VERB CONJUGATION IN DUTCH

Verb Conjugation

This document is about the spelling of Dutch verbs. It is the sequel to the
article about Verb Tenses. You can read that one
first if this article is too difficult.

You can find a number of Dutch verbs in the verb list. Each
verb has a conjugation table.

Reading a Dictionary

The dictionary might show just one word, when you look up a verb.

to celebrate (verb) vieren

Explanation:

The word vieren is the infinitive. If a verb is weak and
regular, that is all you need to know to make the conjugations of the simple present
and simple past.The dictionary might show more:
to celebrate (verb) vieren, vierde,
gevierd

Explanation:
The word vieren is the infinitive.
The word vierde is the past tense for ik (I) and other singular persons.
The word gevierd is the past participle. Every verb
has one, except a special verb like zullen (shall, will).The dictionary might add information about the auxiliary verb:
to celebrate (verb) vieren, vierde,
heb gevierd

Explanation:
The phrase heb gevierd applies to ik,
and means have celebrated. It shows that hebben (to have)
is the auxiliary verb for the perfect tenses.
ik heb gevierd – I have celebrated

ik had gevierd – I had celebratedThe dictionary might show:

to come (verb) komen, kwam,
ben gekomen

Explanation:
The phrase ben gekomen applies to ik,
and means have come. It shows that zijn (to be)
is the auxiliary verb for the perfect tenses.
ik ben gekomen – I have come

ik was gekomen – I had come

Spelling Summary

Simple Present Tense – weak and strong verbs

To make the present tense conjugation for ik (I, the first person)
remove en of the infinitive. The crude stem is the result. We will start to work with that.
Rule 1. If the crude stem ends with a z, remove z and add s.
Rule 2. If the crude stem ends with a v, remove v and add f.
Rule 3. If the last two letters of the crude stem are two identical consonants (tt, kk, etc.), remove one of
the two.
Rule 4. When the last syllable of the crude stem is closed (a consonant at the end) and the corresponding syllable of the infinitive is open (a vowel at the end of the syllable), we have caused an unwanted pronunciation change. We can only solve this by making an extra adaptation to the crude stem. We must change the vowel of the crude stem. This can only be from a to aa, e to ee, o to oo, and from u to uu.
Example: The crude stem of lopen is lop. The vowel in lop does not sound the same as the corresponding vowel in lopen. Therefore the crude stem lop is changed to loop to solve this.
The final result of applying these rules is the conjugation for ik (I). We call this result the stem.
kiezen – ik kies – we kiezen – to choose – I choose – we choose

leven – ik leef – hij leeft – we leven – to live – I live – he lives – we live

bakken – ik bak – we bakken – to bake – I bake – we bake

lopen – ik loop – we lopen – to walk – I walk – we walk

voelen – ik voel – ze voelt – we voelen – to feel – she feels – we feelTo make the present tense conjugation for the other persons in the singular:
Take the stem.
Add t, except when the verb precedes je or jijTo make the present tense conjugation for the plural:
Take the infinitive and use it.
Note for all persons (singular and plural): If the verb has a separable prefix
remove that prefix.
add it to the end of the phrase. It is not a part of the verb anymore, but a
separate word.
doorlopen – to walk on

We lopen door. – We walk on.

Loop je door? – Do you walk on?

aankomen – to arrive

we komen aan – we arrive

Simple Present Tense – irregular verbs

For irregular verbs, you need more information to conjugate the simple present tense.

Simple Past Tense – weak verbs

For weak verbs, take the same stem you have made when you worked on the 1st person present tense. Some extra letters are added to this stem to make the past tense of weak verbs. When the sound of the last letter of the crude stem is f, ch, s, t, k, or p, we add te in the singular and ten in the plural.
In all the other cases we add de in the singular and den in the plural.

voelen – we voelden – to feel – we felt

bakken – hij bakte – to bake – we baked

You can remember the six sounds by for instance memorising the phrase:

“Four Chinese speakers train kind people”

Spelling adaptations apply to the singular and the plural.
Rule 1. If the crude stem ends with a z, remove z and add s.
Rule 2. If the crude stem ends with a v, remove v and add f.
Rule 3. If the last two letters of the crude stem are two identical consonants (tt, kk, etc.), remove one of
the two.
Rule 4. When the last syllable of the crude stem is closed (a consonant at the end), and the corresponding vowel of the infinitive is part of an open syllable (the vowel at the end of the syllable), we must change the vowel of the crude stem from a to aa, e to ee, o to oo, or from u to uu.

Simple Past Tense – strong and irregular verbs

For strong and irregular verbs, you need more information to conjugate the simple past tense.

Weak Past Participles

When you know a verb is weak, you can find out what the past participle is.
make the crude stem of the verb by removing en.
Look at the last letter of the crude stem.
Six sounds take t-suffixes: f, ch, s, t, k, and p.
If the last letter of the crude stem is one of them, it must be a T-verb.
The past participle will be: ge + stem + t.
Otherwise, it is a D-verb. Then the past participle will be: ge + stem + d.
If a double t ending occurs, remove one t.
leven – ik heb geleefd – to live – I have lived

wachten – ik heb gewacht – to wait – I have waitedYou can remember the six sounds by for instance memorising the phrase:

“Four Chinese speakers train kind people”

Note: compound verbs are conjugated differently.

Strong Past Participles

To conjugate strong past participles you need more information about the verb involved. The ending is en.

Types of Verbs

There are five types of verbs in Dutch
irregular verbs
weak verbs of the T-class
weak verbs of the D-class
strong verbs

verbs with strong and weak elementsIrregular verbs behave unpredictable. Important verbs are often irregular,
like zijn (to be) and hebben (hebben):

Ik ben. Ik was. Ik ben geweest. – I am. I was. I have been.

Ik heb. Ik had. Ik heb gehad. – I have. I had. I have had.

Weak verbs of the T-class are regular verbs. In the examples you can
see that these verbs always have a t in the past tense.

Ik pak. Ik pakte. Ik heb gepakt. – I grab. I grabbed. I have grabbed.

Ik schaats. Ik schaatste. Ik heb geschaatst. – I skate. I skated. I have skated.

Weak verbs of the D-class are regular verbs. In the examples you can
see that these verbs always have a d in the past tense.

Ik voel. Ik voelde. Ik heb gevoeld. – I feel. I felt. I have felt.

Ik hoor. Ik hoorde. Ik heb gehoord. – I hear. I heard. I have heard.

Strong verbs have vowel changes, when going from the simple present tense to the other tenses.

When the verb is zingen the vowel changes from i
to o. The word gezongen
has an en ending, common for strong verbs.

Ik zing. Ik zong. Ik heb gezongen. – I sing. I sang. I have sung.

