Talk:krijgen

Use as an auxiliary

See item 4. In the example given vinden is not ditransitive and in the corresponding active sentence there would be a direct object, but no indirect object. Is there a native Dutch speaker out there who could provide a better example?

Actually, I was wondering whether it is true that in Dutch an indirect object can be promoted to the position of subject. It certainly happens in English. Consider the following sentences:

• The librarian found the book for John.

• The librarian found John the book.

• The book was found for John by the librarian.

• John was found the book by the librarian.

Now these all mean the same, but in the second and fourth sentences English is behaving secundatively. The various Romance languages I have studied do not do this, but Dutch is more closely related to English.

LynwoodF (talk) 16:01, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

I have discovered that there is a separate Dutch version of Wiktionary, called WikiWoordenboek, and it gives an example which I find more convincing:

• Hij kreeg een prijs uitgereikt. (See item 3 of this entry.) This means He was given a prize or He got given a prize, as we might say in more informal English.

LynwoodF (talk) 11:22, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I now have a problem. The example given in the entry suggests that krijgen is more widely used as an auxiliary verb than is suggested by the entry. Is there an expert in Dutch grammar who could formulate a fuller entry covering the circumstances where it is used in preference to zijn or worden?

LynwoodF (talk) 11:41, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I now see that the example to which I objected was inserted anonymously to replace a better example. So I have edited the entry, putting in the example I found on the Dutch Wiktionary. However, please feel free to make further edits. My Dutch is elementary.

LynwoodF (talk) 21:52, 8 January 2018 (UTC)