# Dutch: I was wondering whether you would like....



## Setwale_Charm

Hoi!!
I want to invite a Belgian friend to go for a walk, for example and want to say something like: I was wondering whether you would like/be interested in taking the walk around .... etc etc with me someday.

What I am interested in is this :I was wondering whether you would like" construction or rather its commonly adopted Dutch equivalent.


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## ablativ

What about:

*Ik vraag me af of je zin hebt* (iets te doen).


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## Suehil

'I wonder if...' = 'ik vraag me af of..'
'I was wondering if...' = 'ik vroeg me af of...'


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## ablativ

Suehil said:


> 'I wonder if...' = 'ik vraag me af of..'
> 'I was wondering if...' = 'ik vroeg me af of...'


 
Depending on the context, "I was wondering" doesn't necessarily reflect a past tense (even though it *grammatically* does), there is no need (in my opinion) to put "ik vraag me af" into the past tense, either. "I was wondering" just sounds more idiomatic and stylistically smoothed compared with "I am wondering / I wonder if", whereas "ik vroeg me af" really means that I did so in the past and I no longer do.


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## Suehil

In my experience, 'ik vroeg me af' is used in exactly the same way as 'I was wondering' and does not mean that I did it in the past.


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## HKK

Yep, the past tense is used in this way in Dutch too. The line between "actual past" and "stylistic past" is particularly vague when it comes to verbs of thinking/imagining/...

A child who just did something wrong might say:
"Maar ik dacht... Ik dacht..."
And the (Flemish, in this case ) parent might well respond:
"Gij moet niet _dachten_!" (You're not supposed to be _thoughting_!)

The use of a past tense as an infinitive indicates (I think) that the past tense doesn't have much pastness to it.


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## optimistique

True, Suehil! 

*"Ik vroeg me af of..."* is used the same as the English "*I was wondering*". 

It is also not surprising in my opinion that there's no sense of a past tense. If you were wondering whether someone would like to walk with you, but now you don't wonder anymore, then there's not much sense in saying that, is there?


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## Joannes

I agree with Suehil, HKK and optimistique here. A modal past in *ik vroeg me af of* is as much in its place as in English *I was wondering whether*. It makes the expression more tentative, more polite maybe.


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## Setwale_Charm

Bedankt alle voor jullie hulp


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## Lentekriebels

ablativ said:


> Depending on the context, "I was wondering" doesn't necessarily reflect a past tense (even though it *grammatically* does), there is no need (in my opinion) to put "ik vraag me af" into the past tense, either. "I was wondering" just sounds more idiomatic and stylistically smoothed compared with "I am wondering / I wonder if", whereas "ik vroeg me af" really means that I did so in the past and I no longer do.



In Dutch its common to use the past tense in this case, 'ik vroeg me af' sounds a lot more natural to me here than 'ik vraag me af'. I use 'ik vraag me af' also, but in a different situation, when im wondering if something is ever going to happen in the far future.


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## ablativ

Lentekriebels said:


> In Dutch its common to use the past tense in this case, 'ik vroeg me af' sounds a lot more natural to me here than 'ik vraag me af'. I use 'ik vraag me af' also, but in a different situation, when im wondering if something is ever going to happen in the far future.


 
Thanks to all of you for correcting my error!


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