Helpen ("to help") is the verb most likely to trip up an English speaker, for one simple reason: help is weak in English (help → helped → helped) but strong in Dutch. The Dutch past is hielp/hielpen and the participle is geholpen — there is no helpte and no gehelpt. The vowel runs e → ie → o, an irregular-looking shift you simply have to learn. On top of the conjugation, helpen has a syntax quirk worth its own section: it takes a bare infinitive (Ik help je koken, "I'll help you cook"), and in the perfect that bare infinitive forces an infinitive instead of a participle (Ik heb je helpen koken) — the so-called IPP or infinitivus pro participio. This page covers all of it.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Past (sg.) | Past (pl.) | Past participle | Perfect auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| helpen | hielp | hielpen | geholpen | hebben |
Classification: strong (class 3b, e–ie–o). The vowel runs e → ie → o: present help, past hielp/hielpen, participle geholpen. A weak verb would give helpte / gehelpt — those forms do not exist. The same ie-past appears in a small set of class-3 verbs such as sterven → stierf/stierven and bederven → bedierf/bedierven.
Present tense
The stem is help- (short e, kept through the present).
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | help | I help |
| jij / je | helpt | you help |
| u | helpt | you help (formal) |
| hij / zij / het | helpt | he / she / it helps |
| wij / we | helpen | we help |
| jullie | helpen | you (pl.) help |
| zij / ze | helpen | they help |
When je / jij follows the verb, the -t drops: help je?, never helpt je. The present is regular; all the irregularity lives in the past and participle.
Help je me even met deze tassen naar boven?
Will you help me carry these bags upstairs? Present, inverted 'help je' (no -t).
Simple past: hielp / hielpen
The strong past splits by number, with the same long-vowel ie in both, differing only in the ending:
| Person | Past form | Vowel | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| ik / jij / u / hij / zij / het | hielp | long ie | singular |
| wij / jullie / zij (pl.) | hielpen | long ie | plural + -en |
Both forms keep the ie vowel; only the -en of the plural differs (hielp → hielpen). The big trap is not the singular/plural split but the temptation to regularise: an English speaker, knowing "helped," reaches for helpte. It does not exist. The Dutch past is hielp.
Mijn buurman hielp me gisteren met het verhuizen van de bank.
My neighbour helped me move the sofa yesterday. Singular past 'hielp'.
De vrijwilligers hielpen de hele dag bij de voedselbank.
The volunteers helped at the food bank all day. Plural past 'hielpen'.
The perfect: hebben + geholpen
Helpen takes hebben. The participle is geholpen — note the vowel is now o, not the ie of the past.
| Person | Perfect | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | heb geholpen | I have helped |
| jij / u | hebt geholpen | you have helped |
| hij / zij / het | heeft geholpen | he/she/it has helped |
| wij / jullie / zij | hebben geholpen | we/you/they have helped |
Helpen + bare infinitive
When you help someone do something, Dutch attaches a bare infinitive — no te in front of it. The English equivalent often uses a plain infinitive too ("help you cook"), so this part feels natural: Ik help je koken, "I'll help you cook."
Ik help je wel even de afwas doen.
I'll help you do the dishes. 'helpen' + bare infinitive 'doen', no 'te'.
Kun je me helpen deze kast in elkaar zetten?
Can you help me put this cupboard together? 'helpen' + bare infinitive 'zetten'.
The IPP perfect: heb helpen koken
Here is the genuinely tricky bit. When helpen governs a bare infinitive and the whole thing goes into the perfect, helpen does not become its participle geholpen. Instead it stays an infinitive — helpen — sitting next to the other infinitive. This is the infinitivus pro participio (IPP), the "infinitive in place of the participle," the same rule that governs modals (heb kunnen gaan).
So you get two infinitives stacked at the end: heb helpen koken, literally "have help cook." You never say heb geholpen koken.
Ik heb mijn zus de hele middag helpen verhuizen.
I helped my sister move all afternoon. IPP: 'helpen' stays an infinitive, not 'geholpen'.
Ze hebben ons het feest helpen organiseren.
They helped us organise the party. Two infinitives at the end: 'helpen organiseren'.
When helpen stands alone (no second verb), the perfect uses the normal participle: Ik heb je geholpen. The IPP only kicks in when there's a bare infinitive for helpen to govern.
Imperative
The imperative is the bare stem help.
| Form | Use | English |
|---|---|---|
| Help! | singular / general / emergency | Help! |
| Help me even, alsjeblieft. | everyday phrase | Give me a hand, please. |
| Helpt u elkaar even. | formal (with 'u') | Please help one another. (formal) |
Common Mistakes
❌ Mijn vriend helpte me met de verhuizing.
Incorrect — helpen is strong in Dutch (unlike English 'helped'); the past is 'hielp'.
✅ Mijn vriend hielp me met de verhuizing.
My friend helped me with the move.
❌ Bedankt dat je me gehelpt hebt.
Incorrect — the participle is the strong 'geholpen', never 'gehelpt'.
✅ Bedankt dat je me geholpen hebt.
Thanks for helping me.
❌ Wij hielp de buren met opruimen.
Incorrect — the plural is 'hielpen', not the singular 'hielp'.
✅ Wij hielpen de buren met opruimen.
We helped the neighbours tidy up.
❌ Ik heb haar geholpen koken.
Incorrect — with a bare infinitive, IPP applies: 'helpen' stays an infinitive, so 'heb helpen koken'.
✅ Ik heb haar helpen koken.
I helped her cook.
❌ Ik help je te dragen de dozen.
Incorrect — 'helpen' takes a bare infinitive with no 'te': 'Ik help je de dozen dragen.'
✅ Ik help je de dozen dragen.
I'll help you carry the boxes.
Key Takeaways
- Strong verb, not weak: help → hielp / hielpen → geholpen; never helpte or gehelpt, despite English "helped."
- Three vowels: help (e), hielp (ie), geholpen (o) — learn the trio together.
- Bare infinitive: Ik help je koken — no te.
- IPP perfect: with a second verb, helpen stays an infinitive — heb helpen koken, never heb geholpen koken.
- Solo perfect uses the participle: Ik heb je geholpen (no second verb).
Now practice Dutch
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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.
- 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.
- The Seven Ablaut Classes of Strong VerbsB2 — How Dutch strong verbs sort into seven systematic ablaut classes — each with a predictable vowel pattern and an English cognate class as an anchor — so you can predict the past of a verb you've never seen.
- The Double Infinitive (Infinitivus pro Participio)B2 — Why modals and verbs like laten, zien, horen and helpen appear as a bare infinitive — not a participle — in the perfect, producing a double infinitive, and the unusual verb-cluster order it forces.
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