Author Archives: Niki

Note: we don’t have class tonight, so the next class-related post won’t be until after Tuesday’s lesson.

I’m still alive! I have a short funny story from work, but first you need to know a bit of Dutch. In Dutch one can say “een … of <number>” to reference a length of time. For example, een jaar of tien. A year or ten. The one thing to remember is that een translates to ‘a’ not ‘one’ (it is the same word in Dutch). But you are expressing a bit of uncertainty with the answer. In English we would usually say “10 years or so”. You also have to know that where I work the working language is English, although you’ll hear some Dutch or similar occasionally.

When I came in this morning, there was a few people already in the kitchen/cafeteria area. A coworker as well as someone fixing the coffee machine – i.e. someone from the coffee company. My coworker asked how long it would be until the coffee machine was fixed. He replied (in English) “a minute or 10”. Heh.

In other news, here is some grammar (actually from the lesson before). I’ve already covered separable verbs, but in Dutch you can also have non-separable verbs. These are verbs that have a prefix on the front of the word, but it never separates from the verb. Examples are mislukken, voorspellen, ondertekenen (to fail, to predict, to sign). Unlike seperable verbs where the accent falls on the prefix, here the accent always falls on the first syllable after the prefix (mislukken, voorspellen, onderteken).

Mijn moeder was een getuige voor mijn bruiloft. Zij heeft de trouwakte ondertekend. My mother was a witness for my wedding. She signed the marriage license. Hi Mom!

Further examples:

Voor mijn verjaardag heeft mijn man mij met een etentje verrast. For my birthday my husband surprised me with a dinner.

Dit kan de overvaller niet zijn. Hij werd als een jongensachtig type omschreven. This cannot be the robber. He was described as a youngish type.

Mijn appeltaart mislukt altijd want mijn oven werkt niet goed. My apple pies always fail because my oven doesn’t work well.

Note: no school related posts next week, as we are on vacation.

Well, not breaking them. Just pulling them apart. Last night we learned about separable and not-separable verbs, although this post will only cover the first kind. Somewhat similar to English I suppose, except that our prepositions tend to come after the verb (to bring with) and are not attached to the verb. In Dutch, the prepositions are actually prefixes attached to the verb.

Verbs classified as separable always have the accent on the first syllable! WEG-gaan (to go away). AF-was-sen (to wash dishes). UIT-leg-gen (to explain).

Here are some rules in the various tenses:

Present tense, main clause/hoofdzin: Ik was vanavond af. (I wash the dishes tonight – afwassen). Here the prefix separates and moves to the end of the clause.

Present tense, relative clause/bijzin: Ik beloof je dat ik vanavond afwas. (I promise you I will wash the dishes tonight). Since it’s a relative clause (introduced by dat) the verb must move to the end of the relative clause and conjugate itself based on the subject (ik/I). If it does, the prefix remains attached to the verb and comes before.

Past tense, main clause/hoofdzin: Mijn moeder stapte een halte te vroeg uit. (My mother got out a stop too early – uitstappen.) As present tense/main clause, you conjugate the verb and move the prefix to the end of the clause.

Past tense, relative clause/bijzin:  Toen mijn moeder uitstapte, regende het hard. (When my mother got out, it rained hard.) As the verb is already at the end of the clause (required for relative clauses), the prefix stays with it.

Modal auxiliary verbs (can, should, shall, may, must, etc), present or imperfect, with verb as infinitive: Ik wil jullie voor mijn verjaardag uitnodigen. (I want to invite you [all] for my birthday – uitnodigen.) As it is not the main verb, but just an infinitive, it goes to the end of the sentence and thus the prefix remains attached.

Present perfect (perfectum), main clause/hoofdzin: Hij heeft ons voor zijn verjardag uitgenodigd. (He has invited us for his party.) Again, the present perfect tense demands that the participum (genodigd) goes to the end of the clause, thus the prefix is allowed to attach itself to it. NOTE: ‘ge’ goes between the prefix and the verb. uitgenodigd.

