Each language has its own section. Navigate directly to the relevant one.

## Key Points

- Kafka: short, precise, bureaucratic-surreal; present tense; passive constructions
- Thomas Mann: extremely long sentences; Latinate vocabulary; philosophical depth
- Günter Grass: baroque, digressive, folkloric; Konjunktiv throughout
- W.G. Sebald: melancholy, long paragraphs, photographs, accumulation
- Contemporary: Jenny Erpenbeck, Judith Hermann — spare, precise, quiet
- Missing Konjunktiv in reported speech (narration says *er war* when it should be *er sei*)
- Verb not at end of subordinate clause
- English word order in main clauses (*Er hat gestern nach Hause gegangen* — wrong position)
- False cognates: *also* = so/therefore (not also); *bekommen* = to get/receive (not become);
- Punctuation: German uses „ " (low-high) for quotation marks, not " "
- Calvino: playful, metafictional, precise, philosophical — deceptively simple surface
- Moravia: social realism, direct, psychological

## Quick Example

```
Nicht verb-final (wrong): Er sagte, dass er morgen kommen wird.
Correct: Er sagte, dass er morgen kommen würde.
```

```
Normal:    Hij liep naar huis.        (He walked home)
Inverted:  Gisteren liep hij naar huis. (Yesterday he walked home)
                     ↑ verb still second
```

Language Reference Files — DE, IT, PT, JA, ZH, RU, AR, KO, NL

Each language has its own section. Navigate directly to the relevant one.

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GERMAN (DE)

The Verb-Final Rule — The Most Important Thing

German main clauses are verb-second (subject or another element first, verb second). German subordinate clauses are verb-final (verb at the very end).

This creates a reading experience unlike English: in subordinate clauses, the reader must hold the meaning in suspension until the very last word delivers the verb. This is not a quirk — it is the engine of German prose rhythm.

Exploit it deliberately: Place the most important information at the end of sentences. In subordinate clauses, what comes last is what lands. A German writer controls emphasis through word order in ways English cannot.

Nicht verb-final (wrong): Er sagte, dass er morgen kommen wird.
Correct: Er sagte, dass er morgen kommen würde.

The T-V Distinction: Du vs. Sie

Du = informal (family, friends, children, God in prayer) Sie = formal (strangers, professional relationships, people you respect but don't know)

Modern German: younger people increasingly use du quickly. Older or formal contexts maintain Sie longer. A switch from Sie to du (das Duzen anbieten) is socially significant — always mark it.

Compound Nouns

German makes compound nouns freely: Weltanschauung, Fingerspitzengefühl, Schadenfreude. This is a literary resource, not just a grammatical fact. A German author can create new compound nouns for precision or effect. Don't translate English noun phrases as multiple words when a compound would be natural.

Konjunktiv II (Subjunctive)

Used for: reported speech (indirect discourse), hypotheticals, polite requests, counter-factual conditionals.

Literary German uses Konjunktiv I for reported speech in narration: Er sagte, er sei müde (not er war müde). This is a strong mark of literary register and is almost always absent from translated texts.

German Literary Prose Tradition

• Kafka: short, precise, bureaucratic-surreal; present tense; passive constructions
• Thomas Mann: extremely long sentences; Latinate vocabulary; philosophical depth
• Günter Grass: baroque, digressive, folkloric; Konjunktiv throughout
• W.G. Sebald: melancholy, long paragraphs, photographs, accumulation
• Contemporary: Jenny Erpenbeck, Judith Hermann — spare, precise, quiet

Common German Translationese Traps

• Missing Konjunktiv in reported speech (narration says er war when it should be er sei)
• Verb not at end of subordinate clause
• English word order in main clauses (Er hat gestern nach Hause gegangen — wrong position)
• False cognates: also = so/therefore (not also); bekommen = to get/receive (not become); Gift = poison (not gift)
• Punctuation: German uses „ " (low-high) for quotation marks, not " "

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ITALIAN (IT)

Tense System

Similar to Spanish: Passato Prossimo vs. Passato Remoto.

Regional divide: Northern Italy uses passato prossimo for recent past; Southern Italy and formal/literary prose uses passato remoto. Literary fiction traditionally uses passato remoto. Establish which register and apply consistently.

