Learn Dutch: Mijn vader heeft vorig jaar geen bier gedronken. - My father did not drink any beer last year.

Mijn vader heeft vorig jaar geen bier gedronken.

My father did not drink any beer last year.

Breakdown of Mijn vader heeft vorig jaar geen bier gedronken.

Questions & Answers about Mijn vader heeft vorig jaar geen bier gedronken.

Why is the past tense word gedronken and not "gedrinkt"?

Gedronken is the irregular past participle of drinken (to drink). Just like in English where "drink" becomes "drunk" (have drunk), the vowel changes in Dutch. Because it is irregular, it does not follow the standard rule of adding "-t" or "-d" at the end.

Why are heeft and gedronken so far apart in the sentence?

In Dutch, when you use a two-part past tense (like "has drunk"), the helping verb (heeft) takes the second spot in the sentence, and the past participle (gedronken) is pushed all the way to the very end.

Why do we use geen here instead of niet to say "did not drink"?

In Dutch, you use geen (meaning "no" or "not any") to negate a noun that does not have "the" or "a" in front of it. Because we are negating "beer" in general, we say geen bier rather than using niet.

Why is "last year" translated as vorig jaar?

Vorig means "previous", so vorig jaar literally translates to "the previous year." If you used the direct translation for "last" (laatste), a Dutch speaker might think you meant the final year of someone's life or the last year of school!