DUTCH WRITING HELP

[Shazzy]

I wrote this to someone today and they told me it was incorrect....

Gisteren gingen wij naar Shanklin en bij het strand in de auto zaten.
Wij aten een maal in Jimmy's cafe.
Wij hadden een goede dag.

I was told you cannot use gingen.... but why not?
And you can't say .... hadden een goede dag it must be leuke dag....
And you can't say in de auto zaten............ it has to be in de auto gezaten.
This person is not a teacher but Dutch, Sometimes things that my teacher say are correct and she is a Dutch Teacher/examiner so must know what she is talking about my friend says that is not Dutch lol

Can someone explain this to me please?
Shazzy

[Quetzal]

I wrote this to someone today and they told me it was incorrect....

Gisteren gingen wij naar Shanklin en zaten bij het strand in de auto op het strand zaten.
Wij aten een maaltijd in Jimmy's cafe.
Wij hadden een goede dag.

I was told you cannot use gingen.... but why not?
And you can't say .... hadden een goede dag it must be leuke dag....
And you can't say in de auto zaten............ it has to be in de auto gezaten.
This person is not a teacher but Dutch, Sometimes things that my teacher say are correct and she is a Dutch Teacher/examiner so must know what she is talking about my friend says that is not Dutch lol

Can someone explain this to me please?
Shazzy

There were some mistakes alright, but some of the "corrections" of this friend don't make any sense. There's nothing wrong with "gingen", or "zaten" (except the word order there). As for goede dag or leuke dag, leuke is better, yes. "Maal" is not technically wrong but rather strange in such a sentence.

[Bert]

I wrote this to someone today and they told me it was incorrect....

Gisteren gingen wij naar Shanklin en bij het strand in de auto zaten.
Wij aten een maal in Jimmy's cafe.
Wij hadden een goede dag.

I was told you cannot use gingen.... but why not?
And you can't say .... hadden een goede dag it must be leuke dag....
And you can't say in de auto zaten............ it has to be in de auto gezaten.
This person is not a teacher but Dutch, Sometimes things that my teacher say are correct and she is a Dutch Teacher/examiner so must know what she is talking about my friend says that is not Dutch lol

Can someone explain this to me please?
Shazzy

The Dutch seem to prefer voltooid tegenwoordige tijd in certain cases, eg. "We zijn gisteren naar Shanklin gegaan" but it does not mean that "Gisteren gingen wij naar Shanklin" is a grammatically incorrect sentence. If you were told to practise onvoltooid verleden tijd, it's fine. (I prefer "we" to "wij" unless it has an emphasis but "wij" is absolutely OK.)
cafe -> café
"We/wij hebben een leuke/fijne dag gehad" sounds much better than "...een goede dag gehad".

[Shazzy]

Thank you so much. I struggle with my writing so much. Perhaps I should put more on here as the help with just this litte message I wrote to someone has been so helpful. The feedback is next to none. I am doing my Dutch GCSE in May and the writing part is what I am struggling with. I have been taught Wij... as the GCSE is a very academic course. There is a speaking part to the exam course but my teacher does very little on the speaking side. I am now having Dutch speaking practice with a Dutch teacher in holland via skype so now I have to train myself to use we / ze instead of Wij and Zij. I thought this was just for conversation but I take it you can use it in writing as well?

Dank je wel
Groetjes

Sharon

[Quetzal]

Thank you so much. I struggle with my writing so much. Perhaps I should put more on here as the help with just this litte message I wrote to someone has been so helpful. The feedback is next to none. I am doing my Dutch GCSE in May and the writing part is what I am struggling with. I have been taught Wij... as the GCSE is a very academic course. There is a speaking part to the exam course but my teacher does very little on the speaking side. I am now having Dutch speaking practice with a Dutch teacher in holland via skype so now I have to train myself to use we / ze instead of Wij and Zij. I thought this was just for conversation but I take it you can use it in writing as well?

Dank je wel
Groetjes

Sharon

The thing is that "wij" and "jij" and "zij" are the stressed forms, "we" and "je" and "ze" are the unstressed ones. This means, logically enough, that in a grammar course, or if you see a conjugation table of a verb, people are inclined to write "wij/jij/zij", because if you're comparing the various forms of the conjugation, obviously you'll be putting stress on the personal pronouns. But the majority of uses of personal pronouns, either in speaking or in writing, is unstressed, so "we/je/ze" is more frequent in the spoken and written language both.

[ngonyama]

Some of the unstressed forms have gained general acceptance in the written language: je, ze, we, me and reflexives like mezelf, jezelf are fine in written Dutch. Other ones like 't, d'r, -ie etc. are quite common in spoken Dutch, but are generally rendered as het, haar and hij in writing, respectively, unless an author wishes to render spoken language in writing for example in dialogues.

In general, you always have the choice between the full and the reduced form as long as the emphasis is put elsewhere. If the emphasis is on the pronoun itself you must use the full form.