Breakdown of Wat heb je met de televisie en het bier gedaan?
en
and
hebben
to have
met
with
wat
what
doen
to do
de televisie
the television
het bier
the beer
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
Questions & Answers about Wat heb je met de televisie en het bier gedaan?
What verb does the past participle gedaan come from?
It comes from the irregular verb doen (to do). Because it is a high-frequency irregular verb, it doesn't follow the normal rules for making a past participle. Instead of adding a -d or -t to the stem, it becomes gedaan (done).
Why is gedaan all the way at the end of the sentence?
In the Dutch present perfect tense, the helping verb (in this case, heb) stays near the beginning of the sentence, while the past participle (gedaan) gets pushed to the very end. The literal order here is 'What have you with the television and the beer done?'
Usually 'you have' is je hebt. Why is it heb je here without the 't'?
When forming a question with je or jij (you), the verb and the subject swap places. When je or jij comes directly after the verb, you drop the -t from the verb. So, je hebt becomes heb je.
Why does the sentence use both de and het for 'the'?
Dutch has two words for 'the'. Televisie is a de-word, and bier is a het-word (which applies to neuter nouns). As a beginner, it is best to memorize the article along with the noun when learning new vocabulary.
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