Ik kies. Ik koos. Ik heb gekozen. – I choose. I chose. I have chosen.

Some verbs do not fit in one category, but in two categories.
The verb bakken is weak, but gebakken looks
like a strong element.

Ik bak. Ik bakte. Ik heb gebakken. – I bake. I baked. I have baked.

Simple Present – Weak and Strong Verbs

To conjugate the singular (I, you, he, she, it) take the infinitive, remove en and make some adaptations when needed.

To conjugate the plural (we, you, they) take the infinitive (the word you find in the dictionary) and used it.

Note: If a verb is separable, then remove
the separable prefix and add this prefix to the phrase as a separate word, at the end of the phrase.

The table below shows the pattern of the simple present. The word
stem must be replaced by the stem of the verb you use.
Fill in the English translations at the dots (…).

Once you have made the stem, the conjugation for all singular persons can be made. In the singular, add a t to the stem, except when the verb is followed by je or jij, or when the subject is ik.

Simple Present Pattern for weak and strong verbs infinitive – simple present
singular		plural
ik stem	I …	we infinitive wij infinitive	we … we …
je stem + t u stem + t	you … you …	jullie infinitive	you …
hij stem + t ze stem + t zij stem + t het stem + t	he … she … she … it …	ze infinitive zij infinitive	they … they …

Remind: In the present tense, when the verb proceeds jij or je,
the verb loses the t.

The persons u (you, formal), ze (she), zij (she),
het (it), wij (we),
zij (they) are not shown in every table. Small tables look
like this:

Simple Present Pattern for weak and strong verbs infinitive – simple present
singular		plural
ik stem	I …	we infinitive	we …
je stem + t	you …	jullie infinitive	you …
hij stem + t	he …	ze infinitive	they …

Spelling Adaptations in the Singular

In the singular (I, you, he, she, it), verbs often need some adaptations, that are not needed in the plural.

When a verb does not need these special adaptations, the 1st person singular is made this way:

take the infinitive
remove the en-ending.
Example:

voelen, ik voel – to feel, I feel

besluiten, ik besluit – to decide, I decideFour different kinds of adaptations occur. The first step is to remove en
from the infinitive. The result we call the crude stem. After you have
made the crude stem, adapt it using these four rules. The result after the
application of the rules is called the stem.

Rule 1. When the crude stem ends with a z, the first person singular ends with
an s. The vowel sounds the same.

reizen, ik reis – to travel, I travel

kiezen, ik kies – to choose, I choose

verliezen, ik verlies – to loose, I loose

On the next verb, rule 4 was applied too.

lezen, ik lees – to read, I read

Rule 2. When the crude stem ends with a v, the first person singular ends with
an f. The vowel sounds the same.

blijven, ik blijf – to stay, I stay

schrijven, ik schrijf – to write, I write

On the next verb, rule 4 was applied too.

geven, ik geef – to give, I give

Rule 3. A double-consonant-ending (like kk) is not allowed. We have to remove a
k from the crude stem to get bak.

bakken, ik bak – to bake, I bake

Other examples:

vullen, ik vul – to fill, I fill

redden, ik red – to save, I save

vallen, ik val – to fall, I fall

stappen, ik stap – to step, I step

Rule 4. Pronunciation Maintenance Rule (of the Vowel)

Look at the vowel of the last syllable of the crude stem. That vowel must be
pronounced the same as the vowel in the infinitive. Otherwise, the crude stem must
be adapted by changing the vowel. If it is necessary to adapt the vowel, a becomes aa, e becomes ee, o becomes oo, or u becomes uu. (The vowel i is not in this list, and neither are sounds like ei or eu.)

Rules 2 and 4 are applied to conjugate geven (to give). The pronunciation difference between the consonants v and f is not large.

geven (to give) – simple present
singular plural
ik geef I give we geven we give
je geeft you give jullie geven you give
hij geeft he gives ze geven they give

Example of rule 4:

weten is to know. Translate: “I know.”
The crude stem of weten (to know) is wet.
The vowel in wet is incorrect, because it will not be pronounced as
in weten.
We change wet to the final result: weet.
The ee in this word is pronounced like ay in may,
just like the first vowel of the infinitive weten.
This adaptation is needed to guarantee the right pronunciation.
Result: Ik weet.Example of rule 4:

lezen is to read. Translate: “I read.”

To this verb, two adaptations are made:
The crude stem of lezen is lez.
The z is changed to s. We get les (see rule 1)
The vowel in les is incorrect, because it will not be pronounced as
in lezen.
We change les to the final result: lees.
The ee in this word is pronounced like ay in may,
just like the first vowel of the infinitive lezen.
This adaptation is needed to guarantee the right pronunciation.
Result: Ik lees.Other examples of rule 4:

slapen, ik slaap – to sleep, I sleep

laten, ik laat – to let, I let

Exceptions to rule 4. An often occurring irregularity

Sometimes, rule 4 is not applied deliberately. Then we get a pronunciation change.

Example:

The stem of komen (to come) is kom.
The vowel o in komen
is pronounced like oo. That is a clear sound, because it is an open syllable.

The 1st person conjugation is kom, while we would expect
koom, after reading the rules. This is something irregular.
We can only learn it by heart, when we want to know how to conjugate such a verb. The pronunciation of kom is
dull, like o in the English word “dot”.

komen, ik kom – to come, I come

Komen is an exception to rule 4.

komen (to come) – simple present
singular plural
ik kom I come we komen we come
je komt you come jullie komen you come
hij komt he comes ze komen they come

A Characteristic of the Simple Present Tense

In the simple present, you cannot see the difference between:
strong verbs
weak verbs of the T-class
weak verbs of the D-class

Example Verbs in the Simple Present Tense

Example verb:

Voelen is a weak, regular verb.

The verb voelen (to feel) shows up in six ways. It
depends on the person we talk about. First we remove en from the verb.
The crude stem voel is the result. In this case the crude
stem does not need any adaptations, so the stem is voel also.
We add t or en to voel,
or nothing at all.

voelen (to feel) – simple present
singular plural
ik voel I feel we voelen we feel
je voelt you feel jullie voelen you feel
hij voelt he feels ze voelen they feel

When je (or jij) is the subject,
the word order influences the spelling of the verb.
The letter t of voelt is dropped, when voel precedes
je. Then we get “voel je”. Otherwise we get “je voelt”.
This can only happen in the present tense. In occurs in every verb (except when there
is no t to loose).

je voelt – you feel

voel je – you feel

voel je – do you feel

In the present tense, you cannot see the difference between a weak and a strong
verb. In the present tense, zingen (a strong verb) has the same
pattern as voelen (a weak verb). The stem of
zingen is zing. We add
t, en or nothing to the stem.

zingen (to sing) – simple present
singular plural
ik zing I sing we zingen we sing
je zingt you sing jullie zingen you sing
hij zingt he sings ze zingen they sing

The verb betalen is weak.

