Dutch/Lesson 14

Na de zware aardbeving in de Indische Oceaan en de erdoor veroorzaakte vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh is zoals gevreesd het dodental nog steeds stijgend.

De verwoesting en het verlies aan mensenlevens is uitzonderlijk groot, vooral de sterfte onder kinderen.

De behoefte aan hulp van allerlei aard is enorm maar het uitvallen van vrijwel alle verbindingen is een grote hindernis voor een toereikende hulpverlening.

Vocabulary
de aardbeving		earthquake
de vloedgolf		flood wave (any cause)
veroorzaken		cause
de kust		coast
het dodental		death toll
de verwoesting		destruction
het verlies		loss
stijgen		rise
de behoefte		need
de hulp		help, aid
de aard		nature
de verbinding		tie, link, (chem.) compound
de hindernis		obstacle

Translation • Lesson 14 • dialogue 14

As feared, the death toll is still on the rise after the severe earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the tsunami that was caused by it on the coast of Aceh. The destruction and the loss of human life is exceptionally large, especially the casualties amongst children. The demand for aid of all sorts is enormous but the interruption of practically all communication is a great obstacle to an adequate relief effort.

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 14 • waar of niet waar *

De vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh werd veroorzaakt door een storm
Er stierven veel kinderen
De hulpverlening werd zwaar gehinderd
De aardbeving gebeurde in India
De vloedgolf was nog steeds stijgend
De hulp van allerlei aard was enorm

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 14 • waar of niet waar *

De vloedgolf op de kust van Atjeh werd veroorzaakt door een storm - niet waar: door een aardbeving
Er stierven veel kinderen: waar: de sterfte was erg groot
De hulpverlening werd zwaar gehinderd - waar, door het uitvallen van de verbindingen
De aardbeving gebeurde in India - niet waar: in de Indische Oceaan
De vloedgolf was nog steeds stijgend - niet waar: het dodental was stijgend
De hulp van allerlei aard was enorm - niet waar: de behoefte aan hulp, niet de hulp

Verbal nouns

The -ing problem

In English the -ing form is used extensively for a number of rather different functions. Although Dutch also has an ending -ing it does not correspond to the English one in most situations:

he is singing
hij is aan het zingen
he walked out of the room singing
hij liep zingend de kamer uit
singing is her profession
zang is haar beroep

In the above examples singing is used as:

part of the present continuous tense
as a participle
as a verbal noun (gerund).

In Dutch different nouns are used in these three cases none of which ends in -ing

Properly rendering -ing forms in Dutch may therefore present a bit of a problem for an English speaker.

Continuous tenses

In the strict sense Dutch does not have continuous times and in many cases where English uses them Dutch will use a simple present or past.

he was walking to school when he saw the UFO

hij liep naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag

hij was onderweg naar school toen hij de vliegende schotel zag

To emphasize continuity Dutch can use the infinitive as a neutral noun preceded by the preposition aan:

hij was aan het wandelen

he was going for a walk

zij waren aan het verhuizen

they were busy moving

Another common construction is to use an auxiliary verb like zitten,staan,liggen, lopen

de voetballer liep op de scheidsrechter te schelden.

the soccer player walked around fuming at the umpire.

ik zat te denken

I was just thinking (on my chair)

The "on my chair" or "on my feet" distinction is often of negligible importance and the verbs zitten, liggen etc. are used more or less interchangeably as auxiliaries of the continuous aspect.

Present participles

The present participle in Dutch is formed by adding -d(e) (not: -ing) to the infinitive:

lopen – lopend(e)

staan – staand

As in English it can be used as adjective:

flying saucer

vliegende schotel

But it is rarely used as a (static) predicate:

kinine is koortswerend

quinine has the property of abating fever

Using it in a continuous tense construction as in English sounds odd and rather ironic.

ach, was jij schrijvende?

roughly: Wow, did I catch you in writing mode?

Present participles are seldom used to initiate a clause as is common in English:

The second car moving at greater speed could not stop

De tweede auto die sneller reed kon niet stoppen

De tweede, sneller rijdende auto kon niet stoppen

Either the participle rijdend is used as a preceding adjective or it is avoided by paraphrase.

Gerunds

The term gerund is seldom used in Dutch grammar. One could argue that Dutch does not have one in the English sense of the word, despite the presence of a rich variety of verbal nouns.

