It seems that I have moved out of the “Other conjugations” section of dutchgrammar.com and into the irregular verbs section. Eek!

At first I was a bit concerned, since you are hit with a longgg list of irregular verbs which never seems to end. But then the following page showed the conjugation patterns, which helped to put things into like groups. So far I worked on two groups: e-ie-o and ie-oo-o.

It just goes on, and on, and…

The verb on the left is the infinitive (i.e. helpen = to help). The next column is for the singular past form, and the following columns (not shown) are for the plural past and the past participle. Those are the main things you need to memorize – single past, plural past, and past participle – since generally the present form is regular and there are only two forms in the simple past (singular and plural).

So basically, the past tense is the culprit. What dutchgrammar.com does is group like verbs together. So helpen, sterven, and werpen are in the same group: e – ie – o.

Infinitive: helpen, sterven, and werpen

Singular past: hielp, stierf*, and wierp

Plural past: hielpen, stierven, and wierpen

Past participle: geholpen, gestorven, and geworpen

* = in this form, v becomes f.

Next step – make flash cards for each group. But not tonight, so maybe this weekend.

Random: Trying to cross a four lane highway when the stoplights were not working properly (the main highway gets a flashing yellow light to be cautious, and the road I was on had a full red for you to come to a complete stop). It’s not that hard when you’re in a car, because you can move quickly… but when you’re on foot, it all but requires you sprint across. Which I eventually did, after finding a sufficient gap in traffic.

Nice: Reading page four/five of Het Geheim van de Verliefde Hulpkok with Marco during a videochat session. (I am on page 8 or so myself… need to get cracking to stay ahead.)

To do: Get back on track with the Dutchgrammar.com lessons. I have finished the other “Other Conjugations” section, and will soon be moving into the “Irregular Verbs” section. Oh boy!

Blog posts that I found interesting:

Ice cube coffee, by Trpana… Cool idea for a hot summer day (ice cubes made of coffee).

Dutch cats in Amsterdam, by Katriniella… That first cat definitely looks like he owns the place!

Here are some of the notes I took last night for the daily Dutch lesson. This page was talking about gerunds (verbs acting as nouns). In English this is generally verbs that act like nouns and end in –ing (the singing was horrible).

The “issue” with Dutch is they use the infinitive in this case (to sing), so it still looks like a verb. At least to me. 😉 But at least I know what to look for when I am trying to translate items.

Note taking at its finest…

The rest of the page is actually a summary of all verb types learned in that particular section. The thing that I remember most about the imperative (commands) section is that the English phrase “Let’s” (Let us…) is actually “Let we…” in Dutch. Laten we zingen. Let’s sing. (Rather than Laten ons zingen).

I generally transcribe most of what dutchgrammar.com says for each section; I don’t leave out much. That is because I tend to learn best by writing it out myself, rather than constantly referring back to the original source. But each person is different!