Imperfetto: Same function as Spanish imperfecto — background, description, habitual. The imperfetto is a rich tool in Italian literary prose and is used extensively.

The Subjunctive

Italian subjunctive is required after verbs of opinion, emotion, doubt, necessity, and in certain temporal clauses. Literary Italian uses it correctly and extensively. Audit every che + verb construction.

T-V Distinction

Tu = informal Lei = formal (note: Lei is grammatically third-person singular feminine, regardless of the person being addressed — this is a distinctly Italian formality) Voi = formal plural (and historical formal singular, still used in some southern regions and archaic registers)

Rhythm & Style

Italian prose is often musical — the rhythm of Italian sentences is connected to its operatic tradition. Vowel endings give Italian an inherent flow that English lacks.

Read translations aloud. Italian should sound beautiful spoken. If it doesn't, the rhythm is wrong.

Elision in dialogue: Italian spoken language elides heavily. In informal dialogue: come va? not come stai andando?; non lo so spoken as nearly nonlosò.

Italian Literary Tradition

• Calvino: playful, metafictional, precise, philosophical — deceptively simple surface
• Moravia: social realism, direct, psychological
• Ferrante: raw intimacy, flowing sentences, first-person confession
• Pavese: spare, melancholic, Northern Italian working-class register
• Leopardi (prose): elevated, philosophical, periodic sentences

Common Italian Translationese Traps

• Wrong passato: prossimo vs. remoto confusion
• Missing subjunctive after che, benché, sebbene, affinché
• False cognates: annoiare = to bore (not to annoy); convenire = to be convenient/agree (not to convene); educato = polite (not educated)
• English adjective order: Italian adjectives have complex placement rules (before/after noun changes meaning for some adjectives)
• Punctuation: Italian uses « » or " " — establish and apply consistently

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PORTUGUESE (PT/BR)

European vs. Brazilian Portuguese

These are meaningfully different and readers will notice the wrong one:

Feature	European (PT)	Brazilian (BR)
Object pronoun position	Enclitic (dá-me)	Proclitic (me dá)
2nd person	tu (informal) + você	você dominant; tu regional
Vocabulary	autocarro, casa de banho, telemovel	ônibus, banheiro, celular
Infinitive in subordinate clauses	Personal infinitive used freely	Less common
Pronunciation/orthography	Some differences in spelling pre-2009	Post-2009 largely unified

Tense System

Similar to Spanish and Italian. Pretérito Perfeito Simples vs. Imperfeito. Brazilian Portuguese uses pretérito perfeito composto (tenho feito) differently from European Portuguese. Establish regional variant and apply accordingly.

The Personal Infinitive

European Portuguese has a unique feature: the infinitive inflects for person. É importante fazermos (for us to do) — the infinitive fazer takes a 1st person plural ending. This is a sophistication that marks native European Portuguese writing and is absent from translated texts. Use it.

Subjunctive

Same requirement pattern as Spanish and Italian. Required after verbs of desire, doubt, emotion, necessity; in temporal clauses with future reference (quando chegares); in conditional constructions.

Literary Tradition

• Fernando Pessoa: multiple heteronyms; each with distinct register and philosophy
• José Saramago: famously long sentences with minimal punctuation; commas instead of periods; unconventional dialogue without quotation marks or tags
• Eça de Queirós: 19th century social realism; French-influenced style
• Clarice Lispector (BR): stream of consciousness; interior; unconventional syntax
• Jorge Amado (BR): warm, regional, popular; Bahian culture embedded throughout

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JAPANESE (JA)

The Register System — Cannot Be Approximated

Japanese grammar encodes social relationships in verb endings. This is not optional or stylistic — it is grammatical. Every sentence requires a register decision.

Register	Verb form	When used
Formal polite (teineigo)	~masu / ~desu	Standard narrative; formal interaction
Plain (futsuutai)	~ru / ~da / ~i	Literary narration; informal speech; internal thought
Formal (kenjōgo/sonkeigo)	Humble/honorific forms	Formal social contexts; addressing superiors

Literary fiction almost always uses plain form for narration and internal thought. Dialogue register is set character-by-character based on social relationship.

For every speaking character, establish: what form do they use with each other character? This must be consistent. A social inferior using plain form with a superior is a deliberate rudeness — mark it when it happens.

