Breakdown of De vakantie is geweldig. We hebben veel gereisd.
zijn
to be
hebben
to have
veel
much / many / a lot of
de vakantie
the holiday
reizen
to travel
geweldig
great
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about De vakantie is geweldig. We hebben veel gereisd.
How is the past participle gereisd formed?
The infinitive verb is reizen (to travel). To make the regular past participle, we start with ge-, add the stem, and end with -t or -d. To choose between -t and -d, we look at the stem before any spelling changes: reiz-. Since the letter z is not in the memory trick 't kofschip, it gets a -d. Finally, Dutch spelling rules change the z to an s at the end of a syllable, giving us gereisd.
Why is the -d at the end of gereisd pronounced like a "t"?
In Dutch, whenever a word ends in a -d, it is pronounced with a hard "t" sound. So even though grammar rules require it to be spelled with a -d, you pronounce it as "ge-reist".
Why does gereisd go at the very end of the sentence?
This is a strict word order rule for the Dutch present perfect tense. The helping verb (here, hebben) sits in the normal second position of the sentence. However, the past participle (gereisd) is always pushed to the very end of its clause. Literally, the Dutch says "We have a lot traveled".
How do I know to use de with vakantie instead of het?
A helpful trick for beginners is that almost all Dutch nouns ending in -ie (like vakantie, familie, or politie) take the article de.
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