Breakdown of Heb je voor het examen gestudeerd?
hebben
to have
voor
to (time), before
het examen
the exam
studeren
to study
Questions & Answers about Heb je voor het examen gestudeerd?
Why does gestudeerd go at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch, when you use the present perfect tense, the helping verb (like heb here) takes the normal verb position, but the past participle (gestudeerd) is always pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why does gestudeerd end in a -d instead of a -t?
To make a regular past participle, you add ge- to the verb stem, and either -d or -t to the end. The stem of studeren (to study) is studeer. Because the final letter r is a voiced sound (it is not in the memory word 't kofschip or soft ketchup), it gets a -d.
Why is it heb je instead of hebt je?
The normal statement form for you have is je hebt. However, when you make a question, the verb and subject swap places. An important Dutch rule is that whenever je or jij comes directly after the verb, the verb drops its -t ending.
The translation says Did you study, but doesn't this literally mean Have you studied?
Yes, literally it says Have you for the exam studied?. In Dutch, the present perfect tense (heb ... gestudeerd) is the most common way to talk about completed past actions in everyday speech. While English often prefers the simple past (Did you study?), Dutch naturally uses the present perfect here.