# Dutch/Lesson 14

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* Intermediate level: cycle 4
Lesson 14 ~ Lesson 14
Naamwoorden van handeling ~ Verbal nouns
* • De vloedgolf van Atjeh.

## Text 14-1 - De vloedgolf

Vocabulary :
| de aardbeving | earthquake |
| de vloedgolf | flood wave (any cause) |
| veroorzaken | cause |
| de kust | coast |
| het dodental | death toll |
| de verwoesting | destruction |
| het verlies | loss |
| stijgen | rise |
| de behoefte | need |
| de hulp | help, aid |
| de aard | nature |
| de verbinding | tie, link, (chem.) compound |
| de hindernis | obstacle |
    As feared, the death toll is still on the rise after the severe earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the tsunami that was caused by it on the coast of Aceh. The destruction and the loss of human life is exceptionally large, especially the casualties amongst children. The demand for aid of all sorts is enormous but the interruption of practically all communication is a great obstacle to an adequate relief effort.
* De vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh werd veroorzaakt door een storm
* Er stierven veel kinderen
* De hulpverlening werd zwaar gehinderd
* De aardbeving gebeurde in India
* De vloedgolf was nog steeds stijgend
* De hulp van allerlei aard was enorm
* De vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh werd veroorzaakt door een storm - niet waar: door een aardbeving
* Er stierven veel kinderen: waar: de sterfte was erg groot
* De hulpverlening werd zwaar gehinderd - waar, door het uitvallen van de verbindingen
* De aardbeving gebeurde in India - niet waar: in de Indische Oceaan
* De vloedgolf was nog steeds stijgend - niet waar: het dodental was stijgend
* De hulp van allerlei aard was enorm - niet waar: de behoefte aan hulp, niet de hulp

## Verbal nouns
### The -ing problem

In English the -ing form is used extensively for a number of rather different functions. Although Dutch also has an ending -ing it does not correspond to the English one in most situations:
* he is singing
    hij is aan het zingen
* he walked out of the room singing
    hij liep zingend de kamer uit
* singing is her profession
    zang is haar beroep
In the above examples singing is used as:
* part of the present continuous tense
* as a participle
* as a verbal noun (gerund).
In Dutch different nouns are used in these three cases none of which ends in -ing
Properly rendering -ing forms in Dutch may therefore present a bit of a problem for an English speaker.

## Continuous tenses

In the strict sense Dutch does not have continuous times and in many cases where English uses them Dutch will use a simple present or past.
    he was walking to school when he saw the UFO
       hij liep naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag
       hij was onderweg naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag
To emphasize continuity Dutch can use the infinitive as a neutral noun preceded by the preposition aan:
    hij was aan het wandelen
       he was going for a walk
    zij waren aan het verhuizen
       they were busy moving
Another common construction is to use an auxiliary verb like zitten,staan,liggen, lopen
    de voetballer liep op de scheidsrechter te schelden.
       the soccer player walked around fuming at the umpire.
    ik zat te denken
       I was just thinking (on my chair)
The "on my chair" or "on my feet" distinction is often of negligible importance and the verbs zitten, liggen etc. are used more or less interchangeably as auxiliaries of the continuous aspect.

## Present participles

The present participle in Dutch is formed by adding -d(e) (not: -ing) to the infinitive:
    lopen – lopend(e)
    staan – staand
As in English it can be used as adjective:
    flying saucer
       vliegende schotel
But it is rarely used as a (static) predicate:
    kinine is koortswerend
       quinine has the property of abating fever
Using it in a continuous tense construction as in English sounds odd and rather ironic.
    ach, was jij schrijvende?
       roughly: Wow, did I catch you in writing mode?
Present participles are seldom used to initiate a clause as is common in English:
    The second car moving at greater speed could not stop
    De tweede auto die sneller reed kon niet stoppen
    De tweede, sneller rijdende auto kon niet stoppen
Either the participle rijdend is used as a preceding adjective or it is avoided by paraphrase.

