The Dutch Indirect Object: hun or hen? — B1 Dutch Grammar Course, Lesson 7 | My Dutch Journal

The Dutch Indirect Object: hun or hen? | B1 Dutch, Lesson 7

July 4, 2026

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Welcome to B1 Lesson seven. In this lesson, you learn about the indirect object in Dutch — the meewerkend voorwerp. In Dutch sentences, there are often three participants: the subject (who does something), the direct object (what is given or sent), and the indirect object — the person who receives it. "Ze stuurt haar een bericht. Who sends? She does. What does she send? A message — that is the direct object. And who receives it? Haar — her. Haar" is the indirect object. By the end of this lesson, you will know how to express the indirect object using pronouns and nouns, and you will know the one pronoun form that is unique to the indirect object.

The indirect object — the recipient

The indirect object is the person who receives something. Let us look at three examples. "Ze stuurt haar een bericht. She sends a message to her. The message is the direct object — that is what is being sent. The indirect object is haar — she is the recipient. Hij geeft hem een cadeau. He gives him a gift. The gift is the direct object. Hem is the indirect object — he receives it. Ze vertelt hem het nieuws. She tells him the news. The news is the direct object. And hem" is the indirect object — he is the person being told. The key question to find the indirect object is: who is the RECIPIENT? That person is the indirect object. Dutch places this person right after the verb, before the direct object.

Two ways to express the indirect object

There are two ways to express the indirect object. The first is with the preposition aan. "Ze stuurt een bericht aan haar moeder. She sends a message to her mother. That is perfectly correct. But in Dutch, you can also drop the aan and move the recipient right after the verb, before the direct object. Ze stuurt haar moeder een bericht. Same meaning — different construction. Look at the second pair: Hij geeft een cadeau aan hem. — Hij geeft hem een cadeau. The pronoun hem moves right after geeft, and the direct object een cadeau comes after it. This is how the indirect object works in Dutch. One note about voor: in the core pattern of this lesson, voor stays as a preposition phrase. Hij koopt een cadeautje voor haar — that is always the safe and clear choice. For this lesson: keep voor haar, voor hem," and so on as they are.

Indirect object pronouns — all persons

Here is the full pronoun table for the indirect object. Good news: for almost every person, the indirect object pronoun is exactly the same as the direct object pronoun. "Ze stuurt mij een bericht. — mij, same as direct object. Hij geeft jou een bloem. — jou, same as direct object. Ze vertelt hem het nieuws. — hem. Ze stuurt haar een kaart. — haar. Ze geeft ons genoeg tijd. — ons. Ze sturen jullie de uitnodiging. — jullie. The only exception is the third person plural — zij, they. As a direct object you use hen: Ze helpt hen. But as an indirect object you use hun: Ze stuurt hun een bericht. This hen versus hun distinction is the one form you need to learn specifically for the indirect object. In everyday spoken Dutch, ze" is commonly used for both — slide 5 covers this in more detail.

hun vs. hen — the one distinction

Let us focus on the hen versus hun distinction. In the third person plural — when you are talking about them — Dutch has two forms: hen and hun. Hen is used for the direct object. "Ze helpt hen. She helps them — they are the ones being helped. We zien hen. We see them. Hun is used for the indirect object — when they are the recipients. Ze stuurt hun een bericht. She sends them a message — they are the ones who receive it. We geven hun de opdracht. We give them the assignment. The practical test: is someone RECEIVING something? Use hun. Is someone being seen or directly affected? Use hen. And in everyday spoken Dutch, ze works for both — Ze stuurt ze een bericht is very natural in speech. In formal written Dutch, however, hun and hen" are expected.

Not just pronouns — nouns and names too

The indirect object does not have to be a pronoun. A person's name or a noun group can also be the indirect object. "Ze stuurt haar moeder een kaart. She sends her mother a card — haar moeder is the indirect object. Hij vertelt de kinderen een verhaal. He tells the children a story — de kinderen is the indirect object. Ze geeft haar collega de opdracht. She gives her colleague the assignment. In all three cases, the recipient — the noun or name — comes right after the verb, before the direct object. You can also keep the aan preposition: Ze stuurt een kaart aan haar moeder is equally correct. The form without aan" is common when the recipient is short and clear.

Key Takeaways

Let us review. Three things to hold onto. First: the indirect object is the recipient — the person who receives what is given, sent, shown, or told. It goes right after the verb, before the direct object. Second: there are two ways to express it. You can use the preposition aan: "Ze geeft een bloem aan hem. Or you can drop aan and place the pronoun or noun right after the verb: Ze geeft hem een bloem. With voor, keeping the preposition is the safe choice — voor haar, voor hem. Third: the one pronoun form that is unique to the indirect object is hun for the third person plural. Direct object: Ze helpt hen. Indirect object: Ze stuurt hun een bericht. In everyday speech, ze works for both, but knowing hun and hen" is important for formal Dutch.

Practice What You Learned

Reading about grammar is step one — using it is what makes it stick. In My Dutch Journal Academy you can watch the full video of this lesson, do interactive exercises that check your answers instantly, and practise all the vocabulary from the B1 course.