One rule per page — explained with examples, then a short quiz.
How to put regular Dutch verbs into the past tense — the -te / -de rule and the 't kofschip trick.
How to get the stem from a Dutch infinitive and the four spelling rules that keep it correct — the base for every conjugation.
How to conjugate the Dutch present tense — ik = stem, jij/hij = stem + t, plural = infinitive — and when it is used.
Why hij vindt and jij wordt are spelled with -dt, and why the -t drops in word jij — the classic Dutch spelling trap.
How to build the Dutch past participle: ge- + stem + -t or -d, with 't kofschip deciding the ending, plus the verbs that skip ge-.
How to build the Dutch present perfect with hebben or zijn plus a past participle, and why the participle goes to the end of the clause.
How to build the Dutch pluperfect with had or was plus a past participle, and how it orders one past event before another.
Three ways Dutch talks about the future: the present tense with a time word, gaan + infinitive for plans, and zullen + infinitive for promises and predictions.
How to say would in Dutch: zou/zouden + infinitive for hypotheticals, polite requests, and reported plans.
How to build the Dutch future perfect (zal hebben gedaan, will have done) and conditional perfect (zou hebben gedaan, would have done).
When the Dutch perfect tense uses zijn instead of hebben — the rule for movement and change of state.
The five Dutch modal verbs, what each means, and how they push the main verb to the end as a bare infinitive.
Which Dutch verbs and expressions put te before the second verb (proberen te, beginnen te, hoeven te, staan te) and where that te goes.
The verbs that are followed by a plain infinitive with no te: modals, gaan and komen, laten, blijven, and zien/horen/voelen.
How Dutch uses om ... te to express purpose (in order to), and when om is required or optional before te + infinitive.
How Dutch says 'to be doing something' with zijn + aan het + infinitive, the everyday equivalent of the English -ing form.
How Dutch shows an action in progress with a posture verb plus te: zitten te lezen, staan te koken, and what happens in the perfect tense.
Why a Dutch verb that props up another verb in the perfect appears as an infinitive, not a participle: had willen eten, not had gewild eten.
How separable verbs like opbellen and meenemen split in the present and simple past, sending the prefix to the end of the main clause.
How the ge- of the past participle slots between the prefix and the stem of a separable verb: op + ge + beld = opgebeld.
Compound verbs whose prefix never splits off and whose past participle takes no ge-, because the stress sits on the stem, not the prefix.
Some Dutch verbs are spelled the same but split in two ways: stress on the prefix or on the verb decides both the grammar and the meaning.
The full present and past of zijn (to be) and hebben (to have) — the two verbs you need before anything else in Dutch.
The high-frequency irregular verbs gaan, staan, slaan, zien, doen and komen — present, past and participle for the verbs you meet on day one.
Strong verbs form the past by changing the stem vowel instead of adding -te or -de (lopen, liep, gelopen) — here are the main gradation groups.
How to give commands in Dutch: the bare verb stem (Kom! Wacht even!), the polite u-form with -t, and laten we for let's.
How to form the Dutch passive: worden + past participle for an action in progress, zijn + past participle for the finished result, and door for the agent.
How Dutch turns a verb into an -ing adjective: infinitive + d (lachend, kokend water), which then takes -e like any adjective.
How Dutch turns a verb into a noun by putting het in front of the infinitive: het roken, na het eten. Always a het-word.
Dutch has two words for the: de for most nouns and all plurals, het for a minority. Here is why the choice matters and how to learn it.
Several groups of Dutch nouns consistently take het: diminutives, verbs used as nouns, languages, metals, colours and more.
de is the default Dutch article: it covers most nouns, nearly all words for people, several endings, and every plural.
Dutch has one indefinite article, een (a/an), for both genders, no een in the plural, and no article at all with professions, uncountables and some fixed phrases.
Dutch and English use articles the same way most of the time, but there are recurring mismatches — Ik ben leraar, in de zomer, met de trein, in het Nederlands.
How to build the main Dutch plural with -en, and the three spelling adjustments that come with it: vowel length, f to v, and s to z.
When a Dutch noun makes its plural with a plain -s, and when it needs an apostrophe (-'s) to protect a long vowel.
How to decide whether a Dutch noun makes its plural with -s or with -en, plus the words that allow both.
The Dutch plurals that break the -en/-s rules: vowel changes (stad to steden), the -eren group (kind to kinderen), and Latin -a and -i (museum to musea).
