Editing Dutch grammar (section)

====Perfect, future and passive====

The [[Perfect (grammar)|perfect]] indicates that an action is complete. In Dutch the completion can take place in present, past, present future or past future:

*{{lang|nl|Ik heb gegeten}} 'I ate', literally 'I have eaten' – present perfect (with simple past meaning)
*{{lang|nl|Ik had gegeten}} 'I had eaten' or 'I had been eating' – past perfect (with pluperfect meaning)
*{{lang|nl|Ik zal gegeten hebben}} 'I shall have eaten' – future perfect
*{{lang|nl|Ik zou gegeten hebben}} 'I would have eaten' – past conditional (either as [[Future in the past|future-in-the-past]] or conditional mood)

The future tenses all take the auxiliary verb {{lang|nl|zullen}}, cognate with English {{lang|en|shall}}.
The [[passive voice]] indicates that the subject undergoes the action rather than performing it itself. Both categories are formed with a variety of auxiliary verbs.

{| class="wikitable"
! Verb type
! Present
! Perfect
! Passive
! Perfect passive
|-
| [[accusative verb|accusative]] transitive<br />{{lang|nl|openen}} 'to open'
| {{lang|nl|Ik '''open''' de doos.}}<br />'I '''am opening''' the box'.
| '''hebben'''<br />{{lang|nl|Ik '''heb''' de doos '''geopend'''.}}<br />'I '''opened''' the box.'
| '''worden'''<br />{{lang|nl|De doos '''wordt geopend'''.}}<br />'The box '''is (being) opened'''.'
| '''zijn'''<br />{{lang|nl|De doos '''is geopend'''.}}<br />'The box '''has been opened'''.'
|-
| [[ergative verb|ergative]] transitive<br />{{lang|nl|breken}} 'to break'
| {{lang|nl|Ik '''breek''' het glas.}}<br />'I am breaking the glass'<br />{{lang|nl|Het glas '''breekt'''.}}<br />'The glass '''is breaking / breaks'''.'
| '''hebben'''<br />{{lang|nl|Ik '''heb''' het glas '''gebroken'''.}}<br />'I '''broke''' the glass.'
| '''worden'''<br />{{lang|nl|Het glas '''wordt gebroken'''.}}<br />'The glass '''is (being) broken'''.'
| '''zijn'''<br />{{lang|nl|Het glas '''is gebroken'''.}}<br />'The glass '''has (been) broken'''.'
|-
| [[unergative verb|unergative]] intransitive<br />{{lang|nl|blaffen}} 'to bark'
| {{lang|nl|De hond '''blaft'''.}}<br />'The dog '''is barking'''.'
| '''hebben'''<br />{{lang|nl|De hond '''heeft geblaft'''.}}<br />'The dog '''barked'''.'
| '''worden'''<br />{{lang|nl|Er '''wordt geblaft''' (door de hond).}}<br />≈ 'Barking can be heard.'
| '''zijn'''<br />{{lang|nl|Er '''is geblaft''' (door de hond).}}<br />≈ 'Barking was heard.'
|-
| [[unaccusative verb|unaccusative]] intransitive<br />{{lang|nl|vallen}} 'to fall'
| {{lang|nl|De boom '''valt'''.}}<br />'The tree '''is falling''''.
| '''zijn'''<br />{{lang|nl|De boom '''is gevallen'''.}}<br />'The tree '''fell'''.'
| —
| —
|}

As can be seen in the table, in the case of unaccusative verbs, the auxiliary {{lang|nl|hebben}} cannot be used for the perfect, unlike in English. In general these are verbs that describe a process (e.g. to happen, melt, die) rather than an action. That means that there is no (clear) actor involved.

As in English, ergative verbs can occur both in a transitive (I break the glass) and in an unaccusative mode (the glass breaks). In Dutch the perfect of the latter takes {{lang|nl|zijn}} 'to be', so that {{lang|nl|het glas is gebroken}} can either be seen as a perfect passive or as a perfect unaccusative. Dutch differs from German in that the latter language would add the participle {{lang|nl|worden}} to the passive sentence: {{lang|de|Das Glas ist gebrochen '''worden'''}}.

Unergatives in general do possess passive forms, but they are ''impersonal''.  They typically take the adverb {{lang|nl|er}} as a dummy subject and are hard to translate directly into English. {{lang|nl|Er wordt geblaft}} means something like 'There's barking going on' or 'There's some dog barking'. Impersonal constructions of this kind are quite common in the language. The passives of transitive verbs can also be given an impersonal flavor by adding the dummy adverb {{lang|nl|er}}, provided the subject is indefinite, e.g. {{lang|nl|Er worden dozen geopend}} 'There are boxes being opened' or 'Boxes are being opened'.

