How are strong verbs rendered in Dutch grammars?

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Woods
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How are strong verbs rendered in Dutch grammars?

Postby Woods » 2019-04-10, 22:23

A quick very lazy question:

I just opened page 150 of "Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar" (B. Donaldson, Routledge and it's not quite clear from the info in the book when this version is printed)

And so there's a list of verbs but instead of the usual do-did-done, go-went-gone and so on pattern (i.e. present-preterite-past participle), there are four forms for each verb here:


bijten-beet-beten-gebeten
lijden-leed-leden-geleden
schrijven-schreef-schreven-geschreven

druipen-droop-dropen-gedropen
slupen-sloop-slopen-geslopen
verdrieten-verdroot-verdoten-verdroten

blinken-blonk-blonken-geblonken
klinken-klonk-klonken-geklonken

verzwelgen-verzwolg-verzwolgen-verzwolgen

vergeten-vergat-vergaten-vergeten

slaan-sloegslogen-geslagen
varen-voer-voeren-gevaren

laden-laadde-laadden-geladen

raden-raadde-raadden-geraden
zweren-zweerde-zweerden-gezworen

jagen-joeg-joegen-gejaagd



And so on I guess I quoted way to many but they were just way too interesting so I kept looking at them and quoting them :D

So it's pretty obvious the first is the present and the second the preterite as usual, but what is the difference between the third and fourth forms?

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linguoboy
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Re: How are strong verbs rendered in Dutch grammars?

Postby linguoboy » 2019-04-11, 13:56

Preterite plural vs past participle.

As you can see from the example of slaan, sometimes there is an alternation of stem vowel between preterite singular and plural.
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Aurinĭa
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Re: How are strong verbs rendered in Dutch grammars?

Postby Aurinĭa » 2019-04-11, 15:58

linguoboy wrote:Preterite plural vs past participle.

As you can see from the example of slaan, sometimes there is an alternation of stem vowel between preterite singular and plural.

That is indeed the reason, but a better example would be vergeten - vergat - vergaten - vergeten. If the plural wasn't mentioned, you would have no way of knowing that it isn't *vergatten but instead vergaten, with /a/ instead of /ɑ/, which the singular has. The preterite plural of slagen is sloegen, with the same vowel as the singular.

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Woods
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Re: How are strong verbs rendered in Dutch grammars?

Postby Woods » 2019-04-12, 0:21

Preterite plural? Okay, that is something I wouldn't have expected!

Are there some other totally new things I'm about to discover, knowing the basics of English, German, Danish and Swedish grammars and naïvely expecting the Dutch one to be kind of the same?


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