The pattern
Most irregular verbs change their vowel across three forms: the infinitive (the dictionary form), the simple past (the one-word past) and the past participle (the form after heb or ben). Verbs that change in the same way form a family.
- ij, ee, ee: schrijven, schreef, geschreven; blijven, bleef, gebleven. Also kijken, rijden, krijgen.
- ie, oo, oo: kiezen, koos, gekozen; bieden, bood, geboden. Also vliegen, schieten.
- i, o, o: drinken, dronk, gedronken; zingen, zong, gezongen; beginnen, begon, begonnen (no ge- after the prefix be-). Also vinden, winnen. Many have nk, ng, nd or nn after the i.
- e, a, e: geven, gaf, gegeven; lezen, las, gelezen; eten, at, gegeten.
- e, a, o: nemen, nam, genomen; breken, brak, gebroken. Also spreken.
- a or oo, ie, a or oo: slapen, sliep, geslapen; lopen, liep, gelopen. Also laten, vallen.
- The plural past adds -en: wij schreven, kozen, dronken, sliepen. In the two families with a, that a becomes long in the plural: ik gaf but wij gaven, ik nam but wij namen.
- The family names describe sound. In these verb forms, a long ee or oo is written double before a consonant in the same syllable and single when the syllable ends in the vowel: koos but ge-ko-zen (open and closed syllables). An f or s in the singular often becomes v or z in the plural: schreef, schreven; las, lazen (v and f, z and s).
Examples
| Toen Fatima bij de gemeente werkte, schreef ze elke dag tientallen e-mails. | When Fatima worked at the municipality, she wrote dozens of emails every day. |
| Ik ben gisteren thuis gebleven, omdat het zo hard regende. | I stayed at home yesterday because it was raining so hard. |
| De buren boden aan om onze planten water te geven terwijl wij op vakantie waren. | The neighbours offered to water our plants while we were on holiday. |
| Op Lottes verjaardag zongen we zo hard dat de buren aanbelden. | At Lotte's birthday we sang so loudly that the neighbours rang the doorbell. |
| De vergadering was al begonnen toen Joris eindelijk binnenkwam. | The meeting had already started when Joris finally came in. |
| Sanne las de brief van de huisarts twee keer, omdat ze hem niet meteen begreep. | Sanne read the letter from the GP twice because she didn't understand it straight away. |
| Carlos nam de trein van kwart over acht, maar die had vertraging. | Carlos took the quarter past eight train, but it was delayed. |
| Omdat er geen bus meer reed, liep Bas naar huis. | Because there were no more buses, Bas walked home. |
Why it works this way
These verbs are often called strong verbs (sterke werkwoorden): they show the past by changing their vowel instead of adding -te or -de. Dutch shares this old system with English and German, which is why drinken, dronk, gedronken sounds so much like drink, drank, drunk. The verbs that kept it are mostly everyday ones, and words you use constantly tend to resist change.
The families sort verbs; they do not predict them. The infinitive does not tell you whether a verb is irregular: rijden gives reed, but bevrijden (to set free) is regular, bevrijdde. Winnen gives won, but pinnen (to pay by card) gives pinde. Verbs with e are the trickiest, because they spread over several families: geven (gaf, gegeven), nemen (nam, genomen), helpen (hielp, geholpen). There are smaller families too, like sluiten, sloot, gesloten, and a few loners such as zijn, was, geweest.
So check a new verb once, then file it in its family. That second step is where the real saving happens.
Remember: say each new irregular verb as a set of three, like a little tune: drinken, dronk, gedronken. Once a family's tune is in your head, vinden, vond, gevonden is just new words to a melody you already know.
Watch out
IncorrectoIk drank gisteren te veel koffie.
CorrectoIk dronk gisteren te veel koffie.
English drank misleads you; in Dutch drank is a noun meaning drinks
IncorrectoIk heb een nieuwe telefoon gekiesd.
CorrectoIk heb een nieuwe telefoon gekozen.
kiezen is irregular: koos, gekozen
IncorrectoWe hebben bij Yara Indonesisch gegaten.
CorrectoWe hebben bij Yara Indonesisch gegeten.
in the e, a, e family the participle goes back to e
IncorrectoDaan is naar het station geliepen.
CorrectoDaan is naar het station gelopen.
in this family the participle returns to the vowel of lopen
IncorrectoWij schreefen een kaart voor oma.
CorrectoWij schreven een kaart voor oma.
open syllable, so one e, and f becomes v
Quick check
- Fill in the simple past of schrijven: Vorig jaar ... Priya haar eerste brief aan de gemeente in het Nederlands.
- Fill in the past participle of lezen: Heb jij de mail van de huisarts al ...?
- Choose the right form: Joris heeft zijn arm (gebraken / gebroken / gebreken) toen hij van de trap viel.
- Fix the sentence: Mei is vorig jaar naar Japan gevliegen.
Ver las respuestas
- schreef: the ij, ee, ee family, singular because the subject is Priya.
- gelezen: the e, a, e family, so the participle goes back to e.
- gebroken: the e, a, o family, like nemen, genomen.
- Mei is vorig jaar naar Japan gevlogen.: vliegen is in the ie, oo, oo family (vloog, gevlogen).
Use it today
Tonight, write five short sentences about your day in the simple past using at, las, dronk, liep and schreef, such as Ik dronk koffie met Ahmed. Then say the three forms of each verb out loud and name its family.