zijn.
to be, to exist
Meaning & usage
to be, to exist
Zijn of niet zijn, dat is de vraag.
Was je er afgelopen zaterdag ook?
Used to connect a noun to an adjective that describes it.
De bal is rond.
Used to form the perfect tense of the active voice of some verbs, together with a past participle.
Hij is hier geweest.
Used to form the perfect tense of the active voice of some verbs, together with a past participle. Note: The perfect tense of most other verbs is formed using hebben. Note: The perfect tense of most other verbs is formed using hebben.
Used to form the perfect tense of the passive voice, together with a past participle.
Ze waren gered.
De muur is geschilderd.
Used to form the perfect tense of the passive voice, together with a past participle. Note: The imperfect tense passive is formed using worden. Note: The imperfect tense passive is formed using worden.
Used to form the continuous forms of various tenses, together with aan het or, in archaic style, with a present participle.
De man was aan het lopen.
to go, to go on a trip and return
Ik ben even naar de dokter.
Ik ben vandaag naar het strand geweest.
Used to indicate weather, temperature or some other general condition.
Het is erg warm vandaag.
to be, to equal, to total, to amount to; used to indicate that the values on either side of an equation are the same.
Drie keer vijf is vijftien.
Where this word comes from
From Middle Dutch sijn, from Old Dutch sīn. The infinitive zijn along with the words is and zij (present indicative and subjunctive) derive ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”), which had no separate infinitive in Germanic. The modern infinitive was probably back-formed in late Old Dutch from the first-person plural subjunctive sīn (“we be”), since this form had become identical to the infinitive in other verbs during the late Old Dutch period. Compare also German sein, Low German sien. The original infinitive survives in wezen, from Middle Dutch wesen, from Old Dutch wesan, from Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from *h₂wes- (“to reside”). All the forms with initial w- (imperative and past tense) derive from this root. Finally, the forms ben and bent derive from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, to become”), from *bʰuH- (“to become”), which survives only as relic forms in the West Germanic languages and not at all in the others. Its infinitive and non-singular forms are attested in (Old) English, Frisian and a number of Dutch dialects.
his; third-person singular masculine possessive determiner
Een man en zijn hond.
Een man en z'n hoed.
its; third-person singular neuter possessive determiner
Een boek en zijn kaft.
Where this word comes from
From Middle Dutch sijn, from Old Dutch sīn (originally a reflexive form), from Proto-West Germanic *sīn, from Proto-Germanic *sīnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *seyno-. Cognate with German sein, Swedish sin. Ultimately a form of the Proto-Indo-European reflexive pronoun *swe. Compare Russian себя (sebja), Latin suus, Ancient Greek ἑός (heós), etc.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.