Starting class slowly | Learn Dutch in English

Sentence explanations

1. Ik voel me zenuwachtig voor de les.

   I feel nervous before class.

   Ik

   I

   voel

   feel

   me

   myself

   zenuwachtig

   nervous

   voor

   before

   les

   class

   More detail

   Ik means “I” here: it is the first-person singular subject, the person experiencing the feeling. The matching object/reflexive form in this sentence is me, not mij in this unstressed position. Example: Ik leer. — “I learn.” voel is the first-person singular present form of voelen, “to feel.” Dutch uses the reflexive pattern zich voelen for a person’s state or sensation: ik voel me ... means “I feel ...”. The useful form chain is voelen → ik voel → past ik voelde → participle gevoeld. Example: Ik voel me beter. — “I feel better.” me is the unstressed first-person singular reflexive pronoun. It refers back to the subject Ik, so the sentence describes the speaker’s own state. In the same pattern, the pronoun changes with the subject: Hij voelt zich zenuwachtig. — “He feels nervous.” zenuwachtig is an adjective meaning “nervous” in this sentence. After voelen in the pattern zich voelen, it describes the subject’s state and remains in its predicative form: Ik voel me zenuwachtig. Dutch also has the related adjective rustig, “calm”: Ik voel me rustig. — “I feel calm.” voor is a preposition meaning “before” here. With a time expression, voor places the event or state earlier than that time: voor de les means “before class.” Its meaning can change with context; for example, een cadeau voor jou means “a gift for you,” but that is not its meaning in this sentence. les is the noun “class” or “lesson.” The form used here is singular and appears with the common-gender definite article de: de les. Its plural is lessen: twee lessen — “two lessons.” The article de identifies the class as a specific lesson in the sentence; it does not itself state a numerical count. Together, Ik voel me gives the reusable pattern “I feel,” literally expressing the speaker’s own state with a reflexive pronoun. zenuwachtig names that state, and voor de les places it before class. The complete meaning is: “I feel nervous before class.”

2. Dat gevoel is normaal. De groep is vriendelijk.

   That feeling is normal. The group is friendly.

   Dat

   that

   gevoel

   feeling

   normaal

   normal

   groep

   group

   vriendelijk

   friendly

   More detail

   Dat means “that” here and points to a specific feeling. In Dutch, dat is used with a singular neuter noun such as gevoel; the corresponding form with a singular common-gender noun is die. This form does not by itself identify what the feeling is; the sentence and context establish that it is the feeling being discussed. gevoel means “feeling.” Its base form is the singular noun gevoel; the plural is gevoelens. Dutch nouns are written with a capital letter only at the beginning of a sentence or in proper names, so this sentence has lowercase gevoel. normaal means “normal.” Here it is a descriptive adjective after the linking verb is, describing the feeling. The adjective has the same form in this position for singular and plural subjects: Het gevoel is normaal and De gevoelens zijn normaal. Example: Dat is normaal. — “That is normal.” groep means “group.” The sentence uses the singular form; its plural is groepen. In the full sentence, the noun appears with the article de: de groep. Example: De groep wacht. — “The group is waiting.” vriendelijk means “friendly.” It is a descriptive adjective after is, describing the group. Its comparative form is vriendelijker (“friendlier”), and its superlative is het vriendelijkst (“the friendliest”). Example: De docent is vriendelijk. — “The teacher is friendly.” The first sentence combines Dat gevoel (“that feeling”) with is normaal (“is normal”), so its complete meaning is “That feeling is normal.” The second combines De groep (“the group”) with is vriendelijk (“is friendly”), giving “The group is friendly.”

3. Ik ben blij om dat te horen.

   I am glad to hear that.

