Past Outings with 'wezen'
To say you went out to do an activity and have since returned, Dutch uses a unique perfect tense construction.
Use the conjugated auxiliary verb zijn (to be) with wezen and the bare infinitive of the activity. In this structure, wezen implies you went out to do something and came back.
Pattern: zijn (conjugated) + wezen + infinitive
| Yesterday I went shopping in the city. | Gisteren ben ik in de stad wezen winkelen. |
| My brother went fishing this morning. | Mijn broer is vanmorgen wezen vissen. |
Notice that wezen and the action verb (like winkelen or vissen) are both placed at the end of the clause as infinitives. You do not use a past participle (a word starting with ge-) for the action.
Leisure and Weekend Trips
This structure is extremely common when recounting sports, hobbies, or weekend outings in casual conversation.
| Two weeks ago we went sailing. | Twee weken geleden zijn we wezen zeilen. |
| She went surfing when it was windy. | Ze is wezen surfen toen het waaide. |
Stringing Activities Together
You can use this construction in multiple parts of a sentence to recount a sequence of activities or to contrast different people's plans. Just be sure to use the correct conjugated form of zijn for each subject.
| We went jogging and after that we went picnicking. | We zijn wezen hardlopen en daarna zijn we wezen picknicken. |
| We went rowing and they went fishing. | Wij zijn wezen roeien en zij zijn wezen vissen. |