## Gerunds

The term gerund is seldom used in Dutch grammar. One could argue that Dutch does not have one in the English sense of the word, despite the presence of a rich variety of verbal nouns.
First of all, in many cases Dutch uses the infinitive as a neutral noun where English uses a gerund in -ing and one could argue that this is the Dutch gerund:
    addition and subtraction are the basis of arithmetic
       optellen en aftrekken vormen de grondslag van het rekenen
There are subtle differences associated with the use or omission of the neutral article het, but the same holds in English:
    singing is healthy – zingen is gezond
    the singing finally ended – het zingen hield eindelijk op
There is typically no plural. In times past the word did get inflected -as Latin gerunds do-, e.g.:
    Tot ziens! - See you!
    Willens en wetens - Deliberately.
    Een uur gaans - an hour on foot
This -s ending is an old genitive.
The genitive of the gerund actually enjoys a modicum of productivity is expressions with tot ... toe:
    tot vervelens toe - until boredom resulted, ad nauseam
    tot bloedens toe - until bleeding resulted
    Mijn ziel is zeer bedroefd, tot stervens toe (Matthew 26:38) - until death.

### Suffix -ing

Many Dutch verbs do form a (feminine) verbal noun in -ing, but it usually corresponds more to an English noun with (latinate) ending -ion than to a gerund with -ing:
    deze aftrekking is niet juist
       this subtraction is incorrect
Note that de aftrekking denotes a particular case of subtraction, where het aftrekken denotes the general process of subtracting
The formation of a verbal noun is -ing is quite common, particularly for verbs with prefixes like ver-, be-, af- etc. It is also a productive suffix, which means that newly formed verbs tend to form their verbal noun this way. It has a plural in -en:
    zegening – zegeningen
    blessing – blessings
However, the -ing form is certainly not as ubiquitous as in English where only a few verbs like can or must do not possess one. Not all Dutch verbs have an -ing form as there is a number of older ways to form verbal nouns, although most of them are no longer productive.
The -ing verbal noun is feminine and occurs frequently with "ter" (te + the old feminine dative der), which translates roughly into "in order to".
    Hij besprak maatregelen ter verbetering daarvan - He discussed methods that could be used to improve that.
This process is still productive:
    ter wikifiëring -- to be wikified
Interestingly, this means that even north of the Great Rivers feminine gender is not quite dead yet...

### Verbal stems

Many strong verbs have a verbal noun based on the stem of the verb with ablaut (vowel change) and lack an -ing form:
    helpen – de hulp
    na drie dagen kwam er eindelijk hulp
       after three days help finally arrived
    wreken – de wraak:
    wraak is zoet
       revenge is sweet
    zingen – de zang
    hij studeert zang
       he is studying voice
Notice that in these cases forms in -ing like *helping, *zinging do not exist in Dutch.
Sometimes the vowel does not change:
    lopen – de loop
    in de loop van het proces
       in the course of the process
These nouns are typically common gender and often lack a plural, but this does not always hold. For example a weak verb like werken has het werk and a plural de werken

### Other endings

Some verbs add -t or -st to the stem, a process not entirely unfamiliar in English:
    vliegen – de vlucht – plural: de vluchten
    to fly – the flight
    telen – teelt (no plural)
    cultivate – cultivation
At times, there is more than one verbal noun:
    graven – graf – gracht (<graft 1600s)
    to dig – grave – canal
Plurals:
    graf – graven
    gracht – grachten
After nasals -st is more common:
    dienen – de dienst – plural: de diensten
       to serve – service
    komen – de komst – no plural
       come – advent, arrival
    vangen – de vangst
       catch – catch
    de vangst van kabeljauw bij de Canadese kust is gestaakt
       cod fishing has been suspended off the coast of Canada
A few verbs have -te:
    behoeven – de behoefte
       need – need
    baren – geboorte
       give birth – birth
Plurals have -s: behoeftes, geboortes, sometimes also -n:
    denken – gedachten, gedachtes
    think – thought(s)
Other verbs have -nis, -enis or -tenis
    kennen – kennis
       to know – knowledge / acquaintance
    gebeuren – gebeurtenis
       to happen – event
    bekennen – bekentenis
       to confess – confession
    hinderen – hindernis
       to obstruct / bother – hindrance
Plurals get -sen:
    kennissen (acquaintances), bekentenissen
In English this ending is more common after adjectives like bald(ness), good(ness). In Dutch this is rare:
    sad – sadness
    droef – droefenis
Usually Dutch has -heid in such cases: droefheid
Dutch also has latinate endings—as English does—that sometimes compete with the Germanic ones:
The Latin -tio(n) ending is -tie in Dutch and usually pronounced as [tsi] or [si] ('see')
    communiceren – communicatie
       communicate – communication
but:
    archiveren – archivering
    to archive – archiving

