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DUTCH Durative Construction
DUTCH Durative Construction
Language Dutch
Level B1
General information.
Durative construction works in a similar fashion to the continuous tenses in English.
Erik: Waar is mijn rode Sanne: Die hangt aan de lijn te drogen.
sportbroek? Sanne: They are drying on the line.
Durative construction 1
Erik: Where are my red sports
pants?
Sometimes, the verbs zitten or liggen are used to express that something is going on, while
the person doesn’t have to actually be in the described position. Mostly used to express
irritation.
Durative construction 2
Ze staan met de band mee te zingen.
They’re singing along with the band.
The present perfect of this construction is formed with the auxiliary verb hebben and two
infinitives at the end. Te is optional.
Separable verbs in the present perfect of this construction can be separated by zitten, lopen,
staan and liggen nor not. Te is generally dropped.
A separable verb should not be separated in this construction. However, in casual speech,
more often than not people would separate them, especially if the separable prefix is an
adjective or a noun, such as schoonmaken, stofzuigen, grasmaaien.
Durative construction 3
If this construction is used for the past tense, it would be easier and more preferable to use
the simple past tense. The present perfect is much less common.
Sanne was aan het afwassen.
Peter was aan het voetballen.
A lot of times, bezig zijn is combined with the preposition met and a nominalised verb or a
noun.
The word bezig in Dutch is not an exact equivalent of ‘busy’. The equivalent of busy in
English is as follows:
To use this construction in the past, you can use the simple past (1), as well as the present
perfect (2) for the verbal. Examples (3) and (4) are for the nominal version.
Erik spent the whole day cleaning up the attic
1. Erik was de hele dag bezig de zolder op te ruimen.
Durative construction 4
2. Erik is de hele dag bezig geweest de zolder op te ruimen.
3. Erik was de hele dag op zolder met opruimen bezig.
4. Erik is de hele dag op zolder met opruimen bezig geweest.
Durative construction 5