Learning Dutch

Happy Friday!

We found out earlier this week that we would have a new teacher every Thursday. In the beginning he was a bit nervous but he definitely got into the groove of teaching in the second half of the class.

One thing he did have was sentences where we had to fill in the missing conjunction. For example,

Er stond een lange file, vandaar dat ik te laat op mijn werk was. There was a lot of traffic, (and) from that I was late to work. Vandaar is  a bit bit interesting because it must always be proceeded by ‘dat’ or ‘that’.

Hij heeft erg weinig tijd. Dus gaat hij dit jaar niet met vakantie. He has too little time. Thus he is not going on vacation this year.

He also corrected our pronunciation a lot (probably a good thing!) and seemed quick to point out the differences between spoken Dutch and written Dutch. Things like mits (only if) and tenzij (but not if) being mostly written Dutch; normally you would say als (if) if you were speaking. Also daar (because) is written Dutch but omdat (because) is much more widely used especially when speaking.

He also talked a bit about the structure of a sentence, breaking it into its respective parts.

Jan en Joke || gaan || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren.

Jan and Joke are going to stay over at Aunt Toos with their kids this Sunday.

In Dutch you can start the sentence with pretty much element except logeren because it is the infinitive and is not a conjugated verb. You only need to remember one rule: the conjugated verb either comes first (if it is a question) with the subject right after, or the conjugated verb  goes into the second place, with the subject either right before it or right after it. The subject in this case is always Jan and Joke.

Here are some examples:

Gaan || Jan en Joke || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren?

Jan en Joke || gaan || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren.

Komende zondag || gaan || Jan en Joke || met hun kinderen || bij Tante Toos || logeren. (When you want to emphasis it is this Sunday.)

Met hun kinderen || gaan || Jan en Joke || komende zondag || bij Tante Toos || logeren. (When you want to emphasis that it is with their kids.)

Bij Tante Toos || gaan || Jan en Joke || komende zondag || met hun kinderen || logeren. (When you want to emphasis it is with Aunt Toos / where it is.)

Pretty cool, huh?

(Just say yes.)

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.

We had an interesting expression in class last night – het ei van Columbus / the egg of Columbus (English | Dutch Wikipedia). Apparently it exists in English as well even though I had not heard of it before.

Regardless, one story goes that after Columbus’ journey to the Americas, he returned and dined with Spanish nobles. They told him that it was easy to discover America, and anyone could have done it. He retorted by placing an egg on the table and saying that no one could make the egg stand on its own without help or assistance but he could. Everyone tried to do this and failed. Afterwards, Columbus gently tapped it on the table to break it slightly, which allowed it to stand on its own. (Meaning: things always look easier after you know how to do it.)

In this class we covered the perfectum (ik heb gewerkt, ik ben daar gegaan), although I have covered that before in this blog. You need to use a helper verb (hebben or zijn, depending) with a participle like gewerkt or gegaan. In a normal sentence the helper verb stays close to the subject while the participle moves to the end of the phrase. Ik ben nooit naar Spanje geweest (I have never been to Spain). In a subordinate clause the helper verb moves to the back of the clause – either before or after the participle. Whether it’s before or after sometimes depends on the situation, or the flow of the sentence, or lots of little things that you’ll eventually get the hang of. It is not that clear cut.

But sometimes you can break the rule of “participle or helper verb always comes at the end of the clause” when you have a prepositional phrase.

Hij vertelt over de reis die:
…hij naar India heeft gemaakt
…hij heeft gemaakt naar India

He talked about the trip that he did (“made”) to India. In Dutch ‘to India’ can either come before or after the participle. In this case I would probably use the first one, as it is a short prepositional phrase and thus the participle isn’t that far back. But sometimes you need to stick the prepositional phrase after to not disrupt the flow of the sentence – too many prepositions can cause the listener/reader to lose the logic of your sentence and hearing the participle quickly is more important than the prepositional phrase.

And one final note about prepositional phrases – the little word om marks a different sort of phrase (also known as the “om…te construction”). It’s hard to explain as it is not used in English anymore but it’s basically a short phrase which answers “why” the first part of the sentence happened.

Ik ga naar school om mijn huiswerk in te leveren.  I will go to school (why?) to turn in my homework.
Zij heeft met haar zusje gesproken om een goede oplossing te vinden. She has spoken with her little sister (why?) to find a good solution.