First of all, in many cases Dutch uses the infinitive as a neutral noun where English uses a gerund in -ing and one could argue that this is the Dutch gerund:

addition and subtraction are the basis of arithmetic

optellen en aftrekken vormen de grondslag van het rekenen

There are subtle differences associated with the use or omission of the neutral article het, but the same holds in English:

singing is healthy – zingen is gezond

the singing finally ended – het zingen hield eindelijk op

There is typically no plural. In times past the word did get inflected -as Latin gerunds do-, e.g.:

Tot ziens! - See you!

Willens en wetens - Deliberately.

Een uur gaans - an hour on foot

This -s ending is an old genitive.

The genitive of the gerund actually enjoys a modicum of productivity is expressions with tot ... toe:

tot vervelens toe - until boredom resulted, ad nauseam

tot bloedens toe - until bleeding resulted

Mijn ziel is zeer bedroefd, tot stervens toe (Matthew 26:38) - until death.

Suffix -ing

Many Dutch verbs do form a (feminine) verbal noun in -ing, but it usually corresponds more to an English noun with (latinate) ending -ion than to a gerund with -ing:

deze aftrekking is niet juist

this subtraction is incorrect

Note that de aftrekking denotes a particular case of subtraction, where het aftrekken denotes the general process of subtracting

The formation of a verbal noun is -ing is quite common, particularly for verbs with prefixes like ver-, be-, af- etc. It is also a productive suffix, which means that newly formed verbs tend to form their verbal noun this way. It has a plural in -en:

zegening – zegeningen

blessing – blessings

However, the -ing form is certainly not as ubiquitous as in English where only a few verbs like can or must do not possess one. Not all Dutch verbs have an -ing form as there is a number of older ways to form verbal nouns, although most of them are no longer productive.

The -ing verbal noun is feminine and occurs frequently with "ter" (te + the old feminine dative der), which translates roughly into "in order to".

Hij besprak maatregelen ter verbetering daarvan - He discussed methods that could be used to improve that.

This process is still productive:

ter wikifiëring -- to be wikified

Interestingly, this means that even north of the Great Rivers feminine gender is not quite dead yet...

Verbal stems

Many strong verbs have a verbal noun based on the stem of the verb with ablaut (vowel change) and lack an -ing form:

helpen – de hulp

na drie dagen kwam er eindelijk hulp

after three days help finally arrived

wreken – de wraak:

wraak is zoet

revenge is sweet

zingen – de zang

hij studeert zang

he is studying voice

Notice that in these cases forms in -ing like *helping, *zinging do not exist in Dutch.

Sometimes the vowel does not change:

lopen – de loop

in de loop van het proces

in the course of the process

These nouns are typically common gender and often lack a plural, but this does not always hold. For example a weak verb like werken has het werk and a plural de werken

Other endings

Some verbs add -t or -st to the stem, a process not entirely unfamiliar in English:

vliegen – de vlucht – plural: de vluchten

to fly – the flight

telen – teelt (no plural)

cultivate – cultivation

At times, there is more than one verbal noun:

graven – graf – gracht (<graft 1600s)

to dig – grave – canal

Plurals:

graf – graven

gracht – grachten

After nasals -st is more common:

dienen – de dienst – plural: de diensten

to serve – service

komen – de komst – no plural

come – advent, arrival

vangen – de vangst

catch – catch

de vangst van kabeljauw bij de Canadese kust is gestaakt

cod fishing has been suspended off the coast of Canada

A few verbs have -te:

behoeven – de behoefte

need – need

baren – geboorte

give birth – birth

Plurals have -s: behoeftes, geboortes, sometimes also -n:

denken – gedachten, gedachtes

think – thought(s)

Other verbs have -nis, -enis or -tenis

kennen – kennis

to know – knowledge / acquaintance

gebeuren – gebeurtenis

to happen – event

bekennen – bekentenis

to confess – confession

hinderen – hindernis

to obstruct / bother – hindrance

Plurals get -sen:

kennissen (acquaintances), bekentenissen

In English this ending is more common after adjectives like bald(ness), good(ness). In Dutch this is rare:

sad – sadness

droef – droefenis

Usually Dutch has -heid in such cases: droefheid

Dutch also has latinate endings—as English does—that sometimes compete with the Germanic ones:

