The use of ask and tell by Dutch children

Presented are observations concerning 2 young children's use of the Dutch equivalents of ask & tell. Vragen 'to ask a question' & zeggen 'to make known, to communicate' require different prepositions. It was found that in the speech of the 2 children observed naturalistically over a period of several years, these prepositions were often switched. The Vs zeggen or vertellen 'to tell' were often used in place of vragen but these 3 Vs were also used correctly in some instances. No examples were found of the use of vragen for zeggen or vertellen. 9 References. B. Annesser Murray