I/)

J (yay) Pronounced like 'y' as in 'yes'

K (kah) No aspiration

L (el) Thinner than in English

M (em)

N (en)

O (oh) Long 'o' as 'o' in 'open' (oh; /o:/); short 'o' as 'aw' in British English 'law' (/O/)

P (pay) No aspiration

Q (kuuh)

Dutch/Alfabet 112

R (err) trilled (see below)

S (ess)

T (tay) No aspiration

U (uuh) Long 'u' as 'u' in French 'du' (/y:/); short 'u' somewhat like 'i' in 'bird' (/Y/)

V (vay)

W (way) for Holland: between upper teeth and lower lip (not between lips) / for Flanders (Belgium): between the lips

X (iks)

Y or IJ (eh-ee). Y only in loans, IJ is a diphthong and considered two letters.

Z (zet)

combined letters

aa

ee

oo

uu

au

ei

eu

ie

ij

oe

ou

ui

ch

ng

<< Contents Page

Nederlandse uitspraak ~ Dutch Pronunciation Guide

KlinkersDutch has quite a few vowels (13). To be well understood by a native speaker it is imperative to master them, whichcan be quite challenge for native speakers of languages that rely more on their many consonants such as Russian.One general observation is that they are always pronounced as pure (or only slightly diphthongized) vowels as inFrench, never drawled or 'chewed upon' as in many varieties of English.Most vowels occur in pairs that are traditionally indicated by the terms short and long. Unfortunately, thisnomenclature is rather misleading because the difference is not a matter of length, but rather a difference in theposition of the tongue root (lax vs. tense).

Dutch/Alfabet 113

vowel 'short' (lax) 'long' (tense)

a - - stal - staal /ɑ/ as in squat, father /a/ as in broad US 'my God!' (Gaad) or Fr. bâteau

e - - bed - beet /ɛ/ as in bell /e/ as in bait

i - - bit - biet /ɪ/ as in bit /i/ as in beet

o - - bot - boot /ɔ/ as in paw or UK Potter /o/ as in boat

u - - put - kluut /ɵ/ more rounded than subtle /y/ as in French tu

oe - - koet /u/ as oo, but rounded

eu - - deuk /ø/ as German Möwe

In addition there is a neutral vowel that occurs in almost all unstressed syllables, the schwa /ə/ as is does more or lessin English as well. It is spelled with an 'e', so that this letter has three meanings: the above two in stressed syllables,the schwa in unstressed ones.Notice the value of the letter 'u' in Dutch. As in French it denotes the /y/ sound. Thus, in German it corresponds to ü.It is relatively rare in Dutch because most words that used to have it have shifted it to the diphthong ui. It occursmostly at the end of words like u, nu or in front of a w or r: ruw, stuur.

Trick: If you can whistle: whistle a high note, freeze your mouth in the position it is in and sing. You'llproduce a /y/-sound. The trick is to have the tongue far in the front of the mouth and the lips rounded.

The spelling 'oe' for /u/ is a real Dutch oddity. Most languages use 'u' as German and Latin. (French uses 'ou', Englishoften used 'oo', although it does have words like shoe). The Dutch /u/ sound is strongly rounded and dark with thetongue pretty far retracted back in the mouth. (American 'oo' sounds tend to be intermediary between /u/ and /y/ )There is a systematic way in the spelling to indicate which of the two varieties is intended. An open syllable has the'long' one, a closed one -ending in one or more consonants- has the 'short' one.

na /na/nat /nɑt/

If a conflict arises, either the vowel or the consonant is doubled:zaak - zaken both have /a/ (business - businesses)zak - zakken both have /ɑ/ (bag- bags)

Notice how the formation of the plural necessitates a good mastery of this principle. The vowels oe and eu do notexhibit the dual quality of the other vowels.The case of the letter i is a bit special. There has been a double ii in the past but to avoid confusion with ahand-written u it was replaced by -ij. Afterwards the long /i:/ sound it represented became a diphthong /ɛi/ (althoughmany dialects retain /i/). To write the long /i/ sound Dutch mostly uses -ie.As said above, the distinction 'short'-'long' has little to do with pure length, because the change from open to closedis much more important. There is an exception. In front of -r the long vowel may indeed just be the same vowel helda bit longer:

bord : /bɔrt/boord: /bɔːrt/

In front of -r there are a few other oddities:keel - /kel/keer - /kɪːr/keus - /køs/keur - /kœːr/

Dutch/Alfabet 114

Diphthongsei and ij are both /ɛi/ compare English feisty

au and ou are both /au/ as in English now

ui is /ʌy/ needs to be learned by ear, it is a bit like in French l'oeil.aai is /ai/ooi is /oi/ieu is /iu/ or /iy/eeu is /eu/uw is /yu/

Diphthongs like /ɔi/ (as in English toy) or /ɑi/ (as in English my) are not used in the standard language. In variousdialects they do occur and producing them is often frowned upon. They are considered 'lower class' in many circles.In unstressed syllables like the suffix -lijk the ij represents a schwa.