The dictionary shows: to pay (verb) betalen, betaalde,
betaald.

The word betalen is the infinitive. Make the present
tense for ik by removing en and inserting an extra a to maintain the right pronunciation.

betalen (to pay) – simple present
singular plural
ik betaal I pay we betalen we pay
je betaalt you pay jullie betalen you pay
hij betaalt he pays ze betalen they pay

Simple Present – Verbs having an aan ending

When the infinitive of a verb has an aan-ending (instead of the more common en-ending), then remove the last letter, an n, to get the stem. The verb staan (to stand) is conjugated like this:

staan (to stand) – simple present
singular plural
ik sta I stand we staan we stand
je staat you stand jullie staan you stand
hij staat he stands ze staan they stand

What seems to be irregular is the first person conjugation ik sta. It looks as if a letter is missing, but it is typical to the Dutch language to write the aa sound as a at the end of a word (or at the end of a syllable). The pronunciation of a in sta, aa in staat and aa in staan is aa (a clear vowel).

This way you can conjugate all other verbs having the aan ending, like bestaan (to exist), overslaan (to skip), verslaan (to defeat), gaan (to go), etc. By the way: some of them are compound verbs, like overslaan.

overslaan (to skip) – simple present
singular plural
ik sla over I skip we slaan over we skip
je slaat over you skip jullie slaan over you skip
hij slaat over he skips ze slaan over they skip

Simple Present – Irregular Verbs

An irregular verb behaves unpredictable. All we can do is memorize the
conjugations.

Zijn is an irregular verb. We see words like
ben,
bent, is, etc.

zijn (to be) – simple present
singular plural
ik ben I am we zijn we are
je bent you are jullie zijn you are
hij is he is ze zijn they are

Hebben is an irregular verb.

Note that ik heb and
je hebt have just one b (pronounced as p), which is a regular conjugation. Double b at the end of a word does not occur in Dutch.

hebben (to have) – simple present
singular plural
ik heb I have we hebben we have
je hebt you have jullie hebben you have
hij heeft he has ze hebben they have

This is the verb zullen in the simple present tense. We will
need it later on to make the simple future tense.

zullen (shall, will) – simple present
singular plural
ik zal I will we zullen we will
je zult you will jullie zullen you will
hij zal he will ze zullen they will

Simple Past – Weak Verbs

If you know a verb is weak, you can find out if that verb belongs to the
T-class, or to the D-class. In the simple present this does not matter,
but in the simple past it does matter.

We take the verb botsen (to collide) as an example.
remove en. The crude stem remains: bots
The last letter of the crude stem matters: s.
If this letter is one of the following letters, we have a T-verb: f ch s t k p.
So, botsen is a T-verb.The verb voelen (to feel) is a D-verb.
remove en. The crude stem remains: voel
The last letter of the crude stem matters: l.

If this letter is one of the following letters, we have a T-verb: f ch s t k p.

So, voelen is a D-verb.If the crude stem of the verb ends with f ch s t k, or p, it is a T-verb. You can remember the six letters by memorizing this phrase:

Four Chinese speakers train kind people.

F – CH – S – T – K – P

These are about the sharpest sounds in Dutch. Remember that ch is one
sound in Dutch, and pronounced very sharp. The difference between whispering
f-ch-s-t-k-p and saying it is not audible. Compare these sounds with:
b, d, l, m, n, r, v, z. They have distinct sounds. They are soft and take the soft
d-suffixes. The sharp g-sound is an exception, because it takes the
soft d-suffixes anyway. A suffix is a series of letters to add to a word,
like de, den, te, and ten.

This is the pattern to use for T-verbs.

Simple Past Pattern for weak verbs of the T-class infinitive – simple past
singular		plural
ik stem + te	I …	we stem + ten wij stem + ten	we … we …
je stem + te u stem + te	you … you …	jullie stem + ten	you …
hij stem + te ze stem + te zij stem + te het stem + te	he … she … she … it …	ze stem + ten zij stem + ten	they … they …

This is the pattern to use for D-verbs.

Simple Past Pattern for weak verbs of the D-class infinitive – simple past
singular		plural
ik stem + de	I …	we stem + den wij stem + den	we … we …
je stem + de u stem + de	you … you …	jullie stem + den	you …
hij stem + de ze stem + de zij stem + de het stem + de	he … she … she … it …	ze stem + den zij stem + den	they … they …

Example verb:

wachten (to wait) is a weak verb. What is “I waited” in Dutch?

Remove en to find the crude stem wacht.
Do we need to add t-suffixes or d-suffixes when using the verb?
The sentence: “Four Chinese speakers train kind people” shows six letters that
take t-suffixes: f, ch, s, t, k, and p.
Because t, the last letter of the crude stem, is one of them, the verb
takes t-suffixes.
wacht is not only the crude stem, but also the stem, because
no adaptations are needed.
We add te or ten to the stem wacht. In this case, we add
te.
Result: Ik wachtteExample verb:

voelen (to feel) is a weak verb too. What is “I felt” in Dutch?
Remove en to find the crude stem voel.
We look at the last letter of the stem voel, which is an l.
An l is not one of the sounds mentioned in: “Four Chinese speakers train kind
people.”
So, the stem voel takes the d-suffixes.
voel is not only the crude stem, but also the stem, because
no adaptations are needed.

We add de or den to the stem voel. In this case, we add de.

Result: Ik voeldeThe table of wachten is shown right here. Look at the syllables that are added to wacht. These syllables are te and ten.

wachten (to wait) – simple past
singular		plural
ik wachtte	I waited	we wachtten	we waited
je wachtte	you waited	jullie wachtten	you waited
hij wachtte	he waited	ze wachtten	they waited

Let’s look again at the past tense of the verb voelen (to feel). Make the crude stem voel by removing en. Watch the last letter of the crude stem voel. It is an l.
After an l we add suffixes to voel like
de or den. The table is shown here.

voelen (to feel) – simple past
singular		plural
ik voelde	I felt	we voelden	we felt
je voelde	you felt	jullie voelden	you felt
hij voelde	he felt	ze voelden	they felt

Verbs that are borrowed from foreign languages are sometimes spelled in such a way
that this method can’t work.

racen (to race) is a verb like that. A decision was
made that racen is a T-verb. The reason is this. If
racen would have been a verb of Dutch origin, it would have been
spelled this way: resen. And the s of the (non existing) verb resen
makes it a T-verb. Here you can see that the sound matters, and not just the
written character.

racen (to race) – simple past
singular		plural
ik racete	I raced	we raceten	we raced
je racete	you raced	jullie raceten	you raced
hij racete	he raced	ze raceten	they raced

Example verb:

vieren is a weak verb.

