If you tracked every verb a Dutch speaker uses in a day, gaan ("to go"), komen ("to come"), doen ("to do") and maken ("to make") would be near the top of the list. They are also the verbs where English speakers stumble most, for two specific reasons. First, gaan and komen are verbs of motion, so their perfect uses zijn, not hebben — "I have gone" becomes literally "I am gone" (ik ben gegaan). Second, doen is not the English helper "do": there is no "do you like…?" or "I don't know" with doen in Dutch. This page conjugates all four and shows exactly how they behave in real sentences.
Gaan — to go (strong, takes ZIJN)
| Infinitive | Past (sg.) | Past (pl.) | Participle | Auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gaan | ging | gingen | gegaan | zijn |
| Person | Present | Simple past |
|---|---|---|
| ik | ga | ging |
| jij / hij | gaat | ging |
| wij / jullie / zij | gaan | gingen |
The present is highly irregular: ik ga, jij/hij gaat, wij gaan. The past ging/gingen is unpredictable — just memorise it. Crucially, the perfect is ben/bent/is gegaan, with zijn, because going somewhere is a change of location.
We zijn vorig jaar voor het eerst naar Lissabon gegaan.
We went to Lisbon for the first time last year. Perfect with zijn: 'zijn ... gegaan'.
Gaan also forms the near future, just like English "going to": Ik ga morgen koken ("I'm going to cook tomorrow").
Ik ga straks even boodschappen doen, heb jij nog iets nodig?
I'm going to do some shopping in a bit — do you need anything? 'gaan' as near future.
Komen — to come (strong, takes ZIJN)
| Infinitive | Past (sg.) | Past (pl.) | Participle | Auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| komen | kwam | kwamen | gekomen | zijn |
| Person | Present | Simple past |
|---|---|---|
| ik | kom | kwam |
| jij / hij | komt | kwam |
| wij / jullie / zij | komen | kwamen |
The present has a short o (ik kom, jij komt), but the past inserts a w: ik kwam, with the same short/long split as before — singular kwam (short a), plural kwamen (long aa). Like gaan, komen is motion, so its perfect is zijn ... gekomen.
Sorry dat ik te laat ben; ik kwam vast te staan in de file.
Sorry I'm late; I got stuck in traffic. Singular past 'kwam'.
De gasten zijn allemaal op tijd gekomen, gelukkig.
The guests all arrived on time, luckily. Perfect with zijn: 'zijn ... gekomen'.
Doen — to do (strong, takes HEBBEN)
| Infinitive | Past (sg.) | Past (pl.) | Participle | Auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| doen | deed | deden | gedaan | hebben |
| Person | Present | Simple past |
|---|---|---|
| ik | doe | deed |
| jij / hij | doet | deed |
| wij / jullie / zij | doen | deden |
The single most important thing about doen: it is a real, full verb meaning "to perform an action," not a grammatical helper. English uses "do" for questions (Do you know?), negation (I don't know), and emphasis (I do like it). Dutch does none of this. A question simply inverts the verb (Weet je het?), negation uses niet/geen (Ik weet het niet), and emphasis uses word stress or words like wél. So doen only appears where you would say "do" with a real object: de afwas doen (do the dishes), een cursus doen (do a course), je best doen (do your best). The past is deed/deden, the participle gedaan.
Wat heb je dit weekend gedaan? — Niet veel, lekker uitgerust.
What did you do this weekend? — Not much, had a nice rest. Perfect 'gedaan'.
Maken — to make (weak, takes HEBBEN)
| Infinitive | Past (sg.) | Past (pl.) | Participle | Auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| maken | maakte | maakten | gemaakt | hebben |
| Person | Present | Simple past |
|---|---|---|
| ik | maak | maakte |
| jij / hij | maakt | maakte |
| wij / jullie / zij | maken | maakten |
After three irregulars, maken is a relief: it is fully weak. The past adds -te (because the stem maak- ends in the voiceless k), giving maakte/maakten, and the participle is gemaakt. The vowel never changes. Maken covers "make" broadly — een foto maken (take a photo), huiswerk maken (do/make homework), een fout maken (make a mistake) — and notice that Dutch sometimes uses maken where English uses "do" (homework) and "take" (a photo).
Ik heb een paar foto's van het uitzicht gemaakt; wil je ze zien?
I took a few photos of the view; want to see them? Perfect 'gemaakt'.
Hij maakte een domme fout, maar dat geeft niet.
He made a silly mistake, but that's okay. Past 'maakte'.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ik heb gisteren naar de markt gegaan.
Incorrect — gaan is motion, so it takes zijn: 'ben ... gegaan', not 'heb ... gegaan'.
✅ Ik ben gisteren naar de markt gegaan.
I went to the market yesterday.
❌ Hij heeft te laat gekomen.
Incorrect — komen takes zijn: 'is ... gekomen', not 'heeft ... gekomen'.
✅ Hij is te laat gekomen.
He came too late.
❌ Doe je Nederlands spreken?
Incorrect — Dutch has no do-support. The question is just an inversion.
✅ Spreek je Nederlands?
Do you speak Dutch?
❌ Wij deden onze huiswerk niet gemaakt.
Incorrect — homework is 'gemaakt' (maken), and you don't combine doen + a participle like this.
✅ Wij hebben ons huiswerk niet gemaakt.
We didn't do our homework.
❌ Wij kwam allemaal te laat.
Incorrect — plural past of komen is 'kwamen' (long aa), not singular 'kwam'.
✅ Wij kwamen allemaal te laat.
We all came too late.
Key Takeaways
- Gaan and komen take ZIJN (ben gegaan, is gekomen) — they describe motion, a change of place.
- Doen and maken take HEBBEN (heb gedaan, heb gemaakt).
- Doen is not "do-support": no doen in questions, negation, or emphasis — only for performing a real action.
- Maken is the only weak one here: maakte / gemaakt, no vowel change, -te after the voiceless k.
- Memorise the irregular pasts cold: ging, kwam, deed — there is no rule, only frequency to your rescue.
Now practice Dutch
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Verb Reference: How to Use These TablesA2 — A guide to reading the verb-reference pages: what each conjugation table shows (present, simple past, perfect with its auxiliary, participle), how strong/weak/mixed verbs are labelled, why the auxiliary is flagged, and which verbs to master first.
- Daily-Life Verbs: Eten, Drinken, Slapen, WerkenA1 — Four verbs you use every day — the strong eten (at/gegeten), drinken (dronk/gedronken), and slapen (sliep/geslapen), set against the weak werken (werkte/gewerkt) so you can feel exactly where the strong-verb vowel change lives.
- Strong and Irregular Verbs: Master Reference TableB2 — A single scannable reference table of the most common Dutch strong, irregular, and mixed verbs — infinitive, simple past (singular and plural), past participle, auxiliary, and English — grouped by ablaut pattern so the regularities behind the irregulars become visible.
- Strong Verbs: Vowel Change in the PastB1 — How Dutch strong verbs form the simple past by changing the stem vowel, and how their past participle ends in -en — including the singular/plural vowel split that most resources leave out.
- Weak Past: The 't Kofschip Rule (-te vs -de)A2 — How to form the weak simple past in Dutch and how the 't kofschip rule decides between the endings -te(n) and -de(n) — applied to the underlying stem consonant, not the infinitive.