Word
Gisteren kletsten we in de kantine.
Meaning
Yesterday we chatted in the canteen.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Gisteren kletsten we in de kantine.
in
in
gisteren
yesterday
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
kletsen
to chat
Questions & Answers about Gisteren kletsten we in de kantine.
How do we apply the 't kofschip rule to kletsen?
The infinitive is kletsen (to chat). Remove the -en to find the stem: klets. The last letter is s, which is one of the voiceless consonants in 't kofschip. This means it gets the voiceless past tense ending. Because the subject we is plural, we add -ten to make kletsten.
Why does kletsten have two 't's right next to each other?
The first t is part of the verb's stem (klets). The second t comes from the past tense plural ending (-ten). When you put them together (klets + ten), you get kletsten.
Why is the word order kletsten we instead of we kletsten?
Because the sentence starts with the time word Gisteren (yesterday). In Dutch, if you start a sentence with anything other than the subject, the verb comes first and the subject immediately follows it. This rule is called inversion.
Could I use wij instead of we in this sentence?