Breakdown of De reis is gisteren begonnen.
zijn
to be
beginnen
to begin
gisteren
yesterday
de reis
the journey / the trip
Questions & Answers about De reis is gisteren begonnen.
Why does this sentence use is instead of heeft?
In Dutch, the present perfect tense is usually formed with hebben (to have). But for verbs that describe a change of state, motion, or starting and stopping, we use zijn (to be). Beginnen (to begin) is one of these verbs, so we say is begonnen instead of heeft begonnen.
Why doesn't the past participle begonnen start with ge-?
Most past participles in Dutch start with ge-, like gemaakt (made). However, verbs that already start with a prefix like be-, ver-, or ont- do not get an extra ge-. Since the verb is beginnen, its past participle is just begonnen.
The English translation says "started" (simple past). Why does Dutch use the present perfect (is ... begonnen)?
In spoken and informal Dutch, the present perfect is the most common way to talk about completed past events. Even though English naturally uses the simple past ("started") here, a Dutch speaker will almost always choose the present perfect for an action that was completed yesterday.
Why is begonnen placed at the very end of the sentence?
When a sentence has a helper verb and a past participle, the helper verb (is) takes the second position in the sentence, and the past participle (begonnen) is sent all the way to the end. The time word gisteren (yesterday) gets sandwiched in between.
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