# Dutch/Lesson 16

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* Intermediate level: cycle 4
Lesson 16 ~ Lesson 16
Soorten werkwoorden ~ Types of verbs
* • Zijn zieke moeder
* • transitive verbs and ditransitive verbs
* • absolute verbs
* • inergative verbs and ergative verbs
* • reflexive verbs
* • impersonal verbs

## Les 16
### Verhaal: Zijn zieke moeder

Vocabulary :
| sneeuwen | to snow |
| gieren | to howl |
| de vlakte | plain |
| rillen | to shiver |
| het bericht | message |
| tenslotte | after all |
| ziekenhuis | hospital |
| de zwager | brother in law |
| opschieten met | to get along with |
| zuchten | to sigh |
It was snowing hard, the easterly wind blasted across the plain and cut through all clothing. Jan shivered, but pulled himself together and pulled his cap a bit further over his ears. He gave his Harley a bit more gas. When the message reached him that he had been called for, he had said that he would come if ever he could. This was his mother after all and would always be. Whatever may have happened, he could not bear the thought that she might die without seeing her a last time. He remembered too many good times with her.
The room she was in was not very large and had a typical hospital smell. Dutifully, he greeted his sister and this brother-in-law he had never gotten along with.
       Mam?
          Son, did you come anyway?
       Of course. How are you doing?
          Oh, not too bad.. They are taking good care of me here
       Did the doctor tell you anything?
          The doctor? Oh, yes I can go home again! Wasn't it far too cold? You are all wet..
       Yeah, it is snowing a bit. Can you go home again? Wow! When is that?
          Friday, I think...
She sighed. Her eyes closed and did not open again.
Identify all verbs in the above story and classify them according to the classification below
    Het sneeuwde hard – sneeuwen: impersonal verb
       de oostenwind gierde over de vlakte: gieren: intransitive
          en sneed door alle kleding: snijden transitive verb, but used as intransitive here
    Jan rilde: rillen, intransitive
       maar hij vermande zich: zich vermannen: reflexive verb
          trok zijn muts wat verder over zijn oren: trok (<trekken) transitive (muts is direct object)
    Hij gaf zijn Harley wat meer gas: geven transitive (gas is d. object)
       Toen het bericht hem bereikte: bereiken: transitive (hem is direct object)
          dat er naar hem gevraagd 'was, vragen transitive, was auxiliary perfect passive
    had hij gezegd dat hij komen zou: zeggen transitive (dat hij.. is d. object) had: aux. past perfect, komen: intransitive, zou: aux past future (conditional)
       als het maar even 'kon – kunnen: modal verb, here used as independent impersonal.
          Dit was en bleef zijn moeder tenslotte. was: copula, bleef: copula
    Wat er ook gebeurd mocht zijn, gebeuren: impersonal, zijn: aux (active) perfect, mocht (<mogen) modal past.
       hij moest er niet aan denken: denken intransitive moest (<moeten): modal past
          dat zij zou kunnen sterven zonder haar nog een laatste keer te zien. sterven: intransitive, zou: aux past future (conditional) kunnen: modal, zien: transitive (haar is direct object)
    Daarvoor herinnerde hij zich te veel goede tijden: zich herinneren: reflexive with double direct object 1)zich 2) te veel goede tijden
       De kamer waar ze lag: liggen intransitive
          was niet groot: was (<zijn): copula
    en had een echte ziekenhuislucht. hebben is intransitive although it has a direct object
       Plichtmatig groette hij zijn zus en die zwager: groeten transitive (zus+zwager d.object)
          waar hij nooit mee op had kunnen schieten. opschieten intransitive, had aux past perfect , kunnen modal verb infinitive in place of past participle
       Ma?
          Jongen, ben je toch gekomen? ben (<zijn) aux active perfect, komen intransitive
       Ja natuurlijk. Hoe is het nou? is copula
          Ach, gaat wel. Ze zorgen goed voor me hier. gaan intransitive, zorgen intransitive
       Heeft de dokter nog wat gezegd? (<zeggen) transitive (wat d.o.) hebben aux perf.
          De dokter? Ja, ik mag weer naar huis. (<mogen) modal (gaan is omitted)
                Was het niet veel te koud? (<zijn) copula
                Je bent helemaal nat. (<zijn) copula
       Ja het sneeuwt een beetje. impersonal
             Mag je weer naar huis? Zo! Wanneer? (<mogen) modal
          Vrijdag, geloof ik... geloven transitive
    Ze zuchtte: zuchten: intransitive
    Haar ogen sloten zich : zich sluiten reflexive
       en gingen niet meer open: opengaan intransitive
Zeg of dit waar is of niet:
* Jan wil zijn moeder bezoeken
* Jan rijdt motor
* Hij heeft een helm op zijn hoofd
* Hij herinnert zich weinig goeds van zijn moeder
* Hij kon niet naar zijn moeder komen
* Zijn moeder is ziek en ligt in het ziekenhuis
* Hij weet niet wat er gebeurd is
* Zijn zus kon niet komen
* De wind waait uit het westen
* Hij is goede vrienden met zijn zwager
* Zijn moeder gaat naar huis
* Jan gaat zijn moeder bezoeken – waar
* Jan rijdt motor – waar: een Harley
* Hij heeft een helm op zijn hoofd – niet waar: hij draagt een muts (the bad boy: it's illegal)
* Hij herinnert zich weinig van zijn moeder – niet waar: hij herinnert zich veel goede tijden
* Hij kon niet naar zijn moeder komen – niet waar: hij kwam wel
* Zijn moeder is ziek en ligt in het ziekenhuis: waar
* Hij weet niet wat er gebeurd is – niet waar, er is iets gebeurd, maar het is en blijft zijn moeder
* Zijn zus kon niet komen – niet waar: zij is in de kamer
* De wind waait uit het westen – niet waar: uit het oosten
* Zijn zwager en hij zijn goede vrienden – niet waar: hij kon nooit goed met hem opschieten
* Zijn moeder gaat naar huis: niet waar, zij sterft.

