Lesson 22 · Verbs

It is unrealistic to expect that you can learn all Dutch verbs from this chapter. There are many verbs, and some don’t follow simple rules, making it challenging to remember and use them well after just one lesson. Because of this, this chapter is structured differently from previous ones. Rather than teaching everything, it focuses on introducing some important verbs and grammar rules. We will also display verbs in tables to provide plenty of examples. Mastering verbs requires frequent practice and exposure in real-life situations, so consider this chapter a guide, not a complete lesson.

Now, let’s begin with a simple introduction.

This lesson starts with regular verbs. A verb changes to match its subject and tense. Begin with fietsen: ik fiets, jij fietst, hij fietst, wij fietsen. Reflexive verbs, such as zich wassen, are introduced in Lesson 44.

A verb is a word that indicates an action or a state of being. There are two main types of verbs:

1. Regular verbs – These verbs follow standard rules. (See picture for example.) These verbs are called regular verbs.

2. Irregular verbs – These verbs do not follow standard rules. Examples include the verbs to have and to be. These are known as irregular verbs.

For regular verbs, we start with the form "ik fiets" (see picture for the first sentence). Notice that when forming questions with "you", the verb behaves similarly to how it does with "I" (see picture).

The present-tense stem is often the ik form: fiets. With jij, hij, zij and u, a regular verb usually takes -t: jij fietst, hij fietst. The plural usually uses the infinitive: wij fietsen.

If jij or subject je follows the verb, the added -t disappears: Fiets jij? It remains with u: Fietst u? A stem already ending in t gets no extra t: ik wacht, jij wacht. Spelling changes are sometimes needed: maken → maak, reizen → reis.

Verbs describe an action. When an action is finished (in English, we say "it is done"), a construction with another verb (like "to have" or "to be") is used. This is called the perfect form. The example below shows this with the verb "to have":

"I have cycled in Amsterdam."

We can also show how to conjugate verbs using a table. The following table presents conjugations for these verbs:

• to live (Dutch: wonen)
• to work (Dutch: werken)
• to pay (Dutch: betalen)
• to travel (Dutch: reizen)
• to play (Dutch: spelen)

Each row in the table shows the verb form for different subjects like I, you, he/she/it, we, and they.

Now more examples are given and in order to start simple we give only the present and the past tense. Later, we will pay more attention to the perfect tense.

 1 to pay

Finally, an example of a form where the action is completed is: "I have paid 10 euros." In this case, "have paid" indicates that the payment is finished. The word order is very typical in Dutch: it starts with "ik heb", followed by the amount, and the sentence ends with the verb "betaald".

Vicky and grandpa

Vicky always asks grandpa what he did. Now we see how the perfect form is used.
Here are her questions.

Notice that in the conversation, we met the perfect form of the verb to be:

Notice also that the "the place" ("in Amerika" and "in China") written between "ben" and "geweest".