Breakdown of De man was heel boos, omdat de baas het idee had genegeerd.
zijn
to be
de man
the man
hebben
to have
heel
very
boos
angry
de baas
the boss
het idee
the idea
omdat
because (subordinating)
negeren
to ignore
Questions & Answers about De man was heel boos, omdat de baas het idee had genegeerd.
Why use had genegeerd instead of the regular past tense negeerde?
Had genegeerd is the past perfect tense. Because the first part of the sentence is already in the past (was), we use had plus the past participle (genegeerd) to show that the boss ignoring the idea happened even earlier than the man being angry.
Why are the verbs had genegeerd pushed all the way to the end of the sentence?
The word omdat (because) always introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch, a subordinate clause pushes all of its verbs to the very end of the phrase.
Could I say ...omdat de baas het idee genegeerd had instead?
Yes, absolutely! When a subordinate clause ends with a helping verb (like had) and a past participle (like genegeerd), you can put them in either order. Both had genegeerd and genegeerd had are perfectly correct and natural in Dutch.
Why does the past participle genegeerd end with a -d instead of a -t?
The infinitive is negeren (to ignore). If you remove the -en, you are left with the stem negeer, which ends in r. Because the letter r is not one of the voiceless consonants in the memory word 't kofschip (or soft ketchup), the past participle gets a -d instead of a -t.
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