MedeklinkersMost consonants in Dutch are pronounced more or less the same way as in English but there are a number of notableexceptions. First of all a number of phonemes that English has are simply missing in Dutch. Phonemes are soundsthat suffice in marking one word as different from the other.

Missing phonemes/θ/ : th as in thing/ð/ : th as in that./g/ : g as in good (!!)/ʃ/ : sh as in ship (!!)

Please avoid these sounds when speaking Dutch.

The g, ch and sch problemThe spelling sch- can be rather confusing for people familiar with some German. In German it is used to write the /ʃ/sound, where English uses sh-. In Dutch the sch- combination also occurs quite frequently but is pronounced ratherdifferently. In most cases it presents a combination of s+ch where the latter is the voiceless velar fricative /x/ asheard in German Bach or Scottish loch.

schip : /sxɪp/In older versions of the orthography (prior to 1947) the combination -sch represented a simple /s/ sound in finalposition. The guttural ch at the end had gone mute. (Originally it represented a k- sound as it still does in somedialects and in Frisian). The final -sch spelling is still used for one rather common ending: -isch and also innumerous geographical names as they have never been altered in spelling:

chaotisch: /xa'otis/ (not: /xa'otiʃ/'s-Hertogenbosch : /sɛrtoɣən'bɔs/ , (not: /ʃɛr'togənboʃ/ )

In principle Dutch has both a voiceless and a voiced velar fricative and the letter 'g' represents the voiced one and thecombination 'ch' the voiceless one. However, the number of words where this creates a phonemic distinction is verysmall:logen /'loɣən/ contrasts with: loochen /'loxən/

Dutch/Alfabet 115

It depends on the region whether this distinction is actually made in the spoken language. Around Amsterdam itwould not be, further south the phoneme 'g' is often pronounced as a voiced palatal fricative, so that the differencebecomes more pronounced.Worldwide, the voiced /ɣ/ sound is pretty rare. It only occurs in a few languages like Arabic and Gaelic. As manynative speakers do not use it either, it is recommended not to bother about it and use the voiceless /x/ for both, unlessyour mother tongue happens to have the difference.

The Dutch "r"Another, similar, problem for English-speaking learners is the Dutch "r". Essentially there are two, both of whichwere historically trilled. The first, alveaolar [r], is the trilled "r" also used in Spanish, produced with the tip of thetongue against the alveolar ridge. This sound was standard only a few decades ago and is still used by somespeakers. However it is gradually replaced by a voiced velar or uvular trill [R], which is also used in many dialects ofGerman; it is also similar to the French "r", but is voiced and articulated somewhat further forward (it is less"throaty"). Starting from the Dutch "g" (/ɣ/) described above - a voiced velar fricative, the tongue is lowered andrelaxed, thereby allowing the back of the tongue to trill against the soft palate (the velum) or of the uvula against theback of the tongue.Both the alveolar and the uvular /r/ sounds are often not trilled when spoken by native speakers; the alveolar [r] ismore often a light tap, while the uvular [R] can turn into a fricative or approximant. This also presents a considerablechallenge for those unaccustomed to the sound when they are confronted with words like groot ("big"). The first twosounds tend to blend to one lengthy velar/uvular /x:ot/ or /ɣ:ot/, which may cause confusion with words like rood(red) and goot (gutter).A third type of /r/ currently making inroads into Dutch is Gooise R, named after the Gooi area in the Netherlands,where Dutch television is produced (Hilversum) and this speech feature is popularly thought to have originated. Thisconcerns an approximant sound, not unlike American /r/ in words such as bar, without trilling or friction.

