Dutch verb conjugation can get quite tricky, even for Dutch people, and the past participle form is definitely partially to blame. While it is perfectly simple for most regular verbs, there are quite a few oddities when it comes to certain verb types and sentences. Let’s dive into the world of the Dutch past participle, or voltooid deelwoord.
Let’s start off simple, shall we? The past participle of a verb is usually formed by taking the stem of the verb, putting ge- in front of it, and adding a -d or a -t at the end. For a simple, regular-as-can-be verb like werken (to work), this results in the following past participle:
ge + stem + d/t
gewerkt
Whether to use a -d or -t can be determined by using the ‘t kofschip rule, as explained in this post.
The same happens with many irregular verbs, although they may change in form or shape depending on the highly ambiguous rules for irregular verbs that exist in many languages.
Ge-, be-, and ver- verbs
A problem arises when a verb already starts with ge-, or, similarly, be- or ver-. In these cases, we usually form the past participle by only adding a -d or -t to the stem, without adding the ge- part in front of it. They’re considered to already have a prefix, even when it’s not necessarily literally ge-. Apparently, we don’t always like to double up in Dutch.
Some examples:
gebruiken – ik heb gebruikt – I have used
betalen – ik heb betaald – I have paid
veranderen – ik ben veranderd – I have changed (lit. I am changed)
A cool example is the word loven. Over time, it has taken on all of these possible prefixes, and and they all mean something different:
loven – to praise
geloven – to believe
beloven – to promise
verloven – to betroth / get engaged
The basic loven does get the ge- prefix in the past participle, but the others don’t, for they are already considered to have one.
Note that there are many verbs that start with ge-, be- or ver- more or less by accident, and it’s not meant as a prefix at all. These verbs are conjugated in the normal way:
geven – gegeven (given, irregular, more on -en later)
bellen – gebeld (called)
verven – geverfd (painted, the v-to-f change is due to pronunciation reasons)
On top of that, there are verbs that do end up with a double ge- due to their irregular nature and pronunciation reasons, such as eten – gegeten (eaten). And then there’s the few that already seem to have two prefixes in the infinitive, such as vergezellen – vergezeld (accompanied).
Ge-, be- and ver- are the most common ones, but the exact same thing happens for a few other prefixes, the most common of which are ont-, her- and er-:
ontgrendelen – ontgrendeld (unlocked)
heroveren – heroverd (recaptured)
erkennen – erkend (acknowledged)
The trick to figure out whether to use the ge- prefix for the past participle or not, is to determine which syllable of the verb is emphasized. If the first syllable is not emphasized, no ge- is added; if it is emphasized, ge- is added.
Separable prepositions
Another thing that may be somewhat difficult is the one about separable prepositions. Dutch verbs, like English ones, often involve a preposition such as in, on, up, to, back, through, or something along those lines, although in Dutch, these are always placed in front of, and attached to, the verb in the infinitive.
Here, the syllable emphasis rule comes into play just as it does for the ge-, be- and ver- verbs, but with a minor twist. When you apply this rule, and you find that the preposition itself is emphasized, the ge- prefix that comes with many Dutch past partiples is put in between the original preposition and the rest of the word:
opgroeien – opgegroeid (grown up)
afhalen – afgehaald (picked up)
bijbenen – bijgebeend (kept up, during walking for example)
uitrijden – uitgereden (driven out of something, irregular)
vasthouden – vastgehouden (held)
loskomen – losgekomen (came loose)
Note: verbs like openen, bijten, uiten, vasten and lossen do start with these too, but that’s just coincidental, and they are not considered prepositions. These would be conjugated the normal way: geopend, gevast, gelost. It’s not easy to tell when a word like this actually uses a prefix or not, but it is quite important to know in order to arrive at the correct conjugation.
As you can see, sometimes the English translation also features a preposition, which also can be separated from the rest of the verb in the past participle. We just add ge- in between due to our basic conjugation rules, and we don’t use spaces.
The importance of the emphasized syllable is uncannily present in verbs that are spelled the same, but are have a different meaning. Take the verb ondergaan: it can mean to undergo, or to experience, but it can also mean to literally go down as in that thing the Sun does about once a day.
ondergaan – de zon is ondergegaan (the Sun has gone down)
ondergaan – ik heb het ondergaan (I have undergone it)
Note how verbs ending in gaan are irregular, hence the slight difference in the word ending – it’s not a -d or -t in this particular case. Which brings us to:
Past participles ending in -en
Another very common exception to the ge + stem + d/t rule is the one where past participles of some irregular verbs get -en added to them, rather than a -d or -t.
This is one of those things Dutch people don’t often make mistakes in, yet very few people know the actual rules (and to be completely honest: even after quite a bit of research, I’m still not 100% familiar with them either). It has everything to do with the Indo-European ablaut, a system of vowel changes in, among other things, verb conjugations.
When this ablaut is a strong one and occurs in the conjugation of an irregular verb, the past participle will end in -en rather than a -d or -t. This is not to say that every vowel change is by definition a strong ablaut, though, which makes it all quite tricky. Either way, some examples in the infinitive – past simple – past participle format:
geven – gaf – gegeven (to give)
nemen – nam – genomen (to take)
schrijven – schreef – geschreven (to write)
lopen – liep – gelopen (to walk)
Basically, it happens sometimes, only in irregular verbs, but not in all irregular verbs. One tiny thing to soothe your pain, though: every new verb that enters the Dutch language is by definition a regular verb – we don’t make any new irregular ones, so it’s just a matter of biding your time and waiting until every old irregular verb has been traded in for some new, regular addition.
Word order
When it comes to word order in sentences that use the past participle, English and Dutch are quite a way apart – literally. While in English, the auxiliary verb and the past participle are often kept neatly bundled up, and are only split by words like not, even, and still, in Dutch, you can put entire parts of a sentence between the two. Compare this English sentence with its direct Dutch translation:
I have been to the store
Ik ben naar de winkel geweest
As you can see, we usually put the subject and auxiliary verb at the beginning, just like English does, but Dutch saves the past participle for the very end of the sentence. This also happens when the sentence is a lot longer and has a lot more additional information in it:
Ik ben vandaag tussen elf en drie uur op de fiets met twee vrienden en mijn kat naar de winkel geweest
In English, you would say something like:
Today, I have been to the store, between 11AM and 3PM, on my bike, with two friends and my cat
… or whichever order of things you prefer. In Dutch, all the extra bits of information are often squeezed in between the auxiliary verb and the past participle. German also does this, but English very much does not.
Long story kortgemaakt
The past participle in Dutch is a bit of a mess. While the basic rule for regular verbs is easy enough to apply, there are a bunch of exceptions to it when it comes to irregular verbs, verbs with prefixes or prepositions, different pronunciations of the same word and the existence of the Indo-European ablaut.
As is often the case with irregular verbs, sometimes it’s simply a matter of learning the different iterations by heart, rather than applying a rule to come up with the answer. It’s not pretty, but it does make the language as a whole a lot more interesting. Either way, I hope that you have this article gelezen with at least some form of pleasure, and that you have a thing or two geleerd about our beautiful Dutch language.