Verbs of motion like {{lang|nl|lopen}} 'to walk', {{lang|nl|zwemmen}} 'to swim', {{lang|nl|rijden}} 'to ride, drive' typically occur as unaccusative / unergative pairs. If the motion is directional it is seen as a {{lang|nl|process}} and the auxiliary is {{lang|nl|zijn}}. If the motion is not directional it is seen as an action and the auxiliary verb is {{lang|nl|hebben}}, unless the verb is used in the impersonal passive in which case it can take {{lang|nl|worden}} and {{lang|nl|zijn}}.
;directional
*{{lang|nl|Ik loop naar huis}} – 'I am walking home'
*{{lang|nl|Ik '''ben''' naar huis gelopen}} – 'I walked home'
;non-directional
*{{lang|nl|Ik loop veel}} – 'I walk a lot'
*{{lang|nl|Ik '''heb''' veel gelopen}} – 'I walked a lot'
*{{lang|nl|Er '''wordt''' veel gelopen}} – 'There is a lot of walking going on'
Note also that the meanings of the formations that use {{lang|nl|zijn}} correspond to the meaning of the past participle when used as an adjective. Thus, unergative verbs can never use {{lang|nl|zijn}} as the auxiliary as their past participles cannot be used as adjectives. Furthermore, for ergative verbs, the passive does not differ significantly in meaning from the regular intransitive present tense. This is also true of English: a glass that {{lang|nl|breaks}} is a glass that {{lang|nl|is (being) broken}}.

The forms listed above can occur in both present and past tense. The table lists the present tense forms, while the past tense is formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb in the past tense. Thus, this creates {{lang|nl|Ik '''had''' de doos '''geopend'''.}} 'I '''had opened''' the box.' and so on.

When the perfect is created from a phrase that already uses an auxiliary verb, the auxiliary gets used in the infinitive form, rather than the past participle. Some auxiliary verbs even have no past participle due to this. For example:
* {{lang|nl|Ik '''zal''' morgen komen.}} 'I '''will''' come tomorrow.' → {{lang|nl|Ik '''had''' morgen '''zullen''' komen.}} 'I '''had been going to''' come tomorrow.'
* {{lang|nl|Hij '''moet''' de deur sluiten.}} 'He '''has to''' close the door.' → {{lang|nl|Hij '''heeft''' de deur '''moeten''' sluiten.}} 'He '''has had to''' close the door.'

=====Ditransitive verbs=====
Ditransitive verbs carry both a direct and an indirect object. In English both objects can become the subject of a passive construction and the same auxiliary is used to form it:

*I give the man a book
*The man '''is''' given a book by me
*A book '''is''' given to the man by me.

In Dutch a verb like {{lang|nl|schenken}} (to donate) follows a similar pattern but the auxiliary {{lang|nl|krijgen}} (to get) is used for the pseudo-passive construction that renders the indirect object into the subject, whereas {{lang|nl|worden}} is used for passive involving the direct object:

*Ik schenk de man een boek
*De man '''krijgt''' van mij een boek geschonken
*Een boek '''wordt''' door mij aan de man geschonken.

The following three groups of verbs only take the auxiliary {{lang|nl|hebben}} in the perfect tenses.

=====Impersonal verbs=====
Impersonal verbs have no true subject, but use a dummy subject pronoun {{lang|nl|het}} ("it"). These verbs often refer to conditions, such as the weather:
* {{lang|nl|Het regent.}} ("It rains." or "It is raining.")
* {{lang|nl|Het onweert.}} ("A thunderstorm is happening.")

=====Reflexive verbs=====
Reflexive verbs take a reflexive pronoun like {{lang|nl|me}}, {{lang|nl|je}} or {{lang|nl|zich}} as their (dummy) direct object and take {{lang|nl|hebben}} in the perfect. This contrasts with e.g. French, where être (to be) is used as perfect auxiliary.

*Ik vergiste me  (I mistook, made an error)
*Ik heb me vergist

Some of these occur in pairs with a transitive form, replacing the unaccusative component of an ergative.

*Ratten verspreiden de ziekte – -(Rats spread the disease)
*De ziekte verspreidt zich – (The disease is spreading)

There are no verbs that ''only'' occur in a reciprocal form, but those that can take the reciprocal pronoun {{lang|nl|elkaar}} (each other) also take {{lang|nl|hebben}} in the perfect, thus behaving like reflexive ones.

*Massa's trekken elkaar aan. – (Masses attract each other.)
*De magneten hadden elkaar aangetrokken – (The magnets had attracted each other).

=====Absolute verbs=====
These verbs resemble the unergative ones, except that they do not possess an impersonal passive.

*De zon schijnt – (The sun shines)
* *Er wordt geschenen <- does not exist ->

Some of them may carry a direct object, but they have neither a personal, nor an impersonal passive:

*Een jas aanhebben – (To wear a coat)
* *Een jas wordt aangehad <- does not exist ->

Similarly the past participle cannot be used as adjective:

* *De aangehadde jas <- does not exist ->