The Latin -tio(n) ending is -tie in Dutch and usually pronounced as [tsi] or [si] ('see')

communiceren – communicatie

communicate – communication

but:

archiveren – archivering

to archive – archiving

Prefix ge-

Another way to form a verbal noun is to add ge- to a stem. It forms a neuter noun from verbs without prefixes.

vallen – het geval – de gevallen

to fall – the case

missen – het gemis - (no plural)

to miss – the lack, missing

spreken – het gesprek – de gesprekken

to speak – the conversation

voelen – het gevoel – de gevoelens

to feel – the feeling

This type is still productive, at least for verbs that do not carry prefixes. Newly formed nouns carry the connotation of annoying repetition and they usually have no plural:

dat onophoudelijk geblaf moet afgelopen zijn!

enough of that incessant barking!

hij viel op het toneel: gelach en boegeroep in het publiek...

he fell on stage: laughter and boos in the audience...

wat een gedoe!

what a hassle!

Notice the difference with the past participle:

gelach – gelachen

laughing,laughter – laughed

Verbal nouns with ge- tend to have a dysphemic connotation and some are better avoided by a non-native speaker:

gezeur, geëtter, gezeik, gezwam (all ~ bull s#$t)

zeuren – to nag

etter – puss

zeik – urine (four letters..)

zwam – fungus

Subjects and objects

As in English the -er suffix denotes the subject of the verb:

geven – gever

to give – giver

As in English the plural is in -s: gevers.

There usually is a feminine version in -ster as well, although under feminist influence it is under considerable pressure especially for functions in society:

voorzitten – voorzitter – voorzitster

to chair a meeting – chairman – chairwoman

Voorzitter is increasingly used, regardless the gender of the chairperson.

There are other feminine endings, e.g. -eres: (plural -eressen)

zingen – zanger – zangeres

to sing – singer (m) – singer (f)

There is also an infrequent -sel suffix indicating an object, e.g.:

scheppen – schepping - schepper - schepsel

to create – creation - creator – creature

Note that in this case English has completely shifted to Latin roots and endings where Dutch has remained faithful to its Germanic roots altogether, at least in religious context. Otherwise creation is often creatie.

The number and type of available verbal nouns differs from verb to verb.

Verbal adjectives

Apart from the two participles the verb can form various adjectives as it can in English. One suffix that corresponds to the English latinate ending -able is -baar:

verstaan – verstaanbaar

understand – understandable

Another suffix -heid (cf. English -hood) can be added to turn the adjective into a (feminine) noun:

danken – dankbaar – dankbaarheid

to thank – grateful – gratitude

The -heid suffix (plural -heden) can also be used behind participles.

bergen - geborgen – geborgenheid

to secure – secured, safe – feeling at ease

opletten – oplettend – oplettendheid

to wacht out – attentive – attention

There is also a suffix -elijk , cognate with -ly. (The 'ij' is usually pronounced as a schwa.)

bewerken – bewerkelijk

to process -requiring much work

sterven – sterfelijk - sterfelijkheid

to die – mortal - mortality

Exercise 14

YOUR TURN - UW BEURT!! • Lesson 14 • Verbal nouns

In the above text identify all verbal nouns and adjectives and the verbs they derive from.

SOLUTION • Dutch/Lesson 14 • Verbal nouns

aardbeving

aard (earth)+ beven (quiver, shake) + -ing

veroorzaakte

veroorzaken (to cause) past participle

vloedgolf

vloed-: (flood) verbal noun of vlieden (to flow)

gevreesd

vrezen (to fear) past participle

stijgend.

stijgen (to rise) present participle exceptionally used as predicate.

verwoesting

verwoesten (devastate) + -ing

verlies

verliezen stem-noun (to lose)

uitzonderlijk

uitzonderen (to except) + -lijk

sterfte

sterven (to die) +te, death toll

behoefte

behoeven (to need) + -te

hulp

helpen (to help) stem + ablaut

uitvallen

infinitive (drop out, stop functioning)

verbindingen

verbinden (to connect) + -ing plural

hindernis

hinderen (to impede) +-nis

toereikende

toereiken (to reach, to be sufficient) present participle

hulpverlening

hulp (see above) + verlenen (to lend) + -ing