Topic-Comment Structure

Japanese is topic-prominent. The topic (what the sentence is about) is marked with wa (は); the subject of the action is marked with ga (が). These are not interchangeable.

Wa = topic (often old information, what we're continuing to talk about) Ga = subject (often new information, what's doing the action)

English doesn't have this distinction. Every sentence must make this choice. Getting it wrong produces sentences that are grammatically valid but rhythmically wrong — native readers feel it immediately.

Sentence-Final Particles

Japanese sentence-final particles carry enormous expressive weight in dialogue: ne (seeking agreement, softening), yo (assertion, slight emphasis), na (male speech, self-directed musing), wa (traditionally feminine, softening), ze/zo (masculine, strong assertion).

These are the verbal equivalent of tone of voice. Use them correctly for each character's gender, age, and personality.

Subject Omission

Japanese routinely omits subjects when they are understood from context. English requires them. Do not calque English subjects into Japanese where they would feel unnatural.

Literary Tradition

• Natsume Sōseki: psychological depth; Meiji-era register; ironic narrator
• Kawabata: spare, imagistic, haiku-influenced; minimal sentence structure
• Mishima: elevated, formal, classical references; ornate
• Murakami: deliberately modern, Western-influenced but unmistakably Japanese; plain register
• Ogawa Yoko: quiet, precise, disturbing undertow in simple prose

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MANDARIN CHINESE (ZH)

Simplified vs. Traditional

Establish at the outset:

• Simplified (简体): Mainland China; Singapore
• Traditional (繁體): Taiwan; Hong Kong; most overseas Chinese communities

These are the same language with different character sets and some vocabulary differences. The translation approach is the same; only the output characters differ.

No Grammatical Gender, No Tense Morphology

Chinese verbs do not conjugate for tense — temporal meaning is expressed through:

• Time words (昨天 zuótiān yesterday, 明天 míngtiān tomorrow)
• Aspect markers: 了 le (completed action), 过 guo (experiential), 着 zhe (ongoing)
• Context

This means every verb in translation requires a decision: what aspect, if any, does this action need marked? An unmarked verb is timeless/habitual. Mark it only when the completion, experience, or ongoing nature is relevant.

Measure Words (量词)

Every noun in Chinese requires a specific measure word when counted or modified with a demonstrative. There is no universal "a" or "the." Each noun has its own measure word (本 běn for books, 张 zhāng for flat objects, 条 tiáo for long thin things). Getting these wrong immediately marks non-native writing.

Serial Verb Constructions

Chinese strings verbs together without conjunctions: 他走出去买东西 (he walked out bought things = he went out to buy things). This is natural Chinese; do not translate into English-style "he walked out and bought things" with explicit conjunction.

Classical Register

Literary Chinese has a classical register (文言文 wényánwén) that echoes in formal and elevated contemporary prose. Four-character idioms (成语 chéngyǔ) are used in literary writing and carry cultural/historical resonance. Use them where the source text calls for elevated register.

Literary Tradition

• Lu Xun: spare, ironic, social critique; classical elements in modern form
• Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang): lush, psychological, detail-rich; feminine interiority
• Mo Yan: earthy, folkloric, magical realism; rural China; sensory excess
• Yu Hua: stark, brutal simplicity; minimal ornament
• Contemporary: Can Xue (surrealist), Bi Feiyu, Su Tong

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RUSSIAN (RU)

Verbal Aspect — The Most Important Feature

Russian has no tense system like European languages — instead, every verb comes in two forms: imperfective (ongoing, repeated, incomplete) and perfective (completed, single, bounded).

This is not optional grammar — it is how Russian expresses time, and getting it wrong produces text that a native speaker feels as fundamentally wrong.

читать / прочитать — to read (imperfective) / to have read / to finish reading (perfective)

Rules:

• Imperfective: habitual action; action in progress; general statements; negative commands
• Perfective: completed action; single occurrence; result achieved; affirmative commands

Every past-tense verb must be assigned aspect deliberately. There is no English equivalent to guide this — it requires understanding the scene.

Word Order for Emphasis

Russian has relatively free word order compared to English. Word order carries pragmatic meaning (topic vs. focus) rather than grammatical meaning:

• First position: topic (what this sentence is about)
• Last position: focus (the new/important information — what you want to emphasize)

This is a profound tool. A Russian translator can put any word last for maximum emphasis. Use this deliberately — don't default to English word order.

