Dutch/Lesson 10

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Les 10 ~ Lesson 10

Meer over werkwoorden ~ More about verbs

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| ^ Contents ^ | << Les 9 | Les 10 | Les 11 >>

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Contents 1 Gesprek-10 2 Grammatica 10-1 ~ Separable verbs 3 Relationship to the prepositional adverbs 4 Subclauses 5 Woordenschat

[edit] Gesprek-10

Jan, heb je het licht uitgedaan?

Nee schat, ik doe het straks wel uit, ik heb dat karweitje nog niet afgemaakt.

Maar Jan, dat levert zo weer een dikke stroomrekening op. Wanneer ga je het afmaken?

Ik moet alleen even naar de WC, dan ga ik weer naar beneden.

Als je het af hebt, ruim je dan ook even op?

Ja hoor, wees maar niet bezorgd, alles wordt keurig opgeruimd.

[edit] Grammatica 10-1 ~ Separable verbs

A lot of verbs in English have fixed adverbial complements and a comparable association often holds in Dutch. Compare:

the bomb went off.

de bom ging af.

the light went on.

het licht ging aan.

In English one could consider to go off as the infinitive of a distinct verb. In Dutch the association is even stronger, because in some of the forms of such a verb, e.g. the infinitive, the abverb af is actually written as a prefix. This becomes clear in the future tense:

the bomb will go off.

de bom zal afgaan.

This means that there are two types of prefixes to a Dutch verb: inseparable ones (such as be-) and separable ones (like af-). The first kind we have seen before:

bedoelen - to mean

hij bedoelde

hij heeft bedoeld

The primitive tenses of a separable verb look like:

afgaan

het ging af

het is afgegaan.

Notice that the separable verb does take the ge- marker of the past participle whereas the inseparable ones do not.

There is another difference, at least in the spoken language: the accent of the word lies on the prefix if it is separable, i.e. one says áfgaan, but bedóélen.

Some prefixes can occur both separably and inseparably such as door- (through, by) and voor- (for,before) and in some cases there are two different verbs that look deceptively the same, one separable, the other not, with different meanings. In the spoken language they differ by wordaccent, but this is not visible in the written one unless accents are deliberately added to avoid confusion. Compare:

voorkomen - kwam voor - voorgekomen - to occur

voorkomen - voorkwam - voorkomen - to prevent

de kluut komt meer in Nederland voor dan in Engeland.

wij moeten er het verdwijnen van zien te voorkomen.

the Avocet is more numerous in the Netherlands than in England. (lit. ...occurs more in NL than...)

we have to prevent its disappearance.

Notice that just like in the case of the pronominal adverb ervan that translates its, the two parts of the separable verb can end up rather far apart in the sentence.

Another example:

een school doorlopen - to walk through a school building (takes 5 minutes)

een school doorlopen - to absolve one's education at a school (takes 5 years).

[edit] Relationship to the prepositional adverbs

In fact the comparison between pronominal adverbs and separable verbs is rather pertinent. Many prepositional adverbs occur both as part of pronominal adverbs and of separable verbs:

meelopen met... => loop mee met ... (to march along with) (verbal separation)

met alles => overal mee (with everything) (pronominal replacement)

aanzitten aan ... (to partake in an official dinner party)

aan alles => overal aan (at everything) (pronominal replacement)

Thus, occasionally the same prepositional adverb appears twice at the end of the phrase:

hij liep overal mee mee. (he went along with anything at all)

hij zat overal aan aan. (he was a high level social tiger)

The latter should not be confused with:

hij zat overal aan. (he could not keep his hands off of anything)

zitten aan (to touch, to not being able to keep your hands off something.)

The comedian Toon Hermans exploited this oddity once to great effect in one of his One Man Shows.

[edit] Subclauses

In a dependent subclause, e.g. a clause that starts with dat ("that") the separated forms of a separable verb reunite

ik doe het licht uit. - I switch the light off.

ik zeg "dat" ik het licht uitdoe. - I say "that" I switch off the light.

Notice also the peculiar position of the verb in the subclause: it moves to the end of the phrase in its entirety.

[edit] Woordenschat

uitdoen - deed uit - uitgedaan   extinguish, switch off
opruimen - ruimde op - opgeruimd clean up
opleveren                        deliver produce
afmaken                          finish finialize

karweitje                        fixing job
stroom                           current, electricity
rekening                         bill

keurig                           neat, well groomed
bezorgd                          worried

straks                           in a moment
weer                             again
zo                               thus, so, before you know it
even                             quickly