When you are using the om…te construction it always goes at the very end of the clause.

Hij vertelt over de reis die:
…hij naar India heeft gemaakt [om foto’s te maken]

but not: Hij vertelt over de reis die:
…hij naar India [om foto’s te maken] heeft gemaakt

Today’s “when to use de or het” lesson is for het words. You use het for:

– all singular diminutives or “small words”. het zusje (little sister), het hondje (little dog) and similar
– compass points: het noorden, het oosten, het zuiden, het westen
– all two syllable words that begin with ge normally (note: not participles)
het gebaar (the gesture), het gesprek (the meeting), het gevoel (the feeting)

Eerst, het verhaal in Nederlands:

Op donderdag had ik mijn les bij Mondriaan. We hadden een oefening met het liedje ‘Centraal Station’ bij Guus Meeuwis en Vagant. Eén van de regels was “een potloodventer in een donkere hoek”. De lerares heeft gevraagd: “Weet iemand wat potloodventer betekent?” Een student weet het al! Zij heeft het laten zien met haar handen (zij kon het niet met woorden uitleggen), maar iedereen was nog steeds een beetje in de war. Toen legde de lerares het uit – het is een exhibitionist – en de lerares heeft haar gevraagd: hoe weet je dat woord? De student heeft gezegd “van mijn schoonmoeder”. Een student vroeg, verbaasd, “Jouw schoonmoeder was een potloodventer?” “Nee!” Iedereen moest echt hard lachen. We hebben een beetje meer over het woord gepraat, misschien drie of vier minuten. Nadat heeft de lerares gezegd “Oké, dat is genoeg van dat thema.” Maar helaas heeft zij de volgende regels van het liedje gezegd – “Maar ik zie je nog voor me, als ik mijn ogen sluit” – toen moest iedereen weer om lachen.

And now in English:

On Thursday I had my lesson by Mondriaan. We had an exercise where we must listen to a song, “Centraal Station” by Guus Meeuwis and Vagant. One of the lines was “an exhibitionist in a dark corner”. The teacher asked if anyone knew what the word meant. One student actually knew it! She demonstrated with her hands (she couldn’t explain it in words), but everyone was still a bit confused. The teacher explained what it meant – exhibitionist / someone who exposes themselves – and after asked her how she knew the word. The student said “from my mother-in-law”. A student asked, surprised: “Your mother-in-law was an exhibitionist?” “No!” Everyone just had to laugh. We talked about the meaning of the word for a few more minutes, and afterwards the teacher said “Okay, enough from that theme.” Unfortunately she then said the next few lines from the song out loud, to go over them. They were “but I still see you before me, as I close my eyes”. Everyone laughed again… Good times.

That was the highlight of the lesson – otherwise we just reviewed grammar (the imperfect/simple past – zij danste – she danced) and did an exercise or two with that. I won’t cover that here (I have before) but here are three rules for when you can use the imperfect:

1. To describe special events in the past when the attention of the listener is already in the past. Het was afgelopen week erg druk in de stad. It was very busy last week in the city.

2. Routines / commonly done things in the past. Vroeger fietsten we altijd naar school. Back then we always biked together to school.

3. Actions that took place at the same time in the past. Erst namen we de trein naar Berlijn en daar namen we een taxi naar ons hotel. First we took a train to Berlin and there we took a taxi to our hotel.

If you’re talking about more recent events, as in something that happened in the last few days, it’s usually better to use the past perfect. (Ik heb gedanst – I have danced), at least, that’s what my textbook says. I’m guilty of breaking that rule… I am a bit shaky on when to use the simple past and past perfect.

Last night’s lesson was a bit varied due to the various things that we worked on. First off, the teacher had us review the imperatief/gebiendende wijs (imperative in English – giving commands).

To use the imperative you generally use the stam or the ik vorm. The verb always comes first. Further, there is no subject (unless you are using the more polite u [you]). If you are using that form, than you have to conjugate the verb accordingly.

Ga zitten! Luister! Hou je mond! (Sit down! Listen! Stop talking!)
Gaat u zitten! Luistert u! Houdt uw mond! (Some of these seem a bit strange in the polite u form, of course). You can also use even and/or maar to make the command a bit more friendly. Luister even! sounds friendlier than Luister!

