Eten (to eat) — Full Conjugation | Dutch Grammar

Eten ("to eat") is one of the first verbs you will ever need, and it is strong — the cognate gives it away: eat → ate → eaten. Dutch follows the same shape: present eet, past at/aten, participle gegeten. Two things surprise English speakers. First, the past has a short/long vowel split: the singular ik at has a short a (rhyming with English "cut" in vowel length), while the plural wij aten has a long aa (the a of "father"). Second, the participle looks doubled — gegeten, two ge-pieces — which is correct and worth a closer look. This page covers every form.

Principal parts

Infinitive	Past (sg.)	Past (pl.)	Past participle	Perfect auxiliary
eten	at	aten	gegeten	hebben

Classification: strong (class 5, e–a–e). The vowel runs ee → a/aa → e: present eet, past at/aten, participle gegeten. A weak verb would give eette / geëet — those do not exist.

Present tense

The stem is eet- (the long ee of the infinitive, written double in the closed syllable).

Person	Form	English
ik	eet	I eat
jij / je	eet	you eat
u	eet	you eat (formal)
hij / zij / het	eet	he / she / it eats
wij / we	eten	we eat
jullie	eten	you (pl.) eat
zij / ze	eten	they eat

A small spelling point: the jij-form would normally add -t to the stem (eet + t), but Dutch never writes a double t here, so jij eet and hij eet look identical to ik eet. When je / jij follows the verb, even that doesn't matter — the form is eet je? either way.

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The whole present singular of eten looks the same: ik eet, jij eet, hij eet. Don't try to add a visible -t to jij/hij — it's already there, just hidden by the no-double-letter rule.

Simple past: at / aten — the vowel split

The strong past splits by number, and here the split is the classic short a / long aa alternation:

Person	Past form	Vowel	Note
ik / jij / u / hij / zij / het	at	short a	closed syllable
wij / jullie / zij (pl.)	aten	long aa	open syllable: a·ten

In at the a is short, because the syllable is closed by the t. In aten the syllable opens — a·ten — so the single a is pronounced long, the aa of "father." This is the exact same split as gaf/gaven and las/lazen. To a native ear wij at is as jarring as "we was" in English.

Ik at vanmorgen alleen een banaan, want ik had geen tijd.

This morning I only ate a banana, because I had no time. Singular past 'at' — short a.

Met de feestdagen aten we elke dag veel te veel.

Over the holidays we ate far too much every day. Plural past 'aten' — long aa.

The perfect: hebben + gegeten

Eten takes hebben. The participle is gegeten — and yes, it really has two syllables that look like ge: the prefix ge- attaches to a stem that already happens to begin ge- (ge + geten). It isn't a typo or a double prefix; the stem of the participle is -geten with the strong -en ending.

Person	Perfect	English
ik	heb gegeten	I have eaten
jij / u	hebt gegeten	you have eaten
hij / zij / het	heeft gegeten	he/she/it has eaten
wij / jullie / zij	hebben gegeten	we/you/they have eaten

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Don't "fix" gegeten down to geten — the double ge is right. Heb je al gegeten? ("Have you eaten yet?") is one of the most common questions in Dutch; getting the participle right matters.

Imperative

The imperative is the bare stem eet.

Form	Use	English
Eet!	singular / general	Eat!
Eet smakelijk!	set phrase at the table	Enjoy your meal! (lit. "Eat tastily")
Eet u gerust nog wat.	formal (with 'u')	Do help yourself to more. (formal)

Three model sentences

Heb je al gegeten, of zal ik nog wat voor je maken?

Have you eaten yet, or shall I make you something? Perfect with hebben + 'gegeten'.

Wij eten 's avonds meestal rond zes uur warm.

We usually have our hot meal around six in the evening. Present plural 'eten'.

Als kind at ik nooit groente; nu vind ik het juist lekker.

As a child I never ate vegetables; now I actually like them. Singular past 'at' — short a.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ik eette gisteren in een restaurant.

Incorrect — eten is strong, so the past is 'at', not a regularised 'eette'.

✅ Ik at gisteren in een restaurant.

I ate at a restaurant yesterday.

❌ Wij at samen pizza.

Incorrect — the plural needs the long-vowel form 'aten', not singular 'at'.

✅ Wij aten samen pizza.

We ate pizza together.

❌ Heb je al geten?

Incorrect — the participle is 'gegeten', with the double ge, never 'geten'.

✅ Heb je al gegeten?

Have you eaten yet?

❌ Ik heb een appel geeten.

Incorrect — the strong participle is 'gegeten', not 'geeten'.

✅ Ik heb een appel gegeten.

I ate an apple.

❌ Hij eet niet veel, eet hij?

Incorrect — for a tag question Dutch repeats with 'hè?' or 'toch?', not English-style 'eet hij?'

✅ Hij eet niet veel, hè?

He doesn't eat much, does he?

Key Takeaways

Strong verb: eet → at / aten → gegeten; never eette or geeten.
The vowel split: singular at (short a), plural aten (long aa) — the same trap as geven and lezen.
The double ge: gegeten is correct — ge-
- the stem -geten. Don't strip it to geten.
Present singular is uniform: ik / jij / hij eet, all spelled the same.
Perfect with hebben: ik heb gegeten — no motion, so no zijn.

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