Dutch/Lesson 16

Introduction to werkwoorden
The second large family of words besides the naamwoorden is that of the verbs, the werkwoorden. The types that are important in Dutch are basically the same ones as in English:


 * 1) transitive verbs – overgankelijke werkwoorden
 * 2) ditransitive verbs – ditransitieve werkwoorden
 * 3) intransitive verbs – onovergankelijke werkwoorden
 * 4) reflexive verbs – wederkerende werkwoorden
 * 5) impersonal verbs – onpersoonlijke werkwoorden
 * 6) copulas – koppelwerkwoorden
 * 7) auxiliary verbs – hulpwerkwoorden
 * 8) modal verbs – modale werkwoorden

However, the conjugation of these verbs is not exactly the same as in English, particularly in their choice of auxiliary verbs. E.g. some of the intransitive verbs in Dutch take zijn in the perfect rather than hebben, which is why we will split this category into ergative and inergative verbs. The following table summarizes the usage of auxiliaries and the approximate percentage of total verbs that a particular type represents. (The percentages are based on the verbs currently in the data base of nl.wiktionary on June 9, 2012)

Transitive verbs – Overgankelijke werkwoorden
They are by largest category by far (58% of total). A transitive verb has a direct object which can be converted into an object in the passive voice. Their name refers to the fact that they can undergo this transition (overgang) using the auxiliary verb worden.


 * Ik zie het paard → Het paard wordt door mij gezien

The active perfect tense is formed using the auxiliary verb hebben, the passive perfect with the auxiliary verb zijn


 * Ik heb het paard gezien → Het paard is door mij gezien

The above passives are personal: they center around "het paard" as subject. In Dutch passives can also be impersonal, particularly if they center about something indefinite. Impersonal passives are usually initiated with the word "er".


 * Jan bakt veel brood – Er wordt (door Jan) veel brood gebakken.
 * John bakes a lot of bread – There is a lot of bread being baked (by John).

In English such constructions are somewhat cumbersome and infrequent, mostly limited to continuous tenses. In Dutch they are quite frequent.

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


 * He gives me – I am given by him
 * He 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 adverb er is used to open the sentence.


 * Hij geeft mij – Mij wordt door hem gegeven / Er wordt door hem aan mij gegeven
 * Hij 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:


 * Active: De kok schotelde de man een biefstuk voor – The cook served the man a steak.
 * Passive: Door de kok werd aan de man een biefstuk voorgeschoteld – A steak was served ..
 * Pseudo-passive: De man kreeg een biefstuk voorgeschoteld – The man got served ....

Absolute verbs
A small group of Dutch verbs can have a direct object, but they cannot undergo the transition to a passive voice. They all take hebben as auxiliary verb for the perfect tenses.


 * aanhebben – to wear (clothes)


 * Hij heeft een jas aan – Hij heeft een jas aangehad.


 * Een jas wordt aangehad door hem. is not a valid sentence.

Some do not have an object, but neither do they have an impersonal passive.


 * De zon schijnt – De zon heeft geschenen.


 * Er werd door de zon geschenen is not a valid sentence.

Intransitive verbs – Onovergankelijke werkwoorden
An intransitive verb does not have a direct object


 * Hij gaat naar Amerika – he goes to America
 * Jij geneest – you get well

Such phrases cannot be transposed into a passive voice construction

Sometimes the same verb can be used as a transitive, that does have a passive:


 * Jij genas hem – you healed him
 * Hij werd door jou genezen – he was healed by you.

Another way of making a verb transitive is to prefix be-:


 * Ik kijk naar de tekening – I look at the drawing
 * Ik bekijk de tekening – I examine the drawing

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

Ergatives
Ergatives take the auxiliary zijn in the perfect:


 * Jij geneest.
 * Jij bent genezen. - you have healed.

Genezen can also be transitive, but some verbs are only ergatives:


 * het vet stolt – the grease solidifies
 * het vet is gestold.

Ergatives typically express autonomous processes that happen and they typically do not have a clear agent.

The causative auxiliaries doen en laten are used to transform ergatives into transitives:


 * Ik laat het vet stollen.
 * De koude doet 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 blaft
 * De 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.
 * Er is gebeld – Somebody called.

Transitives, ditransitives and inergatives all have one thing in common: they are verbs of action. Usually there is a clear agent. In the passive this agent is indicated by using the preposition door:


 * Er is niet door hem gebeld – There were no phone calls from him.

