Dutch verbs are strange. Not just because of all the quirky rules for conjugation, but also because a lot of them can be split when you perform said conjugation. These are called scheidbare werkwoorden, or by extension samengestelde werkwoorden, and if English is your native language (or another language that doesn’t do them much, which is most of them), it can be tough to wrap your head around them. But not to worry, I’ll explain everything.
What are scheidbare werkwoorden?
Scheidbare werkwoorden means separable verbs, of verbs that can be split – scheiden means to split, the -baar suffix is used the same as the English -able, and werkwoorden are just verbs, or literally working words. They consist of a core and an added particle that can be separated from the rest, and other words or whole parts of a sentence can be tucked in between.
This is a very common practice in Dutch, and it’s also used a lot in German, and – I did not know this – Hungarian.
There are two versions: the basic separable verb, and something called samengestelde werkwoorden, or compound verbs. I’ll explain more about the latter ones later on in the post, but let’s stick with the scheidbare werkwoorden for now.
As mentioned, scheidbare werkwoorden consist of a basic verb, plus a prefix, usually some kind of preposition or adverb, which gives additional meaning to the verb. Some examples:
doorgaan (Eng: to continue, literally: to go through / go on)
opbellen (Eng: to ring, literally: to call up)
schoonmaken (Eng: to clean (up), literally: to make clean)
Past and present simple
As you can see, the verbs and their prefixes are already split in English, but in Dutch, at least in the infinitive, they’re tied together. However, when they’re used in many other conjugations, they will be split:
Wij gaan straks door (Eng: We will continue later)(We go later on)
Ik bel je morgenochtend op (Eng: I will ring you tomorrow morning)(I ring you tomorrow morning up)
Hij maakte de badkamer schoon (Eng: He cleaned the bathroom)(He made the bathroom clean)
Past participle
This splitting happens at all times in the present and past simple, and it’s quite necessary. However, in the past participle, as well as some dodgier and less used conjugations, no real splitting occurs. Since Dutch tends to use a prefix like ge-, be- or ver- for participles, however, the different parts might be slightly separated by this added prefix, that’s not really a prefix anymore, since it’s thrown in the middle of the word:
Wij zijn doorgegaan (Eng: We have continued)
Ik heb je opgebeld (Eng: I have ringed you)
Hij heeft de badkamer schoongemaakt (Eng: He has cleaned the bathroom)
Samengestelde werkwoorden
While scheidbare werkwoorden consist of a verb and a prefix, samengestelde werkwoorden, which are basically a broader category of verbs, are verbs that consist of two or even more standalone parts – no prepositions or adverbs, but fully fledged words, one of which is often a noun. Take the verb horseriding, for example, which is pretty much the same in Dutch as it is in English: paardrijden.
Just like separable verbs, we split paardrijden in the present simple:
Ik rijd paard (Eng: I ride horse (doesn’t really work like that, does it? Well, it does in Dutch)
In the past participle, however, no splitting into separate words occurs, although the ge- prefix is once again tucked in between:
Ik heb paardgereden (Eng: I have ridden horse – ish)
Onscheidbare samengestelde werkwoorden
As if this isn’t frustrating enough, there’s also the onscheidbare samengestelde werkwoorden, or the inseparable compound verbs. Take the most famous example of this one, the verb stofzuigen. It means to vacuum, but it literally means to suck dust, or dustsucking, if you will.
Though this is in fact a compound verb that looks like it should be separable, it is not. The correct conjugations go like this:
Ik stofzuig de kamer (Eng: I vacuum the room)
rather than: ik zuig de kamer stof
Ik heb de kamer gestofzuigd (Eng: I have vacuumed the room)
rather than: ik heb de kamer stofgezogen
Fun fact: zuigen (Eng: to suck) is an irregular verb, with gezogen as its participle. Stofzuigen, however, is a regular verb, so the participle is gestofzuigd, rather than gestofzogen.
Now, the rules for when a compound verb is separable or not are a tad ambiguous, and even Dutchies will often separate this last example. This, however, is wrong.
Also note that in inseparable compound verbs, the ge-, be- or ver- prefix is actually put in front of the verb, rather than somewhere in the middle – hence the unsplittableness of the whole thing.
Long story kortgemaakt
Dutch, together with German and Hungarian, most notably, uses a contraption called scheidbare werkwoorden, or seperable verbs. When these are used in the past or present simple, they will be split, and other words can even be put in between the two parts. There’s also samengestelde werkwoorden, or compound verbs, which consist of two actual words rather than one word and an added prefix, and they work in a similar fashion. Some of these compound verbs look like they should be separable, but aren’t: these are the onscheidbare samengestelde werkwoorden.
It’s not easy to determine whether a verb-plus-preposition combination is a separable verb, or whether a compound verb is separable or not. Dutchies still make a lot of mistakes in this, too, especially with notoriously ambiguous ones such as stofzuigen. Just keep practicing, and lees snel verder for more articles on the amazing Dutch language.
