Word
Ik proefde gisteravond het bier in het nieuwe café.
Meaning
I tasted the beer in the new café last night.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Ik proefde gisteravond het bier in het nieuwe café.
Why is the past tense proefde and not proefte if the stem ends in an 'f'?
The infinitive is proeven (to taste). To find the past tense ending, we remove -en, leaving proev. The letter 'v' is a voiced consonant (it is not in 't kofschip), so the verb takes the -de ending. Even though Dutch spelling rules change the 'v' to an 'f' before adding the ending, the verb remembers its original 'v' and still takes -de, making it proefde.
Why is gisteravond translated as 'last night' instead of 'yesterday evening'?
Literally, gisteravond does mean 'yesterday evening'. But in English, we usually say 'last night' for evening activities. Dutch uses gisterennacht (yesterday night) only for the deep night when people are usually sleeping. For an evening out at a café, gisteravond is the correct and natural choice.
Why does gisteravond come right after the verb?
In Dutch main clauses, time words like gisteravond usually come as early as possible in the middle of the sentence. Dutch strongly prefers a Time-Manner-Place order, so the time (gisteravond) comes before the specific object (het bier) and the place (in het nieuwe café).
Why does nieuw get an '-e' at the end (nieuwe)?