Houden ("to hold / keep") is a strong verb with a wide reach — physically holding (een glas vasthouden), keeping or maintaining (je belofte houden), and, in its most important idiomatic life, houden van = "to love / to like." For an English speaker that last one is the headline: there is no single verb "to love" in everyday Dutch — you say you hold of someone. This page lays out the full paradigm (including the very common colloquial ik hou) and then the houden van construction that every learner needs from day one. Houden builds its perfect with hebben.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Simple past (sg.) | Past participle | Perfect auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|
| houden | hield | gehouden | hebben |
Classification: strong. The past hield / hielden shows the strong vowel change (ou → ie), and the participle gehouden takes strong -en with no dental suffix. The perfect auxiliary is hebben.
Present tense
The stem is houd, ending in -d. So, exactly as with worden: ik = bare stem houd, jij/hij = stem + -t → houdt (written dt, pronounced [t]). In everyday speech and informal writing the ik-form is very commonly hou — the d simply isn't pronounced, and the spelling follows suit.
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | houd (colloq. hou) | I hold / keep |
| jij / je | houdt | you hold |
| u | houdt | you hold (formal) |
| hij / zij / het | houdt | he / she / it holds |
| wij / we | houden | we hold |
| jullie | houden | you (pl.) hold |
| zij / ze | houden | they hold |
The full form houd is correct everywhere and required in formal writing; hou (informal) dominates in speech and texting — ik hou van je is far more natural than ik houd van je, though both are right. When jij is inverted, the -t drops: houd jij? / hou jij?.
Hou jij even mijn tas vast?
Could you hold my bag for a second? Colloquial 'hou', inverted so no -t.
Simple past: hield and hielden
Singular hield, plural hielden.
| Person | Past form |
|---|---|
| ik / jij / u / hij / zij / het | hield |
| wij / jullie / zij (pl.) | hielden |
De spreker hield een lang en saai betoog.
The speaker gave a long, dull address. Past 'hield' — 'een betoog houden' = to give a speech.
The perfect: hebben + gehouden
Houden takes hebben in the perfect. The participle is gehouden.
| Person | Perfect | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | heb gehouden | I have held / kept |
| jij / u | hebt gehouden | you have held |
| hij / zij / het | heeft gehouden | he/she/it has held |
| wij / jullie / zij | hebben gehouden | we/you/they have held |
Hij heeft zich keurig aan de afspraak gehouden.
He stuck to the agreement perfectly. Perfect 'heeft ... gehouden'; 'zich houden aan' = to keep to.
Imperative
The bare stem houd (colloquial hou) — "hold! / keep!".
| Form | Use | English |
|---|---|---|
| Houd! / Hou! | singular / general | Hold! / Keep! |
| Hou je vast! | everyday phrase | Hold on (tight)! |
| Houd afstand. | formal / signage | Keep your distance. |
Houden van: the key idiom
This is the construction every English speaker needs. Dutch has no plain transitive verb "to love"; instead you use houden van + object — literally "to hold of." It covers the whole range from liking to loving, depending on the object and intensity:
Ik hou van jou.
I love you. The core romantic phrase — 'houden van' + person, colloquial 'hou'.
Mijn opa houdt van klassieke muziek.
My grandpa loves classical music. 'houden van' + thing = to be very fond of.
We hebben altijd van reizen gehouden.
We've always loved travelling. Perfect of the idiom: 'hebben ... van ... gehouden'.
The preposition is always van, and it cannot be dropped — Ik hou jou is wrong; it must be Ik hou *van jou. Note also the register split with *graag and leuk vinden: houden van is the deeper, more durable "love / be fond of," while everyday liking of an activity is often graag doen (Ik zwem graag = "I like swimming") and liking a thing or person on the surface is leuk vinden.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ik hou jou.
Incorrect — 'to love' is 'houden VAN'; the preposition can't be dropped: 'Ik hou van jou.'
✅ Ik hou van jou.
I love you.
❌ Hij houdde van haar.
Incorrect — houden is strong: the past is 'hield', never the weak 'houdde'.
✅ Hij hield van haar.
He loved her.
❌ Hij houd van voetbal.
Incorrect — third person needs -t: 'houdt'. Bare 'houd/hou' is the 'ik' form.
✅ Hij houdt van voetbal.
He loves football.
❌ Ik ben mijn belofte gehouden.
Incorrect — houden takes hebben in the perfect, not zijn: 'ik heb me aan mijn belofte gehouden'.
✅ Ik heb me aan mijn belofte gehouden.
I kept my promise.
❌ Houdt jij van koffie?
Incorrect — inverted 'jij' drops the -t: 'Hou jij van koffie?'
✅ Hou jij van koffie?
Do you like coffee?
Key Takeaways
- Strong: houden → hield → gehouden (vowel change ou → ie).
- Present: ik = houd / colloquial hou; jij/hij = houdt (silent dt = [t]); inverted jij drops the -t (hou jij?).
- Perfect with hebben: ik heb gehouden.
- houden van
- object = "to love / be fond of"; the van is obligatory — ik hou van jou, never ik hou jou.
- hou (informal) vs. houd (full/formal) — both correct; hou dominates everyday speech.
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- Houden van, Denken aan, Wachten op — Fixed Verb+Preposition VerbsB1 — Four high-frequency verbs whose meaning depends on a fixed preposition — houden van (to love/like), denken aan/over (to think of/about), wachten op (to wait for), zorgen voor (to take care of) — with full conjugations and how the preposition turns into er-/waar- with pronouns and questions.
- Graag, Willen, Houden van: Like, Want, LoveB1 — Dutch has no single verb 'to like'. Instead it splits the job three ways: graag (for liking an activity), willen (for wanting), and houden van (for loving a thing or person). This page shows which one each English sentence needs, and why the calque 'ik like' or 'ik hou van koffie drinken' goes wrong.
- Krijgen (to get/receive) — Full ConjugationA2 — The complete paradigm of krijgen (to get/receive): present, the ij→ee past kreeg/kregen, participle gekregen, perfect with hebben, imperative — plus the krijgen-passive, Dutch's special 'recipient passive' (hij kreeg het boek aangeboden).
- 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.