Lesson 9 - Invullen in blokletters

 

Intro

This lesson teaches you how to give detailed information about yourself (especially when using forms). You'll also learn about reflexive verbs and you'll get a complete overview of all kinds of pronouns.

 

Civil servants (ambtenaren) in the Netherlands kan sometimes be very helpful to foreigners, trying to speak clearly and use as little difficult expressions as they can. But mostly they're like most of their colleagues in other countries: having little patience (while asking a lot ...), speaking very quick, using a lot of expressience that are even hard to understand by Dutch people.

It helps though, if you know what they could be saying or asking. Here's a standard kind of conversation to give you a few words and phrases that might be of some help:

Text 9.1 - Wat is uw naam?
Wat is uw naam?
Smits, Karel Anton Smits.
Kunt u uw achternaam voor me spellen?
Ja, s-m-i-t-s
Dank u wel. Wat is uw adres?
Vermeerstraat 12, Amsterdam.
En de postcode?
1016 XS
Wanneer bent u geboren?
Ik ben geboren op 20 augustus 1956
Wat is uw beroep?
Ik ben autoverkoper.
Bent u getrouwd?
Ja
Heeft u kinderen?
Ja, ik heb een zoon en een dochter.
Wat is uw nationaliteit?
Ik ben Nederlander.

For spelling your name, it's important that you studied the alphabet (see pronunciation page in the grammar section), for errors are easily made (especially on a, e and i).

Of course you don't have that problem when filling in (/out) a form. Futher down you'll find an example of a form with the data of the above mentioned Mr. Smits. But first some notes on these data:

• Note that in Dutch you write or mention day-month-year when a date is asked.
• Try to remember Ik ben geboren... as well as you can: a lot of English speakers make embarressing mistakes on this phrase ("Ik was geboord"...).
• Addresses in the Netherlands are written as follows:
  Name
  Street Number
  Zipcode City
• Couples that are samenwonend ('living together') have practicly the same rights and duties as those who are married. And for gay or lesbian couples it's the same story (they can also get married in the Netherlands).
• A girorekening (Postbank account) has less numbers than a bankrekening (regular bank account) but furthermore nowadays it's the same type of account with the same possibillities.

 

Text 9.2 - Formulier

 

Achternaam    : 
Voornamen     : 
Adres         : 
Postcode      : 
Woonplaats    : 
Telefoon      : 
Fax           : 
Beroep        : 
Werkgever     : 
Nationaliteit : 
Geboortedatum : 
Geboorteplaats: 
Geboorteland  : 
Geslacht         :          man         vrouw    
Burgerlijke staat:           gehuwd         gescheiden         ongehuwd         weduwe         weduwnaar         samenwonend  
Giro-/bankrekening  : 
Kenteken van de auto: 
Ik wil me           wel         niet  aanmelden als nieuw lid.
Ik wil         graag        geen  informatie toegestuurd krijgen.

Opmerkingen :
Plaats      :
Datum       :
Handtekening:

 

In the form above, there is one sentence that contains a reflexive verb: Ik wil me wel/niet aanmelden als nieuw lid.. The infinitive here, is zich aanmelden (to check in, to register): if the dictionary states that zich ('oneself') belongs to a verb it means it's a reflexive one. This is a kind of verb that requires the subject to be an object too. In English, you can do this with some verbs (I'm washing myself, I find myself ..., I'm exerting myself), but in Dutch you have to do this to quite a lot of verbs.

A few examples:

• zich herinneren - to remember
• zich schamen - to be ashamed
• zich vergissen - to be mistaken
• zich verheugen op - to look forward to
• zich voorstellen - to imagine

Some other verbs can be reflexive: they require an object and this could be the subject. Examples:

• (zich) bewegen - to move
• (zich) scheren - to shave
• (zich) wassen - to wash

 

Here are some phrases with these verbs. Note that the refexive pronoun is always placed after the first verb:

Text 9.3 - Reflexive verbs (examples)

Ik herinner me zijn naam niet.

Zij schaamde zich diep voor haar fout.

Hij heeft zich helemaal vergist.

Zij zal zich verheugen op haar huwelijk.

Kun je je voorstellen hoe zwaar zijn leven is?

Hij kan zich niet meer bewegen.

Zij heeft zich vandaag nog niet geschoren.

Hij wast zich elke ochtend.

The reflexive pronouns you need for the reflexive verbs are listed below. And while we're at it, we might as well take a look at object and possessive pronouns as well:

Text 9.4 - Pronouns

subject	object	possessive	reflexive
ik	mij	mijn	me
jij	jou	jouw	je
u	u	uw	zich
hij	hem	zijn	zich
zij	haar	haar	zich
het	het	zijn	zich
wij	ons	ons/onze	ons
jullie	jullie	jullie	je
zij	ze - hun	hun	zich

A few notes on this:

• Many pronouns have two versions: one for regular use and one to use if the pronoun has a specific emphasis (the 'proper' version):
  • mij and mijn are usually me and m'n
  • jij, jou and jouw are usually je
    (Herinner jij je jouw verjaardag? - Herinner je je je verjaardag?)
  • zijn is usually z'n
  • het is usually 't
  • zij is usually ze
  • wij is usually we
• The same goes for ze and hun (object, third person plural): normally you would use ze, but if you need a special emphasis, you use hun .
• Officially, for object third person plural ('them') there are two forms: hun and hen. The grammar rules state that
  • hen should be used for direct object and after prepositions and
  • hun should be used for indirect object.
  This is a purely artificial difference though: most Dutch people don't get it right - in colloquial Dutch hun is mostly used for all object forms.
• In spoken Dutch, you even hear hun being used as a subject form for third person plural. This is still considered absolutely wrong, though.
• The possessive ons is used for het-nouns (ons huis) and onze for de-nouns (onze tuin).

Vocabulary
achter	after, behind
het adres	the address
de ambtenaar	the civil servant
de autoverkoper	the car salesman
het beroep	the profession
(zich) bewegen	to move
burgerlijk	civil
de datum	the date
de dochter	the daughter
elk	each
de fax	the fax
de fout	the mistake
de geboorte	the birth
geboren (ik ben...)	born (I was)
het geslacht	the gender
de handtekening	the signature
zich herinneren	to remember
het huwelijk	the marriage
het kenteken	the (car) registration number
het land	the land, the country
het leven	life
meer	more, anymore
de nationaliteit	the nationality
de Nederlander	the Dutchman
de plaats	the place, also: the town
de postcode	the zipcode, postal code
de rekening	the account
samenwonen	to live together
zich schamen	to be ashamed
(zich) scheren	to shave
spellen	to spell
de staat	the state
de telefoon	the telephone
trouwen	to get married
vandaag	today
zich vergissen	to be mistaken
de verjaardag	the birthday
zich verheugen op	to look forward to
zich voorstellen	to imagine
de werkgever	the employer
de woonplaats	place of residence
de zoon	the son
zwaar	heavy, tough

More ...

• Grammar pages: Pronunciation & spelling (again)
• Grammar pages: Pronouns (+ exercises)
• Grammar pages: Reflexive verbs (+ exercises)

Imagine some people around you - you can use some peaces of paper on which you can write their names: let there be one male, one female, one couple, one person you can be informal to and one you can be formal to. Now give everyone, including yourself, a book and then tell which book belong to who: dit is mijn boek, dat is jouw boek, dat is uw boek, dat is zijn boek ....

Now hand over a pen to every person and say what you do while you're doing it: ik geef de pen aan jou, aan hem, aan haar...

Try to fill in the form above with your own data.