Idioms with Hebben: Honger hebben, Gelijk hebben, Zin hebben | Dutch Grammar

Here is a pattern that catches almost every English speaker, and keeps catching them for months: where English says you are hungry, cold, or right, Dutch says you have hunger, have it cold, have right. The verb is hebben ("to have"), and a whole family of everyday states runs on it. Say Ik ben honger ("I am hunger") and a Dutch speaker will understand you but wince — it's as wrong as English "I have hunger." This page lays out the logic behind the pattern, gives you the full family of hebben-states, and drills the two sub-patterns that trip people up: the het-cases (het koud hebben) and the zin hebben in vs zin hebben om te split.

The core logic: states you HAVE, not states you ARE

In English, most physical and mental states are adjectives you attach to "be": I am hungry, I am cold, I am right, I am busy. Dutch reconceives many of these states as nouns — things you possess — and uses hebben with the noun: honger hebben (literally "to have hunger"), gelijk hebben ("to have right"), haast hebben ("to have haste"). The state is treated as a thing in your possession, not a quality of your being.

This isn't random: it's actually closer to older European patterns (French avoir faim, "to have hunger," German Hunger haben). English is the odd one out for turning so many of these into "be + adjective." So the instinct to reach for zijn ("to be") is a direct English transfer error — fight it.

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The rule of thumb: if English uses "be + adjective" for a bodily or mental state (hungry, thirsty, cold, hot, right, busy, in a hurry), Dutch very often uses hebben + noun instead. Default to hebben for these, not zijn.

Ik heb honger; zullen we ergens wat eten?

I'm hungry; shall we grab something to eat somewhere? (Dutch 'has' hunger — 'honger hebben' = to be hungry)

Heb je dorst? Ik haal wel water.

Are you thirsty? I'll get some water. ('dorst hebben' = to be thirsty)

The bare-noun cases: honger, dorst, gelijk, haast

The simplest members of the family take hebben + a bare noun (no article):

Dutch	Literal	English
honger hebben	to have hunger	to be hungry
dorst hebben	to have thirst	to be thirsty
gelijk hebben	to have right	to be right
ongelijk hebben	to have wrong	to be wrong
haast hebben	to have haste	to be in a hurry
gelijk krijgen	to get right	to be proved right

Je hebt gelijk, dat had ik niet zo moeten zeggen.

You're right, I shouldn't have put it like that. ('gelijk hebben' = to be right — never 'gelijk zijn', which means 'to be equal')

Sorry, ik heb haast — ik moet mijn trein halen.

Sorry, I'm in a hurry — I have to catch my train. ('haast hebben' = to be in a hurry)

Achteraf bleek dat zij gelijk had.

In hindsight it turned out she was right. (past tense: 'had gelijk')

Watch gelijk hebben carefully: gelijk zijn means something completely different — "to be equal / the same." Jullie zijn gelijk = "you two are equal/tied," not "you're right." Only gelijk hebben means "to be right."

The het-cases: temperature and busyness

A subset of these idioms needs an extra little het ("it") that has no English equivalent: temperature sensations and being busy. The standard, all-region form is het koud/warm hebben and het druk hebben:

Dutch	Literal	English
het koud hebben	to have it cold	to be cold (feel cold)
het warm hebben	to have it warm	to be hot/warm (feel hot)
het druk hebben	to have it busy	to be busy
het naar je zin hebben	to have it to your liking	to be enjoying yourself

Doe je jas aan, anders krijg je het koud.

Put your coat on, or you'll get cold. ('het koud hebben/krijgen' — note the obligatory 'het')

Ik heb het de laatste tijd ontzettend druk op het werk.

I've been incredibly busy at work lately. ('het druk hebben' = to be busy — the 'het' is required)

Hebben jullie het naar je zin op de nieuwe school?

Are you enjoying the new school? ('het naar je zin hebben' = to be enjoying yourself / to feel at home)

The crucial distinction: het koud hebben describes how a person feels, while plain koud zijn describes how a thing is. Your coffee is koud (De koffie is koud); you have it koud (Ik heb het koud). Mixing these is the classic temperature error.

