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B1 · Sentence structure

The verb group at the end: gezien heb or heb gezien

order of several verbs at the end of the sentence

Topic 75 of 90 · about 9 minutes

Your goal

You can order the verb group at the end of a clause and know when both gezien heb and heb gezien are possible.

Ik denk dat hij al vertrokken is.I think that he has already left.

Ik denk dat hij al is vertrokken.I think that he has already left.

Ze heeft gisteren niet kunnen werken.She wasn’t able to work yesterday.

Done at 8 of 10, including 3 of 4 written yourself · about 5 min

Explainer video

Watch first – then practise

The essentials

RememberTwo verbs: as you like. Three verbs: conjugated verb first, main verb last.

Auxiliary and participle may come in either order; with three verbs the conjugated one comes first.

Signal words: heb
heeft
ben
is
kunnen
moeten
willen
zal

The form

The patterns at a glance

Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Dutch.

auxiliary and participle, two orders	… dat ik het gezien heb / heb gezien
modal verb and infinitive	… omdat ik morgen moet werken
zullen and infinitive	… dat ze morgen zal bellen
three verbs: conjugated verb first	… dat ik niet heb kunnen komen
main clause with three verbs	Ik heb niet kunnen slapen.
separable verb in the group	… dat ik je wil opbellen / op wil bellen

The rules one by one

The form this topic is about

Auxiliary and participle may stand in either order.
Ik weet dat ze het gezien heeft.I know that she has seen it.
A modal verb usually comes before the infinitive.
Ik bel je, omdat ik je iets moet vragen.I’m ringing you because I have to ask you something.
With three verbs the conjugated one comes first, the main verb last.
Het spijt me dat ik niet heb kunnen komen.I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to come.

More rules (2)

After a modal verb with infinitive, the infinitive stands instead of the participle.
We hebben lang moeten wachten.We had to wait for a long time.
niet and other parts of the sentence stand before the verb group, never inside it.
Hij zegt dat hij het niet heeft gedaan.He says that he didn’t do it.

Example sentences

6 more example sentences

Weet je of Ruben zal komen?Do you know whether Ruben will come?

Ik vind het jammer dat je niet hebt willen blijven.I think it’s a pity that you didn’t want to stay.

Omdat ik ziek was, heb ik niet kunnen sporten.Because I was ill, I wasn’t able to do any sport.

Ik geloof niet dat ze het heeft gehoord.I don’t believe that she heard it.

We hebben de hele middag moeten wachten.We had to wait the whole afternoon.

Ik denk dat ik je morgen op zal bellen.I think that I’ll ring you tomorrow.

The trap English speakers fall into

Watch out

English keeps the group in a fixed order, “I haven’t been able to come”, and Dutch heb kunnen komen follows it closely, so this part comes easily. The mirror-image order, komen kunnen heb, is understood but sounds wrong. The real slip for English speakers is the participle: because English has “been able”, learners build gekund into the group. With a following infinitive it must be kunnen.

Wrong:Het spijt me dat ik niet komen kunnen heb.

Right:Het spijt me dat ik niet heb kunnen komen.

Lesson

The full explanation

Read it all · about 1 min

English keeps its verbs in one fixed order: “that I have seen it”. Dutch allows two orders for an auxiliary and a participle: … dat ik het gezien heb and … dat ik het heb gezien. Both are standard Dutch, and you will hear and read both every day. The second, “red” order, heb gezien, is the English order (“have seen”); the first has the participle in front. With a modal verb and infinitive, on the other hand, the modal verb almost always comes first: … omdat ik morgen moet werken. “… because I have to work tomorrow.”

With three verbs Dutch looks very much like English: the conjugated verb comes first, then the modal verb, last the main verb. … dat ik niet heb kunnen komen is “that I haven’t been able to come”: have – be able – come. One difference: where English has the participle “been able”, Dutch uses the infinitive kunnen instead of a participle gekund. This is the substitute infinitive, and it is compulsory.

In a main clause the group at the end follows the same order: Ik heb gisteren niet kunnen slapen. “I couldn’t sleep yesterday.” And nothing gets between the verbs of the group: niet, objects and time words stand in front of it. Only the particle of a separable verb may slip in: … dat ik je morgen wil opbellen or … op wil bellen.

A closer look

The group with te

Verbs with te + infinitive also form a group: … omdat ze zit te lezen, … dat ik probeer te slapen. Here the conjugated verb always comes first. With an auxiliary in the perfect this becomes a substitute infinitive again: Ze heeft zitten lezen — “she has been sitting reading”, without te.

Exceptions and special cases1

Exception
When the modal verb stands without a second verb
then it gets an ordinary participle: Ik heb het niet gekund.
Ze heeft het echt gewild.She really wanted it.
Why? The substitute infinitive occurs only when an infinitive depends on it — just as English has “I haven’t been able to” but also “I couldn’t help it”.

Worth knowing2

Worth knowing
Rode en groene volgorde
Dutch grammars call heb gezien the rode volgorde (“red order”) and gezien heb the groene volgorde (“green order”). In the Netherlands you hear the green one more often in conversation, in Flanders the red. Both are right; pick one and stay with it in the same text.
Ik weet niet of ze al gegeten heeft.I don’t know whether she has eaten yet.
Worth knowing
Nothing inside the group
If you use the red order, it is easy to push a word between the verbs: dat ik heb niet gewerkt. That is not possible. niet, pronouns and time words stand before the first verb of the group: dat ik niet heb gewerkt.
Ze zegt dat ze gisteren niet heeft gewerkt.She says that she didn’t work yesterday.

The verbs on this page, in every form: hebben · kunnen · zijn · komen · willen · weten · vertrekken · denken