In this article:
Basic definitions.
More definitions: weak, Strong, Irregular, Regular—what's the difference?
How to recognize them!
How do I know the form if I haven't learned it yet? 😓
1. Basic definitions.
Let's start by defining terms:
Conjugation (vervoegen) is the act of changing a verb into its altered form for the subject—the persoonsvorm (think of how it's been changed to the person doing the verb)—or an 'other verb', simply a werkwoord.
I won't define the difference between imperfect or perfect tenses, or what a participle is in this article. That's coming soon in another post—I promise!
2. More definitions: weak, Strong, Irregular, Regular—what's the difference?
First of all, what is the difference between all of these terms?
Dutch has three 'categories' of verbs based on how they conjugate:
Weak verbs (zwakke werkwoorden) — also known as regular verbs. A little way to remember this: they are weak, they don't need to do much else except follow the rules, so they haven't gotten very strong 😔
Strong verbs (sterke werkwoorden) — also known as irregular verbs. They've gotten strong, by being bent out of shape often! Just like going to the gym. 😜💪🏻
They have 2 main features:
1 : In simple past (imperfectum), they change a vowel (and drop the -de/-te); and
2 : The participle starts with ge- (as per the rules), but ends in -en instead.
lezen — las — gelezen* (instead of lezen — leesde* — geleesd* as we'd expect)
lopen — liep* — gelopen* (instead of lopen — loopte* — geloopt*)
Some verbs also change a consonant in the imperfect tense:
gaan —ging* — gegaan* (instead of gaan — gade* — gegaad* 😂)
Partly weak, partly strong verbs. These have a mix of these irregularities:
lachen — lachte — gelachen
zeggen — zei — gezegd
Can you spot which ones are the odd ones out for these verbs, and how they've changed?
Hint: what would you expect? Write the incorrect, weak (regular) form first by following the rule (SOFT KETCHUP, or your own course or book's mnemonic.)
Expand here to check the answers.
lachen — lachte — gelacht* zeggen — zegde* — gezegd
3. How to recognize them!
Then a great next question is: how do we recognize them?
Well, you can see whether they're irregular when you know the correct forms! If you hear someone say:
"Ik vroeg het gisteren aan mijn buurman."
We know it's irregular. How? We know it's past tense (gisteren) and it doesn't end in -de or -te! It "should" be vraagde, but it's not.
Then another issue arises, we can't even really know which verb this might be! 😱
We can guess, based on changing some vowels.
Vroeg—could that be vriegen, vrijgen, vrogen, vreggen? No, those don't sound like they exist.
Oh! Vragen. 😁
So why not: "Ik vraag het gisteren aan mijn buurman", if we're only changing the vowel? Because that's the present tense! Oops. 😬
4. How do I know the form if I haven't learned it yet? 😓
Great. But what if we don't have an example and somebody says: what's the imperfect tense of the strong verb "eten"?
How would we know what the answer is? What is the imperfect tense for this verb? Can you guess; do you know?
Write out what you'd expect.
Answers (expand)
eten — eette* — geëet* 😂 this becomes: eten — at* — gegeten*
(note the extra, strange irregularity here, such as the extra -g- in the middle—it's not even geëten! What a verb! 😳 This one's become so strong, it's been hitting the gym for sure—het heeft vast veel proteïne gegeten.🥲 (I'll see myself out haha).
Answer: You can't know! I'm sorry, there's no good news here. That's not a lot of fun...
But! Don't despair. Start using them often, become familiar with them, and it will become automatic to pepper them in here and there in their correct forms—I promise!
So get studying! 🤓 Expose yourself to Dutch, find a study buddy (or a coach) and talk often. 🙌🏻
Veel succes (en vooral plezier)!
~ Florian
Source of these grammatical goodies: https://onzetaal.nl/taalloket/sterk-zwak-onregelmatig-werkwoord