De soep is koud, maar ik heb het zelf juist warm.

The soup is cold, but I'm actually warm myself. (contrast: a thing 'is koud'; a person 'heeft het koud/warm')

Zin hebben: the in vs om te split

Zin hebben means "to feel like / to be in the mood for," and it's one of the most useful idioms in spoken Dutch — but it splits depending on what follows. This is the sub-pattern to drill:

zin hebben in + noun — you feel like a thing: Ik heb zin in koffie ("I feel like coffee").
zin hebben om te + infinitive — you feel like doing something: Ik heb zin om naar buiten te gaan ("I feel like going outside").

Ik heb zin in een kop koffie.

I feel like a cup of coffee. (zin hebben IN + noun)

Heb je zin in pizza vanavond?

Do you feel like pizza tonight? (zin hebben IN + noun)

Ik heb geen zin om vanavond te koken.

I don't feel like cooking tonight. (zin hebben OM + TE + infinitive 'koken' at the end)

Heb je zin om mee te gaan naar de film?

Do you feel like coming along to the cinema? (zin hebben OM ... TE; with a separable verb 'meegaan', the 'te' slots in: 'mee te gaan')

So the choice is mechanical: noun → in, verb → om ... te. Note the word order in the om te version — the infinitive (and its te) go to the end of the clause: ...om vanavond te koken. With a separable verb like meegaan, te wedges between the particle and the stem: om mee *te gaan*.

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Lock in the two frames: zin hebben IN + a noun (a coffee, a holiday), and zin hebben OM ... TE + a verb (to cook, to go out). Pick by what comes next: a thing or an action.

Last hebben van and other "suffer from" cases

Last hebben van means "to suffer from / be bothered by" — physical or otherwise. It always takes the preposition van: last hebben *van + the thing bothering you*.

Dutch	English
last hebben van	to suffer from / be bothered by
pijn hebben	to be in pain
plezier hebben	to have fun / enjoy oneself
gelijk / ongelijk hebben	to be right / wrong

Ik heb de hele dag last van mijn rug.

My back has been bothering me all day. ('last hebben van' + the source of the trouble)

Heb je veel last van de hooikoorts dit jaar?

Is the hay fever bothering you a lot this year? ('last hebben van' = to be bothered by / suffer from)

De kinderen hadden enorm veel plezier in de speeltuin.

The kids had a great time at the playground. ('plezier hebben' = to have fun)

Common Mistakes

❌ Ik ben honger.

Incorrect — a direct calque of English 'I am hungry'. Dutch 'has' hunger: use 'heb'.

✅ Ik heb honger.

I'm hungry.

❌ Ik ben koud.

Incorrect for 'I feel cold' — that would describe you as a cold thing/person. A person 'heeft het koud'.

✅ Ik heb het koud.

I'm cold (I feel cold).

❌ Ik heb koud.

Incorrect — the temperature idiom needs the little 'het': 'het koud hebben'.

✅ Ik heb het koud.

I'm cold.

❌ Ik heb zin in naar buiten te gaan.

Incorrect — with a verb you need 'om ... te', not 'in': 'zin hebben in' is for nouns only.

✅ Ik heb zin om naar buiten te gaan.

I feel like going outside.

❌ Je bent gelijk.

Incorrect — 'gelijk zijn' means 'to be equal', not 'to be right'. To be right is 'gelijk hebben'.

✅ Je hebt gelijk.

You're right.

Key Takeaways

Dutch uses hebben + noun where English uses be + adjective for many states: honger hebben (hungry), dorst hebben (thirsty), gelijk hebben (right), haast hebben (in a hurry).
The temperature and busyness idioms need an extra het: het koud/warm hebben, het druk hebben, het naar je zin hebben.
A person "heeft het koud"; a thing "is koud" — don't mix the two.
zin hebben in + noun ("feel like a coffee") vs zin hebben om te + verb ("feel like cooking") — pick by what follows.
gelijk hebben = to be right; gelijk zijn = to be equal. And last hebben van = to suffer from / be bothered by (always with van).

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