The dictionary shows:

to celebrate (verb) vieren, vierde,
gevierd.

The word vierde is the past tense. You can make the
table right away. Just use the pattern.

vieren (to celebrate) – simple past
singular		plural
ik vierde	I celebrated	we vierden	we celebrated
je vierde	you celebrated	jullie vierden	you celebrated
hij vierde	he celebrated	ze vierden	they celebrated

In the paragraph of the simple present tense four rules are listed concerning
spelling adaptations. These rules apply in the simple past in the singular and in the plural. In this case rule 4 is applied to preserve the pronunciation of the vowel.

horen (to hear) – simple past
singular		plural
ik hoorde	I heard	we hoorden	we heard
je hoorde	you heard	jullie hoorden	you heard
hij hoorde	he heard	ze hoorden	they heard

Here rule 4 is applied too. Read the Spelling Summary
to learn more about stem changes.

maken (to make) – simple past
singular		plural
ik maakte	I made	we maakten	we made
je maakte	you made	jullie maakten	you made
hij maakte	he made	ze maakten	they made

Simple Past – Strong Verbs

In the past tense, the vowel changes we talked about earlier can occur
too.

Examples:

we bleven, ik bleef – we stayed, I stayed

we deden, ik deed – we did, I did

An exception is:

we kwamen, ik kwam – we came, I came

The vowel changes are not needed when the pronunciation is preserved:

we zongen, ik zong – we sang, I sang

The infinitive of a verb, like zingen,
does not show you if a verb is strong or not. When
you know the verb is strong, you also need to know which vowel change must be made.
When you know that, you can make the table right away.

The dictionary shows:

to sing (verb) zingen, zong,
gezongen.

The word zong is the past tense. Just add en in
the plural.

The vowel change of this strong verb is from i to o.

zingen (to sing) – simple past
singular		plural
ik zong	I sang	we zongen	we sang
je zong	you sang	jullie zongen	you sang
hij zong	he sang	ze zongen	they sang

The next example shows the effect of stem adaptations in the past tense
of strong verbs.

When you read in the dictionary:
to understand (verb) begrijpen, begreep,
begrepen

then you can conclude that the table of the past tense of this verb is like this:

begrijpen (to understand) – simple past
singular
ik begreep	I understood
je begreep	you understood
hij begreep	he understood
plural
we begrepen	we understood
jullie begrepen	you understood
ze begrepen	they understood

The vowel e in the bold syllable of begrepen
is pronounced the same as ee in the bold syllable of begreep.
As already said, this adaptation (to preserve the right pronunciation of a vowel) only occurs when vowels
like a, e, o, or u are involved.

Simple Past – Irregular Verbs

An irregular verb behaves unpredictable. All we can do is memorize the
conjugations.

hebben is an irregular verb. In the past tense we get:

hebben (to have) – simple past
singular		plural
ik had	I had	we hadden	we had
je had	you had	jullie hadden	you had
hij had	he had	ze hadden	they had

zijn is an irregular verb. In the past tense we get:

zijn (to be) – simple past
singular		plural
ik was	I was	we waren	we were
je was	you was	jullie waren	you were
hij was	he was	ze waren	they were

This is the verb zullen in the simple past tense.

zullen (shall, will) – simple past
singular		plural
ik zou	I would	we zouden	we would
je zou	you would	jullie zouden	you would
hij zou	he would	ze zouden	they would

The Past Participle

Almost every verb has a past participle. There is one (maybe two) per verb.

For example, the dictionary shows:

to celebrate (verb) vieren, vierde,
gevierd.

The word gevierd is the past participle.

In the following example, geweest is the past participle. The past participle is in bold font.

Ik ben. Ik was. Ik ben geweest. – I am. I was. I have been.

More than often the past participle begins with ge.

Ik voel. Ik voelde. Ik heb gevoeld. – I feel. I felt. I have felt.

Ik zing. Ik zong. Ik heb gezongen. – I sing. I sang. I have sung.

Ik pak. Ik pakte. Ik heb gepakt. – I grab. I grabbed. I have grabbed.

In Dutch, the following past participles occur:

past participles of T-verbs (which are weak verbs) have a t-ending.
past participles of D-verbs (which are weak verbs) have a d-ending.
past participles of strong verbs have an en-ending.
past participles of some irregular verbs have an unpredictable form.If the stem of the verb ends with f ch s t k, or p, it is a T-verb. You can
remember the six letters by memorizing this phrase:
Four Chinese speakers train kind people.

F – CH – S – T – K – P

Weak Verbs

If you know a verb is weak, you can find out what the past participle is.
make the crude stem of the verb by removing en.
Look at the last letter of the crude stem.
The sentence: “Four Chinese speakers train kind people” shows six letters that
take t-suffixes: f, ch, s, t, k, and p.
If the last letter of the crude stem is one of them, it must be a T-verb.
The past participle will be: ge + stem + t.
Otherwise, it is a D-verb. Then the past participle will be: ge + stem + d.
Note: If a double t ending occurs, remove one t.The least complicated past participles have three components:
ge
the stem of the verb
the ending of the verb, which is t or d for weak verbs.Examples:
The past participle of voelen (to feel) is made like this: ge + voel + d.

The letter l is responsible for this.

The past participle is: gevoeld.

In a sentence: Ik heb gevoeld. – I have felt.

The past participle of schaatsen (to skate) is made like this: ge + schaats + t.

The letter s is responsible for this. It is part of: “Four Chinese speakers train kind people”

The past participle is: geschaatst.

In a sentence: Ik heb geschaatst. – I have skated.

Sometimes ge is not there, because another prefix takes its place.

Ik heb verloren. – I have lost.

Ik heb haar iets beloofd. – I have promised her something.

These past participles have three components:
inseparable prefix
the stem of the verb, when it is a weak verb
the ending of the verb, which is t or d for weak verbs.
When the verb has a separable prefix, we add that prefix to the past participle.

Ik ben weggeschaatst. – I have skated away.

Ik ben aangekomen. – I have arrived.

These past participles have four components:
separable prefix
ge
the stem of the verb
the ending of the verb, which is t or d for weak verbs.Strong Verbs
If a verb is strong, the past participle is not built using the stem of the verb.
It looks as if the stem is used, but it is not. Very often, you see another
vowel in the middle of the word. The ending is en.

Examples:

The dictionary shows: to sing (verb) zingen, zong,
gezongen.

The past participle is gezongen.

The dictionary shows: to carry (verb) dragen, droeg,
gedragen.

The past participle is gedragen.

The dictionary shows: to walk (verb) lopen, liep,
gelopen.

The past participle is gelopen.

