Headword
Language Dutch
Four places · shared inventory with English sell · Dutch cloth · working claim, revisable
Voice[Seller] + ApplHAVE(Buyer/RecipientIO ∨ aan+DP, Themegoods) + voor-MeasurePPrice ⟨Amount, Denomination⟩
A sale has four participants: the Seller, the Buyer (Recipient), the Goods, and the Price. They are not four equal sisters of verkopen. Voice adds the Seller. Low ApplHAVE introduces the Buyer and relates the Buyer to the goods. The root’s object is that Theme. voor selects one MeasureP whose inner arguments are Amount and Denomination. The Price is not a second object, and the unit is not a sister of the verb.
What is different in Dutch. English sold Chris a lawnmower puts the buyer in a bare object, and that object can be the subject of the passive (Chris was sold a lawnmower). Dutch gives the verb one object, the goods. The buyer is a bare indirect object, with no case ending on a full noun phrase, or aan + DP. worden promotes the goods. A krijgen-passive that would make the buyer the subject is described for this verb class in the ANS and is unprinted on verkopen itself.
Van Dale, woorden.org, and Taaladvies print the pieces. None of them prints Seller, a bare buyer, goods, and a voor-price in one clause. Van Dale’s definition names a price with tegen and a buyer with aan. woorden.org prints the buyer in aan and no price. Taaladvies prints a per-unit price with à and no buyer. The Group D notes assemble a bare indirect object with voor. English puts the buyer and the goods in two bare noun phrases. Dutch gives the verb one object, the goods, and introduces the buyer by position or with aan.
Printed price line · goods and a per-unit price · no buyer in this sentence
✓ Hij verkocht zijn eieren à 50 cent per stuk. Taaladvies.net · prijsaanduiding · example (3a)
he · sold · his eggs · at 50 cents apiece
Printed buyer line · goods and aan · no price in this sentence
✓ hij heeft zijn auto aan Arie verkocht woorden.org · encyclopedic line under verkopen
he · has · his car · to Arie · sold
| Place | Introduced by (working) | Dutch marking | Case status | English marking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller | Spec,Voice (outer) | subject; one prefield under V2 | structural | subject |
| Buyer / Recipient | low ApplHAVE, two cloths of one indirect object | bare indirect object (Chris, hem) · aan + DP (aan Arie, aan een ander) | structural by position, or oblique aan · full DPs show no case ending · not a second object of the goods · not both in one printed clause as two buyers | bare first object (DOC) · to |
| Goods | complement of √SELL- (Theme of eHAVE) | the one object (boeken, zijn auto, zijn eieren, hun oude bank) | structural · the object worden promotes | direct object in the to-frame · second object in the DOC |
| Price | voor selects one MeasureP ⟨n, U⟩ | voor + DP in the notes · printed price cloths are tegen een bep. prijs, à 50 cent per stuk, and Taaladvies’s voor / tegen / à | oblique · one phrase · Amount and unit inside it · the three prepositions are not stacked | for + MeasureP |
Marking map. One letter can belong to several heads. Read the head, then the marker.
Each row lines up one English slot with its Dutch slot. The alignment type says what happens to the slot: = (same status), shift (structural ↔ oblique, or DOC object ↔ indirect object), or a packaging change inside one status. Printed dictionary lines come first. Every other Dutch sentence is constructed from the Group D notes or modelled on a printed line. They show the working alignment, not frequency, and not a bilingual corpus.
