Grammatica - loco

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lie’, lopen ‘to run’, staan ‘to stand’ and zitten ‘to sit’. They are usually
found in constructions with repletive er (see 15.1) and thus commonly
render ‘there is/are’:
Er staan hier veel bomen. There are many trees here.
Achter ons huis loopt
een gracht.
Behind our house (there) is a canal.
Er hangt een schilderij There is a picture (hanging) on
aan de muur. the wall.
Wat zit er in dat glas? What is in that glass?
11.8
Modal auxiliary verbs
Modale hulpwerkwoorden
Modal verbs form a special class of their own because they show a variety
of irregular forms and, due to their auxiliary nature in expressing attitude,
also a variety of meanings. There are four true modals (kunnen, moeten,
mogen, willen) plus the verbs durven, hoeven and zullen which share one
or more modal characteristics.
One feature common to both Dutch and English modals is the lack of a te
or ‘to’ before the infinitive for which they are acting as an auxiliary, e.g.:
Hij kan het doen
He can do it.
Note than when a modal verb followed by one or more infinitives is the
finite verb in a subordinate or relative clause, i.e. in a clause where the
finite verb does not stay in second position, the usual word order is as
follows:
Hij wist al lang dat ze niet kon komen. (komen kon is possible
but unusual)
He had known for ages that she couldn’t come.
Hij had al lang geweten dat ze niet zou kunnen komen.
He had known for ages that she would not be able to come.
Ze vroeg of ik haar zou opbellen. (opbellen zou is possible but
unusual) or
Ze vroeg of ik haar op zou bellen. (very common in speech in
particular)
She asked whether I’d ring her.
Modal
auxiliary
verbs
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