Word
Ik heb in december en januari in het ziekenhuis gewerkt.
Meaning
I worked in the hospital in December and January.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Ik heb in december en januari in het ziekenhuis gewerkt.
ik
I
en
and
hebben
to have
werken
to work
Questions & Answers about Ik heb in december en januari in het ziekenhuis gewerkt.
Why aren't december and januari capitalized in this sentence?
In Dutch, the months of the year are always written with lowercase letters, unlike in English. The same goes for days of the week and seasons.
We use the word 'in' for months in English. Is it exactly the same in Dutch?
Yes! Just like in English, you use the preposition in before months of the year. So you say in december and in januari.
Why does the time (in december en januari) come before the place (in het ziekenhuis)?
Dutch word order generally follows the 'Time before Place' rule. The time an action happens always comes before the location where it happens in a standard Dutch sentence.
The English translation says 'I worked', but the Dutch says Ik heb... gewerkt. Why is that?
Spoken Dutch frequently uses this two-part tense (have + past verb) to talk about finished past events, whereas English prefers the simple past. Also notice that the second part of the verb (gewerkt) is pushed all the way to the very end of the sentence!