bidragen

Bidragen is a nonstandard or archaic spelling variant of the Dutch verb bijdragen, which means to contribute or to provide. In modern standard Dutch the preferred infinitive is bijdragen and the noun is bijdrage. Bidragen may appear in older texts or certain regional dialects, but it is generally considered incorrect in contemporary formal writing.

The form likely derives from historical orthography that reflected pronunciation or spelling conventions of earlier Dutch. The underlying verb is built from bij- “with, at” and dragen “to carry,” conveying the idea of bringing something to a collective effort or goal.

In current usage, contributions are described with bijdragen, not bidragen. People can bijdragen time, money, or material to a project or cause. Examples: "Iedereen draagt bij aan het project." and "De bijdragen van de deelnemers waren aanzienlijk." The noun form is bijdrage, as in "een financiële bijdrage" or "de bijdragen aan het fonds." The plural is bijdragen, and the possessive is iemands bijdrage.

Notes: In historical texts or some dialectal varieties, you might encounter bidragen, but standard Dutch today favors bijdragen for the verb and bijdrage for the noun. In Flemish Dutch, the same distinction generally applies, with bijdragen and bijdrage being the standard forms in formal contexts.