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UNIT TWENTY-TWO
Verb tenses
Introduction
In Units 1, 18, and 19 of Basic Dutch, we discussed verbs in the present
tense, in the present perfect, and in the simple past (or imperfect) tense.
This unit includes the past perfect, and it discusses the various ways in
which the past tenses are used.
Verb forms in the present tense
For all tenses, we use a weak and a strong verb as examples: werken and
rijden. In the table below, the left column lists the personal pronouns in
the singular and the plural. Since there is only one plural form, we use only
one row for the plural. For an overview in more detail, check Units 1, 18
and 19 in Basic Dutch.
Personal pronouns werken rijden
ik werk rijd
jij/je, u werkt (werk je?) rijdt (rijd je?)
hij, zij/ze, het werkt rijdt
wij/we, jullie, zij/ze werken rijden
Verb forms in the simple past (imperfect) tense
For both weak and strong verbs in the simple past tense, there is one form
for the singular and one for the plural. Typically, in strong verbs the stem
vowel changes. The simple past ending for weak verbs is always -te or
-de in the singular and -ten or -den in the plural. If the stem of the verb
ends in p, t, k, f, s, and ch, the simple past form of the verb ends in -te or
-ten. All other weak verbs form their simple past tense with the ending
-de or -den. Check Unit 19 in Basic Dutch for more details.