Past participles in English

Let’s compare this to English, where the past participle is made by taking the stem and adding ed to it.

Example: “I have walked.”

Irregular and strong verbs occur.

Example: “I have built.”

Past participles as adjectives

Past participles can be used as adjectives. Adjectives make a text more compact, but using too many of them makes a text less readable.

het gezongen lied – the song that was sung

de verloren sleutel – the lost key

The past participle geweest of the verb zijn (to be) cannot be used like this. It has to be adapted to gewezen.

de gewezen burgemeester – the former burgomaster

When a past participle is weak, its adjective is made according to the rules for making adjectives. An extra e is added in these two cases.

de gegooide bal – the thrown ball

de gebruikte mixer. – the used mixer.

Spelling Problem Weak Past Participles: d or t

A d and a t both sound like t at the end of a Dutch word. Therefore native speakers sometimes spell weak past participles incorrectly. They have no problems spelling strong past participles because of their en-ending.

Native speakers and people who are familiar with spoken Dutch, can find out the spelling of a (weak) past participle as follows. When a past participle is used as an adjective, the difference between d and t suddenly becomes audible, if you make a suitable test-sentence.

The d in gegooide sounds like a d, and reveals the correct spelling of
gegooid.

Ik heb de bal gegooid. – I have thrown the ball.

de gegooide bal – the thrown ball

The t in gebruikte sounds like a t, and reveals the correct spelling of gebruikt.

Ik heb een mixer gebruikt. – I have used a mixer.

de gebruikte mixer. – the used mixer.

This method is slightly faster than using “Four Chinese Speakers Train Kind People” or its Dutch equivalent, the well known phrase: ’t kofschip.

Present Perfect

To make the present perfect, you need to know:
the present tense of zijn (to be), hebben (to have), or
worden (to become).
the past participle of the verb of your choice.
The past participle of weak verbs starts with ge, and ends with a t or a d.

The past participle of strong verbs starts with ge, and ends with en.Let’s try to do something complicated. The verb wachten is
weak. What is “We have waited.” in Dutch?

We need:
The present tense of the verb hebben (to have)
The past participle of the verb wachten (to wait)We must make the past participle gewacht. (Because
the word wacht does not need any adaptations, we just ignore
the difference between the crude stem and the stem here.)
wachten is the verb we talk about. Let’s start there.
We remove en to find the (crude) stem wacht.
t is the last letter of the stem wacht.
The sentence: “Four Chinese speakers train kind people” shows six letters:
f, ch, s, t, k, and p. If a stem ends with one of them, we must add a t.
The last letter of the stem wacht is t. That is one
of the six letters. Therefore verb wachten takes t-suffixes.
This means that you can never add a syllable to wacht with a d in it, when
you conjugate the verb.
We make ge + wacht + t. A tt (double t)
ending is not allowed. The result is gewacht.We can find the past participle gewacht in a
dictionary too.
look up to wait
You find: wachten, wachtte, gewacht
The first word wachten is the verb (the infinitive of the verb).
The second word wachtte is the past tense (of the person I (ik)).

The third word gewacht is the past participle.Now we need the table of hebben – simple present.
You can find the table in the chapter about the simple present.

The present perfect of wachten shown below,
is based on the table of the simple present of hebben. The
only difference is, that the word gewacht (waited) is added
everywhere.

wachten (to wait) – present perfect
singular		plural
ik heb gewacht	I have waited	we hebben gewacht	we have waited
je hebt gewacht	you have waited	jullie hebben gewacht	you have waited
hij heeft gewacht	he has waited	ze hebben gewacht	they have waited

The translation of “We have waited.” can be found in this table. The result is
“We hebben gewacht.”

Past Perfect

To make the past perfect, you need to know:

the past tense of zijn (to be), hebben (to have), or
worden (to become).
the past participle of the verb of your choice.Let’s try to translate “She had waited.” into Dutch.
We need:
The past tense of the verb hebben (to have)

The past participle of the verb wachten (to wait)We must make the past participle gewacht.
The previous paragraph explains how.

Then we need the table of hebben – simple past.
You can find the table in the chapter about the simple past.

The past perfect of wachten shown below,
is based on the table of the simple past of hebben. Write
down that table and add the word gewacht in every record.

wachten (to wait) – past perfect
singular		plural
ik had gewacht	I had waited	we hadden gewacht	we had waited
je had gewacht	you had waited	jullie hadden gewacht	you had waited
hij had gewacht	he had waited	ze hadden gewacht	they had waited

The translation of “He had waited.” can be found in this
table: “Hij had gewacht.”
She conjugates the same as he. The result is “Ze had gewacht.”

Auxiliary verbs

An auxiliary verb assists another verb in a sentence. The use of zijn (to be) and hebben (to have) is shown here.

Ik ben gevonden. – I am found.

Ik heb het gevonden. – I have found it.

These two auxiliary verbs are called static verbs. We have a dynamic verb also:
worden (to become). It describes a process, or a
change in a situation.

Ik word gedragen tot ik ergens kan zitten. – I am carried, until I can sit down somewhere.

When verbs like to be are used as auxiliary verbs, they loose their original meaning. English and Dutch both have auxiliary verbs like this.

Simple Future

To make the simple future tense you need to know:

The verb zullen (shall, will) in the present tense.

The infinitive of the verb you need, like vinden (to find) or lopen (to walk).
This infinitive is found in the dictionary.The verb zullen in the present tense is found in the
chapter about the simple present tense.

If you want to make a table of the simple future of vinden,
then write down the simple present of zullen first. When you
have done that, add the verb vinden to every sentence. This is
the result:

vinden (to find) – simple future
singular		plural
ik zal vinden	I will find	we zullen vinden	we will find
je zult vinden	you will find	jullie zullen vinden	you will find
hij zal vinden	he will find	ze zullen vinden	they will find

The simple future tense of the verb hebben (to have) is
made the same way.

hebben (to have) – simple future
singular		plural
ik zal hebben	I will have	we zullen hebben	we will have
je zult hebben	you will have	jullie zullen hebben	you will have
hij zal hebben	he will have	ze zullen hebben	they will have

This is simple future tense of the verb zijn (to be).

zijn (to be) – simple future
singular		plural
ik zal zijn	I will be	we zullen zijn	we will be
je zult zijn	you will be	jullie zullen zijn	you will be
hij zal zijn	he will be	ze zullen zijn	they will be

This is simple future tense of the verb worden (to become).
It is made by replacing zijn by worden
throughout the table.

worden (to become) – simple future
singular		plural
ik zal worden	I will become	we zullen worden	we will become
je zult worden	you will become	jullie zullen worden	you will become
hij zal worden	he will become	ze zullen worden	they will become

Future Perfect

The previous paragraph shows the simple future of the verbs zijn
(to be), hebben (to have) and
worden (to become). The future perfect is built
on one of them.

