The most common type of middle formation is illustrated in (155). The regular middle construction in (155b) has the following syntactic properties: the middle verb corresponds to a transitive verb; the subject of the middle construction corresponds to the direct object of the corresponding transitive construction; the middle construction usually requires an evaluative adverbial phrase such as gemakkelijkeasily.

Unlike the other subtypes discussed in the subsections below, the regular middle construction can also be found in English.

The adjunct middle construction differs from the regular middle construction in two ways: the middle verb corresponds to an intransitive verb, and the subject of the middle construction corresponds to the nominal complement of an adverbial PP in the intransitive construction. Like the regular middle construction, the adjunct middle construction usually requires an evaluative adverbial phrase such as lekker.

The impersonal middle construction is similar to the adjunct middle construction, but differs from it in that it does not have a subject corresponding to the nominal complement of an adverbial PP. Instead, the middle construction has an impersonal subject, the non-referential pronoun hetit, and an obligatory adjunct PP. In this case there is usually also an adverbial phrase such as gemakkelijk present.

The last subtype is the reflexive middle construction in (158b). It differs from the other middle constructions in that it is syntactically more complex. It involves a form of the permissive verb latento let followed by an embedded infinitival clause headed by a transitive verb. The subject of the middle construction corresponds to the accusative object of the embedded verb. Furthermore, the construction contains the simplex reflexive pronoun zich, which seems to replace the object of the embedded verb and is interpreted as coreferential with the subject of the sentence. This reflexive pronoun cannot be replaced by a referential expression, and in this sense we are dealing with inherently reflexive constructions; cf. Section 2.5.2. Reflexive middles usually contain an adverbial phrase such as gemakkelijk, although it can be omitted more easily than in other types of middle constructions.

Middle verbs correspond to verbs denoting activities and accomplishments, but middle constructions themselves are stative in nature: a middle construction such as (159b) cannot be used to refer to a specific eventuality, as can be seen from the fact that it cannot be used as a response to question (159a).

Instead of referring to an event, middles refer to an individual-level property of the subject of the construction: (159b) expresses that the book in question has the inherent property that it can be read. Middle constructions usually contain an adverbially used adjective that can be seen as an evaluative modifier of this property: the adverb gemakkelijkeasily in (159b) expresses that the book has a high degree of readability. Such evaluative modifiers belong to a set of adjectives that optionally take an experiencer voor-PP, which is taken as the norm for the evaluation expressed by the adjective; cf. gemakkelijk voor Janeasy for Jan. The middle construction normally provides a generic statement, and the experiencer phrase is therefore usually left implicit: a middle construction such as Dit boek leest gemakkelijkThis book reads easily has the quasi-universal reading that the book is easy to read for everyone in the given domain of discourse, as the validity of the reasoning in (160a) shows. This quasi-universal reading of middles may also account for the fact that example (160b) is perceived as a contradiction in neutral contexts; the example improves considerably if the subject is contrastively focused, which then emphasizes Peter’s lack of skill. Note that the quasi-universal reading is also clear from the fact, illustrated in (160c), that middles allow exception clauses headed by the generic pronoun jeone.

Finally, note that the implied experiencer of the evaluative modifier gemakkelijk is construed as a potential agent of the event denoted by the verb lezento read in its activity reading.