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A2 · The perfect

Gegeten, geschreven, gegaan: strong participles

strong and irregular participles

Topic 47 of 90 · about 8 minutes

Your goal

You can form the strong participles of common verbs, such as gegeten, geschreven and gegaan.

Ik heb de film al gezien.I have already seen the film.

Wie heeft dit gedaan?Who did this?

Ze heeft drie talen geleerd en twee gesproken.She has learnt three languages and spoken two.

Done at 8 of 10 · about 4 min

Explainer video

Watch first – then practise

The essentials

RememberStrong in English, mostly strong in Dutch — and kopen becomes gekocht, as “buy” becomes “bought”.

Strong verbs end in -en in the participle and often change their vowel — much as in English.

When: Before the past
The past
Past linked to the present
The present
The future
Completed in the future
The past — Something that happened, finished, and stays where it happened.
Signal words: -en
geweest
gehad
gegaan
gedaan
gezien
gekocht

The form

The forms side by side

All the forms in one overview: first what each one stands for, then the form in Dutch, so you can compare them directly.

ij → e	schrijven – geschreven, blijven – gebleven
i → o	drinken – gedronken, vinden – gevonden
ie → o	kiezen – gekozen, bieden – geboden
e → o	nemen – genomen, spreken – gesproken
vowel stays	lopen – gelopen, slapen – geslapen, geven – gegeven
completely irregular	zijn – geweest, hebben – gehad, gaan – gegaan, doen – gedaan
vowel change with -t	brengen – gebracht, denken – gedacht, kopen – gekocht

This tense with other verbs

Tap a verb or type your own — the table opens at this tense, in the same colours.

The rules one by one

The form this topic is about

Strong verbs form the participle in -en.
Heb je al gegeten?Have you eaten yet?
ij often becomes e in the participle.
Ik heb hem een kaart geschreven.I wrote him a card.
i and ie often become o.
We hebben het hotel snel gevonden.We found the hotel quickly.

More rules (2)

kopen, zoeken, denken, brengen end in -cht.
Wat heb je gekocht?What did you buy?
You learn whether a verb is strong along with the verb; English is a good guide.
Ze hebben de hele nacht geslapen.They slept all night.

Example sentences

6 more example sentences

Heb je mijn bril gezocht?Have you looked for my glasses?

Joris heeft bloemen meegebracht.Joris brought flowers.

Hebben jullie goed gedronken en gegeten?Did you drink and eat well?

Het boek is goed geschreven.The book is well written.

Hij heeft het niet begrepen.He didn’t understand it.

Ik heb aan je gedacht.I thought of you.

The trap English speakers fall into

Watch out

English is a good guide, but not everywhere. English “bought” and Dutch gekocht look alike, and gekocht means “bought”, not “cooked” (that is gekookt). The trap is that kopen looks like a regular verb, so learners write gekoopt; but like “buy – bought” it changes its vowel. Likewise “asked” and gevraagd are both weak, while “laughed” is weak but gelachen is strong.

Wrong:Ik heb een nieuwe jas gekoopt.

Right:Ik heb een nieuwe jas gekocht.

Lesson

The full explanation

Read it all · about 1 min

The strong verbs form the participle with ge- and -en, and often the vowel changes: schrijven → geschreven, drinken → gedronken, helpen → geholpen. That is the good news for English speakers: what is strong in English is almost always strong in Dutch, and the vowel changes similarly — “written, drunk, helped (once “holpen”)”. English “eaten, given, taken, spoken” have the same final “-en” as gegeten, gegeven, genomen, gesproken.

The vowels can be sorted into series: ij → e (blijven – gebleven, rijden – gereden), i → o (vinden – gevonden, beginnen – begonnen), ie → o (kiezen – gekozen, verliezen – verloren), e → o (nemen – genomen, spreken – gesproken). Some keep their vowel: lopen – gelopen, slapen – geslapen, geven – gegeven.

A few are wholly irregular and very common: zijn – geweest, hebben – gehad, gaan – gegaan, doen – gedaan, zien – gezien, komen – gekomen. And one group changes the vowel but ends in -t, like English “bought, thought, brought, sought”: brengen – gebracht, denken – gedacht, kopen – gekocht, zoeken – gezocht.

A closer look

Learn three forms

Learn each strong verb with three forms: infinitive, past tense, participle — schrijven, schreef, geschreven; drinken, dronk, gedronken; gaan, ging, gegaan. English teachers give you the same three forms (write, wrote, written), and you get the past tense along with it, which is just as common in narrative.

Exceptions and special cases1

Exception
When a verb is weak in English but strong in Dutch
then you have to learn it on its own: lachen – gelachen is strong, English “laugh – laughed” is weak; kopen – gekocht changes its vowel, as English “buy – bought” does.
Om die grap heb ik hard gelachen.I laughed out loud at that joke.
Why? The two languages have developed differently for individual verbs.

Worth knowing2

Worth knowing
gekocht and gekookt
A classic pair: kopen (to buy) – gekocht, and koken (to cook) – gekookt. Ik heb gekocht therefore means “I bought”. If you cooked, you say ik heb gekookt.
Ik heb vis gekocht en hem daarna gekookt.I bought fish and then cooked it.
Worth knowing
The list does not grow
New verbs are always formed weak: googelen – gegoogeld, appen – geappt. The strong verbs are an old, closed group of about two hundred verbs, of which you will need perhaps sixty in everyday life. English works the same way: nobody says “I have drunk-ed” but everybody says “I have googled”.
Ik heb je een berichtje geappt.I sent you a message on the app.

The verbs on this page, in every form: hebben · eten · doen · zien · kopen · slapen · vinden · drinken