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 The present tense is a group of forms of the verb which are used to indicate that the activity described is taking place in the present time, or at least not in the past. The present tense is formed by taking the stem of the verb and adding an ending, which depends on the person that the verb is used with. The stem is the basic form of the verb from which all other forms derive and therefore an important building block.
It is easy to find the stem of regular verbs: you take the infinitive (whole verb) and take off the –en ending and apply the normal spelling rules. Below is an example which shows you how the present tense of regular verbs is formed. There are a few verbs which are irregular in the present tense – the most important ones being hebben and zijn, and you will have to learn those by heart. For examples of this grammatical item in use, have a look at luisterteksten 1
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