| Slot | EN form | NL form | Align | EN example | NL example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller | SUBJ | subject | = | They sold their old couch. constructed EN gloss | Zij verkochten hun oude bank WikiWoordenboek · example under sense 1 |
| Goods | OBJ | the one object | = | sell books constructed EN gloss | boeken verkopen Van Dale · sense 1 |
| Buyer (bare IO) | DOC first object | bare indirect object | shift · bare object → indirect object · no case ending · recipient worden-passive unprinted | Pat sold Chris a lawnmower. constructed EN · DOC | Pat heeft Chris een grasmaaier verkocht. constructed · notes · ANS class · no price in this row |
| Buyer (aan) | to + DP | aan + DP | = oblique | He sold his car to Arie. constructed EN gloss | aan Arie woorden.org · no price in this line |
| Price (voor) | for + MeasureP | voor + MeasureP | = oblique · the notes’ cloth · Taaladvies names the preposition | for twenty dollars / for €20 | voor twintig euro constructed · notes · a numeral clause of verkopen with voor was not in the lines read |
| Price (à / tegen) | unprinted as a sell frame | à + per-unit sum · tegen een bep. prijs in the definition | other printed price cloths · not stacked with voor | — | à 50 cent per stuk Taaladvies · tegen een bep. prijs Van Dale · definition, not a numeral clause |
| Passive of the goods | the goods as subject | worden · goods as subject | = promotion of the object | The book sells well. constructed EN gloss | het boek verkoopt goed · wordt goed verkocht Van Dale · the gloss is Van Dale’s |
| Passive of the buyer | DOC recipient passive · good on the English page | buyer as subject of worden, goods still the object | no Dutch twin in the sources opened | Wasn’t Chris sold a lawnmower for twenty dollars? constructed · English page | * Chris werd een grasmaaier verkocht. constructed · Chris is the subject of werd · the goods stay the object |
| Four places | DOC + for | bare IO + object + voor | shift on the buyer | Pat sold Chris a lawnmower for twenty dollars. | Heeft Pat Chris niet een grasmaaier voor twintig euro verkocht? constructed · notes · bare buyer and voor together are not one dictionary line |
The strip below is a set of small multiples. Each card holds one frame, with English on top and Dutch under it. The buyer chip is the one that moves: a bare object in the English double object, a bare indirect object or an aan-phrase in Dutch. The price card stays inside for / voor, or inside the printed à.
EN · NL · printed à
He sold his eggs at 50 cents apiece.
Hij verkocht zijn eieren à 50 cent per stuk.
NL · Taaladvies · no buyer in this line · EN gloss constructed from that line
= per-unit price · à is printed · voor is the notes’ other cloth
EN · NL · printed aan
He sold his car to Arie.
hij heeft zijn auto aan Arie verkocht
NL · woorden.org · no price in this line · EN gloss constructed
= to ↔ aan
EN · NL · four places
Pat sold Chris a lawnmower for twenty dollars.
Heeft Pat Chris niet een grasmaaier voor twintig euro verkocht?
constructed · bare buyer and voor-price together · not a dictionary line
Shift bare Chris stays bare, as indirect object · Price stays in voor
EN · NL · passive
Chris was sold a lawnmower.
* Chris werd een grasmaaier verkocht.
NL constructed · starred · bad as a worden-passive of the buyer · the prefield is the subject · EN recipient passive is good on sell
Move English promotes the DOC buyer · Dutch worden promotes the goods
Argument difference. English can package the buyer and the goods as two bare objects, and the passive can make the buyer the subject: Chris was sold a lawnmower. Dutch prints one object, the goods. The buyer is a bare indirect object or an aan-phrase. worden promotes the goods. A worden-passive that makes the buyer the subject and leaves the goods as object is not a frame in the dictionaries checked here. German spells the buyer as a dative or as an, and the same recipient passive stays bad. Romance takes the buyer as a dative clitic or an a / à phrase. Japanese puts the buyer in に and the goods in を. Mandarin puts the buyer in 给. See sell, sell · German, sell · Japanese, and sell · Mandarin.