No Articles

Russian has no articles (no a, the). Definiteness is expressed through:

• Word order (definite tends to come first; indefinite tends to come last)
• Context
• Demonstratives (этот/тот when needed)

Do not insert article-like constructions that aren't natural Russian.

The T-V Distinction: Ты vs. Вы

Ты = informal (friends, family, children, lovers, those you're being deliberately rude to) Вы = formal (strangers, superiors, polite distance)

Shifts are significant. A character using ты to someone who expects вы is an act of aggression or contempt. Mark these moments.

Russian Literary Tradition

• Pushkin: clarity, economy, elegance; the gold standard of Russian prose rhythm
• Tolstoy: long sentences; psychological interiority; moral weight
• Dostoevsky: feverish, compressed, dialogic; characters talk in storms
• Chekhov: radical brevity; what's unsaid; the story in the silence
• Bulgakov: satirical, fantastical, sly
• Contemporary: Ulitskaya, Pelevin, Sorokin — very different registers

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ARABIC (AR)

Modern Standard Arabic vs. Colloquial

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA / الفصحى) is used in:

• Literary fiction
• Formal narration
• Written dialogue in literary texts

Colloquial Arabic (Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Maghrebi, etc.) is used in:

• Spoken dialogue in realistic fiction (some authors)
• Regional literature

For most literary translation: narration in MSA; dialogue may be MSA or the relevant dialect depending on the source novel's register and the target audience. Establish this upfront.

Dual Number

Arabic has a grammatical dual (for exactly two of something) that English lacks. Use it correctly — two characters = dual verb and pronoun forms, not plural.

Broken Plurals

Arabic plurals are not formed by adding -s — most nouns have irregular "broken" plural forms (كتاب / كتب kitāb/kutub; رجل / رجال rajul/rijāl). These must be known or looked up. Using sound plurals where broken plurals are required marks non-native text.

Root System and Register

Arabic words derive from trilateral roots. Literary Arabic can use this root system for wordplay, resonance, and connection between words that English cannot replicate. When translating a passage with verbal resonance or wordplay, look for Arabic root connections that can create equivalent internal echoes.

Rhythm and Rhetoric

Classical Arabic prose has a tradition of saj' (rhymed prose) and rhetorical parallelism. Literary Modern Arabic often echoes this — balanced structures, parallelism, rhythmic repetition. When the English has rhetorical structure, find the Arabic rhetorical equivalent.

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KOREAN (KO)

Speech Levels — Grammatically Mandatory

Korean has a complex system of speech levels encoded in verb endings. Every sentence in dialogue requires a level:

Level	Usage
Haeyoche (해요체)	Polite informal — most common modern usage
Hapsocheche (합쇼체)	Formal polite — professional, public contexts
Haeyoche plain (haeche 해체)	Intimate informal — close friends, lovers, children
Banmal (반말)	Plain form — casual, to juniors/equals/children

Every character-to-character relationship requires a level, which may shift across the novel (marking intimacy developing, status changes, deliberate insult). Map all relationships before translating dialogue.

Topic and Subject Markers

Like Japanese: 은/는 (topic marker) vs. 이/가 (subject marker). The distinction carries information about old vs. new information and about emphasis. Do not default to subject markers — use topic markers where the sentence is continuing a topic.

Honorific Vocabulary

Beyond verb endings, Korean has separate honorific vocabulary for people of higher status: 먹다 (to eat, plain) vs. 드시다 (to eat, honorific). These apply to:

• Referring to the actions of socially superior characters
• Vocabulary used about and around respected people

SOV Word Order

Korean is strictly verb-final. The main verb always comes at the end of the clause. All modifiers (including relative clauses) precede the noun they modify. Do not carry any English word order into Korean.