### 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:
* transitive verbs – overgankelijke werkwoorden
* ditransitive verbs – ditransitieve werkwoorden
* intransitive verbs – onovergankelijke werkwoorden
* reflexive verbs – wederkerende werkwoorden
* impersonal verbs – onpersoonlijke werkwoorden
* copulas – koppelwerkwoorden
* auxiliary verbs – hulpwerkwoorden
* 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)
| | %-age | hebben | worden | zijn | krijgen | zullen |
| Transitive | 58.2 | act perf | pass pres | pass perf | -- | future |
| Ditransitive | 1.7 | act perf | pass pres | pass perf | pseudo pass | future |
| Inergative | 18.4 | act perf | impersonal pass pres | impersonal pass perf | -- | future |
| Ergative | 14.2 | -- | -- | perf | -- | future |
| Reflexive | 5.4 | perf | -- | -- | -- | future |
| Impersonal | 1 | perf | -- | -- | -- | future |
| Copula | 0.3 | -- | -- | perf | -- | future |
| Auxiliary | 0.4 | perf | -- | perf | -- | future |
| Modal | 0.2 | perf | -- | -- | -- | future |

#### 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

## The four contrasts of the verb
### Indicative mood

The forms of the Dutch verb in the indicative mood are determined by the four contrasts:
* is the action now or in the past (tegenwoordig – verleden)
* is the action finished or not (onvoltooid – voltooid)
* is the action real or predicted / hypothetical (niet toekomend – toekomend)
* is the action performed by or applied to the subject (bedrijvend – lijdend)
The first contrast is rendered synthetically, the other three require auxiliary verbs:
* hebben or zijn + past participle
* zullen + infinitive
* 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.
| | | (niet toekomend) | (niet toekomend) | toekomend | toekomend |
| | | tegenwoordig | verleden | tegenwoordig | verleden |
| bedrijvend | onvoltooid | ik zie | ik zag | ik zal zien | ik zou zien |
| bedrijvend | 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 |
| lijdend | 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 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:
| | | (niet toekomend) | toekomend |
| bedrijvend | onvoltooid | zien | zullen zien |
| bedrijvend | voltooid | gezien hebben | gezien zullen hebben |
| lijdend | onvoltooid | gezien worden | gezien zullen worden |
| lijdend | voltooid | gezien zijn | gezien zullen zijn |
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?!

## Appendix

* ↑ The English wikipedia actually defines the term ergative a bit different. They call genezen ergative because it can do both things: the transitive and the intransitive. In Dutch linguistic literature on the subject the term ergative is reserved for the intransitive part only and the book (as well as WikiWoordenboek) follow that terminology.