Slaan ("to hit, to strike, to beat") is a strong, irregular verb you meet early because it powers a remarkable number of everyday idioms — a clock slaat the hour, you slaat your arm around someone, a plan slaat nergens op ("makes no sense"), and you can een slag slaan ("strike a deal / seize a chance"). The forms are worth getting right precisely because they're irregular: the present contracts to sla/slaat and the past sloeg/sloegen takes the unexpected vowel oe. This page lays out the full paradigm, the principal parts, and the idioms where you'll actually use it.
Principal parts
These four forms generate the rest. Slaan is a strong, irregular verb of the -aan family (alongside staan and gaan): the stem contracts in the present, and the past changes vowel to oe with no -te/-de ending.
| Infinitive | Simple past (sg.) | Past participle | Perfect auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|
| slaan | sloeg | geslagen | hebben |
Classification: strong / irregular. The vowel pattern slaan → sloeg → geslagen (aa → oe → a) is genuinely irregular — you cannot predict the oe of the past from the aa of the infinitive, so you memorise it.
Present tense
The stem is sla. The third-person singular adds -t to give slaat (the a doubles in the open stressed syllable). The plural is the full infinitive slaan.
| Person | Form | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | sla | I hit |
| jij / je | slaat | you hit |
| u | slaat | you hit (formal) |
| hij / zij / het | slaat | he / she / it hits |
| wij / we | slaan | we hit |
| jullie | slaan | you (pl.) hit |
| zij / ze | slaan | they hit |
When jij follows the verb, the -t drops: sla jij?, never slaat jij. With u the -t stays: slaat u?.
De klok slaat twaalf uur.
The clock is striking twelve. Third-person singular 'slaat'.
Simple past: sloeg and sloegen
The past is sloeg (singular) / sloegen (plural). The vowel jumps from aa to oe — there's no weak -te/-de anywhere. This is the form learners most often get wrong, because oe is unexpected; burn it in.
| Person | Past form | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik / jij / u / hij / zij / het | sloeg | hit / struck |
| wij / jullie / zij (pl.) | sloegen | hit / struck |
Hij sloeg met zijn vuist op tafel.
He banged his fist on the table. Singular past 'sloeg'.
The perfect: hebben + geslagen
Slaan takes hebben in the perfect, with the participle geslagen. Note the participle vowel matches the past plural (-a- in slagen), not the infinitive aa: ge- + slagen → geslagen.
| Person | Perfect | English |
|---|---|---|
| ik | heb geslagen | I have hit |
| jij / u | hebt geslagen | you have hit |
| hij / zij / het | heeft geslagen | he/she/it has hit |
| wij / jullie / zij | hebben geslagen | we/you/they have hit |
Iemand heeft een ruit ingeslagen.
Someone has smashed a window. Auxiliary 'heeft' + participle (here the separable 'ingeslagen').
Imperative
The imperative is the bare stem sla, common in commands and the affectionate idiom Sla je arm om me heen ("Put your arm around me").
| Form | Use | English |
|---|---|---|
| Sla! | bare imperative | Hit! / Strike! |
| Sla je arm om me heen. | everyday phrase (informal) | Put your arm around me. |
| Sla de bladzijde om. | everyday command | Turn the page. |
Idioms: where slaan really lives
Slaan is one of those verbs whose literal sense ("to hit") is dwarfed by its idioms. A few high-frequency ones:
- een slag slaan — to seize a chance, strike a deal, make a killing (literally "to strike a blow").
- nergens op slaan — to make no sense at all (Dat slaat nergens op).
- aan het twijfelen slaan — to start having doubts.
- op hol slaan — (of a horse, or one's imagination) to bolt, to run wild.
Met die investering hebben ze een mooie slag geslagen.
With that investment they made a tidy profit. The idiom 'een slag slaan' in the perfect.
Sorry, maar je verhaal slaat echt nergens op.
Sorry, but your story makes no sense at all. The idiom 'nergens op slaan'.
Three model sentences
These cover the literal sense, an affectionate idiom, and a figurative idiom.
De golven sloegen hard tegen de pier.
The waves crashed hard against the pier. Plural past 'sloegen', literal sense.
Hij sloeg troostend zijn arm om haar schouder.
He put a comforting arm around her shoulder. 'zijn arm om ... slaan' — past 'sloeg'.
Toen de uitslag binnenkwam, sloeg de twijfel meteen toe.
When the result came in, doubt struck at once. Figurative 'toeslaan' in the past.
Common Mistakes
❌ Hij slaagde op de deur.
Incorrect — slaan is strong; the past is 'sloeg'. ('Slaagde' is the past of the unrelated verb 'slagen', to pass/succeed.)
✅ Hij sloeg op de deur.
He banged on the door.
❌ Wij sloeg de bal weg.
Incorrect — a plural subject needs the plural past 'sloegen'.
✅ Wij sloegen de bal weg.
We knocked the ball away.
❌ Ik heb hem geslaan.
Incorrect — the participle is 'geslagen' (vowel '-a-'), never '*geslaan'.
✅ Ik heb hem geslagen.
I hit him.
❌ Dat slaat nergens om.
Incorrect — the idiom is 'nergens OP slaan', not 'om'.
✅ Dat slaat nergens op.
That makes no sense.
❌ Slaat jij de klok horen?
Incorrect — inverted 'jij' drops the -t: 'sla jij'. (And here you'd say 'Hoor jij de klok slaan?')
✅ Hoor jij de klok slaan?
Can you hear the clock striking?
Key Takeaways
- Present: ik sla, jij/u slaat, hij/zij/het slaat, wij/jullie/zij slaan; inverted jij drops the -t (sla jij?).
- Past is strong with the surprise vowel oe: singular sloeg, plural sloegen — never weak -te/-de.
- Perfect: heb geslagen with hebben; the participle vowel is -a- (geslagen), not aa.
- Watch the false friend: sloeg (slaan, to hit) vs slaagde (slagen, to pass/succeed).
- The idioms carry the verb: een slag slaan, nergens op slaan, op hol slaan.
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