Basic health and temperature | Learn Dutch in English

Sentence explanations

1. Het is te warm.

   It is too hot.

   Het is

   It is

   te

   too

   warm

   hot

   More detail

   Het is means “it is” here. het is the Dutch singular neuter pronoun, and is is the present-tense form of zijn (“to be”) used with a singular subject. In this temperature expression, het is an impersonal subject; the sentence does not identify a separate concrete thing that is hot. The same pattern is reusable: Het is koud. — “It is cold.” te means “too” here: it marks an excessive degree, not simply a high degree. Compare warm (“warm/hot”) with te warm (“too warm/hot”). For example, De koffie is te warm. — “The coffee is too hot.” warm is an adjective meaning “warm” or, in this context, “hot.” Its basic form is warm; after te, it remains in this form: te warm. A useful contrast is koud (“cold”), as in Het is te koud. — “It is too cold.” Together, Het is + te warm gives “It is too hot.” The pattern Het is te + adjective expresses that an impersonal condition has an excessive degree: Het is te koud. means “It is too cold.”

2. Het is te koud.

   It is too cold.

   Het

   it

   is

   is

   te koud

   too cold

   More detail

   Het is the Dutch pronoun used here in the impersonal pattern het is ..., meaning “it” without identifying a particular person or object. In this sentence, it introduces a general situation or condition rather than referring to a uniquely named noun. Dutch also uses het as the neuter singular form of “it” when it does refer to a specific neuter noun, but that is a different use. is is the present-tense form of zijn (“to be”) for a third-person singular subject. The useful pattern is het is ... = “it is ...”. For example: Het is laat. — “It is late.” te koud combines te (“too”) with the adjective koud (“cold”). Koud describes a low temperature; te says that the degree is excessive for the relevant situation. The adjective’s basic form is koud; a comparative form is kouder (“colder”), as in Vandaag is het kouder. — “Today it is colder.” Do not confuse te koud (“too cold”) with erg koud (“very cold”): erg intensifies, while te expresses that the degree is beyond a suitable limit. Together, Het is te koud. means “It is too cold.” The reusable structure is het is + adjective, with te + adjective when the condition is excessively strong: Het is te warm. — “It is too hot.”

3. Ik ben erg moe.

   I am very tired.

   Ik

   I

   ben

   am

   erg

   very

   moe

   tired

   More detail

   Ik means “I”: it is the first-person singular subject pronoun. The related form jij means “you” when addressing one person. ben is the first-person singular present form of zijn, “to be.” The useful present-tense pattern is ik ben (“I am”), while jij bent means “you are” and hij/zij is means “he/she is.” erg means “very” here and strengthens the adjective that follows. It can also mean “badly” or “severely” in other contexts, so its meaning depends on what it modifies. moe is an adjective meaning “tired.” It does not show a separate masculine, feminine, or plural form in this sentence. For example: Ik ben moe. — “I am tired.” Together, Ik ben erg moe. means “I am very tired.” The pattern Ik ben + adjective is reusable for describing the speaker’s current state, such as Ik ben erg blij. — “I am very happy.”

4. Ik heb erg veel honger.

   I am very hungry.

   Ik heb

   I have

   erg veel

   very much

   honger

   hunger

   More detail

   Ik heb means “I have” here. Ik is the first-person singular subject pronoun, and heb is the present-tense form of hebben (“to have”) used with ik. Dutch commonly uses hebben + a noun for certain bodily states: Ik heb dorst. means “I am thirsty.” erg veel intensifies the amount: erg means “very” and veel means “much” or “a lot.” With the mass noun honger, this means “very much hunger,” which English naturally expresses as “very hungry.” For example, Ik heb veel werk. means “I have a lot of work”; there, veel describes the amount of werk. honger is the noun “hunger.” In this sentence it is not an adjective meaning “hungry”; it is the noun used in the Dutch expression honger hebben (“to be hungry,” literally “to have hunger”). The related expression dorst hebben means “to be thirsty,” but dorst means “thirst,” not “hunger.” Together, Ik heb + erg veel + honger produces Ik heb erg veel honger., literally “I have very much hunger,” with the natural meaning “I am very hungry.”

5. Ik heb erg veel dorst.

   I am very thirsty.

   Ik

   I

   heb

   have

   erg

   very

   veel

   much; a lot of

   dorst

   thirst

   More detail

   Ik means “I.” It is the first-person singular subject pronoun. It refers to the speaker, and its form does not change for grammatical gender. Example: Ik ben moe. — “I am tired.” heb is the present-tense form of hebben (“to have”) for ik: ik heb. Dutch uses this verb in the reusable expression dorst hebben, literally “to have thirst,” which means “to be thirsty.” Do not replace heb with ben in this expression. Example: Ik heb honger. — “I am hungry.” erg means “very” here and intensifies the following amount or degree. It is an adverb, so it does not change form. Example: Dat is erg goed. — “That is very good.” veel means “much” or “a lot of.” With an uncountable noun such as dorst, it describes a large amount. Its opposite in this kind of quantity contrast is weinig (“little; not much”). Example: Ik heb veel tijd. — “I have a lot of time.” dorst is the noun “thirst.” In the expression dorst hebben, Dutch describes the state of being thirsty with hebben rather than with a direct equivalent of English “be.” The noun is commonly used without an article in this fixed expression. Example: Zij heeft dorst. — “She is thirsty.” Together, Ik heb (“I have”), erg veel (“very much/a lot of”), and dorst (“thirst”) form the natural Dutch expression Ik heb erg veel dorst. The whole utterance means “I am very thirsty.”

6. Ik voel me ziek.

   I am feeling sick.

   Ik

   I

   voel

   feel

   me

   me; myself

   ziek

   sick

   More detail

   Ik is the Dutch first-person singular pronoun “I.” It identifies the speaker. The matching subject form is ik; for example, Ik ben moe. means “I am tired.” voel is the present-tense form of voelen (“to feel”) used with ik. Dutch present forms commonly use an unchanged stem with ik: ik voel, while voelen is the dictionary form. Example: Ik voel de wind. means “I feel the wind.” me is the unstressed reflexive pronoun corresponding to ik, meaning that the feeling is experienced by the speaker. Here it belongs with voel in the pattern ik voel me ... (“I feel ...”). The stressed form mezelf can be used for emphasis, but it is not the form in this utterance. ziek is an adjective meaning “sick” or “ill.” In this sentence it describes the speaker’s condition after voel me; it is not an inflected verb. Example: Zij voelt zich ziek. means “She feels sick.” Together, Ik voel me ziek. uses the reusable pattern subject + voelen + reflexive pronoun + adjective: Ik identifies the speaker, voel expresses the present feeling, me refers back to the speaker, and ziek describes that condition. The complete meaning is “I am feeling sick.”