Dutch
Lists: Natural languages | Language families | Conlangs | Other Lists
Fact corner
- Language: Dutch
- Alternate names: Nederlands, Hollands
- SIL-code: Ethnologue:nld
- Language family: Indo-European, Germanic, West, Low Saxon-Low Franconian, Low Franconian
- Number of speakers: 17,370,777
- Script: Latin script
On this page... (hide)
Introduction
| This article is a stub.
You can help WikiVerb to expand it. |
Three conjugation classes: Weak, strong and irregular.
Three persons: First, second and third.
Two numbers: Singular and plural.
Three moods: Indicative, subjunctive and imperative.
Two genera verbis: active and passive.
Conjugation of weak verbs (no vowel-change in past tense)in the active, indicative mood
| person | present | past |
|---|---|---|
| First person sing. | suffix | suffix + -de |
| Second person sing. | suffix + -t | suffix + -de |
| Third person sing. | suffix + -t | suffix + -de |
| or -te* | ||
| First person plural | suffix + -en | suffix + -den |
| Seond person plural | suffix + -en | suffix + -den |
| Third person plural | suffix + -en | suffix + -den |
| or -ten* |
- Verbs in which the suffix ends with the letter -t,-k,-f,-s,-c,-h or -p will get the extension -te in the third person past singular and -ten in the third person past plural.
The conjugation is basically the same in strong verbs.The two differences are the change of vowel in the suffix in the past tense, Example: lopen-liepen (to walk) zitten-zaten (to sit), and the lack of an extension in the first person past singular. There is no straight rule for the vowel-change. One has to learn these verbs by heart to find the right conjugation.
There is also a category of irregular verbs. These are neither weak, nor strong. Some of them will show a combination of characteristics from both categories, others have a conjugation which is strictly their own. These verbs must also be learned by heart.
The imperative mood has only one form in singular an one in plural. The singular form is the same as the first person present singular, the plural form is the infinitive of the verb.
There is no object in the imperative.
Example: Loop! (walk! singular)
Lopen! (walk! plural)
The verb does not change in the subjunctive mood, the conjugation is like the indicative. The word- order in the sentence does change.
Indicative: Object-Predicate-Subject etc.
Subjunctive: Predicate-Object-Subject etc.?