hinkt

Hinkt is the present tense form of the Dutch verb hinken, which means to limp. The verb describes an irregular or altered gait that arises from an injury, pain, or a medical condition affecting one leg. Hinken is intransitive, and the present tense is used to describe someone’s ongoing limp. The form hinkt is used for he, she, it and for the informal second-person singular when the full present tense is used (hij hinkt, jij hinkt, u hinkt).

Conjugation overview: the verb hinken is a regular Dutch weak verb. In the present tense the forms are: ik hink, jij hinkt, hij/zij/het hinkt, wij hinken, jullie hinken, zij hinken. The imperfect (past) tense is hinkte for all persons (ik hinkte, jij hinkte, hij hinkte, wij hinkten, jullie hinkten, zij hinkten). The past participle is gehinkt, and the present perfect is formed with hebben: heeft gehinkt.

Usage notes: hinken is commonly used to describe physical limping after an accident or medical issue, as in “Hij hinkt na de val” or “Zij hinkt vanwege haar blessure.” The term can also appear in medical or sports contexts to convey a temporary impairment in walking. While the primary sense is literal, it may be used in metaphorical expressions to signal an incomplete or compromised state in non-physical domains, though this usage is less common.