Danken, Groeten, Feliciteren — Social Weak Verbs | Dutch Grammar

These three verbs do a lot of social work in Dutch: you thank people (danken), you greet them (groeten), and you congratulate them (feliciteren). All three are weak — they follow the regular rules, so once you know the rules you never have to memorise their forms. But each one hides a small trap: danken and feliciteren attach to their object through a fixed preposition (voor and met), and groeten has a stem ending in -t that produces a surprising double-t in the past. This page lays out all three in full, and then drills the exact points where English speakers slip.

Danken — to thank

Danken is a fully regular weak verb. Its stem is dank, which ends in the voiceless k, so the 't kofschip rule selects the voiceless endings: -te in the past, -t in the participle.

Infinitive	Simple past (sg.)	Past participle	Perfect auxiliary
danken	dankte	gedankt	hebben

Classification: weak. Fixed preposition: danken voor ("to thank for").

Tense	Forms
Present	ik dank · jij/u/hij dankt · wij/jullie/zij danken · (inversion) dank je?
Simple past	ik/jij/hij dankte · wij/jullie/zij dankten
Perfect	ik heb gedankt · hij heeft gedankt · wij hebben gedankt
Imperative	Dank! / Dank je wel! / Dank u wel!

In everyday speech the bare verb danken is actually less common than its frozen expressions: dank je wel (informal) and dank u wel (formal) are the normal ways to say "thank you." The full verb shows up when you name what you're thankful for, and that's where the preposition voor is obligatory.

Ik wil je danken voor je hulp van gisteren.

I want to thank you for your help yesterday. — danken voor + the thing you're grateful for.

We hebben de buren bedankt voor het oppassen.

We thanked the neighbours for the babysitting. — perfect with 'hebben'; note the very common prefixed variant 'bedanken'.

Dank je wel voor de bloemen!

Thank you for the flowers! — the frozen 'dank je wel' still takes 'voor' for the reason.

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You'll hear bedanken (with the prefix be-) far more than plain danken in conversation: Ik wil je bedanken. It takes the same preposition — bedanken voor — and its participle is bedankt (no ge-, because be- is an unstressed prefix). "Bedankt!" on its own is the casual "Thanks!".

Groeten — to greet

Groeten means to greet someone, to say hello, or — in the phrase de groeten doen — to pass on someone's regards. Its stem is groet, and this is the interesting part: the stem already ends in -t. The present tense looks like it has only one -t (because you can't write groett), but the past tense and the plural make both t's visible.

Infinitive	Simple past (sg.)	Past participle	Perfect auxiliary
groeten	groette	gegroet	hebben

Classification: weak (t-stem). No fixed preposition — groeten takes a plain direct object.

Tense	Forms
Present	ik groet · jij/u/hij groet · wij/jullie/zij groeten · (inversion) groet je?
Simple past	ik/jij/hij groette · wij/jullie/zij groetten
Perfect	ik heb gegroet · hij heeft gegroet · wij hebben gegroet
Imperative	Groet! / Groet hem van mij! (Say hi to him from me!)

Why the double t? The weak past adds -te to the stem. The stem is groet, so groet + te = groette — two t's, one from the stem and one from the ending. The same logic gives the plural groetten (groet + ten). In the present, the jij/hij ending is also -t, but Dutch never writes a doubled consonant at the end of a word, so groet + t simply collapses to groet. Crucially, the participle is gegroet — only one t, because the participle ending is -t, again collapsing against the stem's t.

Hij groette me vriendelijk toen ik binnenkwam.

He greeted me warmly when I came in. — past 'groette' with two t's: stem 'groet' + 'te'.

Doe je je ouders de groeten van mij?

Will you give my regards to your parents? — 'de groeten doen', the idiom for passing on greetings.

We hebben elkaar nauwelijks gegroet.

We barely greeted each other. — participle 'gegroet', just one t (the -t ending merges with the stem's t).

Feliciteren — to congratulate

Feliciteren belongs to the large family of verbs ending in -eren (borrowed mostly from French and Latin). These verbs are weak and predictable, but they behave a little differently from short native verbs: the past ends in -eerde / -eerden, and the participle takes no ge- because the stress doesn't fall on the first syllable — gefeliciteerd keeps the ge- only because the verb's stress is on -teer-, not on a prefix. (Compare the prefix-less reageren → gereageerd.) The stem is feliciteer.

Infinitive	Simple past (sg.)	Past participle	Perfect auxiliary
feliciteren	feliciteerde	gefeliciteerd	hebben

Classification: weak (-eren). Fixed preposition: feliciteren met ("to congratulate on/with").

Tense	Forms
Present	ik feliciteer · jij/u/hij feliciteert · wij/jullie/zij feliciteren · (inversion) feliciteer je?
Simple past	ik/jij/hij feliciteerde · wij/jullie/zij feliciteerden
Perfect	ik heb gefeliciteerd · hij heeft gefeliciteerd · wij hebben gefeliciteerd
Imperative	Feliciteer hem maar! (Go ahead and congratulate him!)

The preposition is met, not voor and not op — you congratulate someone with the happy thing, which feels odd to English speakers who congratulate someone on something. Memorise the pair feliciteren met as a unit.

Ik feliciteer je met je nieuwe baan!

Congratulations on your new job! — feliciteren met, never 'op' or 'voor'.

Iedereen feliciteerde haar met haar verjaardag.

Everyone congratulated her on her birthday. — past 'feliciteerde', the -eerde ending.

Gefeliciteerd met je diploma!

Congratulations on your diploma! — the participle used on its own as a fixed congratulation.

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The participle Gefeliciteerd! is the standard way to say "Congratulations!" — used on its own as a one-word exclamation. Add the occasion with met: Gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag! In the Netherlands it's also customary to congratulate the whole family of the birthday person, so don't be surprised to be told Gefeliciteerd met je moeder! ("Congratulations on your mother [whose birthday it is]!").

The three prepositions side by side

The single most useful thing to fix in memory is which preposition each verb takes — they are not interchangeable, and English gives you no reliable clue.

Verb	Preposition	English pattern	Example
danken / bedanken	voor	thank for	danken voor de hulp
groeten	(none — direct object)	greet someone	iemand groeten
feliciteren	met	congratulate on	feliciteren met de baan

Common Mistakes

❌ Hij groete me niet.

Incorrect — the weak past of a t-stem doubles the t: 'groette', not 'groete'.

✅ Hij groette me niet.

He didn't greet me.

❌ Ik feliciteer je voor je examen.

Incorrect — feliciteren takes 'met', not 'voor' (English 'congratulate on' misleads you here).

✅ Ik feliciteer je met je examen.

Congratulations on your exam.

❌ Bedankt op de bloemen!

Incorrect — danken/bedanken takes 'voor', not 'op'.

✅ Bedankt voor de bloemen!

Thanks for the flowers!

❌ Ik heb hem gefeliciteert.

Incorrect — the -eren participle ends in -d: 'gefeliciteerd' (after the long ee, the 't kofschip rule gives -d).

✅ Ik heb hem gefeliciteerd.

I congratulated him.

❌ Ze groetten elkaar hartelijk gisteren.

Incorrect for a singular subject — 'ze' as 'she' is singular, so use 'groette'; 'groetten' is the plural.

✅ Ze groette hem hartelijk gisteren.

She greeted him warmly yesterday.

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