Present Tense: Regular Verbs
वर्तमान काल: नियमित क्रियाएँ
Dutch regular verbs conjugate around a single core piece, the stem, with endings so predictable that once you find a verb's stem, every present-tense form follows automatically — a mechanical pattern much like the way Hindi verb stems take predictable endings across tenses.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
werken (to work) — find the stem, add the ending
ik werk, jij/je werkt, u werkt, hij/zij/het werkt, wij werken, jullie werken, zij werken
मैं काम करता हूँ, तुम काम करते हो, आप काम करते हैं, वह काम करता है, हम काम करते हैं, तुम लोग काम करते हो, वे काम करते हैं
Drop the -en from the infinitive werken to get the stem werk. ik takes the bare stem with no ending at all; jij/je, u, and hij/zij/het all add -t; and wij, jullie, zij simply use the full infinitive form. Just like Hindi verb stems (कर- from करना) take a predictable set of endings across persons, Dutch's stem-plus-ending system is fully mechanical once you know the stem.
Long vowel stems double the vowel to stay long
wonen (to live) → stem 'woon', not 'won' / maken (to make) → stem 'maak', not 'mak'
इस स्पेलिंग नियम के लिए हिंदी में कोई समानता नहीं है
This has no Hindi parallel, so treat it as a purely Dutch spelling rule: dropping -en from wonen would leave 'won', but that single 'o' would then be pronounced short, not the long 'oo' sound the infinitive actually has. So the stem doubles the vowel — woon — purely to preserve the original long sound in writing. The same doubling happens with maken → maak, praten → praat, and many others; it's a spelling fix, not a change in meaning or pronunciation.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| Dutch | Pronunciation | Hindi | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| werken | VER-ken | काम करनाkām karnā | to work |
| wonen | VOH-nen | रहनाrahnā | to live |
| leren | LAY-ren | सीखनाsīkhnā | to learn |
| spreken | SPRAY-ken | बोलनाbolnā | to speak |
| ik werk | ik verk | मैं काम करता हूँmaiñ kām kartā hūñ | I work |
| jij werkt | yay verkt | तुम काम करते होtum kām karte ho | you work |
| wij werken | vay VER-ken | हम काम करते हैंham kām karte haiñ | we work |
| zij spreken Nederlands | zay SPRAY-ken NAY-der-lants | वे डच बोलते हैंve ḍac bolte haiñ | they speak Dutch |