Voiceless consonantsp represents /p/, but unlike in English it is never aspirated.poot /pot/, kaap /kap/f represents /f/ as in Englishfuut /fyt/, schaaf /sxaf/t represents /t/ a true dental. Unlike UK-English it is not aspirated and unlike US-English it does not become a/d/ in the middle of a word.toe /tu/, beter /'betər/s represents /s/, in few case it can be a /z/ sound but much less frequently so than in German:samen: /'samən/

but:organisatie: /ɔrɣani'zatsi/

The latter word also contains an exception on the rule that t represents /t/. In the ending -tie (corresponding to -tion)it is pronounced as a quick /ts/ combination.

k represents /k/. again it is never aspirated as often happens in English or German.kop /kɔp/ , kraak /krak/

In contrast to English it is not silent in combinations like kn-: knie' /kni/ch represents /x/ as discussed above, except in recent English loans. This phoneme is quite common.

Dutch/Alfabet 116

schraag /sxrax/, schichtig /sxɪxtəx/

Devoicing and assimilationAs in German, but unlike English all consonants at the ends of words are devoiced (..at the ents off worts aredevoist...). You may hear that phenomenon when people speak English with a strong Dutch accent.

zaad: /zat/Assimilation with the previous word often devoices the consonant in initial position as well:

het zaad: /tsat/The neutral article het is often reduced to a prefixed t-sound in the spoken language and occasionally rendered assuch in the written language as: 't. Het zaad -> 't zaad.Notice however that both the /z/ and the /d/ reappear in the plural:

de zaden: /də 'zadən/Contrary to d, the letters v and z are not used in the final position in such cases:

de vaas - de vazen: /də vas - də 'vazən/de graaf - de graven /də ɣraf - də 'ɣravən/

Voiced consonantsApart from the devoicing effects Dutch has the following voiced consonants:

b represents /b/ as in Englishbaas /bas/v represents /v/ as in English, although its voicing is less emphaticbevel /bə'vɛl/d represents /d/ as in Englishdader /'dadər/z represents /z/ as in Englishziezo! /'zizo/g represents /ɣ/ not /g/ as in English (see above)gegraven /ɣəɣravən/, gracht /ɣrɑxt/

Around Amsterdam the tendency to devoice is so strong that /v/ /ɣ/ and /z/ are seldom heard. People use /f/, /x/ and/s/ instead.

Liquids, nasals etc.m represents /m/ as in Englishmooi /moi/w represents /ʋ/ much like in German, it is a labiodental approximant, not a bilabial one. Bring your upperteeth close to your lower lip and produce sound without breath. Put otherwise: produce a v-sound withoutbreath. Speakers from e.g. Surinam often do use the bilabial version.water /ʋatər/

In initial wr- (wraak /vrak/ or /ʋrak/) w tends to sound more like /v/. It is not silent as in English.In erwt /ɛrt/ (pea) the w is silent for most speakers

n represents /n/ as in English

Dutch/Alfabet 117

nonnetje /'nɔnətjə/ (/'nɔnəcə/)Many plurals (including the plural forms of the verb) have an ending -en. For many speakers this is pronounced as/-ə/ and the final n is dropped, but this is not true for all. It depends strongly on the region of the speech area you arein. Around Amsterdam it is certainly /-ə/, but in Groningen or in West-Flanders it is a syllabic /-n/ instead.

ng /ŋ/ as in English sing, never /ŋg/ as in finger (the latter uses a /g/ that Dutch does not have). It does notoccur in initial position, much like in English.vinger /vɪŋər/

Even in loans the /ŋg/ tends to be avoided: tango : /'tɑnɣo/ or /'tɑŋɣo/nk /ŋk/ as in English sink (This involves a /k/ sound that Dutch does have)j represents a /j/ sound, which in English usually written as y. The English j as in Jack is virtually unknown.jacht: /jɑxt/, borrowed into English as: yacht.

In combination with i it forms a diphthong: ij. Although this is a two letter combination, both letters get capitalizedat the beginning of a sentence: ijs -> IJs (ice). /ɛis/. The suffix -je that forms the rather ubiquitous diminutives tendsto palatellize the previous consonants or even fuse to a palatal stop all together in rapid speech.

blaadje /'blatjə/ (/'blacə/y is not a native Dutch letter but it occurs in loans where it is pronounced /i/ or /j/.l represents an /l/ that is neither velarized (dark) as most English l's are, nor is it the slender variety as inGerman, French (or Irish). It is neutral and in between.lila /'lila/r can represent a variety of sounds. A rolled 'r' /r/ was more or less the norm, but is heard less and less. Avariety of uvular forms is taking its place. Retroflex ones (as in US English) sound distinctly foreign.h represents /ɦ/ a voiced version of the h-sound commonly heard in English and German. It only occurs ininitial position of a syllable.behang /bə'ɦɑŋ/, herfst /ɦɛrfst/the glottal stop ` is not rendered in the ortography, unless by a trema, e.g. in naäpen /na`apən/.