## Prefix ge-

Another way to form a verbal noun is to add ge- to a stem. It forms a neuter noun from verbs without prefixes.
    vallen – het geval – de gevallen
       to fall – the case
    missen – het gemis - (no plural)
       to miss – the lack, missing
    spreken – het gesprek – de gesprekken
       to speak – the conversation
    voelen – het gevoel – de gevoelens
       to feel – the feeling
This type is still productive, at least for verbs that do not carry prefixes. Newly formed nouns carry the connotation of annoying repetition and they usually have no plural:
    dat onophoudelijk geblaf moet afgelopen zijn!
       enough of that incessant barking!
    hij viel op het toneel: gelach en boegeroep in het publiek...
       he fell on stage: laughter and boos in the audience...
    wat een gedoe!
       what a hassle!
Notice the difference with the past participle:
    gelach – gelachen
    laughing,laughter – laughed
Verbal nouns with ge- tend to have a dysphemic connotation and some are better avoided by a non-native speaker:
    gezeur, geëtter, gezeik, gezwam (all ~ bull s#$t)
    zeuren – to nag
    etter – puss
    zeik – urine (four letters..)
    zwam – fungus

### Subjects and objects

As in English the -er suffix denotes the subject of the verb:
    geven – gever
    to give – giver
As in English the plural is in -s: gevers.
There usually is a feminine version in -ster as well, although under feminist influence it is under considerable pressure especially for functions in society:
    voorzitten – voorzitter – voorzitster
    to chair a meeting – chairman – chairwoman
Voorzitter is increasingly used, regardless the gender of the chairperson.
There are other feminine endings, e.g. -eres: (plural -eressen)
    zingen – zanger – zangeres
    to sing – singer (m) – singer (f)
There is also an infrequent -sel suffix indicating an object, e.g.:
    scheppen – schepping - schepper - schepsel
    to create – creation - creator – creature
Note that in this case English has completely shifted to Latin roots and endings where Dutch has remained faithful to its Germanic roots altogether, at least in religious context. Otherwise creation is often creatie.
The number and type of available verbal nouns differs from verb to verb.

## Verbal adjectives

Apart from the two participles the verb can form various adjectives as it can in English. One suffix that corresponds to the English latinate ending -able is -baar:
    verstaan – verstaanbaar
       understand – understandable
Another suffix -heid (cf. English -hood) can be added to turn the adjective into a (feminine) noun:
    danken – dankbaar – dankbaarheid
       to thank – grateful – gratitude
The -heid suffix (plural -heden) can also be used behind participles.
    bergen - geborgen – geborgenheid
       to secure – secured, safe – feeling at ease
    opletten – oplettend – oplettendheid
       to wacht out – attentive – attention
There is also a suffix -elijk , cognate with -ly. (The 'ij' is usually pronounced as a schwa.)
    bewerken – bewerkelijk
       to process -requiring much work
    sterven – sterfelijk - sterfelijkheid
       to die – mortal - mortality

## Exercise 14

In the above text identify all verbal nouns and adjectives and the verbs they derive from.
    aardbeving
       aard (earth)+ beven (quiver, shake) + -ing
    veroorzaakte
       veroorzaken (to cause) past participle
    vloedgolf
       vloed-: (flood) verbal noun of vlieden (to flow)
    gevreesd
       vrezen (to fear) past participle
    stijgend.
       stijgen (to rise) present participle exceptionally used as predicate.
    verwoesting
       verwoesten (devastate) + -ing
    verlies
       verliezen stem-noun (to lose)
    uitzonderlijk
    uitzonderen (to except) + -lijk
    sterfte
       sterven (to die) +te, death toll
    behoefte
       behoeven (to need) + -te
    hulp
       helpen (to help) stem + ablaut
    uitvallen
       infinitive (drop out, stop functioning)
    verbindingen
       verbinden (to connect) + -ing plural
    hindernis
       hinderen (to impede) +-nis
    toereikende
       toereiken (to reach, to be sufficient) present participle
    hulpverlening
       hulp (see above) + verlenen (to lend) + -ing