Korean Literary Tradition

• Yi Sang: modernist, fragmented, psychological; colonial-era anxiety
• Park Kyung-ni: epic realism; Toji (Land) is the masterwork of Korean literary prose
• Han Kang: lyrical, violent, interior; body and mind
• Hwang Sok-yong: social, historical, realist
• Bora Chung: contemporary, dark, surreal

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DUTCH (NL)

Belgian vs. Netherlands Dutch

Establish the regional variant before translating. Differences are real and readers notice:

Feature	Netherlands (NL)	Belgian / Flemish (BE)
Informal 2nd person singular	jij/je	jij/je (same) but gij in archaic/literary Flemish
Diminutives	Heavy use; warm, intimate	Also common; slightly less pervasive
Vocabulary	fiets, appelsap, ziekenhuis	Some French-influenced terms; velo (bicycle) in informal Flemish
Pronunciation conventions in text	Standard	Flemish dialogue may reflect distinct vowel patterns
Formal address	u (declining in NL); u still strong in BE	u more maintained in Belgian formal contexts

For literary translation into standard Dutch: Netherlands variant is the default for international publication. Flemish variant for Belgian publishers or stories set in Belgium.

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The T-V Distinction: Jij/Je vs. U

Dutch has a T-V distinction but it is in flux — particularly in the Netherlands:

Register	Pronoun
Informal (friends, family, children, peers)	jij / je (unstressed)
Formal (strangers, official contexts, elders)	u
Archaic/literary/religious	gij (still found in older texts and Flemish literature)

Important: In contemporary Netherlands Dutch, u is increasingly rare — even in professional contexts many speakers use jij/je. However, in literary fiction, older characters, formal scenes, or Belgian-set stories, u remains correct and important.

Establish each character-to-character relationship and maintain it. A shift from u to jij is socially significant — a move toward intimacy or a deliberate boundary violation.

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Verb-Second Word Order

Like German, Dutch is a verb-second language in main clauses: whatever comes first (subject, adverb, object), the finite verb must come second.

Normal:    Hij liep naar huis.        (He walked home)
Inverted:  Gisteren liep hij naar huis. (Yesterday he walked home)
                     ↑ verb still second

In subordinate clauses, Dutch is verb-final (like German), though less strictly so — in spoken/informal Dutch, the verb cluster at the end can vary in order.

Literary Dutch follows the formal verb-final rule in subordinate clauses. Do not carry English word order into Dutch subordinate clauses.

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The Diminutive — A Cultural and Literary Tool

Dutch uses diminutives (-je, -tje, -pje, -etje) far more extensively than English. Crucially, they do not only mean "small" — they carry emotional register:

• Intimacy and warmth: een kopje koffie (a cup of coffee) — cozier than een kop koffie
• Affection: addressing a child or loved one with diminutive names
• Irony or understatement: a diminutive can deflate something serious
• Gezelligheid: the untranslatable Dutch concept of coziness, warmth, togetherness — often signaled through diminutives

When English prose is warm and intimate, Dutch diminutives are one of the primary tools to achieve the same register. Use them. Their absence in cozy or domestic scenes reads as cold and foreign.

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Separable Verbs

Dutch has many separable verbs (aankomen, opbellen, weggaan) where the prefix separates in main clauses and moves to the end:

Hij komt morgen aan. (He arrives tomorrow — aan goes to the end) Ze belt hem op. (She calls him — op goes to the end)

In subordinate clauses, they rejoin: omdat hij morgen aankomt

This is invisible to English speakers but immediately wrong when missed. Every separable verb must be handled correctly. In literary prose this creates a verb-echo at the end of sentences that is part of Dutch rhythmic texture.

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Rhythm & Sentence Structure

Dutch prose rhythm sits between English and German — more flexible than German's rigid verb-final subordinate clauses, but less so than English's free word order.

Key Dutch rhythm features:

• The long sentence is natural in literary Dutch: Dutch literary prose, especially in the tradition of Multatuli and later writers, uses extended sentences comfortably. Don't break them up into English-length pieces when the Dutch sustains them.
• Parataxis vs. hypotaxis: Contemporary Dutch literary fiction often favors coordination (en... en... maar...) for rhythm, while formal prose uses more subordination. Match the register of the source.
• The final verb cluster: In long subordinate clauses, several verbs stack at the end (...had kunnen worden gemaakt). This is native Dutch; do not restructure to avoid it.
• Short sentences for impact: Like English, Dutch uses short declarative sentences for emotional weight. The Dutch short sentence has the same landing quality — exploit it in the same structural positions as the English original.

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Invisible Grammar: De vs. Het

Dutch has two grammatical genders: de (common gender — originally masculine and feminine merged) and het (neuter). There is no reliable rule for most nouns — gender must be known or looked up.

