Imperative mood

The 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!).

Often imperatives are 'softened' to a kind request or encouragement with modal adverbs like maar or even:

Ga weg - Go away! (This is pretty curt, even offensive: Get lost!)

Ga even weg - Please leave me alone for a moment (A kind request: do me a favor)

Ga maar weg - You can go now, that's OK. (An encouragement or permission)

In polite address with 'u' often a -t is added, although grammarians don't always consider that an imperative^[1]:

Gaat u zitten - please sit down

Weest u niet bang - don't be afraid

Indicative mood in the present tense

By far the most important mood is the indicative one and its tenses. We will look at the present tense only here. The first 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 follow

hij 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?

het vertellen van verhalen

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

vertellen - to tell

wij nemen - we take

jullie volgen - you (all) follow

zij kunnen - they can

Notice that the vowel usually does not change and therefore we are doubling either consonants or vowels when we go 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".

Infinitive mood

The plural form is also the infinitive of the verb:

wij maken - we make

maken - to make

It occasionally takes 'te' as in English 'to' but that is more exceptional in Dutch. The form with te is known as the extended infinitive and it has its own uses. Some of them are quite comparable to what happens in English:

dat is moeilijk te maken - that is hard to make

The 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 meal

het 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^[2]:

de week die volgt → de volgende week

the week that follows → the following week

volgend jaar

next year

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

vertalen - to translate

de 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 see

ik zie - I see

hij ziet - he sees

zij zien - they see

Subjunctive mood

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

Men neme twee pond gehakt

lit. (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 verbs

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

kunnen

ik kan - I can

jij kunt - you can

hij kan - he can (no t in Dutch - no s in English)

mogen

ik mag - I may

jij mag - you may

hij mag - he may (no t - no s)

We will revisit irregulars later.

Clitics revisited

Obama kijkt in de spiegel.

spiegel

As 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 - we

zij, ze - they or she

hen, ze - them

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

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

Hij ziet míj in de spiegel - He sees me in the mirror (not my mother).

Some pronouns do not have clitics, like u and jullie. 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 'im

In the written language they are often written in full hij, haar and hem.

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 - my

jouw, je - your

zijn, z'n - his

haar, (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 are often written as mijn, zijn and haar in formal writing. The form je is pretty much the only clitic possessive generally accepted in writing.