Questions & Answers about Vroeger was ik heel verlegen.
Why do we use was here, and how would it change if the sentence was about "we"?
was is the singular past tense of zijn (to be), used for ik, jij, and hij/zij/het. If the subject were plural, like wij (we), you would use the plural past tense instead: Vroeger waren wij heel verlegen.
Why is the word order was ik instead of ik was?
In Dutch main clauses, the conjugated verb must always be in the second position. Because this sentence starts with the time word Vroeger (position 1), the verb was takes position 2. This pushes the subject ik to position 3. This swap is known as inversion.
The English translation says "used to be", but there is no verb for "used to" in the Dutch sentence. How does that work?
Dutch doesn't have a specific verb that translates to "used to". To talk about a past habit or how things were, you simply combine the word vroeger (which means "formerly" or "in the past") with a past tense verb. So vroeger was ik literally means "in the past I was", which perfectly captures the English idea of "I used to be".
I thought heel meant "whole". Why does it mean "very" here?