ELONIO

Irregular past tense (kwam, ging, deed, zag)

Irregular Past Tense Verbs

Many common Dutch verbs have an irregular past tense. Instead of taking a regular -de or -te ending, their stem vowel—and sometimes their consonants—change.

Here are four essential irregular verbs. This lesson focuses on their singular past tense forms:

InfinitiveMeaningSingular PastPlural Past
ziento seezagzagen
gaanto goginggingen
komento comekwamkwamen
doento dodeeddeden
Then I suddenly saw something in the room.
Toen zag ik plotseling iets in de kamer.
The small mouse went to the cheese!
De kleine muis ging naar de kaas!
The cat came to the hole and wanted to catch the mouse.
De kat kwam bij het gat en wilde de muis vangen.
The mouse ran away and I did nothing.
De muis rende weg en ik deed niets.

Storytelling with toen

To tell a story about the past, you will often use plotseling (suddenly) and toen (then / when).

On Monday I heard a weird sound in the kitchen.
Op maandag hoorde ik een raar geluid in de keuken.

When toen means "when," it refers to a specific past event. It acts as a subordinating conjunction, which pushes the conjugated verb to the end of the toen clause:

The woman screamed when she saw the scary mouse.
De vrouw gilde toen zij de enge muis zag.

If a sentence starts with the toen clause, the following main clause will invert its subject and verb:

When the boy saw the mouse, he wanted to catch it.
Toen de jongen de muis zag, wilde hij hem vangen.
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