{"id":1883,"date":"2012-02-07T20:57:30","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T20:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2012-02-11T16:03:06","modified_gmt":"2012-02-11T16:03:06","slug":"the-verb-zijn-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/the-verb-zijn-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"The Verb Zijn (To Be)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Verbs might not be the most exciting part of a language but they are one of the most important.\u00a0 With that in mind, today we will take a look at the verb <em>zijn<\/em>, which means <em>to be<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples of the verb at work:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Ik ben de lerares.<\/em> (I am the teacher.)<\/li>\n<li><em>Zij zijn Nederlanders.<\/em> (They are Dutch.)<\/li>\n<li><em>Zij is een meisje.<\/em> (She is a girl.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The conjugation of the verb <em>zijn<\/em> is irregular, just like in English.\u00a0 So, this is one of those verbs that you will need to learn by heart.\u00a0 In the present tense, there are four finite or conjugated verbs.<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Dutch<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>English<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">ik ben<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">I am<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">jij\/je bent<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">you are (informal, singular)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">u bent<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">you are (formal, singular)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">hij, zij\/ze, het is<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">he, she, it is<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">wij\/we zijn<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">we are<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">jullie zijn<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">you are (informal, plural)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">u bent<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">you are (formal, plural)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">zij\/ze zijn<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"308\">\n<p align=\"center\">they are<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The verb <em>zijn<\/em> can be used for quite a few things.\u00a0 For example, you can use it to tell nationalities:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Ik ben Amerikaan.<\/em> (I am American.)<\/p>\n<p>You can also use it to identify things:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Jij bent een kind.<\/em> (You are a child.)<\/p>\n<p>And to give basic descriptions:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>Zij is oud.<\/em> (She is old.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Some Opportunities for Practise:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Vul de goede vorm van het werkwoord \u2018zijn\u2019 in. (Fill in the correct form of the verb \u2018to be.\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u00a0Ik _______ ziek.<\/li>\n<li>Wij _______ op school.<\/li>\n<li>U _________ aardig.<\/li>\n<li>Jullie ________ te laat.<\/li>\n<li>Zij __________ lerares.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Vul het persoonswoord en een vorm van \u2018zijn\u2019 in. (Fill in the subject pronoun and a form of \u2018to be.\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>De leraar kijkt naar ons.\u00a0 ____ ____ boos.<\/li>\n<li>Ik maak veel fouten.\u00a0 ____ _____ verdrietig.<\/li>\n<li>Moeder ligt in bed.\u00a0 ___ ____ ziek.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Goed of Fout? Omcirkel het juiste antwoord. (Right or Wrong? Circle the correct answer.)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Ik is ziek.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Goed \/ fout<\/li>\n<li>Wij zijn cursisten.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Goed \/ fout<\/li>\n<li>Het meisje ben mooi.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Goed \/ fout<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Verbs might not be the most exciting part of a language but they are one of the most important.\u00a0 With that in mind, today we will take a look at the verb zijn, which means to be. Here are some examples of the verb at work: Ik ben de lerares. (I am the teacher.) Zij&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/the-verb-zijn-to-be\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[27710,3590,27711],"tags":[117769,2574,165,117767],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-dutch-grammar","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","tag-dutch-grammar-2","tag-to-be","tag-verb","tag-zijn"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1898,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions\/1898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}