Breakdown of Hadden zij de taak helemaal anders verdeeld?
zij
they
hebben
to have
helemaal
completely
verdelen
to divide
de taak
the task
anders
otherwise / differently
Questions & Answers about Hadden zij de taak helemaal anders verdeeld?
Why is verdeeld at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch, when you use a two-part verb tense like the past perfect, the helper verb (hadden) takes the normal verb position, but the past participle (verdeeld) gets pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why doesn't the past participle verdeeld start with ge-?
Regular past participles get a ge- prefix, but verbs that already start with certain inseparable prefixes like ver-, be-, or ont- do not. Because the original verb is verdelen, the past participle is just verdeeld.
Why does verdeeld end with a -d and not a -t?
We use the 't kofschip rule to decide. The stem of the infinitive verdelen is verdeel. Because the letter l is not in the word 't kofschip, the past participle gets a -d.
Could I put helemaal anders after verdeeld?
No, in Dutch the past participle (verdeeld) acts like a wall at the end of the clause. Extra information like how they did it (helemaal anders) must come before that final verb.
Why use zij instead of ze?
Both mean 'they'. Zij is the stressed form, used here to emphasize that we are asking about them specifically. If you were just asking a casual question without stressing the word 'they', you would use ze.
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