Zien, horen and laten + infinitive: Ik zie hem lopen

"I see him walking." "I heard her sing." "I'm having the car repaired." English uses three different structures here: an -ing form, a bare verb, and have + past participle. Dutch uses just one: verb + object + infinitive, with no te. Ik zie hem lopen. Ik hoorde haar zingen. Ik laat de auto repareren. It's a small group of verbs, but they're extremely common, and they come with one surprising rule in the perfect tense. This guide explains the whole system.

The basic pattern

After the perception verbs zien (see), horen (hear) and voelen (feel), and after laten (let, have something done), Dutch uses a plain infinitive at the end of the clause:

Three things to notice:

• No te. Wrong: Ik zie hem te lopen.
• No -ing form. Dutch has no equivalent here; the infinitive covers both "walk" and "walking".
• The person is an object. The person you see or hear is the object of zien or horen, so you use object pronouns: hem, haar, ze, me. Wrong: Ik zie hij lopen. See object pronouns.

The infinitive can have its own objects and adverbs, which come before it:

• Ik hoorde iemand om hulp roepen. — I heard someone calling for help.
• We zagen de zon langzaam ondergaan. — We watched the sun slowly set.
• Ik voelde de grond trillen. — I felt the ground shaking.

Zien, horen and voelen: perception

These verbs describe something you witness directly. The infinitive shows the action you perceived:

• Ik zie de kinderen buiten spelen. — I see the children playing outside.
• Hoor je de vogels fluiten? — Can you hear the birds singing?
• Ze zag haar vriend binnenkomen. — She saw her boyfriend come in.

When you didn't witness the action yourself but found out about it, use a dat clause instead:

• Ik zag hem vallen. — I saw him fall. (I watched it happen.)
• Ik zag dat hij gevallen was. — I saw that he had fallen. (I noticed the result.)

The verb pages for zien and horen show all their forms. A useful fixed expression: Ik heb het horen zeggen. — I've heard it said (I heard it from others).

Tip: horen + te + infinitive is something else: it means "should", "be supposed to". Dat hoor je niet te doen. — You're not supposed to do that.

Laten: three meanings

Laten is the most versatile verb in this group.

1. Have something done (causative)

When someone else does something for you, Dutch uses laten, where English uses "have" or "get":

• Ik laat mijn haar knippen. — I'm having my hair cut.
• We laten een nieuwe keuken plaatsen. — We're having a new kitchen fitted.
• Ik laat de auto repareren. — I'm getting the car repaired.

Don't translate English "have" literally. Ik heb de auto gerepareerd means you repaired it yourself.

You can say who does the job with door: Ik laat de auto repareren door de garage. — I'm having the car repaired by the garage.

2. Let, allow

• Mijn ouders laten me niet uitgaan. — My parents don't let me go out.
• Laat me even denken. — Let me think for a moment.
• Laat hem maar praten. — Just let him talk.

3. Let's: laten we

Laten we + infinitive is the standard way to say "let's":

• Laten we gaan. — Let's go.
• Laten we morgen bellen. — Let's call tomorrow.

Zullen we…? is the question version: Zullen we gaan? — Shall we go?

Fixed combinations with laten

Many laten + infinitive pairs work as single verbs. Learn them as vocabulary:

And on its own, without an infinitive, laten means "to leave" or "to stop doing": Laat dat! — Stop that! Laat maar. — Never mind.

Helpen and leren

Helpen (help) and leren (learn, teach) can also take a bare infinitive, though they're more flexible:

• Ik help je verhuizen. — I'll help you move.
• Kun je me helpen de tafel te dragen? — Can you help me carry the table?
• Ik help je met verhuizen. — I'll help you with the move.

With helpen, the bare infinitive and te are both correct; a short phrase usually goes without te, a longer one often with it. Helpen met + infinitive is very common in speech.

Leren means both "learn" and "teach". The bare infinitive is normal with skills:

• Mijn kinderen leren zwemmen. — My children are learning to swim.
• Mijn vader leerde me fietsen. — My father taught me to ride a bike.

The perfect: a double infinitive

Here's the surprise. In the perfect tense, these verbs don't use their past participle. Instead, they stay in the infinitive, so you get two infinitives in a row. This is called the double infinitive (in grammar books also infinitivus pro participio).

The rule: when one of these verbs has an infinitive with it, the participle (gezien, gehoord, gelaten) is replaced by the infinitive (zien, horen, laten). Without an infinitive, the normal participle is used: Ik heb hem gezien. — I saw him. Ik heb de auto bij de garage gelaten. — I left the car at the garage.

Order: the auxiliary comes first, then the perception verb or laten, then the main infinitive: heb … zien lopen, heb … laten repareren.

With leren, both versions are accepted: Ik heb leren zwemmen and Ik heb zwemmen geleerd — I learned to swim. With helpen, the participle is also fine, especially with te or met: Ik heb hem geholpen de tafel te dragen, Ik heb hem geholpen met verhuizen.

Modals follow the same double-infinitive rule (Ik heb moeten werken), and so do gaan, komen and blijven, which take zijn: Ik ben gaan zwemmen. — I went swimming. See modal perfect and verb clusters.

In subordinate clauses

In a subordinate clause, all the verbs cluster at the end. The conjugated verb usually comes first in that cluster:

• …omdat ik hem zag lopen. — …because I saw him walking.
• …omdat ik de auto laat repareren. — …because I'm having the car repaired.
• …omdat ik hem heb zien lopen. — …because I've seen him walking.
• …dat we de dokter hebben laten komen. — …that we sent for the doctor.

Quick summary

• After zien, horen, voelen and laten, use object + bare infinitive, no te and no -ing: Ik zie hem lopen.
• Laten = have something done (Ik laat mijn haar knippen), let (Laat me even denken), let's (Laten we gaan).
• Learn laten zien, laten weten, laten vallen, laten liggen as single verbs.
• Helpen and leren take a bare infinitive too; helpen also allows te.
• Perfect: double infinitive, not the participle: Ik heb hem zien lopen. Ik heb de auto laten repareren.
• Without an infinitive, use the normal participle: Ik heb hem gezien.

Practise it

Build longer verb clusters in Verb clusters, practise double infinitives in Modal perfect, and use laten repareren in real situations in Repairs.