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Durative aspectIntroductionMany activities take place over a longer or shorter period of time. They can be said to have duration. Some languages must express this with a durative construction. In English the so-called ‘progressive' is used, as in 'Karin and Kenny are making an Indonesian meal', which signals that the cooking is taking place right now. In Dutch, there is no compulsory construction like that, and the above sentence can be translated as Karin en Kenny maken een rijsttafel (literally: 'Karin and Kenny make an Indonesian meal'). However, it is possible to express the fact that an activity has duration. Despite the fact that it is not used compulsorily (as in English), Dutch has two durative constructions. Zitten/staan/liggen/lopen te + infinitiveA durative construction can consist of a form of the verbs zitten (literally 'to sit'), staan (lit. 'to stand'), liggen (lit. 'to lie') or lopen (lit. 'to walk') with an infinitive + te.
In the above examples, it is important that you can imagine the position of the people involved in the action. You don't stand in bed, you lie. You don't sit while washing up, you stand. The English translations, however, all use the verb 'to be'. In colloquial Dutch this type of construction may be used without the position being relevant or actually involved, especially to express annoyance. For example:
The verbs zitten, staan, liggen and lopen behave as auxiliaries in this construction. When used in the perfect tense they are realised as infinitives rather than past participles (see perfect tense of auxiliaries):
Note that in the perfect tense (see the example above), or when another auxiliary is used (see the example below), the particle te becomes optional:
Zijn aan het + infinitiveA durative construction can consist of a form of the verb zijn complemented by aan + het + infinitive:
UseThe two durative constructions in Dutch can normally be used interchangeably. However, the zijn-aan-het construction is possible in any context, whereas the construction with zitten/lopen etc. can only be used if the activity is of a relatively short duration. Look at the difference in construction when reporting about writing a book versus writing a letter, for example:
Both (a) sentences are correct, but the first (b) sentence can only be uttered when the book is actually being completed in one go, without interruptions. As this is not normally the case, it is considered to be incorrect usage. Both constructions are optional, but they are regularly used in informal, colloquial language. |