Dutch present tense
The Dutch present tense is built from one thing: the verb stem. Take the stem, and the whole paradigm is stem for ik, stem + t for singular jij/hij/zij/u, and the full infinitive for all plurals. Master the stem and its two spelling quirks and you can conjugate almost every Dutch verb.
Finding the stem
The stem is the infinitive minus the -en ending. werken (to work) → stem werk; spelen (to play) → stem speel; horen (to hear) → stem hoor. Two of those already show the first spelling rule at work, which we come to below.
The regular paradigm
Once you have the stem, everything follows a fixed pattern. Here is werken laid out fully.
| Person | Form | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| ik (I) | werk | bare stem |
| jij / je (you, sing.) | werkt | stem + t |
| u (you, formal) | werkt | stem + t |
| hij / zij / het (he/she/it) | werkt | stem + t |
| wij / we (we) | werken | infinitive |
| jullie (you, plural) | werken | infinitive |
| zij / ze (they) | werken | infinitive |
So: Ik werk in Amsterdam (I work in Amsterdam), Zij werkt hard (She works hard), Wij werken samen (We work together). Note that Dutch has only one present tense — ik werk covers both English "I work" and "I am working". There is no separate continuous form.
The jij-inversion rule: dropping the -t
When jij or je comes after its verb — in a question, or after any word that pushes the verb to first position — the verb loses its -t and reverts to the bare stem. This only happens with jij/je, never with u, hij or zij.
| Normal order | Inverted (verb first) |
|---|---|
| Je werkt hier. (You work here.) | Werk je hier? (Do you work here?) |
| Je komt morgen. (You come tomorrow.) | Kom je morgen? (Are you coming tomorrow?) |
| Je hebt tijd. (You have time.) | Heb je tijd? (Do you have time?) |
Compare Werkt hij hier? — the -t stays because the subject is hij, not je. This drop is one of the most useful patterns to internalise, because questions come up constantly. More on question formation is on the Dutch questions page.
Spelling rule 1: keeping vowels long
Dutch spelling marks vowel length by syllable. A long vowel written double in a closed syllable is written single in an open one, and vice versa. When you strip -en off an infinitive, the syllable can close and force a doubled vowel in the stem.
| Infinitive | Stem | hij-form | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| maken | maak | maakt | to make |
| lezen | lees | leest | to read |
| wonen | woon | woont | to live/reside |
Conversely, a stem with a short vowel in a closed syllable doubles its final consonant when -en is added back for plurals: pakken → stem pak (not paak), so ik pak, wij pakken.
Spelling rule 2: v→f and z→s
Dutch does not allow v or z at the end of a stem. When a verb like leven or reizen loses its -en, the final consonant devoices in spelling.
| Infinitive | Stem | hij-form | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| leven | leef | leeft | leven | to live |
| geven | geef | geeft | geven | to give |
| reizen | reis | reist | reizen | to travel |
| verhuizen | verhuis | verhuist | verhuizen | to move house |
The v and z come back in the plural because the syllable reopens. This same devoicing shows up in the past tense, where it decides between the -te and -de endings — see the Dutch past tense.
Never double the t
If a stem already ends in t, you do not add a second one. zitten → stem zit → hij zit (not zitt). eten → stem eet → hij eet. And stems ending in d still take the written -t: worden → hij wordt, pronounced identically to word but spelled with both letters.
The irregular verbs you need first
A handful of high-frequency verbs do not follow the stem rule. These are worth memorising as whole tables because you will use them in almost every sentence.
| Person | zijn (to be) | hebben (to have) | gaan (to go) | komen (to come) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ik | ben | heb | ga | kom |
| jij / je | bent | hebt / heb je | gaat | komt |
| u | bent / is | hebt / heeft | gaat | komt |
| hij / zij / het | is | heeft | gaat | komt |
| wij / jullie / zij | zijn | hebben | gaan | komen |
Only zijn and hebben are genuinely irregular; gaan, komen, staan, slaan and doen follow a predictable monosyllabic pattern (bare stem for ik, stem + t for singular, infinitive for plural). Note that u takes bent or is with zijn — both are correct — and the heb je form applies after inversion.
Common mistakes. Three slips account for most present-tense errors:
- Adding -t to the ik-form. It is always ik werk, never ik werkt.
- Keeping the -t in a question with je. Write Woon je hier?, not Woont je hier?
- Forgetting to double the vowel in the stem: it is ik maak, not ik mak.
These and other frequent slips are collected on common mistakes Dutch learners make.
Belgian usage
The conjugation is identical in the Netherlands and Belgium. The difference is in the second person: Flemish speech often uses gij/ge instead of jij/je, and gij takes a -t ending — gij werkt, gij zijt, gij hebt. In writing and standard Dutch, though, everyone uses the same paradigm shown here.
The present tense is the foundation for everything else: the perfect uses present-tense hebben or zijn as its helper (see the perfect tense), and the Dutch present very often does the job of the future too. Once conjugation is automatic, the next thing to nail down is where the verb actually sits in the sentence — that is Dutch word order.