It is much less used than in German, e.g. theater: /te'jatər/ rather than /te`atər/.

Syllable StressStress is not represented in the spelling as such but often an educated guess can be made. Dutch is like English andGerman (and unlike French) a typical stress language. One syllable tends to get all the attention. It is at the sametime loud, long and high in pitch and it never has a schwa ə. Instead it has a full vowel or a diphthong. Unstressedsyllables tend to be short, low, soft and usually have a schwa, although there are exceptions.Because the schwa is written as a e in the orthography it is often quite clear where the stress falls in a word:

verlaten : /vər'latən/ has only one non-schwa syllable la and sure enough that is where the stress goes.Unfortunately for the non-native speaker the letter e is also used for other purposes.

verleden : /vər'ledən/And, to make it any more difficult for the non-native speaker:

december : /de'sɛmbər/It's a word which has three e's, all different pronounced.The middle -e represent a full /e/ sound (as the ai in bait), but that is only clear for a native speaker. But with a bit ofknowledge of grammar it will be clear that /led/ is the root of a verb (lijden actually) and that ver- is a prefix and -enthe suffix. In general, the root of a verb (or noun) will get the stress in Dutch.

Dutch/Alfabet 118

Of course there are exceptions, a good example are the separable and non-separable verbs.Some words and names can have rather surprising stress patterns:

Veluwe is /'velyə/ for example.

CapitalizationThe rules for capitalization in Dutch are similar to the ones in English. Capitalization occurs at the beginning of asentence. Eigennamen (names of persons, institutions, countries etc.) are capitalized, soortnamen (names of species)are not. As mentioned above, when a word beginning with ij has to be capitalized, both letters become capitals, e.g.IJsselmeer.<< Contents Page

Dutch/Appendix 2

Translation Phrase

Hello Hoi / Hallo

I am [...] Ik ben [...]

What is your name? Hoe heet je? / Hoe heet u?

Where is... Waar is...

My name is [...] Ik heet [...]/ Mijn naam is[...]

What time is it? Hoe laat is het?

I want that, please Ik wil dat, alstublieft

How are you? (To someone you do not know) Hoe gaat het met u?

How are you? (To someone you know) Hoe gaat het met je?

Good morning Goedemorgen

Good day Goedendag

Good evening Goedenavond

Good night Goedenacht

Good-bye Dag / Tot ziens

Please Alstublieft

You are welcome Graag gedaan

Thank you Dank u wel

That Dat

How much? Hoeveel?

Yes Ja / Jawel

No Nee / Neen

Where is the toilet? Waar is het toilet?

Generic toast Proost

Do you speak English? Spreekt u Engels?

I don't understand Dat begrijp ik niet

I don't speak Dutch Ik spreek geen Nederlands

Dutch/Appendix 2 119

I'm sorry Het spijt me

Pardon me Neem me niet kwalijk

I don't know Dat weet ik niet

Best regards Met vriendelijke groet

Translation Phrase IPA pronunciation

Dutch Nederlands /'neːdərlɑns/ (NAY-der-lahnds)

hello hallo /hɑ'loː/ (hah-LO)

Good morning goedemorgen /'ɣudəˌmɔrɣɛn/

Good afternoon goedemiddag /ˈɣudəˌmɪdɑx/

Good evening goedenavond /ˈɣudənˌɑʋɔnt/

good-bye tot ziens /tɔt 'ziːns/ (tott-ZEENS)

please alstublieft /ɑlsty'blift/ (AHL-stu-BLEEFT)

thank you dank u wel /dɑŋky'ʋɛl/ (DAHNK-u-WELL)

I'm sorry het spijt me

I don’t understand ik begrijp het niet /ɪk bə'ɣrɛip ət nit/ (Ick

beyGRAYP hett neat)

that one die /diː/ (dee)

how much? hoeveel? /huː'veːl/ (who-VEIL)

English Engels /'ɛŋəls/ (ENGels)

do you speak English? spreek je Engels? /sprek jə 'ɛŋəls/ (Spray-k ya

ENGels)

yes ja /jaː/ (ya)

no nee /neː/ (nei)

I don’t know ik weet het niet /ɪk ʋet ət nit/ (Ick WAY-T hett neat)

Where is the bathroom? waar is het toilet?

