Breakdown of Het was jammer, want het slechte weer had de vakantie verpest.
zijn
to be
hebben
to have
de vakantie
the holiday
het weer
the weather
het
it
want
because
slecht
bad
jammer
a pity
verpesten
to ruin
Questions & Answers about Het was jammer, want het slechte weer had de vakantie verpest.
Where is the past perfect tense in this sentence?
The past perfect here is had ... verpest (had ruined). Just like in English, it is made using the past tense of hebben (to have) — which is had for singular subjects like het slechte weer — and a past participle (verpest). It describes an action that happened before another past event.
Why doesn't the past participle verpest start with ge-?
The verb is verpesten (to ruin). Because it begins with the unstressed prefix ver-, it does not get an extra ge- in the past participle. Other common prefixes that block the ge- prefix are be-, er-, her-, and ont-.
Why doesn't the verb move to the end of the sentence after want?
The word want (because) is a coordinating conjunction. That means it links two normal sentences together without changing the word order. If the sentence had used omdat (which also means because), the verbs would be pushed to the end of the clause: ...omdat het slechte weer de vakantie had verpest.
Why is there an -e on the end of slechte?
The word weer is a het word. Adjectives before a het word only get an -e added to them if there is a specific article like het, dit, or dat in front. Because we are talking about the bad weather (het slechte weer), it gets the -e. If we just said bad weather without the word the, it would be slecht weer.
Learn Het was jammer, want het slechte weer had de vakantie verpest and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free