Dutch verb conjugation: present, past and perfect, with tables

Start with the stem

Every Dutch verb is conjugated from its stem: the infinitive minus -en. Werken gives werk, drinken gives drink. The stem is also the ik-form of the present: ik werk, ik drink. Verbs whose infinitive ends in -n alone lose just the n: gaan, ik ga; doen, ik doe; zien, ik zie. This page goes deeper on rule 4 of Dutch grammar for readers, the perfect, and on its last section, the past tense.

Three spelling rules change how the stem is written. They are rules of Dutch spelling, so they hold for nearly every verb, and they come back in the past and the perfect. The one exception to know is komen: ik kom, with a short o, not ik koom.

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The first rule is about syllables. In lo-pen the syllable ends in the vowel, so one o is enough to make it long; in loop a consonant closes the syllable, so the long vowel is written twice. The second works the other way: zit-ten needs two t's to keep the i short, zit does not. And at the end of a word Dutch says v and z as f and s, and writes them that way: ik leef, ik lees.

Dutch verb conjugation in the present tense

The present has three endings: nothing for ik, -t for jij, u and hij, zij, het, and -en for every plural. The plural form is the same as the infinitive.

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The -t that drops after the verb

When je or jij comes right after the verb, in a question or after inversion, the verb loses its -t: jij werkt, but Werk jij hier? and Morgen werk je thuis. The -t stays with u and hij (Werkt u hier?), when je means your (Werkt je zus hier? Does your sister work here?), and when the t belongs to the stem (Wacht je even? Will you wait a moment?).

• Heb je ervaring in een winkel? Do you have experience in a shop? (jij hebt, but heb je; Solliciteren)
• Kun je ook op zaterdag werken? Can you also work on Saturdays? (jij kunt, but kun je; Solliciteren)

Stems that end in t or d

A stem that ends in t gets no second t: ik zit, jij zit, hij zit. A stem that ends in d still gets its -t, though you hear no difference: ik vind, hij vindt; ik word, hij wordt. After inversion with je or jij that -t goes again: Vind jij het goed?

The irregular presents

A handful of the most common verbs do not follow the pattern. Zijn is ik ben, jij bent, u bent, hij is, wij zijn; hebben is ik heb, jij hebt, hij heeft, wij hebben, and with u both u hebt and u heeft are correct. Kunnen, willen, mogen and zullen have no -t with hij: hij kan, hij wil, hij mag, hij zal. With jij and u three of them have two correct forms, jij kunt or kan, jij wilt or wil, jij zult or zal; the forms with -t are the usual ones in writing. Their other forms are in the table below and the note after it. When to say je, jij or u is on Dutch pronouns.

The Dutch past tense: -te or -de

Regular verbs make the simple past by adding -te or -de to the stem, and -ten or -den in the plural. The last sound of the stem, as you hear it in the infinitive, decides. If it is one of the consonants in ’t kofschip (t, k, f, s, ch, p), add -te; after any other sound, add -de. The version ’t ex-kofschip adds the x of faxen: faxte.

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Two rows need care. Leven has the stem leef, but the sound in the verb is a v, and v is not in ’t kofschip: leefde, not leefte. The same goes for z: reizen, reisde; verhuizen, verhuisde. So when the infinitive has a v or a z before -en, the past has -de. And a stem that ends in t or d keeps its letter before the ending, so you write it twice: praatte, zette, antwoordde.

Dutch uses the simple past to tell a story and to say how things were: Vroeger maakte mijn man de koffie. My husband used to make the coffee. (De buurvrouw van boven) For one finished event in conversation it prefers the perfect, which comes next.

Strong verbs make their past with a new vowel instead of an ending: lopen, liep; schrijven, schreef; drinken, dronk. The vowel has to be learned with the verb. The list this site checks its texts against has 208 strong and irregular verbs, counting verbs with a prefix such as begrijpen, begreep; the most common ones are in the table of the 20 most common verbs below.

The perfect tense: hebben or zijn and a participle

The perfect is the past tense of conversation: Ik heb gewerkt, I worked or I have worked. It has two parts: a present form of hebben or zijn in second place, and a past participle at the end of the clause, as rule 3 of Dutch word order says: Ik heb gisteren tot zes uur gewerkt.

The participle: ge-, the stem, -t or -d

For a regular verb, put ge- before the stem and -t or -d after it. The choice follows the past: -te in the past gives -t, -de gives -d. A stem that already ends in t or d adds nothing.

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Most strong verbs have a participle in -en. Its vowel can be the one of the infinitive (lopen, liep, gelopen), the one of the past (schrijven, schreef, geschreven) or a third one (nemen, nam, genomen; helpen, hielp, geholpen). A few irregular verbs end differently (gehad, gedaan, gedacht). Learn the participle together with the past.

No ge- after be-, ge-, her-, ont-, ver- and er-

A verb that starts with one of these six unstressed prefixes gets no extra ge-: betalen, betaald; gebruiken, gebruikt; herhalen, herhaald; ontmoeten, ontmoet; vertellen, verteld; erkennen, erkend. Strong verbs too: beginnen, begonnen; vergeten, vergeten. The same goes for a few verbs whose first part never splits off, such as overlijden (to die): Hij is vorig jaar overleden. He died last year. (De buurvrouw van boven)

A separable verb puts ge- between its two parts: opbellen, opgebeld; invullen, ingevuld; teruggaan, teruggegaan.

Hebben or zijn

Most verbs take hebben. Zijn goes with two groups: verbs of movement when the sentence says where to, and verbs of change, where someone or something ends up in a new state. Gaan, komen, blijven, worden, gebeuren and zijn itself always take zijn.

