Breakdown of Ze hebben op vakantie veel gereisd.
hebben
to have
veel
much / many / a lot of
op
on
de vakantie
the holiday
reizen
to travel
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Ze hebben op vakantie veel gereisd.
How do we know to end gereisd with a -d instead of a -t?
To form the past participle, we look at the infinitive verb reizen (to travel). If you remove the -en, you get the base: reiz. Because the last letter is z (which is not in the memory word 'soft ketchup' or 't kofschip'), we add a -d. It is spelled gereisd instead of gereizd because Dutch words never end in a z.
Why is gereisd at the very end of the sentence?
In the Dutch present perfect tense, the two parts of the verb are split up. The helping verb (hebben in this case) takes the normal second position in the sentence. The past participle (gereisd) gets pushed all the way to the end.
How can I tell if ze means "they" or "she" here?
You can tell by looking at the verb that follows it! Ze can mean either "she" or "they". Since the helping verb here is the plural hebben (have) instead of the singular heeft (has), ze must mean "they".
Can I translate "a lot" as heel instead of veel in this sentence?
No, veel is used for quantities or amounts (meaning "much" or "many", like "a lot of traveling"). Heel means "very" and is used before adjectives, like in heel mooi (very beautiful).
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