Questions & Answers about We zijn naar de stad verhuisd.
Why does the sentence use zijn instead of hebben to say 'We have moved'?
In Dutch, verbs that show a change of location or state use a form of zijn (to be) for the present perfect tense, instead of hebben (to have). Since verhuizen (to move) is a clear change of location, we say We zijn ... verhuisd (literally 'We are ... moved') to mean 'We have moved'.
Why does the past participle verhuisd end in a -d if it is spelled with an s?
This is a great example of the 't kofschip rule! You have to look at the full infinitive verb, which is verhuizen. If you remove the -en, the stem ends in a z. Because z is not in the word 't kofschip, the past participle gets a -d. The spelling changes the z to an s in verhuisd, but the rule relies on the original z.
Why is verhuisd at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch, the present perfect tense splits the verb into two parts. The helper verb (zijn) takes the second position in the sentence, and the past participle (verhuisd) is pushed to the very end. The destination (naar de stad) gets sandwiched in between.
Could I use other words for 'to', like tot or aan, instead of naar?