I don't feel well ik voel me niet lekker

That's okay dat is goed

generic toast proost /proːst/ (proh-st)

Dutch/Appendix 3 120

Dutch/Appendix 3^ Les 1 ^

Appendix 3 - Voornaamwoorden ~ pronounsLike English, Dutch has pronouns. These can mark number, case, gender,politeness and emphasis.Pronouns can function either as substantives (nouns) or as adjectives. There is also a number of related adverbs thatwill be treated here. Adverbs are typically not considered pronouns in grammatical analysis, but they deservemention when discussing the Dutch language because pronouns are often replaced by pronominal adverbs.

Persoonlijke voornaamwoorden ~ Personal pronouns

In this table personal pronouns are given in nominative, accusative and dative case. These cases signify the role thepronouns have in the sentence. For example: In "I am hitting you", "I" is nominative (subject) and "you" isaccusative (object). Also words with a preposition are in accusative case ("you" in "I am looking at you"). Dativecase is special and tells us something is indirect object, as "me" in "He gave me that" or "He built me a snowman" or,with a preposition, "He gave it to me".

number person nom. acc./dat.

Dutch English Dutch English

singular 1st ik I mij/me me

2nd fam. jij/je you jou/je you

polite u you u you

South gij you u you

3rd m hij he hem him

f zij/ze she haar her

n het it het it

plural 1st wij/we we ons us

2nd fam. jullie you jullie you

polite u you u you

South gij you u you

3rd zij/ze they hen/hun*ze

them

Remarks:• Sometimes there are two forms (jij/je etc.), which can be interchanged most of the time. (See 5)• Officially the plural 3rd person accusative form is hen. Hun is (officially) only used as a dative without

preposition: "We hebben het hun verteld" ("We told them about it"). After a preposition hen should be used. Thisrefers almost entirely to the written standard language and was artificially constructed by the grammarians of thepast. In the spoken language hen is seldom heard. Even hun is increasingly replaced by ze as people tire of beingtold their use of hun is wrong by the schoolmasters. In the inanimate case the use of preposition+pronoun is rare,replacement by a pronominal adverb being preferred (See 8).

• For inanimate objects personal and possesive pronouns are often replaced by demonstrative pronouns.• In the South -mostly Flanders- the gij-form is in regular use for the second person. It has its own verb endings. It

adds a -t both in the present and the past: komen - gij komt - gij kwaamt. In the North its use is limited to Biblical

Dutch/Appendix 3 121

quotes like: gij zult niet stelen - thou shalt not steal. Notice that u is used as object, without implying politeness.

Bezittelijke voornaamwoorden ~ Possessive pronouns

Pssessive pronouns are essentially the adjectival forms of the personal pronouns.

number person Dutch English

singular 1st mijn my

2nd fam. jouw/je your

polite uw your

3rd m zijn*3 his

f haar*3 her

n (zijn)*3 its

plural 1st onze/ons our

2nd fam. jullie your

polite uw your

3rd hun their

Remarks:1. The difference between jouw and je is matter of emphasis or the lack thereof: "Dat is jouw huis." vs. "Dat is je

huis."2. Ons has an inflected form onze as most adjectives do (See ../Lesson 2). Other possessives are seldom inflected in

the modern language: Mijne Heren!: Gentlemen!, Hare Hoogheid: Her Highness. More regularly inflected formsare used when the pronoun is used as an independent noun: Met welke auto gaan we? De mijne of de jouwe?.Jullie is never inflected, instead die van jullie is used.

3. The neuter possessive pronoun zijn is very rare as Dutch usually opts for a construction involving a pronominaladverb like ervan. (see 8). The masculine and feminine forms are increasingly reserved for natural gender(persons, as in English) in other cases pronominal replacement is more and more the norm.

Personal Adverb - er

Dutch has a somewhat curious personal locative adverb er that replaces het and ze particularly in inanimate cases(i.e. for things more so than for persons). It occurs as the locative part of many pronominal adverbs, such as :erin,erdoor, ervan etc. but it can also be used independently:

er is koffie - there is coffee.er zijn mensen die dat lusten - there are people that like that

Notice that er is not considered the subject of these sentences (koffie and mensen are the subject resp.)

Dutch/Appendix 3 122

Aanwijzende voornaamwoorden -- Demonstrative pronouns

location neuter sg. all other English

close dit deze this, these

far dat die that,those

1. Notice that the distinction dit-deze does not correspond to the distinction this-these. Deze is used in the plural butit also used in the singular for m/f words. (It replaces de.)

Demonstrative pronouns are typically used as adjectives:Dit huisDeze auto

they can also be used independently:dit is een huisZijn auto? Die heb ik gezien

They are more and more used to replace inanimate personal pronouns.