Present perfect (perfectum), relative clause/bijzin: Weet je dat ik de grammatica al drie keer heb uitgelegd? (Did you know that I have already explained the grammar three times?) In this case since it is a relative clause the helper element (heb from ‘hebben’) also moves to the end of the clause, but otherwise it is the same as above. NOTE: the order of the helper element (hebben or zijn) and the participum (in this case uitleggen) does not matter. It’s a style choice.

Past perfect (plusquamperfectum), main clauses and relative clauses: The same rules as above for present perfect apply, including the order of the helper element and the participum. The only difference is that the helper element can only be had/hadden (from hebben) or was/waren (from zijn).

te + infinitief: Je hoeft me niet meer op te bellen. (You do not have to call me anymore – opbellen). Some verbs require the om … te construction (or in this case the te construction). If te is present it will go between the prefix and the rest of the verb, with spaces on either side. One of the semi rare times a prefix can still come before the verb but not be attached to it.

Imperatives (giving commands): Pas op! (Watch out – oppassen). Ga weg! (Go away – weggaan). Trek een jas aan! (Put a jacket on – aantrekken). It might not be obvious but this is of course another example of separable verbs, where the verb is conjugated and the prefix comes at the end of the clause (Note: Trek aan een jas is wrong – you must put the prefix all the way at the end of the clause).

I hope you found this informative. If you didn’t, sorry to be such a grammar geek!

No grammar today. Here are two random things we covered in Tuesday’s class, for fun:

1) hunebedden in the providence of Drenthe (Dutch wikipedia | Lijst). These are heavy, unwieldy ‘grave stones’. During the last ice age the northern half of the Netherlands was covered by ice. The boulders were brought over from Scandinavia on slow moving glaciers. When the ice melted, the stones remained. Around 4000 BC people moved the boulders into grave stone formation  – somehow.

2. Laan van Meerdervoort in The Hague follows an old shoreline (which was apparently very popular to live near). I’ve already mentioned this, but it’s also the longest street in the country.

First, a minor thing I forgot to mention from the previous class (Tuesday) which I found amusing/useful. You have a few different ways to talk about the length of time, namely pas for a short length of time and al for a long length of time.

Therefore, you can get some emotion into your sentence just by using one of those words. Ik woon al 5 jaar in Nederland. (I have lived in the Netherlands for 5 years already.) Ik woon pas 5 jaar in Nederland. (I have lived in the Netherlands for just 5 years.)

Yesterday we learned the voltooid verleden tijd: Ik had gewerkt. (the past perfect in English – I had worked). It is pretty simple to the perfectum – the helper verbs are again either hebben or zijn but this time they are in the past. Luckily you only have two forms for each – singular or plural: had/hadden and was/waren. You then use the voltooid deelwoord (gewerkt, gehad, gedanst) without any changes from the perfectum.

First reason to use the voltooid verleden tijd: 

You are already talking about something in the past (using either the perfectum or imperfectum) but you also talk about something even farther in the past (past perfect). This is actually pretty similar to English.

Gisteren LAS ik in de krant dat er eergisteren een ongeluk WAS GEBEURD met twee vrachtwagens. Yesterday (gisteren) I read (las, imperfectum) in the paper that two days ago (eergisteren) an accident had occurred (was gebeurd, voltooid verleden tijd) with two trucks.

Warning: you can also start with the past perfect, as long as the first thing you talk about happened before the more recent thing.

Nadat mijn broer een nieuwe lcd-televisie HAD GEKOCHT, HEB ik er ook zo een GEKOCHT. Ik vond hem zo mooi! After (nadat) my brother had bought (had gekocht, voltooid verlede tijd) a new LCD television, I have also bought (heb … gekocht) one. I found it so nice!

Note, of course, that the Dutch doesn’t translate as cleanly – it sounds a bit forced to use ‘I have bought’ in English for that situation; the simple past is better. But you get the idea.

Second reason to use the voltooid verleden tijd: 

Something didn’t happen in the past but wonder what might have been if it had.

Helaas we hebben de trein gemist. Als we harder hadden gelopen, hadden we misschien de trein wel gehaald. Unfortunately we missed the train. If we had walked (hadden gelopen = voltooid veleden tijd) a bit harder, maybe we could have caught (hadden gehaald = same) the train. Again, English differs in what tense sounds best, but you get the idea.