Dictionary frames and lines · checked · quoted as printed
tegen een bep. prijs aan een ander overdoen · boeken verkopen · het boek verkoopt goed wordt goed verkocht · zichzelf verkopen (a) zich van zijn beste kant laten zien; (b) zijn principes opgeven voor geld · praatjes verkopen · dat is politiek niet te verkopen · iem. een dreun verkopen · nee verkopen Van Dale free dictionary · snapshot 20 January 2025 · sense 1 is the commercial transfer · the middle has no zich · zichzelf verkopen is a separate pair of readings · senses 2 and 3 and the two idioms are not this HAVE-goods frame
(iets) aan een ander leveren tegen betaling · woordenboeken verkopen · per stuk verkopen · encyclopedic het aan een ander geven in ruil voor geld · hij heeft zijn auto aan Arie verkocht · verkocht, heeft verkocht woorden.org · aan Arie is the buyer · in ruil voor geld is definition prose, not a numeral MeasureP · per stuk is not a price
Zij verkochten hun oude bank nadat zij een nieuwe hadden aangeschaft. · Goed werk moet zichzelf kunnen verkopen tenslotte. · De politicus kan zijn plannen niet verkopen aan zijn achterban. WikiWoordenboek · the couch line is goods only · zichzelf is the Van Dale reading, cited there from Tim Voors 2018 · the politician line is the credibility sense, with aan, not the commercial buyer
✓ Hij verkocht zijn eieren à 50 cent per stuk. · Die spullen zijn hier te koop voor 1 euro per stuk. · Ze kocht het schetsje van Ensor voor 1000 euro. Taaladvies.net · à is on verkopen · voor is printed on te koop and on kocht · tegen and voor are both named standard for a price
Grammar line: infinitive verkopen, present verkoop / verkoopt, inversion verkoop, past verkocht / verkochten, participle verkocht, auxiliary hebben. Prefix ver- on kopen. ANW · no meaning profile · no example sentence in the article HTML The participle is verkocht. There is no ge- outside that prefix.
Strings below are constructed, from the Group D notes or modelled on the printed lines. They are not spontaneous-speech citations and not dictionary lines. Pat / Chris / grasmaaier continue the lawnmower series on English sell and on betalen. A full noun phrase does not spell case. hem in the price questions below is the lawnmower, the goods, the way the notes use it.
✓ Heeft Pat Chris niet een grasmaaier voor twintig euro verkocht?
constructed · notes’ NegQ · bare indirect object · one object, the goods · twenty inside voor · niet does not rewrite the object
✓ Pat heeft de grasmaaier voor twintig euro aan Chris verkocht.
constructed · aan modelled on woorden.org’s aan Arie · voor is the notes’ price cloth · the combination is not one printed line
✓ Pat heeft de grasmaaier voor twintig euro verkocht.
constructed · buyer omitted · voor here is Price · the same letter on ruilen can be the other theme
✓ Pat heeft de grasmaaier verkocht.
constructed · buyer and Price independently omissible · Van Dale and woorden.org also print the verb with goods and no buyer
✓ De grasmaaier werd voor twintig euro verkocht.
constructed · worden promotes the goods · modelled on Van Dale’s wordt goed verkocht
✓ De grasmaaier werd aan Chris verkocht.
constructed · goods promoted · aan kept · modelled on woorden.org’s active aan Arie · not a printed passive
* Chris werd een grasmaaier verkocht.
constructed · Chris in the prefield is the subject of werd · the goods stay the object · not the English recipient passive · Van Dale’s wordt-subject is the book
* Pat heeft twintig euro de grasmaaier verkocht.
constructed · Price is not a second object · twenty belongs inside voor · parallel to English *sold $20 a lawnmower
V2, the passive, and the R-pronoun are operations on the same four places. They do not add a participant.