How the Dutch diminutive works: add -je to make a noun small, cute or casual, turn it into a het-word, and form the plural with -jes.
How to pick the right Dutch diminutive ending from the last sound of the noun: -je, -tje, -etje, -pje or -kje.
The Dutch diminutives that break the rules: stem-vowel changes like gat -> gaatje and fixed forms like meisje.
How Dutch glues two or more words into a single compound noun, and why the last part decides its gender, plural and meaning.
The tussenletter glued between the two parts of a Dutch compound: -en- (pannenkoek), -s- (verjaardagsfeest), -er-, or none, and how to choose.
How to pick deze, die, dit or dat in Dutch — by the noun's de/het gender and whether it is near or far.
The two everyday ways to show possession in Dutch: de auto van mijn broer, and the name+s form like Toms fiets or Anna's boek.
How and when a Dutch adjective adds -e before a noun (de grote hond, het grote huis, grote huizen), and how the spelling changes.
The three cases where a Dutch adjective drops the -e: an indefinite het-word (een groot huis), after iets/niets + -s, and material words in -en.
How to build the Dutch comparative and superlative of adjectives: add -er and -st (groot, groter, grootst), with meer/meest for the awkward ones.
Four common Dutch words compare with a different stem instead of -er/-st: goed-beter-best, veel-meer-meest, weinig-minder-minst, graag-liever-liefst.
Use dan after a comparative (groter dan) and als for equality (even groot als, net zo groot als); hoe ... hoe links two changes.
How a Dutch adjective plus -e becomes a noun on its own: de zieke (the sick person), het mooie (the nice thing), iets moois.
The full set of Dutch personal pronouns: subject forms like ik and wij, object forms like mij and ons, and the short everyday versions.
How to say my, your, his, her, our and their in Dutch, and why our is sometimes ons and sometimes onze.
How Dutch says 'mine, yours, hers' on its own — the formal de mijne / het jouwe forms and the everyday van mij and die van mij.
How the reflexive pronouns me, je, zich and ons work with Dutch reflexive verbs, and where they sit in the sentence.
How Dutch die, dat, deze and dit stand in for a noun you already mentioned, and why speech prefers die/dat over hij, zij and het for things.
How to link a describing clause to a noun in Dutch: die for de-words, dat for het-words, with the verb at the end of the clause.
When a Dutch relative clause needs a preposition: things use waar + preposition (de stoel waarop ik zit), people use preposition + wie (de man met wie ik praat).
The Dutch question pronouns wie (who), wat (what), welk(e) (which) and wat voor (what kind of), and how welk(e) agrees with de and het.
How Dutch says someone, no one, something and nothing, plus men and generic je/ze for 'one' or 'people'.
Which Dutch word means all or every: al, alle, allen and allemaal, plus elk/ieder, alles and iedereen.
The Dutch words for a few, several, few and many — (een) paar, enkele, verscheidene/meerdere, weinig and veel — and when each one fits.
How to say such a in Dutch — zo'n before a singular noun, zulke before a plural, and the formal dergelijk(e).
How to exclaim in Dutch — wat een before a noun, wat or hoe before an adjective — and where the verb goes.
The textbook rule for hen vs hun (direct object vs indirect object) and why ze is the safe everyday choice for both.
Dutch quietens most pronouns to a weak form in speech (je, ze, 't, 'm) and keeps the full form only when the pronoun carries emphasis.
elkaar is Dutch for 'each other'; it never changes form, becomes elkaars for possession, and differs from the reflexive zich.
How Dutch uses er with zijn (and other verbs) to say that something exists: Er is een probleem, Er zijn veel mensen.
The quantitative er that stands in for a counted noun in Dutch: Hoeveel appels? Ik heb er drie.
For things, Dutch turns preposition + it/them into er + preposition (erop, ermee, eraan), often split across the sentence.
The main Dutch prepositions and what they mean, including the tricky op (op school, op de fiets) and the place-versus-direction split of in and naar.
Dutch verbs that lock onto one fixed preposition you must learn as a unit, such as wachten op (to wait for) and denken aan (to think of).
The five Dutch conjunctions that join two main clauses without changing the word order: en, maar, of, want and dus.
Dutch conjunctions such as omdat, als, terwijl, hoewel and zodat send the finite verb to the end of their clause.
How to choose between want, omdat and doordat to explain why something happens — word order and meaning both differ.
Dutch has three words for 'when': toen for a single past event, als for the present, future or a repeated past, and wanneer for questions.
