Learn the difference between perfect and imperfect tense in Dutch
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Michael: What is the difference between perfect and imperfect tense in Dutch? |
| Atie: And how do you know which one to use? |
| Michael: At DutchPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Jesse Jansen and Mark Lee are talking about food they like. Jesse Jansen says, |
| "When I was young, I used to eat pizza every day." |
| Jesse Jansen: Toen ik jong was, at ik elke dag pizza. |
| Dialogue |
| Jesse Jansen: Toen ik jong was, at ik elke dag pizza. |
| Mark Lee: Ik heb gister pizza gegeten. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Jesse Jansen: Toen ik jong was, at ik elke dag pizza. |
| Michael: "When I was young, I used to eat pizza every day." |
| Mark Lee: Ik heb gister pizza gegeten. |
| Michael: "I ate pizza yesterday." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: We all know how the perfect and imperfect tenses work in the English language. The perfect tense, for instance, tells us that an action has already been completed. The imperfect tense is the opposite, and describes ongoing actions or events without a specific time in the past. In other languages, these two may work differently. In Dutch grammar, the perfect tense, or |
| Atie: Het Perfectum, |
| Michael: is used more often in forming sentences than in English. It's also used a bit differently. A Dutch sentence that's in the perfect tense often has a translation in English that's also in the perfect tense. However, English may also use the past tense in instances where Dutch uses the perfect tense. In the same manner, the Dutch imperfect tense, or |
| Atie: Het Imperfectum, |
| Michael: is used to describe actions that happened at a specific time in the past. More specifically, in Dutch grammar, the imperfect tense is used to describe a story, an emotion, or a character trait of a person in the past. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Jesse Jansen says "When I was young, I used to eat pizza every day?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Atie as Jesse Jansen: Toen ik jong was, at ik elke dag pizza. |
| Michael: Here, Jesse was describing an action that recurred over a long period in the past, as suggested by the modal verb 'used to.' In this case, we use the imperfect tense. |
| Atie: Toen ik jong was, at ik elke dag pizza. |
| Michael: Jesse used the verb |
| Atie: eten |
| Michael: meaning "to eat." The imperfect |
| Atie: Imperfectum |
| Michael: is often formed in Dutch by simply adding a suffix to the verb of the sentence. For instance, the verb "cycle," |
| Atie: fietsen, |
| Michael: conjugated would be |
| Atie: ik fietste, jij fietste, hij/zij/het fietste, wij fietsten, jullie fietsten, zij fietsten. |
| Michael: "I cycled, you cycled, he/she cycled, we cycled, you cycled, they cycled." The verb "draw" |
| Atie: tekenen, |
| Michael: conjugated would be |
| Jesse Jansen: ik tekende, jij tekende, hij/zij/het tekende, wij tekenden, jullie tekenden, zij tekenden. |
| Michael: "I drew, you drew, he/she drew, we drew, you drew, they drew." But—watch out—many verbs change their stem in the imperfect tense; these are so-called strong verbs. Let's take, for example, the verb from the dialogue, |
| Atie: Ik eet, |
| Michael: meaning "I'm eating." If we transform it to the imperfect past, the sentence would be |
| Atie: Ik at, |
| Michael: meaning "I ate." Another example would be the verb "to call," |
| Atie: roepen |
| Michael: conjugated would be |
| Atie: ik riep, jij riep, hij/zij/het riep, wij riepen, jullie riepen, zij riepen. |
| Michael: "I called, you called, he/she called, we called, you called, they called." |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mark Lee says "I ate pizza yesterday?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Atie as Mark Lee: Ik heb gister pizza gegeten. |
| Michael: This sentence is formed with the auxiliary verb |
| Atie: hebben |
| Michael: meaning "to have," and the past participle of |
| Atie: eten |
| Michael: meaning "to eat." Another way to form the perfect is using the auxiliary verb |
| Atie: zijn |
| Michael: meaning "to be," and the main verb either in its past form, if you're referring to something that happened in the past, or future form, if you're referring to something that will happen at one point in the future. This is actually very similar to how the English perfect tense is formed. However, while English uses "have" or "had" to form the perfect tense, the Dutch language additionally has "be'' to help the verb. So while the English language has one auxiliary verb, the Dutch language has two: either "to have" or "to be" is used. |
| There is also a rule which will help you to decide if you should use |
| Atie: hebben |
| Michael: or |
| Atie: zijn |
| Michael: In Dutch, you combine |