To make the future perfect, you need to know:

the simple future of zijn (to be),
hebben (to have) or worden (to become).
the past participle of the verb of you choice.In this example, we will translate into Dutch: “I will have waited.”
“I will have” is found in the previous paragraph: Ik zal hebben.
Look up “to wait” in the dictionary: wachten is found.
We remove the en-ending of the verb. (Because
the word wacht does not need any adaptations, we just ignore
the difference between the crude stem and the stem here.)
t is the last letter of the stem. This letter is part of the sentence: Four Chinese
Speakers Train Kind People. (We look at the
sounds F CH S T K P only.)
So, the verb wachten has t-suffixes.
The past participle is made by joining ge, wacht, and
t. A tt-ending is not allowed. We get: gewacht.

Result: Ik zal hebben gewacht.If you want to make a table of the future perfect of wachten,
then write down the simple future of hebben first. When you
have done that, add the word gewacht to every sentence. This is
the result:

wachten (to wait) – future perfect
singular		plural
ik zal hebben gewacht	I will have waited	we zullen hebben gewacht	we will have waited
je zult hebben gewacht	you will have waited	jullie zullen hebben gewacht	you will have waited
hij zal hebben gewacht	he will have waited	ze zullen hebben gewacht	they will have waited

Conditional

To make the conditional you need to know:

The verb zullen (shall, will) in the past tense.

The infinitive of the verb you need, like vinden
(to find) or lopen (to walk).
This infinitive is found in the dictionary.The verb zullen in the simple past tense is found in the
chapter about the simple past tense.

If you want to make a table of the conditional mood of vinden,
then write down the simple past of zullen first. When you
have done that, add the verb vinden to every sentence. This is
the result:

vinden (to find) – conditional mood
singular		plural
ik zou vinden	I would find	we zouden vinden	we would find
je zou vinden	you would find	jullie zouden vinden	you would find
hij zou vinden	he would find	ze zouden vinden	they would find

The verb hebben (to have) is in the conditional:

hebben (to have) – conditional mood
singular		plural
ik zou hebben	I would have	we zouden hebben	we would have
je zou hebben	you would have	jullie zouden hebben	you would have
hij zou hebben	he would have	ze zouden hebben	they would have

The verb zijn (to be) is in the conditional:

zijn (to be) – conditional mood
singular		plural
ik zou zijn	I would have been	we zouden zijn	we would have been
je zou zijn	you would have been	jullie zouden zijn	you would have been
hij zou zijn	he would have been	ze zouden zijn	they would have been

The verb worden (to become) is in the conditional:

worden (to become) – conditional mood
singular		plural
ik zou worden	I would have become	we zouden worden	we would have become
je zou worden	you would have become	jullie zouden worden	you would have become
hij zou worden	he would have become	ze zouden worden	they would have become

Conditional Perfect

If an action would have been completed in the past, when certain conditions would
have been met, we use the conditional mood and the perfect tense.

To make the conditional perfect you need to know:

the verbs zijn (to be),
hebben (to have) or worden (to become)
in the conditional.
The past participle of the verb you need.In this example, we will translate into Dutch: “They would have waited.”
“They would have” is found in the previous paragraph: Ze zouden hebben.
The past participle is gewacht.

Result: Ze zouden hebben gewacht.The verb wachten in the conditional perfect is shown below. It is based
on the verb hebben (to have) in the conditional mood.

wachten (to wait) – conditional perfect
singular		plural
ik zou hebben gewacht	I would have waited	we zouden hebben gewacht	we would have waited
je zou hebben gewacht	you would have waited	jullie zouden hebben gewacht	you would have waited
hij zou hebben gewacht	he would have waited	ze zouden hebben gewacht	they would have waited

The Infinitive

The infinitive of a verb is the word you look up in a dictionary, when you search for a verb.

The verb zullen (shall, will) is followed by an infinitive, not by a past participle. The infinitive in this example is komen.

We zullen komen. – We will come.

Ik zal komen. – I will come.

Another example is the conditional mood.

We zouden komen. – We would come.

Ik zou komen. – I would come.

Modal verbs are followed by an infinitive, just like the verb zullen.

Ik kan komen. – I can come.

Ik mag komen. – I am allowed to come.

The word te (to) has to be added sometimes when using an infinitive.

Ik probeer te komen. – I try to come.

Ik vergeet te komen. – I forget to come.

Infinitives must replace past participles in some cases

Sometimes a past participle is replaced by an infinitive, when an extra verb is added to the sentence. The next
two sentences show that gegaan (a past participle) is replaced by gaan (an infinitive) when an extra infinitive is
added to the sentence. You cannot add werken (to work) to the first sentence without making the
adaptations you see here.

Hij is gegaan. – He went.

Hij is gaan werken. – He went to work.

Another example of this is:

Hij heeft daar gestaan. – He stood there.

Hij heeft daar staan kijken. – He stood there watching.

Infinitives as nouns

You can use a verb as a noun. Look up the infinitive in the dictionary and place an article in front of it. The article to use for infinitives is always het (the).

het maken van een website – the making of a website

het sturen van een e-mail – the sending of a email

Het schoonmaken van de kamer heeft een uur geduurd. – The cleaning of the room took an hour.

But the word het often means it, even when followed by an infinitive. The infinitives
are not used as nouns in the examples below.

Ik ga het maken. – I am going to construct it.

Ik ga het schoonmaken. – I am going to clean it.

There is another way to make nouns out of verbs. These nouns look like past participles, but they are not. Take the
conjugation of I (first person, present tense), and add a prefix: ge. Very often, this kind of words are interpreted as a complaint about something. Not many verbs are used like this.

het geblaf van de honden – the barking of the dogs

het geklaag – the complaints

Dat geschreeuw is vervelend als je aan het studeren bent. – Those shouts are annoying when you are studying.

Modal Verbs

A modal verb changes or modifies the meaning of the infinitive it precedes. An infinitive is a word you look up in a dictionary, when searching for a verb. Modal verbs are followed by an infinitive, not by a past participle. They are used like zullen (shall, will), so they are used like this:

Ik zal komen. – I will come.

Just replace zullen by one of the modal verbs you see below. The infinitive we use as an example is komen (to come).

Ik kan komen. – I can come.

Ik mag komen. – I am allowed to come.

Ik moet komen. – I must come.

Ik wil komen. – I want to come.

You can also replace hij zal (he will) by hij zou kunnen (he might).

Hij zal komen. – He will come.

Hij zou kunnen komen. – He might come.

The verb gaan (to go) is often used instead of zullen.

Ik ga schoonmaken. – I am going to clean up.