   Ik ben

   I am

   blij

   glad

   dat

   that

   horen

   hear

   More detail

   Ik ben means “I am.” ben is the present-tense first-person singular form of zijn (“to be”): ik ben, jij bent, hij/zij is. It does not mark gender. Example: Ik ben thuis. — “I am at home.” blij means “glad” or “happy” here. It is a descriptive adjective and does not change for the first-person subject in this sentence. In the pattern blij om ... te ..., it can express being glad about doing or experiencing something. Example: Zij is blij om je te zien. — “She is glad to see you.” dat means “that” here as a demonstrative pronoun referring to information already understood in the context. It is the object of horen, not a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause. Example: Het is fijn om dat te horen. — “It is nice to hear that.” horen means “to hear” here. It is the infinitive, and horen is also its base form. In the pattern om ... te horen, te marks the infinitive clause after om. Example: Ik probeer goed te horen. — “I try to hear well.” Together, Ik ben blij says “I am glad,” and om dat te horen specifies what the speaker is glad about: hearing that information. Thus the whole utterance means “I am glad to hear that.” The reusable pattern Ik ben blij om [something] te horen expresses pleasure about hearing something.

4. In het begin doen we het rustig aan.

   We take things slowly at first.

   In het begin

   at first

   begin

   begin; start

   doen

   do

   rustig

   calmly; without hurry

   doen … het rustig aan

   take things slowly

   More detail

   In het begin is a temporal phrase meaning “at first” or “in the beginning.” The noun begin means “begin” or “start”; het is the article used with this noun. Example: In het begin begrijp ik het niet. — “At first, I do not understand it.” doen means “to do.” In the sentence, it is the present-tense form used with we: we doen — “we do.” Its useful present-tense forms include ik doe — “I do” and hij doet — “he does.” Because In het begin comes first, the finite verb appears before we in the observed order: doen we. rustig can mean “calm” or “quiet.” Here it is used adverbially with the idea of proceeding calmly and without haste; its form does not change in this use. Example: We werken rustig. — “We work calmly.” doen with het rustig aan forms the expression het rustig aan doen, meaning “to take things slowly” or “to take it easy.” The het in this expression is part of the construction, not a particular object identified in the sentence. Example: Doe het rustig aan. — “Take it easy.” Together, In het begin sets the time, and doen we het rustig aan says that the people represented by we proceed without hurry. The complete utterance means: “We take things slowly at first.”

5. Dat klinkt goed.

   That sounds good.

   Dat

   that

   klinkt

   sounds

   goed

   good

   More detail

   Dat means “that” here and is the subject, not a word modifying a noun. In Dutch, dat is the singular neuter form of the demonstrative system; this sentence does not identify exactly what it refers to. Dit is the corresponding “this” form for a nearer singular neuter referent. Example: Dat is interessant. — “That is interesting.” klinkt is the present-tense third-person singular form of klinken, “to sound.” Its form can be shown as klink- + -t; here, -t belongs to the third-person singular present form with the subject dat. Dutch present forms vary by person and number: ik klink — “I sound,” dat klinkt — “that sounds,” and wij klinken — “we sound.” Example: Het klinkt vreemd. — “It sounds strange.” goed means “good” here and evaluates the sound. After klinken, it is used as the uninflected complement describing how something sounds, so it does not take the attributive -e ending in this sentence. Example: De muziek klinkt goed. — “The music sounds good.” Together, Dat supplies the subject, klinkt says how that subject comes across by sound, and goed gives the positive evaluation: “That sounds good.”

6. Het eerste deel is makkelijk.

   The first part is easy.

   Het

   the

   eerste

   first

   deel

   part

   is

   is

   makkelijk

   easy

   More detail

   Het is the definite article used here with deel. Dutch definite articles are de and het; het belongs with singular neuter nouns such as deel. An article marks a definite noun, not a numerical quantity. eerste means “first” and places the part at the beginning of an order. It is the ordinal form related to één (“one”), but it is not used as a count here. The form eerste stays the same before both de-words and het-words: de eerste dag (“the first day”), het eerste deel (“the first part”). deel means “part” or “section.” Its plural is delen: twee delen means “two parts.” In this sentence, deel is singular and definite because it follows het. is is the present-tense third-person singular form of zijn (“to be”). The same verb has forms such as ik ben (“I am”) and wij zijn (“we are”). Here, is links the subject to the description that follows. makkelijk means “easy” or “not difficult.” It is an adjective describing deel here. For example, De oefening is makkelijk. means “The exercise is easy.” Together, Het eerste deel means “the first part,” and is makkelijk says that this part has the quality of being easy. The complete utterance therefore means “The first part is easy.”