This section discusses a number of non-main verbs that take a bare infinitive as their complement. Section 6.4.1 begins with a discussion of the aspectual verbs gaanto go, komento come and blijvento stay; an example is given in (201a). While aspectual verbs are generally considered to be non-main verbs, this is controversial for the verb zijn in the so-called absentive construction in (201b), which has also been analyzed as a copular construction. Section 6.4.2 argues against the analysis of zijn as a copular verb and provides some evidence for the more traditional view that it functions as a non-main verb in this construction.

We conclude with a discussion of the use of the semantically light verb doento do in examples such as (202b); this use of doen is limited to cases where the verb that would normally appear as the finite verb of the clause is topicalized. We will argue that doen is like English to do in that it is inserted as a last resort: it saves the structure from ungrammaticality by allowing the tense and agreement features of the clause to be expressed.