When you look at the English translations of the previous sentences, you will see that the word to is used sometimes. The Dutch equivalent is te. The following verbs use te, when
followed by an infinitive. They are not followed by a past participle.

Ik probeer te komen. – I try to come.

Ik vergeet te komen. – I forget to come.

Ik durf te komen. – I dare to come.

Ik hoor te komen. – I ought to come.

Zij lijkt te begrijpen wat hij zei. – She seems to understand what he said.

Hij blijkt te werken. – It became evident that he is working.

The verb hoeven (need) is peculiar. It is used in negations only, unless the word maar (an untranslated word in this case) is involved. This means that the sentence must include maar or a negative word like niet (not), geen (no), or nooit (never).

Hij hoeft niet te werken als hij ziek is. – He doesn’t need to work if he is ill.

Je hoeft geen e-mailadres te hebben. – You don’t need to have an email address.

Dat hoef je maar één keer te doen. – You need to do this only once.

Present Participle

The present participle is used when two actions take place at the same time. To make a present participle, take the infinitive of the verb and add d to it. For example, zingend is the present participle of the verb zingen (to sing).

Examples:

Ze liep zingend naar huis. – She walked home (while) singing.

Hij liep hard pratend door. – He walked on (while) talking loud.

Hij trok zijn schoenen zittend uit. – He took of his shoes while sitting.

‘Wat een leuke verrassing,’ zei ze glimlachend. – ‘What a nice surprise,’ she said, smiling.

The suffix de can be added instead of d, but this isn’t done very often.

Moeder zijnde, maak ik me daar zorgen om. – Being a mother, this worries me.

More common are:

Als moeder maak ik me daar zorgen om. – Being a mother, this worries me.

Omdat ik moeder ben, maak ik me daar zorgen om. – Because I am a mother, this worries me.

Present participles are often used as adjectives.

de schaatsende vrouwen – the skating women

het smeltende ijs – the melting ice

het verliezende team – the losing team

een hinnikend paard – a neighing horse

Compound Verbs

There are two kinds of compound verbs.

compound verbs with an inseparable prefix
compound verbs with a separable prefix

Compound Verbs with an Inseparable Prefix

The verb voorkomen (to prevent) has a prefix. This prefix
is voor, which means in front of.

To make the present tense of voorkomen you need to:
know the verb komen (to come)
know if voorkomen is separable or not.
The verb is not separable when it means to prevent.

komen (to come) – simple present
singular plural
ik kom I come we komen we come
je komt you come jullie komen you come
hij komt he comes ze komen they come

voorkomen (to prevent) – simple present
singular plural
ik voorkom I prevent we voorkomen we prevent
je voorkomt you prevent jullie voorkomen you prevent
hij voorkomt he prevents ze voorkomen they prevent

You see want happens. The verb gets a prefix everywhere. In the simple past tense,
it works the same way.

Ik kwam. – I came.

Ik voorkwam. – I prevented.

The past participle of voorkomen is made this way:
take the past participle of komen, which is gekomen
remove ge
add voor
The result is: voorkomen

Use it in a sentence this way:

Ik heb voorkomen dat het gras gemaaid werd. – I have prevented that the lawn was mown.

Hij heeft het voorkomen. – He has prevented it.This method you read about applies to inseparable compound verbs only.

Dictionary example:

The dictionary shows: to sell (verb) verkopen,
verkocht,
heb verkocht.

The past participle is verkocht.

Compound Verbs with a Separable Prefix

When a compound verb has a separable prefix, this prefix can wander around in
a sentence.

The verb aankomen (to arrive) has a prefix. This prefix
is aan, which means at.

To make the present tense of aankomen you need to:
know the verb komen (to come)
know if aankomen is separable or not.
The verb is separable.

komen (to come) – simple present
singular plural
ik kom I come we komen we come
je komt you come jullie komen you come
hij komt he comes ze komen they come

aankomen (to arrive) – simple present
singular plural
ik kom aan I arrive we komen aan we arrive
je komt aan you arrive jullie komen aan you arrive
hij komt aan he arrives ze komen aan they arrive

You see the prefix is separated from the verb. In the past tense we get:

Ik kwam. – I came.

Ik kwam aan. – I arrived.

The past participle of aankomen is made this way:
take the past participle of komen, which is gekomen
add aan
The result is: aangekomen

Use it in a sentence this way:

Ik ben aangekomen. – I have arrived.

Hij is ook aangekomen. – He has arrived too.The following examples show that the (separable) prefix tends to move to the end of the sentence.

Ik kom aan. – I arrive.

Ik kom morgen aan. – I will arrive tomorrow.

Ik kwam aan. – I arrived.

Ik kwam gisteren aan. – I arrived yesterday.

Ik kwam gisteren met de bus aan. – I arrived by bus yesterday.

Past participles behave the same. They move to the end of a sentence. The past
participles of compound verbs are no exception to this.

Ik ben aangekomen. – I have arrived.

Ik ben gisteren met de bus aangekomen. – I have arrived by bus yesterday.

Ik ben voor de andere bezoekers aangekomen. – I have arrived before the other visitors.

It is remarkable that the verb voorkomen (to occur) exists in Dutch, because it looks like voorkomen (to prevent), which is another verb. The verb voorkomen (to occur) is separable, but voorkomen (to prevent) is inseparable. In the next two sentences the stressed syllables of the verbs are underlined. When (a syllable of) the prefix is stressed, the verb is separable.

Het zal voorkomen. – It will occur.

Het zal voorkomen. – It will prevent.

More forms of voorkomen (to occur) are:

Het komt voor. – It occurs.

Het kwam voor. – It occurred.

Ze kwamen voor. – They occurred.

Sneeuwstormen kwamen vroeger meer voor. – Snow storms occurred more often in the past.

Remark: An extra complexity occurs in compound sentences. The next sentences are included only to show that separable verbs are not separated in every case. Pay attention to the bold words in these sentences to get the point.

Je weet in welke steden dat probleem voorkomt. Dat probleem komt hier ook voor. – You know in what cities that problem occurs. That problem occurs here too.

Je weet op welke dag ze aankomt. Ze komt morgen aan. – You know on which day she will arrive. She will arrive tomorrow.

This additional complexity is caused by the typical word order of Dutch clauses (subsentences). Of course, inseparable verbs remain inseparable, which is shown in the following examples.

Je weet welk probleem hij voorkomt. Hij voorkomt fraude. – You know which problem he prevents. He prevents fraud.

Je weet welk probleem hij beschrijft. Hij beschrijft fraude. – You know which problem he discribes. He discribes fraud.

