Skip to main content

A positive life is easier than a Negative life

 


"I have the secrets of happy life. The more you find about yourselves to the negativity, the more you learn about life. The moment you stop complaining about negativity, the more positive you can be." @tkktweets


Ik begrijp het niet

I don't understand it.

'Niet' simply means 'not' and is the most common way of making sentences negative.

The two most common forms of negatives are NIET and GEEN. 

I don't want to go home yet

Ik will nog niet naar huis . 

Did you see a negative standing up straight there. That is negative, and that is how they create negative sentence. 

JOE drinkt GEEN bier (Not true in real life!)

Joe doesn't drink any beer. 

Dutch is easy because you don't have to add the verb to do as you often do in English. 

It is easy but it is not that easy because of the most complicated placing of  NIET in a sentence. Do you think it is easy?

You are not answering my question.

U beantwoordt mijn vraag niet. 

(here  NIET is at the end of the senstence)

If I have to get some clarification about it from George,

I haven't seen him yet

Ik heb hem nog niet gezien. 

(Here NIET moved away from the end a little bit.

Generally speaking NIET comes last in the sentence or the clause.

If I write all about NIET I cannot go for holidays. Anyway,

I am not going on holiday this year

Ik ga dit  jaar niet op vakantie. 

( What happend here? there is a proposition "OP".  The rule is that, NIET comes before the preposition.)

....NIET op vakantie.  (niet is placed before the preposition)

The same rule is applied with the adjectives which come after the noun.

DEZE wijn is niet lekker  (lekker wijn) lekker is an adjective. so NIET comes before the adjective. 

Deze wijn is niet lekker

This wine is not nice.

The rules are not ended

I am not stupid  to say adverb is not influencing the negative.

Ik ben niet gek.   Same rule: NIET is placed before the adverbs.

If everybody work hard they can learn Dutch. But

Hij werkt niet erg hard (NIET just before the adverb)

He doesn't work very hard.

I know that at least you are happy and positive about some negative learning! 


To make your life negative you have a lots of rules!

a) Het artikel een wordt negatief Geen


Ik heb een auto --> Ik heb geen auto

Joe schrift een brief --> Joe schrijft geen brief


b) En substantief zonder artikel krijgt in the negatie GEEN

Ik drink swarte koffie --> Ik drink geen swarte koffie.

Er zitten dertig studenten in mijn klas --> 

Er zitten geen dertig studenten in mijn klas


GEEN staat altijd na de persoonsvorm (werkwoord)


Sentences can be made negative in Dutch by using either 'niet' or 'geen.' 

Niet = not in English

Niet is generally placed at the end of a sentence.

Ik begrijp het niet.

I don't understand.


Yes, I don't really understand why there has to be some exceptions for this rule. 


That is life. In life there is always exceptions. 


a)  when verbs are placed at the end of the sentences 'niet' doesn't follow the normal rule. They move around a bit!

___________________________________

Hij wil zijn huiswerk niet doen

He doesn't want to do his homework

__________________________________

b) in, on, under, with etc are some of the prepositions. they can also manipulate the general rules!

_____________________________

We gaan niet naar the bioscoop

we are not going to the cinema

______________________________


c) If you are using adjectives 'niet' will stay behind.

Nederlands is niet moelijk.

Yes, I got it.  Nederlands is not difficult.  

Look at that, 'moelijk' is an adjective. and 'niet' is scared, and stand behind the moelijk.

It is just a natural rule. If you are(Niet) and if you are scared you will always stay behind somebody. Here that somebody is Moelijk(adjective)

In another sense Moelijk (adjective) and Niet and friends. Moelijk is very courageous and Niet is always scared. So Niet always stay behind Moelijk (adjective)

Now you know why Nederlands is niet moelijk!

________________________________

When the descriptive words like adjectives are used 'niet' is very polite. it stays behind the adjectives!

Vind jij Rembrandt niet mooi?

You don't find Rembrandt beautiful?

rem = brake

brand = burn

yes, you smell the burn of a brake!

But Rembrandt is a very famous Dutch artist. So it should be about painting. If you don't know that, your answer would be always rightly WRONG!


If someone ask you: Do you have a pen? (Heb jij een pen?) and you don't have one, then you are destined to use 'geen'.

Nee, ik heb geen pen

No, I don't have a pen


People may ask you questions for all kinds of reasons. 


Wil jij melk? (would you like milk?)