Aanwijzende bijwoorden - demonstrative adverbs

temporalDutch has three demonstrative adverbs of time:1. past: toen -then

hij heeft toen een huis gekocht - he bought a house then2. present: nu - now

nu woont hij er - now he lves there3. future/conditional: dan - then

hij het dan verkopen - then he'll sell itmodalOne modal demonstrative adverb is common:

zo - soOccasionally a more proximate one zus is used for contrast

Dat doe je zus en zo - You do that this way and that.locativeTwo locative adverbs are in common use:1. close by: hier - here2. far off: daar - thereBoth of them are used as the locative part of demonstrative pronominal adverbs like: hierdoor, daarvan etc.A third adverb is less common:1. remote: ginds, ginder, daarginds -yonder

Dutch/Appendix 3 123

Betrekkelijke voornaamwoorden -- Relative pronouns

Zelfstandig- substantive

antecedent neuter sg. all other English

after dat die that/who

included wat wie the one that/whowhoever/that which

Without antecedent:Dit is het huis dat ik koop -this is the house that I buyDit is de auto die ik koop - this is the car that I buyDit is de vrouw die ik lief heb - the is the woman whom I love

With inclusion of antecedent.Wie mij steunt zal ik belonen - whoever supports me I shall rewardIk verkocht wat ik eerder gekocht had - I sold that which I had bought earlier.

There are a number of archaic forms that can be used with prepostitions:neuter:hetwelk, hetgeen, hetgene, datgene : that whichother: dewelke

persons degene die: he who, diegenen die: those whoAs in English the genitives wiens and wier (whose) can be used in relative clauses referring to persons:

ik ontmoette de man wiens vrouw voor ons werkt - I met the man whose wife works for us.

case masc sg. fem sg./plur English

genitive wiens wier whose

In inanimate cases the relative pronominal adverb waarvan is virtually mandatory.

Bijvoeglijk - adjective

neuter sg. all other English

welk welke which

ik weet welk boek hij gebruikt - I know which book he usesik weet niet in welke steden trams rijden - I do not know in which cities streetcars are operated

Bijwoordelijk - adverbial

locativewaar - where

Waar can be used to initiate a dependent clause:dit is de stad waar ik geboren ben - this is the town where I was born

Waar is also used to form the relative pronominal adverbs like waarvan, waarvoor etc. that frequently replacerelative pronouns.

Dutch/Websites 124

Dutch/WebsitesDue to recent spam and vandalism, this page has been protected. Please suggest links to resources on the talk page.

• Free Online Dutch Tutorial [1]

• Dutch To English Dictionary [2]

• Language translation, o.a. Dutch to English and English to Dutch [3]

• Online Dutch Grammar Tutorial [4]

• Online Dutch Lessons [5]

References[1] http:/ / www. ielanguages. com/ dutch. html[2] http:/ / dictionaries. travlang. com/ DutchEnglish/[3] http:/ / www. freetranslations. com[4] http:/ / www. dutchgrammar. com/ en/[5] http:/ / www. internetpolyglot. com/ lessons-nl-en

Dutch/What time is it?Hoe laat is het? Saying what time it is is quite different from in English. You do not use the same rules for saying8:10 and 8:50, for example. In the following examples, we use times from 8 to 9 o'clock.

__:00 / __:15 / __:30 / __:45Examples:

8:00 - 8 uur

8:15 - kwart over 8

8:30 - half 9

8:45 - kwart voor 9

__:01 to __:19Examples:

8:01 - 1 over 8

8:02 - 2 over 8

...

8:19 - 19 over 8

Dutch/What time is it? 125

__:20Example:

8:20 - 20 over 8 (not used everywhere), or 10 voor half 9

__:21 to __:29Examples:

8:21 - 9 voor half 9

8:22 - 8 voor half 9

...

8:29 - 1 voor half 9

__:30Example:

8:30 - half 9

__:31 to __:39Examples:

8:31 - 1 over half 9

8:32 - 2 over half 9

...

8:39 - 9 over half 9

__:40Example:

8:40 - 10 over half 9

__:41 to __:59Examples:

8:41 - 19 voor 9

8:42 - 18 voor 9

...

8:59 - 1 voor 9

__:00Example:

9:00 - 9 uur

Dutch/The numbers 126

Dutch/The numbersCounting is often the first thing one wants to learn when visiting another country.