One prefield. The finite verb is in second position: verkoopt, heeft, werd. Exactly one phrase sits in front of it. That phrase can be the subject, the goods, the bare indirect object, the aan-phrase, or the price phrase. The goods in front are still the goods. The seller is still the subject of the active. Two phrases in front of the finite verb are not a second subject position. ANW’s inversion form verkoop is the same verb. A paradigm of those orders is not printed in the entries checked here. Order is not starred.
ver- does not split. Present 3sg is verkoopt. The perfect is heeft … verkocht. A subordinate clause keeps the prefix attached, verb-final. There is no right-edge particle ver. This is the same inseparability as be- on betalen, whose participle is betaald, not the separable af of afschrijven. There is no Hungarian Focus host.
worden promotes the goods. Van Dale: het boek verkoopt goed means wordt goed verkocht. The subject is the goods. The middle in that line has no zich. zichzelf verkopen is printed as a different pair of readings (show one’s best side; give up one’s principles for money), and WikiWoordenboek’s zichzelf kunnen verkopen is that shape. The notes’ reflexive middle Verkocht de grasmaaier zich … is not in the entries checked. It is not given a judgment on this page. What stays bad is the other promotion: the buyer in the prefield as subject of worden, the goods still the object, *Chris werd een grasmaaier verkocht.
A bare buyer beside promoted goods is unprinted. The notes write Werd de grasmaaier Chris / aan Chris niet voor twintig dollar verkocht? The aan half is the constructed passive above, modelled on the printed active. The bare half, a name with no aan and no case ending sitting beside the promoted goods, was not in Van Dale, woorden.org, WikiWoordenboek, Taaladvies, or the ANS sections opened here. It is not starred and not checked. The ANS’s ditransitive worden-pattern is printed on another verb: Ons werd door de autoriteiten in Seoel een gids toegewezen, where werd agrees with the theme. That sentence is not evidence for a verkopen clause.
krijgen is the semi-passive, and it is unprinted on this verb. ANS 22.4.2.1 calls krijgen plus a passive participle a semi-passive. It replaces the ordinary passive when the active has a meewerkend voorwerp. It applies especially to verbs of category [a] in ANS 20.4.2, and that list includes verkopen. The examples printed there are toegewezen, toegestuurd, bevestigd krijgen, and opgelegd. No verkopen sentence is among them. A recipient-subject string is therefore unprinted. None is constructed. Whether that semi-passive is available when the object is goods rather than the themes of those examples is open.
waarvoor resumes the Price. ANS 8.7.1.1 lists waarvoor as a voornaamwoordelijk bijwoord. ANS 8.7.4 and 21.3.5.2 print fused and stranded shapes on other prepositions (waarover / waar … over). The notes use both shapes for the whole voor-MeasureP of verkopen. Stranding splits the preposition from its DP. It does not split twintig from euro, and it does not resume the lawnmower. On betalen and on in rekening brengen the same pronoun resumes Consideration, because there the money is the object and voor hosts the leftover goods. Shared waarvoor is not one shell. V2 and this pronoun are not a fifth argument. Under niet the object stays. There is no genitive of negation.
Purpose is om te, a separate clause. ANS 10.3.7: om introduces a non-finite purpose clause with te. The notes’ Heeft Pat de grasmaaier niet verkocht om de schuur leeg te maken? is that shape, constructed. waarvoor does not resume it. No purpose clause of verkopen was in the dictionary lines checked.
laten verkopen is a second Voice. ANS 18.5.4.10.i: causative laten combines with an infinitive that never takes te, and the object of laten is the implied subject of that infinitive. The notes’ wrap is constructed: De decaan heeft Pat de grasmaaier aan Chris laten verkopen voor twintig euro. Pat is the inner seller. The goods stay the object of verkopen. The buyer stays in aan. The price stays in voor. *De decaan heeft Pat twintig euro de grasmaaier laten verkopen makes the price an extra object. That string stays bad. doen is the other causative in the same ANS section. The notes split doen and laten as force and permission. Neither split is printed on verkopen, and neither one turns the price into an object. Japanese -sase- stays a derivational outer wrap on sell · Japanese. It is not a place of verkopen.
Each sketch is a working drawing, not a locked analysis. The notes’ point is one object (the goods), one Price inside voor, and a buyer that is a bare indirect object or aan. Open one sketch at a time. Which theta role is the object in this low ApplHAVE domain is the revisable note Causative templates and argument selection. This page does not edit that note.
