Breakdown of Wij werkten op de universiteit en daarna feestten we.
en
and
wij
we
werken
to work
op
on
daarna
after that
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
de universiteit
the university
feesten
to party
Questions & Answers about Wij werkten op de universiteit en daarna feestten we.
Why is it werkten and not werkden?
To form the regular past tense, we look at the last letter of the verb stem. The stem of werken (to work) is werk. Because the last letter is k, which is one of the voiceless consonants in the memory word 't kofschip (or soft ketchup), we add -te or -ten. Since wij is plural, we add -ten to get werkten.
Look at feestten. Why does it have a double 't'?
The verb is feesten (to party). To find the stem, we remove -en, leaving feest. Because the stem ends in t (which is in 't kofschip), we add the past tense ending -ten for plural subjects. Stem (feest) + ending (ten) = feestten. The double 't' is completely regular and necessary here!
Why is the word order feestten we instead of we feestten?
The word en (and) joins two sentences but doesn't affect word order. However, the second part starts with the time word daarna (afterwards). In Dutch, when you start a clause with anything other than the subject, the verb and subject swap places (this is called inversion). So we get daarna in position one, followed by feestten (verb) and then we (subject).
Why does the sentence use op for 'at' the university?
Prepositions don't always translate one-to-one between languages. In Dutch, we use the preposition op (literally 'on') when talking about being at a school, college, or university. So 'at the university' translates to op de universiteit.
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