Education & Study
Education & Study
Dutch draws lines English blurs: leren covers both learning and teaching, studeren means specifically higher study, and passing an exam takes the preposition voor while failing one takes none at all.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
leren, studeren, volgen — three ways to learn
Ik leer Nederlands. Ik studeer geschiedenis. Ik volg een cursus.
I'm learning Dutch. I'm studying history. I'm taking a course.
leren is acquiring a skill or subject and can also mean 'to teach' (Hij leert mij Nederlands). studeren means being enrolled in higher education in a subject, so you cannot studeren a language you are picking up casually. A course is something you volgen ('follow'), not 'take'. English uses 'study' and 'take' far more loosely across all three.
slagen voor and zakken voor: passing and failing
Ik ben geslaagd voor het examen. Hij is gezakt.
I passed the exam. He failed.
slagen ('to succeed') takes voor and, being a change-of-state verb, forms its perfect with zijn: Ik ben geslaagd. zakken ('to sink, to fail') behaves the same way: Hij is gezakt voor het tentamen. The English pattern — 'pass' and 'fail' as plain transitive verbs — transfers to neither, so both need learning with their preposition and auxiliary.
Institutions take op or aan, not in
op school, op de middelbare school, aan de universiteit
at school, at secondary school, at university
Schools take op, universities take aan. English uses 'at' for both and drops the article in 'at school' but keeps it in 'at the university'. Dutch keeps the article in all but the fixed phrase op school, which is exactly parallel to the English bare form. The related verb studeren also takes aan for the institution: Ik studeer aan de universiteit van Groningen.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- the training / degree programme
- English
- the subject
- English
- the exam
- English
- to pass
- English
- to fail
- English
- the thesis
- English
- the grade
- English
- the teacher / lecturer
- English
- the homework
- English
- to take a course
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