Nee, ik wil geen melk. (No, I don't want any milk) 

(Dutch people give too many options. Coffee with or without milk, coffee with or without sugar, even coffee with or without coffee.  In many other countries, people just make coffee with whatever they have and if you want or not, you just drink!)


Heb jij postzegels? (Do you have any stamps)

Nee, ik heb geen postzegels. (No, I don't have any stamps.)

They have already updated this question with a new system. Now you don't even get stamps from the post office, you just get a few digits to write in the place of postage stamp!


"Do you think that is the end of the rules? I warned you in the beginning, a negative life is more difficult than a positive life."


When something has ended or not anymore then the rules apply in the following way


Ze heeft die auto niet meer. (She doesn't have that car anymore)

Ik will geen wijn meer. (I don't want anymore wine.)

________________________________

You are having a very positive life and there are no signs of any negatives (not yet) nog niet, 

Ike heb nog geen DVD speler.( I don't have a DVDV player)

And 

We zijn nog niet klaar (We are not ready yet).


Life of negativity is a never ending story. Even if you have everything for a normal life, you still be missing the keys of  a happy life.

Ik kan 'nooit' mijn sleutels vinden. (I can never find my keys)

and 'niemand' (no one) can find it.

and 'nergens' (nowhere) will fiind it.

and 'niets' (nothing) will change it.


But what we can do is to use 'niet' before graag, dijwijs, elke dag

Ik drink niet graag wijn

Ik swem niet dikwijls

Ik eet niet elke dag vlees


Voor een onbepaald hoofdtelwoord (veel, weinig, genoeg,..) niet could be used

Joe drinkt niet veel wijn

Joe heeft niet genoeg geld om een auto te kopen


Hij rookt niet (niet is gebruikt na een persoonsvorm)

Ik moet vandaag niet werken (na vandaag)

Ik eet 's morgens niet (na 's morgens)


Ik heb het boek niet gelezen (na de/het substantief)

Dat is mijn auto niet (Na mijn, jouw, zijn, haar + substantief)

Ik heb die brief niet gekregen (deze, die, dit, dat + substantief)


Ik kan niet swemmen (I can't swim)

Ik heb de film niet gezien ( I haven't seen the film)

Ik was niet af  (I was not down)

(Infinitief of participium)of het prepositiedeel van een separabel verbum staan achteraan in een zin dus na niet.


voor een prepositie

Ik woon niet in Maastricht








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A comparative life can never be happy

 "Everything what we know about the universe is an iota of the totality. But the curiosity reveals everything in time." @tkktweets    We have a life of comparison. What is a comparative? It is a form of adjective or adverb expressing a higher or stronger degree.  When we are happy, we want to be happier.  When we are tall, we want to be taller. When we are rich, we want to be richer.  It is a never ending story. When we are not content with what we are or what we have, we start comparing with others or other things. ____________________________ haar auto is groter dan mijn auto. Her car is bigger than my car. __________________________ When you are beautiful (mooi), You want to be more beautiful (mooier)  'beautiful' (mooi) is an adjective. Everything in the universe is beautiful in its own way. But we humans like to compare. To make a comparative you just add -er to an adjective. mooi+er = mooier  The spelling rules apply as usual, but if you are...

HOW SIMPLE IS THE Simple Present

  The Simple present The simple resent is not as simple as you think in Dutch.   We use simple present tense to refer to an event that takes place right now or to a current state. The conjugation of the simple present is as simple as the following: Ik (stem)                                           = Ik maak Je (stem) + t                                    = Je maak t Hij (stem) + t                                  = Hij maak t We, jullie, ze   - infinitive          = we maaken The verbs maken, leren, huren en koken are all subject to the first stem rule: A LONG VOWEL INFINITIVE REQUIRES A LONG VOWEL STEM ...

Time to think about Life

 "The life is limited, but the days are unlimited. There will be someone else to fill up those days even if you are not there" @tkktweets You can talk about life! But when you are talking about TIME there are some rules to be followed: Time comes first,  then the manner, and finally place ______________________________ Joe gaat morgen (TIME) met de auto (MANNER) naar Maastricht (PLACE) Joe is going to Maastricht by car tomorrow. _____________________________   Now you can see that English is much easier than Dutch. As you see, the standard order in English is Place - manner - Time.  Even in English this is not an absolute order, it can be changed in order to highlight certain information.  _____________________________ For example: He is going to Elsloo tomorrow! Hij gaat naar Elsloo morgen! _____________________________ So when talking about the time when something takes place, the manner (or with who) and the location of what you are describing in Dutch,...