Gaan ("to go") is one of the most-used verbs in Dutch, and it pulls double duty: it is a verb of motion (Ik ga naar huis), it appears in a huge family of idioms about how things are going (Hoe gaat het?), and — crucially — it is the everyday future auxiliary, the Dutch "going to" (Ik ga koken, "I'm going to cook"). Its conjugation is short but irregular at every turn: the present has the long vowel aa, the past jumps to ging/gingen, and the perfect takes zijn, not hebben. That last point trips up nearly every English speaker.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Simple past (sing.) | Past participle | Perfect auxiliary | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gaan | ging | gegaan | zijn | strong / irregular |
Present tense
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | ga | I go |
| jij / je | gaat | you go |
| u | gaat | you go (formal) |
| hij / zij / het | gaat | he / she / it goes |
| wij / we | gaan | we go |
| jullie | gaan | you (pl.) go |
| zij / ze | gaan | they go |
The stem is ga-, so ik ga has just one a; the jij/hij form adds -t and lengthens the vowel in spelling to keep the long sound: gaat. The plural is the infinitive gaan. After inversion the jij form drops its -t like any verb: je gaat → ga je?.
Simple past: ging / gingen
| Person | Past form |
|---|---|
| ik / jij / u / hij / zij / het | ging |
| wij / jullie / zij (pl.) | gingen |
The past is fully irregular: the vowel changes to i and a -ng appears — ging in the singular, gingen in the plural. There is no -de/-te ending of a weak verb here; gaan is strong, and you simply memorise ging/gingen.
Vroeger ging ik elke zomer naar mijn oma in Friesland.
I used to go to my grandma's in Friesland every summer. — singular past 'ging'.
De kinderen gingen al vroeg naar bed.
The children went to bed early. — plural past 'gingen'.
The perfect: ben gegaan (with ZIJN)
This is the headline. Gaan describes a change of place, and Dutch uses zijn — not hebben — as the perfect auxiliary for verbs of directed motion. The participle is gegaan.
| Person | Perfect | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | ben gegaan | I have gone / went |
| jij / u | bent gegaan | you have gone |
| hij / zij / het | is gegaan | he / she / it has gone |
| wij / jullie / zij | zijn gegaan | we / you / they have gone |
English uses have for everything — "I have gone" — so the instinct to say *ik heb gegaan is overwhelming. It is wrong. Gaan always takes zijn: ik ben gegaan, hij is gegaan. (The wider rule — zijn for motion and change-of-state verbs, hebben for the rest — is on Hebben vs Zijn as the Perfect Auxiliary.)
Hij is meteen naar de dokter gegaan.
He went straight to the doctor. — perfect with 'zijn': 'is gegaan', never 'heeft gegaan'.
Imperative
The command form is the bare stem ga! ("go!"). With u you add -t: Gaat u maar zitten ("Do take a seat," formal). The everyday softeners maar and even are common: Ga maar, "go on then."
Ga maar vast, ik kom zo.
Go on ahead, I'll come in a sec. — imperative 'ga' with the softener 'maar'.
Gaan as the future auxiliary
Just like English "going to," gaan signals planned or imminent future — but with one structural difference: it takes a bare infinitive (no te). Ik ga koken, not *ik ga te koken. This is the most common way Dutch speakers talk about the near future, often preferred over the more formal zullen.
Ik ga vanavond koken, blijf je eten?
I'm going to cook tonight, are you staying for dinner? — future 'ga' + bare infinitive 'koken'.
Het gaat morgen regenen, zeggen ze.
It's going to rain tomorrow, they say. — 'gaan' for a predicted near future.
When you put this future into the past, gaan keeps its own irregular past: Ik ging net koken toen je belde ("I was just about to cook when you called"). The contrast between gaan and zullen for the future is detailed on Zullen and Gaan.
The "how's it going" idioms
Gaan powers a whole register of impersonal expressions about how things stand, all built on het gaat ("it goes"):
Hoe gaat het met je? — Het gaat wel, druk maar goed.
How are you? — Okay, busy but good. — the standard greeting, literally 'how goes it'.
These are fixed: you ask Hoe gaat het? and answer Het gaat goed / Het gaat wel / Het gaat niet zo lekker. Note that here gaan takes no zijn perfect issue because it stays in the present — but Het is goed gegaan ("it went well") again uses zijn.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ik heb gisteren naar de markt gegaan.
Incorrect — gaan is a motion verb and takes 'zijn', not 'hebben'.
✅ Ik ben gisteren naar de markt gegaan.
I went to the market yesterday.
❌ Hij ging te koken.
Incorrect — the future/imminent 'gaan' takes a bare infinitive, no 'te': 'ging koken'.
✅ Hij ging koken.
He was about to cook / he went to cook.
❌ Wij gaat naar het strand.
Incorrect — the plural is 'gaan', not 'gaat'.
✅ Wij gaan naar het strand.
We're going to the beach.
❌ De kinderen ging naar school.
Incorrect — plural past is 'gingen', not 'ging'.
✅ De kinderen gingen naar school.
The children went to school.
❌ Gaat je mee?
Incorrect — after inversion the jij form drops its -t: 'ga je mee?'.
✅ Ga je mee?
Are you coming along?
Key Takeaways
- Present: ik ga, jij/hij gaat, wij/jullie/zij gaan. Inversion drops the -t: ga je?.
- Past: singular ging, plural gingen — fully irregular, just memorise it.
- Perfect takes zijn: ik ben gegaan, hij is gegaan — never hebben.
- Imperative: ga! (formal gaat u).
- Gaan + bare infinitive is the everyday "going to" future: Ik ga koken. No te.
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