Due to a random exercise in the book we also briefly learned about the political parties in the Netherlands but a) I don’t know much about them b) I am definitely not into politics. Though I did find it funny that the teacher said she really didn’t discuss politics in class, and then got sucked into a discussion anyway until she broke it off again…

We also took a look at the differences in social class in The Hague. You have two different names for people who live in The Hague. The dividing line or border can be found in the Laan van Meerdervoort, which is the longest avenue in the Netherlands (and also by coincidence where I bought my wedding dress!). If you live “above” this street you live on the rich side of town and are called a Hagenaar. If you live “below” this street you live on the poor side of town and are called a Hagenees. If you believe in such a thing.

The last thing we learned was new to me – another way how to categorize things. Here is an example:

Min grootste ergernis is … (My biggest irritation is)

Mijn op een na grootste ergernis is … (My second biggest irritation is)

Mijn op twee na grootste ergernis is … (My third biggest irritation is)

I must admit it is kind of weird to use “op een na” (een = one) for something that actually translates as “second”. Hmmm.

Last night’s lesson covered relative pronouns. Some of which is easy (if you’re a native English speaker) and some of which is not nearly as easy unless you’re a native speaker of Dutch. Or German maybe. Quick and dirty summary: relative pronouns give extra information about a noun (person, place or thing).

Easy (just requires knowing whether the noun is de or het):

De man die daar loopt is mijn broer. The man that walks there is my brother. 1) man is ‘de’ 2) thus you use ‘die’. 3) extra information: that walks there. Technically it might be better to say ‘who walks there’, but that’s another topic.

Het huis dat daar staat is van mij. The house that stands there is mine. 1) huis is ‘het’ 2) thus you use ‘dat’ 3) extra information: that stands there.

Less than easy? When prepositions decide to get involved. Evil things. When that happens you have two different possible constructions — at least for now — waar + prepositie and prepositie + wie -> where + preposition (objects) and preposition + who (people).

Example with zien (to see) and kijken naar (to look at).

De televisie die ik zie is al 10 jaar oud. The television that I see is already 10 years old. There’s no preposition there, so you can use die.

But: De televisie waarnaar ik kijk is al 10 jaar oud. The television that I look at is already 10 years old. The preposition forces the use of waar rather than die. You can also split up waarnaar – it’s actually a bit more common to do so. De televisie waar ik naar kijk is al 10 jaar oud.

And finally: preposition + wie.

Hij is getrouwd met de vrouw van wie hij al tien jaar houdt. He is married to the woman that he (already) loved for 10 years. Dutch is a bit tricky here since the phrase for expressing love is “houden van”. See also: ik hou van jou, or I love you. So there is a preposition there that you would not have expected if you spoke English.

Of course, this little grammar exercise ignores one glaring problem: it’s fine to realize why something is the way it is but until you learn the rules for fixed prepositions or separable verbs (prepositions with verbs like opstaan — or ‘stand up’ — that can separate) you will not be able to do it naturally. So it really is a matter of practice, practice, practice…

I promise to write a non-grammar filled post next time. Hopefully!

There was not much new grammar for this lesson (so at least Marco can rejoice that he does not have to read yet another grammar-filled entry). One thing that the De Finale textbook has is a grammar section at the back of the book. The teacher decided to go through it step by step, which meant starting with the present tense. The review of the verb rules wasn’t that hard – and then after we had to do an exercise which seemed full of inversion (where the verb comes before the subject).

I found it a lot of fun, but then I never claimed to be anything less than a grammar geek…

You would see a sentence. Your task would be to re-write the sentence, filling in the provided verbs 1) in the right part of the sentence 2) in the right form. Example:

(verliezen, hebben) Hij vaak, maar gelukkig hij toch veel plezier in het voetballen.

Translating that gibberish into English, you get:
(to lose, to have) He often, but happily he still a lot of pleasure in soccer.

(verliezen, hebben) Hij verliest vaak, maar gelukkig heeft hij toch veel plezier in het voetballen.
He loses often, but happily he still takes a lot of pleasure in soccer. (though ‘heeft’ directly translated would be ‘has’).

I did make two mistakes – conjugated one verb wrong (simple mistake) and I didn’t know that veel (a lot) is singular.  Though it does seem to be a murky question in English as well.

We also learned a few more rules for de and het words. As already mentioned earlier in this blog, words ending in -tie, -ing, -heid and -teit are always de words. Today we learned that names of flowers, trees, and plants are always de words:

rose and lilac: de roos, de lila
oak tree: de eik boom