Questions & Answers about Wat heb je onlangs gedaan?
What is the dictionary form of gedaan?
Gedaan is the irregular past participle of doen, which means 'to do'. Just like in English where 'do' becomes 'done', it does not follow the regular rules for making past verbs. Because it is a high-frequency irregular verb, you just have to memorize this form!
Why does the sentence use heb je instead of hebt je?
Normally, 'you have' is je hebt. But in a question, the verb comes first. A special rule in Dutch is that whenever je or jij comes immediately after the verb, you must drop the 't' at the end of the verb. So, hebt loses its 't' and becomes heb.
Why is gedaan placed at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch, when you use a two-part verb structure (like using a helping verb such as heb and a past participle like gedaan), the past participle always gets pushed to the very end of the clause. That is why gedaan comes after the time word onlangs.
Is the word onlangs related to the word lang?
Yes! If you look closely at onlangs, you can see the word lang (long). The prefix on- often means 'un-' or 'not'. So it translates perfectly to 'not long', which is a great trick to remember that it means 'recently' or 'not long ago'!