This page exists to disarm a trap. English speakers see the Dutch -end ending — lopend, huilend, kokend — and read it as the all-purpose -ing of English: "walking," "crying," "boiling," used everywhere from "I am walking" to "the boiling water" to "I like walking." But the Dutch present participle is a narrow form. It does only two main jobs: it works as an adjective (een huilend kind, "a crying child") and as an adverb of manner (Hij kwam lachend binnen, "he came in laughing"). It is emphatically not the way Dutch expresses an action in progress — that's the plain present or aan het + infinitive (see verbs/progressive/aan-het). The single most damaging error in this whole area is saying Ik ben werkend for "I am working." Getting the boundaries of -end right is mostly about learning what it cannot do.
Forming the present participle
Add -end to the infinitive (which already ends in -en, so practically you add -d to the infinitive). The result behaves like an adjective and inflects like one.
| Infinitive | Present participle | Inflected (before a de-word) |
|---|---|---|
| lopen (to walk) | lopend | de lopende man |
| huilen (to cry) | huilend | het huilende kind |
| koken (to boil) | kokend | het kokende water |
| slapen (to sleep) | slapend | de slapende baby |
When the participle stands before a noun as an attributive adjective, it takes the normal adjective ending -e under the usual rules: een slapende baby, het kokende water. When it stands after the noun or works adverbially, it stays bare: Het kind kwam huilend binnen.
Use 1: attributive adjective
This is the most common and safest use. The participle describes a noun, sitting in front of it like any adjective, and it inflects accordingly.
een slapende baby
a sleeping baby — attributive, inflected '-e'.
Pas op, dat is kokend water!
Careful, that's boiling water! — kokend describing water; predicative, so no '-e'.
Ze stapte over een liggende fiets op het trottoir.
She stepped over a fallen-over bike on the pavement. — 'liggende', attributive.
Many such participles have effectively become ordinary adjectives: dringend ("urgent"), spannend ("exciting"), vermoeiend ("tiring"), aantrekkelijk's cousin aanstaand ("upcoming"). You'll meet them as vocabulary, but they're the same -end form. The boundary between "verb participle" and "lexicalized adjective" is detailed at adjectives/participles-as-adjectives.
Use 2: adverb of manner
The participle can describe how the main action is performed — the subject does the main verb while doing the participle action. Here it stays uninflected (no -e), and it typically sits near the verb.
Hij kwam lachend binnen.
He came in laughing. — lachend tells you how he came in.
Zingend liep ze weg.
She walked off singing. — zingend, manner adverb, fronted for effect.
De hond kwam kwispelend naar me toe.
The dog came up to me wagging its tail. — kwispelend, simultaneous manner.
This is the closest the -end participle gets to English -ing, and it does correspond to English's "he came in laughing." But notice the constraint: the participle describes a secondary, simultaneous action coloring the main verb. It is not the main predicate. You cannot make -end carry the whole action of the sentence.
Use 3: the al ...-end progressive-of-manner
A set construction pairs al ("while / in the course of") with a bare participle to mean "while doing X": al pratend, al doende, al lezend. It frames one action as the ongoing backdrop to another and has a slightly literary or proverbial flavor.
Al pratend liepen we naar huis.
Talking all the way, we walked home. — 'al pratend', action as backdrop.
Al doende leert men.
One learns by doing. (lit. while doing, one learns) — a proverb; note the fixed form 'doende'.
Al lezend viel hij in slaap.
He fell asleep while reading. — al + participle.
The proverb Al doende leert men preserves the old participle doende (from doen). In set phrases like this and te zijner tijd's cousins, the participle is frozen — don't try to regularize it.
What -end does NOT do: the progressive trap
Now the warning. English uses -ing for action in progress: "I am working," "she is reading." Dutch does not use -end for this at all. For an action happening right now, Dutch uses either the plain present or aan het + infinitive.
| English | WRONG (literal -end) | Correct Dutch |
|---|---|---|
| I am working. | Ik werk. / Ik ben aan het werken. | |
| She is reading. | Ze leest. / Ze is aan het lezen. | |
| They are cooking. | Ze koken. / Ze zijn aan het koken. |
Ik ben aan het werken.
