Verbs with Fixed Prepositions
Verbs with Fixed Prepositions
Dutch verbs come welded to specific prepositions, and they almost never match the English ones. You wait op something, look naar it, are afraid voor it and doubt aan it — none of which can be worked out from the English equivalent.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
The preposition is part of the verb and must be memorized with it
wachten op, kijken naar, denken aan, zorgen voor
to wait for, to look at, to think about, to take care of
English 'wait for' uses 'for'; Dutch wachten takes op ('on'). English 'look at'; Dutch kijken takes naar ('towards'). There is no logic to transfer, so these have to be learned as units — verb plus preposition — exactly as English learners memorize 'depend on' and 'consist of'. Dictionaries list the preposition immediately after the verb for this reason.
Adjectives take fixed prepositions too
bang voor, trots op, gewend aan, geïnteresseerd in
afraid of, proud of, used to, interested in
The same applies to adjective phrases built with zijn: bang zijn voor ('afraid of'), trots zijn op ('proud of'), gewend zijn aan ('used to'), tevreden zijn met ('satisfied with'). Two English 'of's here become two different Dutch prepositions, voor and op, which is a good illustration of why translating the preposition is hopeless.
With a pronoun object, the preposition fuses into er/daar/waar
Ik wacht erop. Waar wacht je op? Daar denk ik niet aan.
I'm waiting for it. What are you waiting for? I'm not thinking about that.
Because these prepositions cannot be followed by het, every one of these verbs feeds directly into the er-construction: wachten op becomes erop wachten, denken aan becomes eraan denken. In practice that means learning the preposition pays off twice — once for the full noun phrase, and once for the fused form you will need in almost every reply and question.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- to wait for
- English
- to look at / watch
- English
- to listen to
- English
- to take care of
- English
- to doubt
- English
- to consist of
- English
- to count on
- English
- afraid of
- English
- proud of
- English
- used to
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