Houden van is really bugging me!

[EetSmakelijk]

Hallo, everybody.
I don't understand why, but the verb houden van is really bugging me. I am told it means to love. Ok, but what's with the preposition van? I mean in English you can just love somebody, no need for any little words.
One of my friends used the past tense ik hield van... and I thought wow, that's a funny conjugation must be one of those strong verbs. I checked the strong verbs list, and didn't find houden van, but I found the verb houden/hield etc which means hold???
Hmmm, very interesting, so what I am confused about is how adding van to houden makes it love. lol
Is it just me, or does Dutch have many more verbs that take prepositions than English does, or am I just used to English ones?
I mean, zoeken voor makes sense, because obviously one must search for something, not search something, lol.
Ok, I have finished complaining about houden van, it was just really bugging me.
Groetjes,

[Wim]

Hallo Eet Smakelijk,

I think you just made your point: English and Dutch aren't the same. You're used to English combinations, just like I'm used to the Dutch ones. And indeed: prepositions are rather complex in all languages, but in their usual meanings (place or time) they're more or less understandable. In fixed combinations however they seem to have been chosen at random: why do we in English wait 'for' someone and in Dutch 'op' ('on') someone? Good question, but I think that the only answer will be: because English is no Dutch. The same problem with 'to look': one may look 'at' something or someone in English but in Dutch we look 'naar' ('to') something or someone. And 'to look for' doesn't even exist: we 'zoeken' ('search') or 'zoeken naar' ('search to') something. Using the preposition or dropping it makes hardly any difference. The other way around as well: in English one could 'chase' somebody, but in Dutch it would be 'jagen op' ('chase on'). And I'm sure there will be many more examples like this.

As it is with 'houden van.' 'Houden van' is 'to love' in English, but just 'houden' is 'to keep' in English. But did you ever realize that 'to keep' could mean very different things, too? 'Keeping' cattle, 'keeping' a borrowed book or 'keeping' something away from children are different things, but I don't expect that these differences would ever cause any confusion, except maybe if we'd mix them up on purpose making jokes .

I don't know if Dutch has more fixed combinations of a verb and a preposition than English. I once started to make a list of the Dutch combinations and found over 400 of them, and there may be more. Many of them had an English equivalent, but I can't say anything about it in general. There may be more of those fixed combinations than you'd expect...

Well, maybe that's just part of the fun of comparing languages. Many things are more or less the same, other things are different, even in languages that are obviously related to each other .

Met vriendelijke groeten,
Wim

[EetSmakelijk]

Thanks, Wim. I guess the answer to why do I need to use a preposition is just because that's the way it is.
I was afraid of that. :laugh:
Lol, the cat wants me to let her outside now, so I better go. lol
Groetjes,

[Marco]

Hallo, everybody.
One of my friends used the past tense ik hield van... and I thought wow, that's a funny conjugation must be one of those strong verbs. I checked the strong verbs list, and didn't find houden van, but I found the verb houden/hield etc which means hold???
Hmmm, very interesting, so what I am confused about is how adding van to houden makes it love. lol

Hmm, maybe you can translate 'houden' with 'to get hold' as well --> houden + van = to get hold + of. That's the best explanation I can give you.

Is it just me, or does Dutch have many more verbs that take prepositions than English does, or am I just used to English ones?
Groetjes,

Hmm, what to think of the English 'to have to'. How could that mean 'moeten'?
So yeah, I guess you're used to English ones just like I'm used to Dutch ones.

[EetSmakelijk]

Hoi, Marco. Very good points, thanks.
You could think of moeten as must.
I must do that ik moet dat doen I think.
Or I have to do that.
I like getting hold of something...now I will never forget houden van, lol.

Groetjes,

[Marco]

Hoi, Marco. Very good points, thanks.
You could think of moeten as must.

True, but there's a difference between 'to must' and 'to have to'. Or so I was taught.

[Wim]

So was I: 'must' must not be used

Wim

[EetSmakelijk]

Hmmm, I guess people use "to have to" a lot more than they use "must".
I am also confused about another thing with houden van.
Why does the d get dropped, ik hou van jou not ik houd van jou? Is leaving the d correct and can you pronounce it when you say it?
Groetjes,

[Wim]

Hallo EetSmakelijk,

The d is often dropped in verb stems ending in vowel + d, especially in spoken language, but in written language as well. The form with d is more formal. So an intimate remark like Ik hou van je could even sound more or less incredible if spoken in the formal form.

There are not many verb stems ending in vowel + d. The most important ones are hou[d], glij[d] 'glide,' snij[d] 'cut' and rij[d] 'drive, ride.'

The last one is sometimes used on a little sign in a car to prevent the person next to the driver from making remarks about the driver's way of driving: rijjijofrijik? 'areyoudrivingorami?'

Groetjes,
Wim

[eastcity]

I once started to make a list of the Dutch combinations and found over 400 of them, and there may be more.

If you have this list anywhere, I would love to see it (please!!)

[Tom]

Hoi Wim,

Ik ook, alstublieft!

Tom

[Sue]

I once started to make a list of the Dutch combinations and found over 400 of them, and there may be more.

If you have this list anywhere, I would love to see it (please!!)

Prisma has a book of Voorzetsels that lists quite a few - 273 pages of them! Gives the verb and the prepositions that are used with it.

Personally, I find these a pain - I never remember what goes with what!

Sue