A small group of very common Dutch verbs — laten and doen (causative) and zien, horen, voelen (perception) — share a special syntax: they take a second verb in the bare infinitive, with no te. Ik laat mijn haar knippen ("I'm having my hair cut"), Ik zie hem komen ("I see him coming"). This is the accusative-and-infinitive construction (often abbreviated AcI), and it works almost exactly like English "I had it repaired" / "I saw him leave" — except for one feature English lacks entirely: in the perfect, these verbs do not use a past participle. They use a second infinitive instead, producing a double infinitive (the infinitivus pro participio, or IPP): Ik heb mijn auto laten repareren, Ik heb hem zien komen. This page covers both halves: the bare-infinitive present and the IPP perfect.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Meaning | Past (sg.) | Past (pl.) | Past participle | Auxiliary | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| laten | to let / have done | liet | lieten | gelaten | hebben | strong (7) |
| doen | to do / make | deed | deden | gedaan | hebben | strong |
| zien | to see | zag | zagen | gezien | hebben | strong |
| horen | to hear | hoorde | hoorden | gehoord | hebben | weak |
| voelen | to feel | voelde | voelden | gevoeld | hebben | weak |
Note the mix: laten, doen, zien are strong (with the irregular past liet, deed, zag and the participles gelaten, gedaan, gezien), while horen and voelen are perfectly regular weak verbs (hoorde/gehoord, voelde/gevoeld). Their classification matters only when they stand alone — in the IPP construction the participle is replaced by an infinitive, so you never actually say gelaten or gezien in these patterns.
The bare infinitive: no te
After all five of these verbs, the second verb is a plain infinitive. There is no te — unlike most Dutch verb-plus-infinitive pairings (Ik probeer *te komen, Ik hoop **te slapen), which do require *te.
Ik laat mijn haar morgen knippen.
I'm having my hair cut tomorrow. — causative laten + bare infinitive 'knippen', no te.
Zie je die vogels daar vliegen?
Do you see those birds flying over there? — perception zien + bare infinitive 'vliegen'.
Ik hoorde haar in de keuken zingen.
I heard her singing in the kitchen. — perception horen, past 'hoorde' + bare infinitive 'zingen'.
English speakers are tempted to insert te because the natural English gloss is sometimes "to": "I'm having my hair cut," "I saw him leave." But Dutch treats these like modals (Ik kan komen, Ik moet gaan) — bare infinitive, full stop.
Causative: laten and doen
Laten is by far the more common causative. It means "to have/get something done (by someone else)" or "to let something happen." The doer is often left unmentioned — the point is that you caused it, not that you did it yourself.
| Pattern | Example | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| laten + infinitive (have done) | Ik laat de auto repareren. | I'm getting the car repaired. |
| laten + object + infinitive (let) | Laat hem maar slapen. | Just let him sleep. |
| doen + infinitive (cause to) | Dat doet me denken aan... | That reminds me of... (lit. makes me think) |
Doen as a causative is narrower and more formal/literary: Dat doet me denken aan vroeger ("that makes me think of old times"), Het deed haar glimlachen ("it made her smile"). In everyday speech laten covers most causative needs; reserve doen for the fixed "makes one X" patterns.
We laten dit weekend de cv-ketel nakijken.
We're getting the boiler serviced this weekend. — laten = arrange for it to be done.
Die foto doet me aan onze vakantie in Italië denken.
That photo makes me think of our holiday in Italy. — doen as 'cause to', formal/fixed.
Perception: zien, horen, voelen
With zien, horen and voelen, the bare infinitive names the action you perceive. The structure is subject + perception verb + object + bare infinitive: Ik (subj) zie (perc) hem (obj) komen (inf).
Ik voelde de grond onder mijn voeten trillen.
I felt the ground trembling under my feet. — voelen, past 'voelde' + bare infinitive 'trillen'.
We zagen de zon achter de bergen verdwijnen.
We watched the sun disappear behind the mountains. — zien, plural past 'zagen' + 'verdwijnen'.
Dutch, like English, lets you perceive either an ongoing action or a completed one; the bare infinitive covers both ("I saw him crossing" and "I saw him cross"). There is no separate -ing form, so the single infinitive does the work of both English shapes.