• Ik ben naar huis gefietst. I cycled home. (movement to a place: zijn)
• Ik heb een uur gefietst. I cycled for an hour. (no destination: hebben)
• Hij is in 2020 naar Utrecht verhuisd. He moved to Utrecht in 2020. (a new place: zijn)
• Ze is ziek geworden. She got sick. (a change: zijn)
• Het concert is om acht uur begonnen. The concert started at eight. (a change: zijn)
• Ze is een week bij haar zus gebleven. She stayed with her sister for a week. (blijven: always zijn)
• ‘Dat is mij ook een keer gebeurd,’ zegt hij. “That happened to me once too,” he says. (gebeuren: zijn, and no extra ge-; Kaart geweigerd)

When you are not sure, look the verb up: a good dictionary gives the participle with its auxiliary.

The perfect or the simple past?

For one finished event, in speech, an email or the news, Dutch uses the perfect: Ik heb gisteren gebeld. For a story, or one past event after another, it uses the simple past: Hij belde, wachtte en belde nog een keer. Many texts do both: the perfect sums up what happened, the simple past tells it.

The 20 most common Dutch verbs in one table

These are the 20 most common Dutch verbs, in order of frequency: in the list this site uses (wordfreq), each one is among the 90 most common Dutch words. Nineteen are irregular somewhere; maken is regular and is here because it is so common. Learn them as words: the present for ik and hij, the past and the perfect.

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The table has four of the five modal verbs. The fifth, mogen (may, to be allowed to), ranks a little lower: ik mag, hij mag; mocht, mochten; heeft gemogen. The perfect of a modal verb is less common on its own. With a second verb, Dutch uses the infinitive instead of the participle: Ik heb niet kunnen komen. Three verbs together like that are a B1 point; at A2 it is enough to recognize them. Next on the frequency list come denken (dacht, gedacht), zitten (zat, gezeten) and nemen (nam, genomen).

The future: gaan or zullen

Gaan plus an infinitive is the everyday future for a plan: Ik ga morgen verhuizen. The present with a time word does the same job: Morgen verhuis ik.

Zullen plus an infinitive is the everyday choice for promises and offers: Ik zal het morgen sturen. Zal ik je helpen? As a plain future it sounds more formal than gaan: De trein zal tien minuten later vertrekken.

Typical mistakes

• Not Waar woont je? but Waar woon je? The -t drops when je or jij comes after the verb.
• Not hij vind but hij vindt: the stem vind plus -t. And ik vind, never ik vindt.
• Not Ik heb naar huis gegaan but Ik ben naar huis gegaan: gaan always takes zijn.
• Not Ik heb gebetaald but Ik heb betaald: no ge- after be-.
• Not Ze verhuiste but Ze verhuisde: the infinitive verhuizen has a z, and z is not in ’t kofschip.
• Ik heb gisteren gewerkt is good Dutch. English says I worked yesterday, never I have worked yesterday; Dutch uses the perfect with a time word all the time.
• Not Ik heb hier twee jaar gewoond, which says you no longer live here, but Ik woon hier al twee jaar. Where English says I have lived here for two years, Dutch uses the present with al or sinds for something that is still going on: Olena woont sinds een jaar in Haarlem. (Solliciteren)

See it in a text

The free texts on this site use these forms the way Dutch does. Each sentence below is quoted word for word from its text.

• Lena werkte thuis, aan de keukentafel. Sinds haar scheiding woonde ze alleen in een kleine flat in Amersfoort. Lena worked at home, at the kitchen table. Since her divorce she lived alone in a small apartment in Amersfoort. (werkte: k is in ’t kofschip; woonde: n is not. Het pakje voor nummer 12, A2)
• Achter hem zuchtte iemand, dus Marek stapte uit de rij en liep naar de automaat. Behind him someone sighed, so Marek stepped out of the line and walked to the machine. (two regular pasts with -te, and liep from lopen. Saldo te laag, A2)
• In zijn eerste week heeft Sasha een mail met drie vragen naar Ingrid gestuurd. Hij werkte er een uur aan. In his first week Sasha sent Ingrid an email with three questions. He worked on it for an hour. (the perfect sums up, the simple past tells. Een gedicht voor de baas, A2)
• ‘We zijn om half tien al begonnen,’ zei hij. “We already started at half past nine,” he said. (beginnen takes zijn. Storing, A2)
• In het Spaans vertelt hij dat hij tien jaar in Valencia heeft gewoond. In Spanish he tells her that he lived in Valencia for ten years. (in a sub-clause both verbs go to the end. Geen Engels, alstublieft, A2)
• Zondag is de klok een uur teruggegaan. On Sunday the clock went back an hour. (teruggaan is a form of gaan, which always takes zijn; ge- goes inside the separable verb. Een uur te vroeg, A1)
• ‘Papa,’ zegt ze. ‘Heeft u gefietst?’ “Dad,” she says. “Have you been cycling?” (no destination, so hebben. Fietsles, A1)

Read next

Saldo te laag is an A2 story told in the past, about a transit card and a new job, with audio and a glossary. Its verbs are mostly in the simple past, regular and strong, with the perfect in the dialogue. Read it once for the story, then again and underline the past forms: the regular ones with -te and -de, and the strong ones like ging, kwam, liep. More stories at the same level are in the free A2 texts.

For a whole book at A2, Dracula is the first volume of the Dutch Readers series: Bram Stoker's novel retold in easy Dutch, with a glossary, questions after every chapter and free audio. It is told in diaries and letters, as the original is, so the present, the perfect and the simple past each do the job this page describes. It is on Amazon in paperback and for Kindle.