Questions & Answers about Dat is gisteren gebeurd.
Why does the Dutch sentence use "is ... gebeurd" (has happened) but the translation is just "happened"?
In Dutch, the present perfect tense is the most common way to talk about completed events in the past, especially in everyday conversation. English requires the simple past when you mention a specific time like gisteren (yesterday), but Dutch is perfectly happy using the present perfect!
Why do we use is instead of heeft?
The verb gebeuren (to happen) always takes a form of zijn (to be) as its helping verb. In Dutch, verbs that describe a change of state, a direction, or an event happening typically use zijn instead of hebben.
If gebeurd is a past participle, why doesn't it get a ge- added to the front?
Normally, you make a past participle by adding ge- to the front of a verb. However, the verb gebeuren already starts with the prefix ge-. Dutch never stacks an extra ge- onto verbs that already begin with inseparable prefixes like ge-, be-, ver-, or ont-.
Why does gebeurd end with a -d and not a -t?