| Atie: hebben |
| Michael: with all verbs with an accusative object. Let's see an example |
| Atie: Hij heeft de tekening gemaakt, |
| Michael: meaning "He has made the drawing" and with reflexive verbs |
| Atie: Hij heeft zich slecht gedragen, |
| Michael: meaning "He behaved badly." |
| And, in Dutch, |
| Atie: zijn |
| Michael: is used with verbs describing a movement, such as |
| Atie: gaan, lopen, rijden en vliegen |
| Michael: meaning "to go, to walk, to drive, and to fly." Let's listen to an example sentence, |
| Atie: Ze zijn naar huis gelopen, |
| Michael: meaning "They walked home." Next are verbs describing a change of state, such as |
| Atie: opstaan, sterven en bevriezen, |
| Michael: meaning "to get up, to die, and to freeze." |
| Atie: Mijn kat is gisteren gestorven. |
| Michael: meaning "My cat died yesterday." And with the following verbs, |
| Atie: blijven, zijn, lukken, worden en gebeuren |
| Michael: meaning "to stay, to be, to succeed, to become and to happen." |
| Atie: Het is gisteren gebeurd, |
| Michael: meaning "It happened yesterday." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you have learned that the Dutch perfect tense, or |
| Atie: Het Perfectum, |
| Michael: is used when you want to describe an action that has been completed in the past with the time of completion being unknown or unimportant. With the perfect tense, there is a focus on the end result. The imperfect tense, or |
| Atie: Het Imperfectum, |
| Michael: also describes past events, although the events may still be relevant at the present. Moreover, the focus of the imperfect tense is on something that keeps recurring over a long period in the past. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: The perfect and imperfect tenses are two ways you can express your thoughts about the past in Dutch. The question is: how do you know which one to use? There are differences between the two, but, in practice, you can sometimes interchange them. That's because Dutch is flexible. Nevertheless, your Dutch will sound more natural if you stick to the rules. So, one way to use the Dutch perfect tense is when you're describing an action that has happened only once in the past: |
| Atie: Ik heb één dag in een bar gewerkt. |
| Michael: "I have worked in a bar for one day." Meanwhile, you can use the Dutch imperfect tense if you're trying to describe a situation in the past that used to happen over a certain period. For instance, you can say, |
| Atie: Ik werkte vroeger in een bar. |
| Michael: "I used to work in a bar." |
| Michael: Now, how do you form the perfect and imperfect tenses in Dutch? In English grammar, the present perfect tense is formed by adding the correct form of the auxiliary verb "have" before the past participle of the verb. Let's see how that works in Dutch by using the example |
| Atie: Ik heb gewerkt |
| Michael: "I have worked." Here, we have the auxiliary verb "to have" |
| Atie: hebben |
| Michael: and the past participle of "work," which is |
| Atie: gewerkt |
| Michael: In English, in most cases, we simply add -ed after the verb stem to form the past tense. In Dutch, they add |
| Atie: ge- |
| Michael: before the stem instead. You may also notice that the past participle for "work" ends in a 't.' Actually, the stem would end in either 'd' or 't' depending on which letter the verb stem ends. The hint is to check whether the last letter is included in the mnemonic "SOFT KETCHUP." Since our verb stem in the example ends in 'k,' we use the '-t' instead of the '-d;' thus, we have |
| Atie: Ik heb gewerkt |
| Michael: "I have worked." We also apply the "SOFT KETCHUP" hint for forming the imperfect tense of the verb, but, this time, we will look to add |
| Atie: de and te |
| Michael: for singular persons, and |
| Atie: den or ten |
| Michael: for multiple persons. Applying these rules to our verb "work," we get |
| Aite: werkte or werkten |
| Michael: as in "They were working in the bar," or |
| Aite: Ze werkten in de bar. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: There is one instance where a sentence that requires using the perfect tense in English would require us to use the present tense instead in Dutch. Such an instance is when an event has begun in the past but has no definite end period. This often happens when you're describing how long an action has been going and it's still happening now, such as when you're describing how long you have been in the place or situation where you are currently in. Here's an example: |
| Atie: Ik woon al mijn hele leven in Australië. |
| Michael: This, if translated word for word would be "I lived all my life in Australia, but in correct English would be translated as "I have lived in Australia all my life." |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Atie: Doei! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide