By Linas
Dutch for I is ik.
We get rid of en from the infinitive to make verbs work with ik.
We usually get rid of double letters afterwards by making them single as well. Let’s try this with hebben. Say:
Try doing this with willen as well:
Dutch for needed is nodig.
If you want to say I need it you are actually saying I have it needed. Try:
Dutch for am (as in I am) is ben.
Dutch for you is jij.
Another form you see very often is je. It is the unstressed form (we don’t really have time to go there). We will just stick to jij...
If in a question, jij takes the form of ik because of inversion. Try:
Since we know this form, we can also talk about speaking languages:
Dutch for to speak is spreken.
Dutch for Dutch is nederlands.
This word is related to the country name (the Netherlands in Dutch is actually Nederland).
If you want to get rid of that en to you actually have to turn sprek into spreek to make it sound longer. That is what you usually do for such words (don’t worry about this too much).
Knowing that yes is ja, answer:
Let’s learn another one:
Dutch for English is engels.
There was Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels... what a coincidence, isn’t it.
However, a strange thing happens to jij verbs when jij is not in a question... they get a t:
We could even say:
But actually jij is not alone in this t-getting business:
The words for he - hij, she - zij, it - het, and formal you - u also get a t.
Say:
Unlike jij these words keep their t even if they are in questions:
So it’s second and third person all t. That’s what I want you to take from this lesson. And the rest of the stuff.