English "leave" is a chameleon. Leave the building, the train leaves at eight, I'm leaving now, he left his coat, leave it alone — one verb, five jobs. Dutch assigns each job to a different verb, and they are not interchangeable. The single trickiest point for English speakers is transitivity: verlaten must take an object (you leave something), while vertrekken must not (you simply depart). Pick the right one and the rest of the sentence falls into place; pick wrong and a Dutch listener will be momentarily lost.
The decision rule in one table
| English "leave" | Dutch | Type | Core sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| leave a place / a person | verlaten | transitive (needs object) | quit / abandon, often final or emotional |
| depart, set off | vertrekken | intransitive (no object) | a departure, a scheduled going |
| go away, head off | weggaan | intransitive, separable | everyday "I'm off" |
| leave behind (a thing/person) | achterlaten | transitive, separable | not take it with you |
| let / leave as is | laten | transitive / causative | allow, leave untouched |
Verlaten: leave a place or person (transitive)
Verlaten means to quit or abandon — to leave a place or a person, with the place or person as a direct object. It carries weight: leaving a building, a country, a relationship. It is always transitive; there is no "I verlaten" without saying what you're leaving. It is an inseparable verb (the ver- never splits off), conjugated like a strong verb: present ik verlaat, hij verlaat; past verliet / verlieten; participle verlaten (with hebben).
Iedereen moest het gebouw onmiddellijk verlaten.
Everyone had to leave the building immediately. — a place as object, so verlaten.
Hij heeft haar na twintig jaar verlaten.
He left her after twenty years. — a person as object, with an emotional weight: verlaten.
Veel jongeren verlaten het platteland voor de grote stad.
Many young people leave the countryside for the big city. — leaving a place behind for good.
Note the register: verlaten is the verb of news reports, novels, and serious moments. Het zinkende schip verlaten ("to leave the sinking ship"), het ouderlijk huis verlaten ("to leave the parental home"). For "I'm just popping out," it's far too heavy — use weggaan.
Vertrekken: depart (intransitive)
Vertrekken is to depart — to set off, with no object. It's the verb on the departures board, the verb for trains, planes, and the moment you head out on a journey. Crucially it takes zijn as its auxiliary (it's a verb of motion-to-a-destination): ik vertrek, hij vertrekt; past vertrok / vertrokken; participle vertrokken (de trein is vertrokken).
De trein naar Groningen vertrekt om acht uur van spoor vijf.
The train to Groningen leaves at eight from platform five. — a departure, no object: vertrekken.
Wanneer vertrek je naar Spanje?
When are you leaving for Spain? — setting off on a trip; vertrekken.
We zijn vanmorgen vroeg vertrokken om de file voor te zijn.
We left early this morning to beat the traffic. — note the auxiliary is zijn, not hebben.
The contrast with verlaten is sharp: you verlaat a place (object), but you vertrekt (no object). "The train leaves the station" can be either, depending on what you focus on: de trein verlaat het station (transitive, the station is the object) or de trein vertrekt (intransitive, just departing). English hides this choice; Dutch forces it.
Weggaan: go away (everyday)
Weggaan is the casual, high-frequency "to leave / go away / head off." It's what you say at a party, at the end of a visit, when you're done. Separable (weg splits off), with zijn: ik ga weg, hij gaat weg; past ging weg / gingen weg; participle weggegaan (ik ben weggegaan).
Ik ga nu weg, anders mis ik mijn bus.
I'm leaving now, otherwise I'll miss my bus. — everyday 'I'm off': weggaan.
Ga niet weg, het feest begint net!
Don't leave, the party's only just starting! — casual, no object: weggaan.
Where verlaten sounds like a divorce, weggaan is just stepping out the door. If you'd say "I'm leaving" lightly, it's weggaan.
Achterlaten: leave something behind
Achterlaten is to leave behind — to not take something (or someone) with you when you go. Separable (achter splits off), transitive, with hebben: ik laat achter, hij laat achter; past liet achter / lieten achter; participle achtergelaten.
Hij liet zijn jas achter in het café.
He left his coat behind in the café. — an object left behind: achterlaten.
De inbrekers hebben een enorme rotzooi achtergelaten.
The burglars left an enormous mess behind. — what was left in their wake.