This affects:

• Article choice: de man, de vrouw, het kind, het huis
• Pronoun reference: de-words → hij/hem/zijn (or zij/haar for originally feminine); het-words → het/zijn
• Adjective inflection: attributive adjectives add -e before de-words and in all plural forms, but not before het-words in the indefinite singular: een groot huis (no -e) but een grote man / het grote huis (with -e)

Getting de/het wrong is one of the most immediate translationese tells in Dutch. When in doubt: look it up. There is no shortcut.

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Ge- Past Participle

Dutch past participles take ge- prefix (gelopen, gezien, gebracht) — except:

• Verbs beginning with be-, er-, ge-, her-, ont-, ver-: no ge- (bezoekt → bezocht)
• Separable verbs: ge- goes between prefix and stem (aangekomen, opgebeld)
• Inseparable verbs with stressed prefix: no ge-

Incorrect participle formation is an immediate marker of non-native text.

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Dialogue Register

Informal/colloquial Dutch dialogue:

• jij/je pronouns; verb contractions common in speech
• 'k for ik in very informal speech: 'k weet het niet
• Regional expressions: Amsterdam slang differs from Rotterdam differs from Flemish
• Filler words: nou, zeg, hoor, toch — these carry social meaning and are absent from translated texts that don't know them
  • hoor: softening, reassurance (dat is prima, hoor = that's fine, really)
  • toch: seeking confirmation, or contradiction (je komt toch? = you are coming, right?)
  • nou: well / now, temporal and conversational
  • zeg: hey / say (attention-getter in dialogue)

Formal/literary Dutch:

• Full verb forms; u where appropriate; complete sentences
• More Latinate vocabulary (Dutch has a formal register that draws on French and Latin roots, parallel to English's Anglo-Saxon vs. Latinate divide)

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Cultural Register: Gezelligheid and Directness

Dutch culture has two strong register poles that appear in prose:

Gezelligheid (coziness, togetherness, warmth): When a scene is domestic, intimate, comfortable — Dutch prose signals this through diminutives, warm vocabulary, je/jij pronouns, references to coffee/tea/food as social ritual. This register has no direct English equivalent but must be found when translating cozy or domestic English prose.

Dutch directness: Dutch people and Dutch prose are famously direct — more so than English. English hedges (I was wondering if perhaps you might...) should often be translated more directly in Dutch. Over-translated English politeness reads as either weak or foreign.

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Dutch Literary Tradition

• Multatuli (Max Havelaar): the cornerstone of Dutch literary prose; ironic, passionate, formally innovative; long rhetorical sentences; colonial critique
• Louis Couperus: lush, psychological, fin-de-siècle; ornate but precise; The Hague aristocracy; influenced by French naturalism
• W.F. Hermans: cold, dark, existentialist; spare and brutal; unreliable narrators; the Dutch Camus
• Harry Mulisch: intellectual, mythological, large-canvas; The Discovery of Heaven as the modern Dutch epic
• Maarten 't Hart: warm, Calvinist community, psychological; slower register; regional (Maassluis/Zeeland)
• Arnon Grunberg: ironic, satirical, dark comedy; contemporary urban register
• Marieke Lucas Rijneveld: visceral, rural, body-focused; innovative syntax; contemporary literary benchmark

Know which tradition the source text connects to. A warm domestic English novel reaches toward Maarten 't Hart register; a cold existentialist thriller toward Hermans; a grand intellectual novel toward Mulisch.

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Common Dutch Translationese Traps

• Wrong de/het: The single most common error — always verify gender
• Missing adjective inflection: een grote huis (wrong) → een groot huis
• Separable verbs not separated in main clauses: Hij aankomt morgen (wrong) → Hij komt morgen aan
• English word order in subordinate clauses: verb must go to the end
• False cognates: actueel = current/topical (not actual); eventually ≠ eventueel (eventueel = possibly/if necessary); sympathiek = likable/nice (not sympathetic in the English sense); realiseren = to realize but also to achieve/build in Dutch
• Missing diminutives in warm/domestic contexts: the text reads cold
• Missing toch/hoor/zeg in dialogue: dialogue sounds like a non-native speaker
• Overusing u in modern NL dialogue: sounds stiff and unnatural for most characters
• Calqued English progressive: hij was lopend (wrong) → hij liep (Dutch uses simple past where English uses progressive; or hij was aan het lopen for ongoing)