The Double Infinitive
The Double Infinitive
Put a modal verb into the perfect tense and Dutch does something English never does: instead of a participle, the modal appears as a second infinitive. 'I haven't been able to come' is Ik heb niet kunnen komen — kunnen, not gekund.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Modals in the perfect become infinitives, not participles
Ik heb het niet kunnen doen. Hij heeft moeten werken.
I haven't been able to do it. He has had to work.
The participles gekund, gemoeten and gewild exist but are almost never used with another verb. Instead the modal reverts to its infinitive form and joins the main verb at the end of the clause, producing two infinitives in a row: kunnen doen, moeten werken. English marks the modal with 'been able to' or 'had to' and keeps a single main verb, so the Dutch construction has no direct model to copy.
The order inside the cluster is auxiliary, modal, main verb
Ik heb hem niet kunnen bereiken.
I couldn't reach him.
The conjugated auxiliary heb stays in second position, and the two infinitives line up at the end in the order modal-then-main: kunnen bereiken. Adding a third verb extends the chain the same way: Ik zou het hebben kunnen doen. The rule of thumb is that the main verb always comes last and each governing verb sits in front of the one it governs.
laten, zien, horen and helpen behave the same way
Ik heb hem zien komen. Ik heb mijn auto laten repareren.
I saw him coming. I had my car repaired.
The same infinitive-instead-of-participle rule covers verbs of perception and causation: zien, horen, voelen, laten, helpen. Note what laten does here — laten + infinitive means having something done by someone else, matching English 'have/get something done'. So Ik heb het laten doen means 'I had it done', not 'I let it do', and it is one of the most useful constructions at this level.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- have been able to
- English
- have had to
- English
- have wanted to
- English
- have been allowed to
- English
- to let / to have done
- English
- I had it done
- English
- to see coming
- English
- to hear said
- English
- to reach
- English
- to repair
Finished this lesson?