Constructed · declarative of the notes’ NegQ · heeft in C
[CP Pat_1
[C' heeft
[TP t_1
[VoiceP t_1 Voice ← Seller = Spec,Voice
… inner layers … ]
T ]]]
✓ Pat heeft Chris een grasmaaier voor twintig euro verkocht. constructed
The Seller is the external argument. A weather subject is unprinted in the entries checked, and none is constructed here. ver- is lemma morphology inside the verb, not a phrase in the prefield.
One buyer · two cloths · not two buyers
[VoiceP Pat Voice
[ApplP_LOW Chris Appl_HAVE ← Buyer · HAVE the goods · no case ending
[VP √verkoop-
[Theme een grasmaaier ]] ← Goods · the one object
[PP voor [ MeasureP twintig euro ]]]] ← Price · outside that object
The other numeration replaces the bare indirect object with aan + DP. woorden.org prints that numeration without a price. The ANS prints both cloths as one meewerkend voorwerp, on other verbs, and does not stack them. The tree above adds voor to the bare buyer. That addition is the notes’ packaging. It is constructed.
✓ hij heeft zijn auto aan Arie verkocht woorden.org · aan · one buyer · no price
* Pat heeft twintig euro de grasmaaier verkocht. constructed · the price is not a second object
One Price phrase · waarvoor resumes the P, not the unit
voor [ MeasureP [ Amount twintig ] [ N euro ] ] waarvoor = that whole PP waar … voor = the same PP, stranded * hoeveel … dollar voor ← unit left behind · not a second object
✓ à 50 cent per stuk Taaladvies · one per-unit price phrase · another cloth of the same seat
✓ Waarvoor heeft Pat de grasmaaier verkocht? constructed · the answer is voor twintig euro, not euro
✓ Waar heeft Pat de grasmaaier niet voor verkocht? constructed · P strands · the MeasureP stays whole
* Hoeveel heeft Pat hem niet dollar voor verkocht? constructed · number and unit do not split
[TP [Theme de grasmaaier ]_2
[ werd
[VoiceP_PASS
[VP t_2 verkocht
[PP voor [ MeasureP twintig euro ]] ]
worden ]]]
✓ De grasmaaier werd voor twintig euro verkocht. constructed · the promotee is the Theme · the MeasureP stays in voor
* Chris werd een grasmaaier verkocht. constructed · the buyer is not the worden-promotee · the prefield subject is Chris
twintig euro = one MeasureP. n and U compose inside that phrase. Taaladvies’s 50 cent per stuk and 1 euro per stuk are the same shape as the notes’ twintig euro. Orthography is not extra arity. There is no further argument “currency name.” Composition in this cloth is voor(MeasureP), not V(n)(U). in welke valuta would recode the unit as its own PP. That rescue is the notes’. It is not a second object, and it is not a printed verkopen line.
Pat sold Chris a lawnmower for twenty dollars · working, parallel to English sell
[VoiceP Pat Voice ← Seller
[ApplP_LOW Chris Appl_HAVE ← Buyer = bare DOC object
[VP √SELL
[Theme a lawnmower ] ← Goods
[PP for [ MeasureP twenty dollars ]]]]]
Structural case in the English double object goes to the applied buyer and, in the to-frame, to the goods. The passive can promote that buyer: Chris was sold a lawnmower. Dutch does not take that step with worden. The buyer is a bare indirect object or aan + DP. The only object is the goods, and worden promotes that object. The Price stays inside for / voor in both languages. A krijgen-passive of the buyer is the ANS semi-passive for this class and is unprinted on verkopen.