Reflexive verbs – Wederkerende werkwoorden
In a sense, reflexive verbs are intermediary between active and passive. Their subjects equal their direct objects. In Dutch 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 remember
 * dat herinnert me aan.. - this reminds me of..

Others occur only in reflexive form:


 * zich gedragen – to behave
 * hij wist zich niet te gedragen – he did not know how to behave
 * zich 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 and occasionally 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 wash myself 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 you
 * ik was mezelf -- You don't wash me
 * ik was mijzelf -- I neither wash you nor do you touch me: buzz off!

The addition of -zelf is only possible if the verb is optionally reflexive. E.g. you can also wash someone else. If the reflexiveness 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 tenses
 * zijn: forms active perfect tenses of some verbs and passive perfect tenses of transitive verbs
 * worden: forms passive imperfect tenses
 * zullen: 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 life
 * dit 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 come
 * ik 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 kon
 * ik 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 a good example:


 * het regent – it rains
 * het sneeuwt – it is snowing
 * het dooit – it is thawing
 * het waait – the wind blows

Impersonal verbs are not limited to the weather:


 * het spijt me – I'm sorry

Impersonals always take hebben:


 * het heeft gewaaid
 * het heeft me gespeten.

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 most common copula is zijn (to be):


 * Jan is piloot
 * Jan 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 difficult
 * lijken: dit lijkt mooi – this seems beautiful
 * blijken: dit bleek onmogelijk – this proved impossible
 * schijnen: het scheen eenvoudig – it appeared easy

Indicative mood
The 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) hebben or zijn + past participle
 * 2) zullen + infinitive
 * 3) worden + past participle
 * 1) worden + past participle

Notice that the English name past participle is not very appropriate. Its presence does not have anything to do with the present-past contrast which is dealt with synthetically. This is why it is commonly called voltooid deelwoord in Dutch grammar (perfect participle). It indicates the imperfect/perfect and the active/passive contrasts instead.

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

Note that in the prefect passive tenses worden takes zijn as its auxiliary. In the passive voice construction its past participle 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 van de lijdende vorm. As this nomenclature leads to rather lengthy names it is usual to use an acronym: vvtt van de lijdende vorm

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 mood
In the infinitive mood the present-past contrast is missing:

Compound infinitives are rather more prominent in Dutch than in English, especially the extended form with the particle te and they are used to form beknopte bijzinnen – abridged dependent clauses:


 * Hij was bang door de wachters gezien te zullen worden
 * He was afraid that he would be seen by the guards
 * Na hem gezien te hebben sloegen zij alarm
 * After they had spotted him they sounded the alarm

Notice that in the latter example the infinitive is part of an adverbial expression of time, using the preposition na, but that it still carries a direct object: hem. In the first example the compound infinitive is accompanied by a prepositional object door de wachters. Infinitives thus do function as verbs in Dutch. They allow their action to be encapsulated 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 moods
The other two moods are far more limited. There is usually only one form in the active present. For the imperative that is the second person singular, for the -all but extinct- subjunctive the third person singular.

Subjunctive
For the subjunctive mood, only a few forms have managed to survive.


 * Leve de koning! Dat 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 all but disappeared. Only a few fossilized expressions remain. The past tense of this mood in particular has been replaced by the forms of the indicative past. Sentences that start with an inversion followed by the adverb maar are a remnant:


 * Was je maar gekomen! -- If only you had come! (not: *Ware je maar gekomen)
 * Gaf hij maar een teken van leven! -- If only he gave a sign that he's alive! (not: *Gave hij maar ..)

Imperative
The most common imperative is, much as in English the stem of the verb:


 * Help! -- Help!
 * Kom! -- Come!

The verb zijn has a special form, wees:


 * Wees stil! -- Be quiet!

Imperatives are often modified with modal particles like maar or toch. Maar softens the command to a friendly invitation
 * Kom maar! -- Come! Don't be shy! It's all right!

Toch expresses impatience:
 * Kom toch! -- Come! You are waiting for you! Come already!


 * (Och), kom toch! also expresses disbelief: oh, come on.. seriously?

There exists an archaic plural that takes -t:


 * Staakt! -- Strike!

It went out of fashion around the middle of the 20st century, but can still be seen in older literature. It is still productive in combination with the polite pronoun u:


 * Weest u niet bang – Don't you be afraid.
 * Gaat u zitten – Please sit down.

There is also an imperative of the plusquamperfect, often used with the adverb toch. It expresses disapproval of an earlier chosen course of action:


 * Had toch even gebeld! - You should have called!
 * Was toch naar ons toe gekomen! - Why on earth didn't you come to us?!