The IPP perfect: the double infinitive
Here is where English has nothing to offer. When you put one of these constructions into the perfect, the main verb — laten, doen, zien, horen, voelen — does not appear as a past participle. It appears as a second infinitive. So you get two infinitives stacked at the end of the clause, and this is why grammarians call it the infinitivus pro participio — "infinitive instead of participle."
| Present | Expected (wrong) | Actual perfect (IPP) |
|---|---|---|
| Ik laat de auto repareren. | ✗ heb gelaten repareren | Ik heb de auto laten repareren. |
| Ik zie hem komen. | ✗ heb hem gezien komen | Ik heb hem zien komen. |
| Ik hoor haar zingen. | ✗ heb haar gehoord zingen | Ik heb haar horen zingen. |
So the rule is: replace what would be the participle (gelaten, gezien, gehoord) with the plain infinitive (laten, zien, horen). The auxiliary is always hebben. The two infinitives sit together at the end, and their order is auxiliary-verb-infinitive then main-action-infinitive: heb ... laten repareren, heb hem zien komen.
Ik heb mijn fiets laten maken bij de winkel om de hoek.
I had my bike fixed at the shop around the corner. — IPP: 'heb laten maken', not 'heb gelaten'.
Heb je hem gisteren weg zien gaan?
Did you see him leave yesterday? — IPP: 'zien gaan', double infinitive in the perfect.
We hebben de buren de hele nacht horen ruziën.
We heard the neighbours arguing all night. — IPP: 'horen ruziën'.
Word order in subordinate clauses
In a subordinate clause the cluster moves to the end, and the auxiliary typically comes before the two infinitives — the so-called "verb-raising" order: ..., omdat ik mijn auto heb laten repareren. Some speakers also accept ..., omdat ik mijn auto laten repareren heb, but the auxiliary-first order is the safe standard.
Hij was boos omdat we hem niet hadden laten meedoen.
He was angry because we hadn't let him join in. — subordinate clause: 'hadden laten meedoen'.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ik laat mijn haar te knippen.
Incorrect — laten takes a bare infinitive: no 'te'.
✅ Ik laat mijn haar knippen.
I'm having my hair cut.
❌ Ik heb mijn auto gelaten repareren.
Incorrect — the perfect uses IPP: the infinitive 'laten', not the participle 'gelaten'.
✅ Ik heb mijn auto laten repareren.
I had my car repaired.
❌ Ik heb hem gezien komen.
Incorrect — IPP again: 'heb hem zien komen', infinitive 'zien' not participle 'gezien'.
✅ Ik heb hem zien komen.
I saw him coming.
❌ Ik zie hem te vertrekken.
Incorrect — perception zien takes a bare infinitive: 'Ik zie hem vertrekken'.
✅ Ik zie hem vertrekken.
I see him leaving.
❌ We hebben de baby gehoord huilen.
Incorrect — IPP: 'horen huilen', infinitive not participle 'gehoord'.
✅ We hebben de baby horen huilen.
We heard the baby crying.
Key Takeaways
- Causative laten/doen and perception zien/horen/voelen take a bare infinitive — no te, like the modals.
- Laten is the everyday causative ("have/get done"); doen is narrower and more formal ("makes one X").
- In the perfect, these verbs use IPP: the participle is replaced by a second infinitive, giving a double infinitive — heb laten repareren, heb hem zien komen.
- The auxiliary is always hebben, and in subordinate clauses the auxiliary comes before the two infinitives.
- Never say gelaten/gezien/gehoord in these constructions — the giveaway of a wrong perfect.
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.
- Perception Verbs + Infinitive (zien, horen, voelen)B2 — How zien, horen and voelen take a bare infinitive to mean 'see/hear/feel someone do something', and why their perfect doubles the infinitive instead of using a participle.
- 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.
- Lijken, Blijken, Schijnen, Blijven — The IJ-EE Strong SetB1 — Four class-1 strong verbs that run ij → ee → ee in the past and participle (leek/geleken, bleek/gebleken, scheen/geschenen, bleef/gebleven), plus the crucial split that learners get wrong: blijken and blijven take zijn, while lijken and schijnen take hebben.
- Hebben or Zijn in the PerfectB1 — Most Dutch verbs build the perfect with hebben, but verbs of change of state or location — and motion verbs once a destination is named — switch to zijn, following a deep telicity logic English has no equivalent for.