When you put two verbs together in Dutch — a first verb you conjugate, and a second verb in the infinitive — the language forces one early decision: does the second verb get the little marker te in front of it, or does it stay bare? Ik probeer *te slapen ("I'm trying to sleep") needs *te; Ik kan slapen ("I can sleep") forbids it. English does almost the same thing — "I try to sleep" versus "I can sleep" — so the instinct is half-built already. But the Dutch dividing line falls in a slightly different place, and the safest way to learn it is to memorise the short list of verbs that take a bare infinitive and treat te as the default for everything else.
The default is te
Most verbs that govern an infinitive in Dutch attach te to that infinitive. If you learn the rule "te unless I know otherwise," you will be right far more often than wrong. These are everyday verbs of trying, hoping, promising, deciding, beginning, forgetting, and so on.
Ik probeer elke dag een uur te lezen.
I try to read for an hour every day.
Ze hoopt volgend jaar in Amsterdam te studeren.
She hopes to study in Amsterdam next year.
Vergeet niet de kat te voeren.
Don't forget to feed the cat.
Hij beloofde me na het werk te helpen.
He promised to help me after work.
In a main clause the conjugated verb stays in second position and the te-infinitive goes to the very end of the clause, after all the objects and adverbs: Ik probeer — elke dag — een uur — te lezen. The te-infinitive is the anchor at the back of the sentence.
The bare-infinitive list
A small, closed set of verbs takes the infinitive without te. There are three groups, and they are worth memorising as a block because they cover an enormous amount of everyday speech.
1. The six modals — kunnen, mogen, moeten, willen, zullen, hoeven. (Strictly, hoeven is the one modal that does take te: Je hoeft niet te komen. The other five are bare.) See Modal Verbs: Overview.
Ik wil vanavond gewoon thuis blijven.
I just want to stay home tonight.
Je mag hier niet parkeren.
You're not allowed to park here.
2. Motion and causative verbs — gaan, komen, laten, blijven, and doen.
We gaan zo eten, kom je ook?
We're about to eat, are you coming too?
Laat mij dat even zien.
Let me have a look at that.
Blijf nog even zitten, we zijn er bijna.
Stay seated a bit longer, we're almost there.
3. Perception verbs — zien, horen, voelen. You see, hear, or feel something happening, and the perceived action is bare. See Perception Verbs.
Ik zie hem net de straat oversteken.
I just see him crossing the street.
Hoor je de regen op het dak vallen?
Do you hear the rain falling on the roof?
What unites these three groups is that the second verb feels like a direct extension of the first — gaan eten is almost one idea, zien oversteken is one act of perception. The te is dropped because there's no felt distance between the two verbs. The te-verbs, by contrast, describe one action about another (trying to, hoping to), and that bit of distance is what te marks.
| Bare infinitive (no te) | Te-infinitive (needs te) |
|---|---|
| Ik kan zwemmen. | Ik probeer te zwemmen. |
| Ik ga eten. | Ik vergeet te eten. |
| Ik laat het zien. | Ik beloof het te laten zien. |
| Ik zie hem komen. | Ik hoop hem te zien komen. |
| Ik blijf staan. | Ik weiger te blijven staan. |
Look at the right-hand column carefully: when a te-verb governs one of the bare-infinitive verbs, te attaches to that bare verb and the cluster builds from there — te laten zien, te zien komen, te blijven staan. The te belongs to whatever the outer verb is grabbing.
Separable verbs: te goes inside
When the bare or te-infinitive happens to be a separable verb, te doesn't sit in front of it — it wedges between the particle and the stem: opbellen → op te bellen. This is regular and important enough to have its own page; see Te Inside Separable Verbs.
Ik probeer hem morgen op te bellen.
I'm trying to call him tomorrow.
Purpose: om ... te
There is a third construction you'll meet constantly: om ... te, which expresses purpose ("in order to"). It's where Dutch puts a to-clause that answers "why?" — Ik bel om te vragen of je komt ("I'm calling to ask whether you're coming"). It also appears obligatorily after certain adjectives (te moe om te werken). Because it has its own rules, it gets a dedicated page: Om ... te: Purpose and Beyond. For this overview, just know it exists and that the infinitive inside it always carries te.
Common Mistakes
The two flagship errors are mirror images: adding te where the bare list forbids it, and dropping te where the default requires it. English speakers make both, because English "to" doesn't map perfectly onto either side.
❌ Ik kan te zwemmen.
Incorrect — modals take a bare infinitive, no te.
✅ Ik kan zwemmen.
I can swim.
❌ Ik ga te eten.
Incorrect — gaan takes a bare infinitive.
✅ Ik ga eten.
I'm going to eat.
❌ Ik probeer slapen.
Incorrect — proberen requires te before the infinitive.
✅ Ik probeer te slapen.
I'm trying to sleep.
❌ Ik hoor de vogels te zingen.
Incorrect — perception verbs (horen) take a bare infinitive.
✅ Ik hoor de vogels zingen.
I hear the birds singing.
❌ Hij beloofde me helpen.
Incorrect — beloven needs te; only the bare-list verbs go without it.
✅ Hij beloofde me te helpen.
He promised to help me.
If you internalise just the bare-infinitive list — modals + gaan/komen/laten/doen/blijven + zien/horen/voelen — you have effectively learned the whole distinction, because every other verb takes the default te.
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Om ... te: Purpose and BeyondB1 — The om...te construction for purpose ('in order to'), plus its obligatory uses after degree adjectives (te moe om te werken) and evaluative adjectives (leuk om te zien).
- Te Inside Separable Verbs (om op te bellen)B1 — How the infinitive marker te lands between the particle and the verb of a separable verb — op te bellen, mee te gaan, schoon te maken — while inseparable verbs keep te in front of the whole word.
- Modal Verbs: OverviewA2 — A map of the six Dutch modals — kunnen, mogen, moeten, willen, zullen, hoeven — and the one pattern they share: modal + bare infinitive at the end of the clause.
- Causative Laten (and Doen)B2 — How laten + infinitive collapses English let, make, and have-something-done into a single verb, plus the literary doen-causative and the double-infinitive perfect.
- 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.
- Verb-Final Order in Subordinate ClausesA2 — After a subordinating conjunction, relative pronoun, or question word, the entire verb cluster — including the finite verb — moves to the end of the clause.