Don't confuse achterlaten with vergeten. Achterlaten can be deliberate (you chose not to bring it); iets vergeten is "to forget something" (you left it by accident and didn't mean to). Ik heb mijn paraplu in de trein laten liggen ("I left my umbrella on the train" — accidentally) uses yet another construction, laten liggen, which brings us to laten.
Laten: let / leave as is
Laten is the odd one out. Its core meaning is to let / allow, and by extension to leave (something) in a state — to not touch it, not move it, leave it be. It's a causative helper as well, but in the "leave" sense the everyday phrases are what you need: laat maar ("never mind / leave it"), iets laten liggen / staan / hangen ("leave something lying / standing / hanging where it is").
Laat maar, ik doe het zelf wel.
Never mind, I'll do it myself. — 'laat maar' = leave it / don't bother.
Laat die doos maar staan, die haal ik straks wel.
Just leave that box where it is, I'll get it later. — leave it in place: laten staan.
Ik heb mijn telefoon thuis laten liggen.
I left my phone at home. — laten liggen = left it lying there (the standard way to say you forgot/left an object somewhere).
That last pattern is the one to memorise: to say where you left a small object, Dutch overwhelmingly uses laten liggen / staan, not achterlaten and not verlaten. Ik heb mijn sleutels op kantoor laten liggen — "I left my keys at the office."
Common Mistakes
These are the precise traps English speakers fall into, since "leave" hides all five verbs.
❌ De trein verlaat om acht uur.
Incorrect — without an object, 'depart' is vertrekken; verlaten needs something to leave.
✅ De trein vertrekt om acht uur.
The train leaves at eight.
❌ Ik vertrek het gebouw.
Incorrect — vertrekken is intransitive; to leave a place (an object) use verlaten.
✅ Ik verlaat het gebouw.
I'm leaving the building.
❌ Ik heb mijn paraplu verlaten in de trein.
Incorrect — for an object left somewhere, use laten liggen (or achterlaten), not verlaten.
✅ Ik heb mijn paraplu in de trein laten liggen.
I left my umbrella on the train.
❌ Sorry, ik moet nu verlaten.
Incorrect — casual 'I have to leave now' is weggaan; verlaten needs an object and sounds dramatic.
✅ Sorry, ik moet nu weg.
Sorry, I have to leave now.
❌ Hij heeft de stad vertrokken.
Incorrect — vertrekken takes no object and uses zijn; 'leave the city' (object) is verlaten.
✅ Hij heeft de stad verlaten.
He has left the city.
Key Takeaways
- verlaten
- object = quit / abandon a place or person (final, weighty). vertrekken = depart, no object, auxiliary zijn.
- weggaan = casual "I'm off," no object. achterlaten = leave a thing/person behind deliberately.
- laten = let / leave alone; laten liggen / staan is the everyday way to say where you left an object.
- The number-one trap is transitivity: you verlaat het huis (object), but you vertrekt (none). English blurs this; Dutch does not.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Vertrekken (to depart) — Full ConjugationB1 — The complete paradigm of vertrekken (to depart, to leave): present (vertrek/vertrekt/vertrekken), past (vertrok/vertrokken), perfect (ben vertrokken — with zijn, no ge-), imperative, and participle.
- Laten (to let/have done) — Full ConjugationB1 — The complete paradigm of laten (to let, to have something done): present (laat/laat/laten), past (liet/lieten), perfect (heb gelaten — but heb laten doen in the IPP causative), imperative, and the double-infinitive construction.
- Separable Verbs: OverviewA2 — What separable verbs are, how to recognise them by stress (ÓPbellen, not opBELlen), and how the particle behaves across infinitive, present, and participle — the hub for every separable-verb page.
- Everyday Separable Verbs that Take ZijnA2 — Common separable verbs of motion and change that form the perfect with 'zijn' — opstaan, aankomen, weggaan, terugkomen, uitgaan, instappen, uitstappen, and inseparable vertrekken — with how the prefix splits in main clauses, where 'ge-' lands in the participle, and the 'op te staan' infinitive split.
- Wonen vs Leven: Reside vs Be AliveA2 — English uses one verb 'to live' for two unrelated ideas: where you reside and that you are alive. Dutch splits them. Wonen is residing at an address; leven is being alive and how you conduct your life. This page gives the one decision rule, contrasts the pair with minimal pairs, and clears up the slips English speakers make.