Breakdown of Hij had het huiswerk niet gemaakt en nu heeft hij veel spijt.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
en
and
niet
not
nu
now
hebben
to have
veel
much / many / a lot of
maken
to make
het huiswerk
the homework
de spijt
the regret
Questions & Answers about Hij had het huiswerk niet gemaakt en nu heeft hij veel spijt.
Why is the verb split into had and gemaakt here?
This is the past perfect tense. Just like in English, we use had as the helping verb and put the past participle gemaakt at the very end of the clause. It shows that he failed to do his homework before the current moment.
The translation says he hadn't "done" the homework, so why use gemaakt (made)?
In Dutch, the standard expression is huiswerk maken (literally "to make homework"). Using doen (to do) here would sound unnatural to native speakers.
Why is the word order nu heeft hij instead of nu hij heeft?
This is due to the verb-second rule. Because the second clause starts with the time word nu (now), the verb heeft must take the second position. This forces the subject hij to move to the other side of the verb.
Why does niet go right before gemaakt?
In a sentence with a helping verb and a past participle at the end, the negative word niet (not) generally gets pushed as far back in the sentence as possible, placing it right in front of the past participle.
The English translation says "a lot of regret", but is this how you say "he is very sorry"?
Yes! English speakers usually say "I am sorry," but the Dutch use the noun spijt (regret) with the verb hebben (to have). To say he is very sorry, you say hij heeft veel spijt (literally "he has much regret").
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