0 to 100. nul1. één2. twee3. drie4. vier5. vijf6. zes7. zeven8. acht9. negen10. tienNotice that the cardinal 1 (one) is usually written using stress marks as één to distinguish it from the unstressedindefinite article een (English a or an). However stress marking is an optional thing in Dutch and the marks are notalways written.Zeven is sometimes pronounced as "zeuven" [zøvə(n)] to distinguish it better from "negen".

11 to 20As in English the first two are irregular; they betray an ancient suffix -lif as in English.

11. elf12. twaalf

The rest has -tien as a suffix with a few irregularities13. dertien14. veertien15. vijftien16. zestien17. zeventien18. achttien19. negentien

Dutch/The numbers 127

20 to 100The equivalent of -ty in English is -tig.

20. twintig30. dertig40. veertig50. vijftig60. zestig70. zeventig80. tachtig90. negentig

The "z" of zestig and zeventig are usually pronounced as [s], not [z].

21, 66 etc.In contrast to English the units come first

21 eenentwintig ("oneandtwenty")If the unit ends in a vowel and this collides with the vowel of "en" a diaeresis (trema) is used:

22 tweeëntwintig

100, 200In contrast to English, Dutch just uses "hundred", not "one hunderd"

100. honderd101. honderd-en-één200. tweehonderd201. tweehonderd-en-één300. driehonderd400. vierhonderd500. vijfhonderd600. zeshonderd700. zevenhonderd800. achthonderd900. negenhonderd

Dutch/The numbers 128

1000 to 100,000This basically goes the same. Notice that Dutch uses periods as separators for factors of one thousand rather thancommas. This notation is the reverse of the English one. Dutch has a decimal comma, not a decimal point.

1000. duizend1001. duizend-en-één2000. tweeduizend5000. vijfduizend10.000. tienduizend20.000. twintigduizend50.000. vijftigduizend100.000. honderdduizend

For years the 'honderd' is often dropped, similar to English:In 1355: in dertien vijfenvijftig.

Large numbers1.000.000. één miljoen1.500.000. één miljoen vijfhonderdduizend2.000.000. twee miljoen

For larger numbers Dutch uses the long scale rather than the short scale, which is currently used in allEnglish-speaking countries. There are two suffixes -joen and -jard that alternate.

1.000.000.000. miljard1.000.000.000.000. biljoen1.000.000.000.000.000. biljard1.000.000.000.000.000.000. triljoen1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000. triljard

DecimalsRemember that Dutch uses a decimal comma rather than a decimal point.

6,7%: zes komma zeven procent.Dutch/The numbers/Hover test

Article Sources and Contributors 129

Article Sources and ContributorsDutch/Cover  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1810568  Contributors: CommonsDelinker, Dallas1278, Datch, Derbeth, German Men92, Guaka, Jcwf, Jguk, Krun, MartinKraus, Mike.lifeguard, Mkn, Mtcv, Orange, Orion Blastar, Patrick Star, Quatt, Robert Horning, Runningfridgesrule, Swift, Tomakkermans, Tralala, Wknight8111, Youssefsan, 14 anonymousedits

Dutch/Introduction  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2013090  Contributors: Adrignola, Buncic, Guaka, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Marshman, Mtcv, Nick Jones, Quink,SPQRobin, Stenographer, Webkid, Yarnover, Ylem, 58 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 1  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031730  Contributors: Adrignola, Bastique, EquationDoc, Gandalf1491, Guaka, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Jomegat, Kevin deVries, Løde, Mazeppa, Mtcv, Nathan niels, Patrick Star, Quatt, Rhdinah, ThePCKid, Thepeckhambassplayer, Webkid, 157 anonymous edits