To get used to prefixes, we will look at a small list of compound verbs. The
stressed syllables are underlined. All these ten verbs are separable verbs.

tegenkomen – to meet

doorgeven – to pass on

teruggeven – to give back

opgeven – to give up

verspringen – to jump in a long jump competition

voorstellen – to introduce, to suggest

nadenken – to think for a while

uitleggen – to explain

terugkomen – to come back, to return

meenemen – to take with you

Example phrases:

Ik kom terug. – I will come back.

Ik ben teruggekomen. – I came back.

If ge is added to the infinitive when making the past participle (like uitgelegd) of a compound verb, it is always a separable verb. We cannot know if a compound verb is separable or not, if we only know the infinitive (like uitleggen).

Dictionary example:

The dictionary shows: to explain (verb) uitleggen,
legde uit,
heb uitgelegd.

The past participle is uitgelegd.

Verb Prefixes

Sometimes the prefix of the past participle is not ge. This is
the case when a verb (the infinitive itself) begins with ver, be, ont, her or another prefix.

Inseparable Verbs without ge in the Past Participle

The following verbs do not have a ge in the past participle. Some of
them are compound verbs, like verkopen (to sell), which
is derived from kopen (to buy).

Note: The second syllable of every verb in this list is stressed.

vertellen – to tell

veranderen – to change

vertrekken – to depart

beginnen – to begin

verkopen – to sell

vergeven – to forgive

begrijpen – to understand

verlaten – to leave

betalen – to pay

vertrouwen – to trust

ontmoeten – to meet

herinneren – to remember

verlangen – to desire

verliezen – to loose

bezoeken – to visit

bereiken – to reach

beschermen – to protect

verdienen – to earn, to deserve

ontbijten – to have breakfast

beloven – to promise

herkennen – to recognize

Example sentences:

Ik herken jou. – I recognize you.

Ik heb jou herkend. – I have recognized you.

Inseparable Verbs starting with ge

Verbs without any prefix occur when ge is already part of the verb.
These verbs even have a ge in the simple present and simple past. This is
because ge is part of the verb.

gebeuren – to happen

geloven – to believe

genezen – to recover, to heal

gebruiken – to use

gehoorzamen – to obey

genieten – to enjoy

Example sentences:

Ik gebruik blauwe verf. – I use blue paint.

Hij gebruikt blauwe verf. – He uses blue paint.

In fact, the past participles of these verbs are irregular,
because no ge was added to these verbs to make the past participles.
In the next example, the past participle is in bold font. The t-ending is not influenced by what
happens in front.

Hij heeft blauwe verf gebruikt. – He has used blue paint.

Spelling Problem Present Tense: word or wordt

Because word and wordt are pronounced exactly the same, these words are sometimes spelled incorrectly by native speakers. The conjugation table of worden is shown below.

worden (to become)
present past
I ik word ik werd
you je wordt je werd
he hij wordt hij werd
we we worden we werden
you jullie worden jullie werden
they ze worden ze werden

The verbs houden (to keep), rijden (to drive) and vinden (to find) cause the same problems.

Spel je “vind je” met dt? – Do you spell “vind je” with dt?

Nee, want “vind” staat voor “je”. – No, because “vind” is before “je”.

If you are a native speaker or if you use the verb lopen (to walk) very often in spoken language, this dt-test will work: Replace the difficult verb by lopen only to test if you hear the letter t then. If you hear the letter t then, it’s there.

Word je morgen vijftig? – Are you becoming fifty tomorrow?

Loop je? – Are you walking?

Conjugation of Leven

In this paragraph, the conjugation of the verb leven in the present tense is found.

Present Tense

First person singular ik (I).
leven (to live)
crude stem: lev
remove v and add f.
The e in lef is not pronounced like the first e in leven. That is not correct, so we must adapt the crude stem by changing the e into ee
The result is: leef. We call it the stem.Second person singular. To make the present tense conjugation for je (you) and jij (you)
Take the stem you found when conjugating for ik (I).
If the person (je or jij) precedes the verb, add the
letter t to the verb.
If the person (je or jij) follows the verb, don’t add anything.
The result is: leef je or je leeftThird person singular. To make the present tense conjugation for u (you), hij (he),
ze (she), zij (she)
and het (it)
Take the stem you found when conjugating for ik (I).
Add the letter t to the verb.
The result is: leeftFirst, second and third person plural. To make the present tense conjugation for plural persons
take the infinitive and use it.
The result is: leven

geven (to give) – simple present
singular		plural
ik geef	I give	we geven	we give
je geeft	you give	jullie geven	you give
hij geeft	he gives	ze geven	they give

komen (to come) – simple present
singular		plural
ik kom	I come	we komen	we come
je komt	you come	jullie komen	you come
hij komt	he comes	ze komen	they come

voelen (to feel) – simple present
singular		plural
ik voel	I feel	we voelen	we feel
je voelt	you feel	jullie voelen	you feel
hij voelt	he feels	ze voelen	they feel

zingen (to sing) – simple present
singular		plural
ik zing	I sing	we zingen	we sing
je zingt	you sing	jullie zingen	you sing
hij zingt	he sings	ze zingen	they sing

betalen (to pay) – simple present
singular		plural
ik betaal	I pay	we betalen	we pay
je betaalt	you pay	jullie betalen	you pay
hij betaalt	he pays	ze betalen	they pay

staan (to stand) – simple present
singular		plural
ik sta	I stand	we staan	we stand
je staat	you stand	jullie staan	you stand
hij staat	he stands	ze staan	they stand

overslaan (to skip) – simple present
singular		plural
ik sla over	I skip	we slaan over	we skip
je slaat over	you skip	jullie slaan over	you skip
hij slaat over	he skips	ze slaan over	they skip

zijn (to be) – simple present
singular		plural
ik ben	I am	we zijn	we are
je bent	you are	jullie zijn	you are
hij is	he is	ze zijn	they are

hebben (to have) – simple present
singular		plural
ik heb	I have	we hebben	we have
je hebt	you have	jullie hebben	you have
hij heeft	he has	ze hebben	they have

zullen (shall, will) – simple present
singular		plural
ik zal	I will	we zullen	we will
je zult	you will	jullie zullen	you will
hij zal	he will	ze zullen	they will

voorkomen (to prevent) – simple present
singular		plural
ik voorkom	I prevent	we voorkomen	we prevent
je voorkomt	you prevent	jullie voorkomen	you prevent
hij voorkomt	he prevents	ze voorkomen	they prevent

aankomen (to arrive) – simple present
singular		plural
ik kom aan	I arrive	we komen aan	we arrive
je komt aan	you arrive	jullie komen aan	you arrive
hij komt aan	he arrives	ze komen aan	they arrive

worden (to become)
	present	past
I	ik word	ik werd
you	je wordt	je werd
he	hij wordt	hij werd
we	we worden	we werden
you	jullie worden	jullie werden
they	ze worden	ze werden

VERB CONJUGATION IN DUTCH