How to count in Dutch: the forms 0-20, the tens, the units-before-tens join (eenentwintig), and honderd, duizend and miljoen.
How to make Dutch ordinal numbers: add -de up to 19 and -ste from 20 up, with the irregulars eerste, derde and achtste.
How to say the time in Dutch: full hours with uur, kwart over/voor, minutes with over/voor, and why half drie means 2:30.
The Dutch days and months (all lowercase), the date pattern op dinsdag 3 maart 2026, and the prepositions op and in.
How Dutch writes and reads money and decimals: the comma as decimal point, saying a price aloud, and why measures stay singular after a number.
Form a Dutch yes/no question by moving the finite verb to the front (Werk jij?), and answer with ja, nee or jawel.
The Dutch wh-words and their word order (question word + verb + subject), plus waar + preposition for things.
Use welke/welk (agreeing with de/het nouns) to ask 'which', and wat voor (een) to ask 'what kind of'.
How Dutch clamps a sentence between two verb positions: the finite verb second, the other verbs at the very end, everything else in the middle.
The default Dutch statement pattern: subject, then the finite verb in second position, then the rest, with any extra verbs at the very end.
In a Dutch statement the finite verb always sits in the second spot, whatever you put first.
Start a Dutch sentence with a time, place, or object and the subject moves to just after the verb.
Inside a Dutch sentence's middle field, details of when, how and where fall in a set sequence: the time comes first, the manner next, the place last.
How to place niet: late in the sentence to negate the whole thing, but directly before the word it negates.
When a Dutch clause has extra verbs, the infinitives and participles pile up at the very end and form a cluster.
In a Dutch main clause the split-off prefix of a separable verb jumps to the very end, after the middle field.
After omdat, dat, als and other subordinating words, the finite verb jumps to the end of its clause: ... omdat ik moe ben.
Relative clauses (die/dat) and indirect questions (Ik weet niet waar hij woont) also send the finite verb to the end.
Short object and reflexive pronouns hug the finite verb near the front of the sentence, before time, manner and place.
Where the direct object sits in a Dutch main clause depends on whether it is definite (de/het/name) or indefinite (een/no article).
How Dutch direction postpositions (de trap op, het bos in) sit at the right edge of a clause, and which pieces may follow the final verbs.
The 26 Dutch letters and their spoken names, the special combination ij, and how to spell your name, address or BSN out loud at a loket.
How to split a Dutch word into syllables: the consonant rules, ch kept whole, ng split after the n, and compounds split at the seam.
Why maan becomes manen but man becomes mannen — the open/closed syllable rule that drives Dutch spelling.
When to write aa or a, oo or o — how many vowel letters a Dutch word needs, decided by the syllable.
A Dutch word cannot end in v or z, so brief comes from brieven and huis from huizen — here is the rule and where it shows up.
A final d in Dutch sounds like t but is still written d if the longer form has d (hond -> honden) — how to decide -d or -t at the end of a word.
The trema is the two dots that split two vowel letters into separate sounds, as in ideeën and geïnteresseerd.
When Dutch needs an apostrophe: plurals like auto's, the frozen 's-forms, name genitives, and dropped letters.
The three Dutch accent marks: the acute for stress and emphasis (één, vóór, hé), the grave, and the circumflex in loanwords.
Dutch lowercases days and months — *maandag* (Monday), *januari* (January) — unlike English, while names, languages and place-name adjectives keep their capital just as they do in English.
jou means you (the object: Ik zie jou); jouw means your (jouw boek) — a one-minute decision with a simple test.
After a comparative, standard Dutch uses dan (groter dan); for equality it uses als (even groot als) — a one-minute decision.
The polite u takes a singular verb (u bent, u heeft/hebt, u kunt), and the verb keeps its -t even in a question (kunt u).
A fast decision for choosing hen or hun for them in Dutch: hen after a preposition or as direct object, hun as indirect object.
When to add -n to Dutch quantity words like sommige(n) and beide(n): only when the word stands alone for people, never before a noun.
Choosing dezelfde or hetzelfde for the same in Dutch follows the de/het gender of the noun: dezelfde for de-words and plurals, hetzelfde for het-words.
A quick rule for the present-tense trap: is it ik word or ik wordt, hij vindt or hij vind? Use the ik-form and the loopt-test to hear the ending.
How Dutch shows direction with the wrapped naar ... toe construction and with heen / naartoe in questions like Waar ga je heen?