Dutch/Example 1  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1908502  Contributors: Adrignola, Gandalf1491, Guanaco, Jcwf, Jguk, 21 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 1A  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2028137  Contributors: Jcwf, Jguk, Missionary, 18 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 2  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031732  Contributors: Adrignola, Guaka, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Kevin de Vries, Marshman, Mtcv, Oreo Priest, Rhdinah, 109anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 3  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031733  Contributors: Adrignola, Guaka, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Mainvoid, Marshman, Missionary, ModsRule, Mtcv, OreoPriest, Recent Runes, Repsah, Zwart, 112 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 4  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031734  Contributors: Adrignola, Guaka, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, ModsRule, Mtcv, Oreo Priest, Repsah, 109 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 5  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031735  Contributors: Adrignola, Jcwf, Jguk, ModsRule, 66 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 6  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031736  Contributors: Adrignola, Alsocal, Derbeth, Guaka, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, ModsRule, Oreo Priest, RubySS, Yktoo,81 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 7  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031737  Contributors: Adrignola, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Marshman, Yktoo, 63 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 8  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2008720  Contributors: Adrignola, Az1568, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Yktoo, 106 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 9  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2008730  Contributors: Adrignola, Boemanneke, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Thenub314, 36 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 10  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1912119  Contributors: Adrignola, Jcwf, Jguk, 30 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 11  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1709635  Contributors: Adrignola, Albertde, Iarlagab, Jamesjiao, Jcwf, Jguk, 18 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 12  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=2031731  Contributors: Adrignola, Az1568, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, Velocitas, 30 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 13  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1892655  Contributors: Adrignola, Boemanneke, George W Bush, Hagindaz, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Jguk, 27 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 14  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1892662  Contributors: Adrignola, Iarlagab, Jcwf, Missionary, 31 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 15  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1809721  Contributors: Adrignola, Duplode, Iarlagab, Jitse Niesen, 12 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 16  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1709640  Contributors: Adrignola, Iarlagab, Jcwf, 34 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 17  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1894042  Contributors: Adrignola, Iarlagab, Jcwf, RubySS, 24 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 18  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1894055  Contributors: Adrignola, Iarlagab, Jcwf, SPQRobin

Dutch/Lesson Afrikaans  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1940573  Contributors: AGrobler, Adrignola, Cherylpok, Orange, QuiteUnusual, Totorotroll, 44 anonymous edits

Dutch/Lesson 2A  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1844158  Contributors: Jcwf, Thenub314

Dutch/Alfabet  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1908508  Contributors: Adrignola, Guaka, Iarlagab, Jguk, Mtcv, Whiteknight, Ylem, Zwart, 73 anonymous edits

Dutch/Appendix 2  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1128465  Contributors: Arsenalfan, Derbeth, Iarlagab, Jguk, Mike.lifeguard, Wietsezuyderwijk, 11 anonymous edits

Dutch/Appendix 3  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1908505  Contributors: Adrignola, Iarlagab, Jguk, Mtcv, 19 anonymous edits

Dutch/Websites  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=537638  Contributors: David hoepelman, Hagindaz, Jguk, 13 anonymous edits

Dutch/What time is it?  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1921767  Contributors: Adrignola, Oreo Priest, Youssefsan, 8 anonymous edits

Dutch/The numbers  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?oldid=1921763  Contributors: Adrignola, Jcwf, Oreo Priest, Youssefsan, 1 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 130

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Dutch_Wikibook_cover_Hendrik_Avercamp.jpg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Dutch_Wikibook_cover_Hendrik_Avercamp.jpg  License: Public Domain Contributors: User:JcwfImage:Flag of Belgium.svg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Belgium.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:DbenbennImage:Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_the_Netherlands.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:Zscout370Image:Flag of Suriname.svg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Suriname.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: ALE!, Anime Addict AA, Fry1989, Homolupus, Klemen Kocjancic, Kookaburra, Krun, Mattes, Mikewazhere, Mmxx, Nightstallion, Pfctdayelise, Reisio, ThomasPusch, Vzb83, Zscout370, 16 anonymous editsFile:Apfelpfannkuchen.jpg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Apfelpfannkuchen.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5  Contributors: User:LyzzyImage:Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal toren gezien vanaf Linkeroever.JPG  Source:http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal_toren_gezien_vanaf_Linkeroever.JPG  License: GNU Free Documentation License  Contributors: Barbarossa, BibiSaint-Pol, Pkuczynski, RonaldinoImage:Aalto table.JPG  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Aalto_table.JPG  License: GNU Free Documentation License  Contributors: User:EllywaImage:Aalto chair front.JPG  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Aalto_chair_front.JPG  License: GNU Free Documentation License  Contributors: User:EllywaImage:Information icon.svg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Information_icon.svg  License: unknown  Contributors: El TImage:Bahnhof valkenburg01.jpg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bahnhof_valkenburg01.jpg  License: GNU Free Documentation License  Contributors: Erik Baas,Markus Schweiss, Siebrand, T HoudijkImage:Nieuwpoort1600.jpg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:Nieuwpoort1600.jpg  License: GNU Free Documentation License  Contributors: Original uploader wasDonderwolk at nl.wikipediaImage:AfrikaansenNederlands.jpg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:AfrikaansenNederlands.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: OrangeImage:NederlandsenAfrikaanskleuren.jpg  Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=File:NederlandsenAfrikaanskleuren.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Adrignola,Orange

License 131

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unportedhttp:/ / creativecommons. org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3. 0/