Breakdown of Helaas had hij de kans verpest.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
de kans
the chance
helaas
unfortunately
Questions & Answers about Helaas had hij de kans verpest.
Why is it had hij instead of hij had?
Because the sentence starts with the adverb helaas (unfortunately). When a sentence starts with something other than the subject, the verb and subject swap places. This rule is called inversion. Since had is the conjugated verb here, it jumps in front of hij.
How does the past perfect tense work in this sentence?
Just like in English, the Dutch past perfect uses the past tense of 'to have' (had) plus a past participle (verpest). The important Dutch twist is that the past participle (verpest) is pushed all the way to the end of the sentence, while had stays in the second position.
Why doesn't the past participle verpest start with ge-?
Normally, Dutch past participles start with ge- (like gewerkt). However, verbs that already begin with an unstressed prefix like ver-, be-, or ont- do not get an extra ge-. Because the original verb is verpesten, the past participle remains verpest.
Why does verpest end in a -t and not a -d?