Indicatief

Indicatief, or the indicative mood, is a grammatical mood used to express statements of fact, certainty, and real events. In Dutch grammar it is the default mood for ordinary declarative sentences and is employed to describe actions and states that are considered factual or certain.

In Dutch, the indicatief encompasses several tenses that situate actions in time. These typically include the present (tegenwoordige tijd), the past (verleden tijd), the present perfect (voltooid tegenwoordige tijd), the past perfect (voltooid verleden tijd), and constructions for the future often formed with auxiliary verbs such as zullen or periphrastic forms. The exact naming and usage of tenses can vary among grammar traditions, but the underlying function remains describing realities rather than possibilities, wishes, or hypothetical situations.

Relation to other moods: The indicatief is contrasted with the conjunctief (subjunctive) and imperative moods. The subjunctive expresses doubt, wishes, or hypothetical scenarios, though in contemporary Dutch its use is limited and many of its functions are now realized by the indicative or other periphrastic constructions. The imperative mood, by contrast, issues commands. In practice, the distinction between moods can be clearer in other languages with more distinct subjunctive forms, but Dutch has largely integrated many former subjunctive uses into the indicative system.

Across languages, the same concept exists under different labels, such as the Indikativ in German or the indicativo in Spanish and Italian. The term indicatief is specifically used in Dutch-language grammars to denote this mood.