| Layer | sell (EN) | verkopen | betalen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spec,Voice | Seller | Seller | Payer |
| person layer | DOC buyer, or to | bare IO, or aan+DP · HAS the goods | positional IO or aan+DP · HAS the money · unranked on that page |
| object | goods (to-frame) · buyer is the other bare object in the DOC | goods only | the money · MeasureP |
| voor / for | Price · MeasureP | Price · MeasureP · tegen and à are other printed price cloths | Consideration · the leftover goods · a hunch on the pay page |
| worden | DOC passive can promote the buyer | promotes the goods · buyer-as-subject of worden stays bad · krijgen of the buyer unprinted | the money is the object a passive would see · krijgen of the IO is not elicited there |
On verkopen, Chris comes to HAVE the lawnmower, and twenty euros measures the price. On betalen, Chris comes to HAVE the twenty euros, and voor de grasmaaier is Consideration. Same names, opposite object. ruilen prints voor het zijne as the other theme, and its gloss uses tegen. tegen een bep. prijs on verkopen is a price cloth, printed in the definition, and is a different tegen.
Working paper · October 2026 · Dutch micro-entry · Beyond Index 2 · Group D
Four-place commercial transfer in Dutch: Seller (Voice, subject), Buyer/Recipient (bare indirect object, or aan + DP), Goods (the one object, Theme of HAVE), and Price (voor + one MeasureP ⟨Amount, Denomination⟩). Same inventory as English sell. The difference is the buyer. English sold Chris a lawnmower uses two bare objects and can passivize Chris. Dutch keeps one object, the goods. worden promotes those goods. *Chris werd een grasmaaier verkocht. stays bad. waarvoor, fused or stranded, resumes the Price and does not split the number from the unit. On live betalen the object is the money and voor is Consideration. ruilen uses voor and, in the gloss, tegen for the other theme. tegen and à are printed price cloths of verkopen and are not stacked with voor.
Same inventory as English sell, the Romance twins, German verkaufen, Japanese uru, and Mandarin mài. Not five-place. Not four sisters of one V. A flat grid would predict two objects of equal rank, or a buyer that worden promotes the way English promotes Chris. Dutch shows one object, the goods, and a buyer in the indirect-object position or in aan.
twintig euro = one MeasureP. See the MeasureP sketch. Taaladvies’s à 50 cent per stuk is that one phrase in another preposition. waarvoor resumes the phrase. It does not resume the unit. tegen een bep. prijs is printed in the Van Dale definition, a second cloth of the same price seat, not a second price.
What Dutch changes is the cloth of the buyer and the passive. What it does not change is the inventory. The goods are still the Theme of HAVE. The Price is still one MeasureP. Payment-settled is still implicated, not entailed. HAVE of the goods is still what the applicative says.
In Pat heeft Chris een grasmaaier voor twintig euro verkocht, Chris comes to HAVE the lawnmower. That is give-geometry. The price measures the sale. It is not the object that is transferred.
Dictionary frames: Van Dale free dictionary verkopen (Wayback, 20 January 2025); woorden.org; WikiWoordenboek; Taaladvies.net on price prepositions; ANW grammar article. Grammar frames: ANS on the meewerkend voorwerp, aan, the krijgen semi-passive, R-pronouns, om te, and causative laten. Constructed argument frames follow the Group D Germanic notes on negative questions for this verb: Seller subject, goods = the one object, Buyer = bare indirect object or aan + DP, Price = voor + one MeasureP, worden on the goods, waarvoor fused or stranded, Purpose in om te, laten a second Voice. The reflexive middle and the bare buyer beside promoted goods are left open. The chat extract named on the other sell pages is 18-negative-questions-for-sell-verb.md. Index 2 does not list verkopen. Dutch Transfer in Index 2 is uitwisselen; geven.
Series placement: Dutch sense×language twin of English sell, Spanish vender, French vendre, Italian vendere, Japanese uru, Mandarin mài, and German verkaufen. Records the four places, the bare indirect object / aan buyer, and voor as the Price. Does not reopen causation-chain papers. Does not invent a Navajo stem.