Breakdown of We zijn in januari of februari begonnen.
zijn
to be
in
in
beginnen
to begin
of
or
januari
January
februari
February
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
Questions & Answers about We zijn in januari of februari begonnen.
Why are januari and februari written with lowercase letters?
In Dutch, months of the year, days of the week, and seasons are never capitalized unless they are the very first word of a sentence.
Do we use the preposition in before months just like in English?
Yes! When you want to say something happens in a specific month, you use the word in. It works exactly the same way as in English, so you can say in januari, in februari, and so on.
Why does the sentence say We zijn (We are) instead of We hebben (We have)?
In Dutch, the past tense is usually formed with the helping verb hebben (to have). However, verbs that describe a change of state or motion, like beginnen (to start), use zijn (to be) instead. Because of this rule, the Dutch literally say We are started.
Why is begonnen (started) at the very end of the sentence?
This is a classic Dutch word order rule. When you use a two-part verb tense, the helping verb (zijn) goes in the normal second position, but the main action word (begonnen) gets pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
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