I am working. — the progressive is 'aan het' + infinitive, never 'Ik ben werkend'.
Wat ben je aan het doen? — Ik ben aan het koken.
What are you doing? — I'm cooking. — aan het, not a participle.
Ik ben werkend is not just unusual — it's ungrammatical, and it instantly marks an English speaker. The fix is to remember that -end is an adjective/adverb, and "I am working" needs a verb, not an adjective. See verbs/progressive/aan-het for the full toolkit.
What -end does NOT do: the gerund/noun trap
The other English -ing is the noun, the gerund: "Swimming is healthy," "I like reading." Dutch does not use -end for this either. The nominal -ing maps onto the infinitive used as a noun, with the neuter article het.
Zwemmen is gezond.
Swimming is healthy. — the infinitive 'zwemmen' is the noun, not 'zwemmend'.
Ik hou van lezen.
I love reading. — infinitive 'lezen' as a noun, not 'lezend'.
Het roken is hier verboden.
Smoking is prohibited here. — 'het roken', nominalized infinitive.
So all three English -ing jobs land somewhere other than -end except the adjective/adverb one. Internalize that asymmetry and the trap disappears. Nominalized infinitives are covered at nouns/nominalization.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ik ben werkend.
Incorrect — '-end' is not a progressive. Use the plain present or 'aan het'.
✅ Ik ben aan het werken.
I am working.
❌ Ik hou van zwemmend.
Incorrect — the gerund 'swimming' is the infinitive 'zwemmen', not the participle.
✅ Ik hou van zwemmen.
I love swimming.
❌ Ze is lezend een boek.
Incorrect — for an action in progress, use 'Ze leest' or 'Ze is een boek aan het lezen'.
✅ Ze is een boek aan het lezen.
She is reading a book.
❌ een huilend kind (de huilend baby)
Incorrect when attributive before a de-word — the participle inflects: 'de huilende baby'.
✅ de huilende baby
the crying baby — attributive '-end' takes '-e' before a de-word.
❌ Ik zie hem lopend.
Incorrect — after a perception verb use the bare infinitive 'lopen', not '-end'.
✅ Ik zie hem lopen.
I see him walking. — bare infinitive after a perception verb.
Key Takeaways
- The -end present participle is adjectival and adverbial only: een huilend kind, lachend binnenkomen, al doende leert men.
- It inflects like an adjective when attributive: de slapende baby, het kokende water.
- It is not a progressive — "I am working" is Ik werk / Ik ben aan het werken, never Ik ben werkend.
- It is not a gerund either — "I like reading" is Ik hou van lezen (infinitive), not lezend.
- English -ing fans out across three Dutch structures; -end covers only the adjective/adverb slice.
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Participles as AdjectivesB2 — How Dutch past participles (de gesloten deur, een gebroken been) and present participles in -end (de slapende baby, een huilend kind) work as attributive adjectives — and how the ordinary -e rule governs both.
- The Progressive: Aan het + Infinitive and Positional ConstructionsB1 — Dutch has several optional ways to stress that an action is in progress — aan het + infinitive, the posture verbs zitten/staan/liggen te, and bezig zijn — but none is obligatory, because the plain present already covers ongoing action.
- 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.
- Turning Words into Nouns (Nominalization)B2 — Dutch turns verbs and adjectives into nouns by reliable routes, each with a fixed gender: the nominalised infinitive (always het — het roken, het zwemmen), the -ing deverbal (always de — de opening), the -heid abstract (always de — de schoonheid), and the adjective-as-noun for people and concepts (de zieke, het goede).
- The Te-Infinitive: OverviewB1 — When a second verb takes the infinitive marker te and when it stays bare — modals and gaan/komen/laten/zien/horen/blijven take a bare infinitive, most other governing verbs require te.