Breakdown of Nadat hij de verrassing had ingepakt, was het erg spannend.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
hebben
to have
erg
very / really
het
it
nadat
after
spannend
exciting
de verrassing
the surprise
inpakken
to wrap
Questions & Answers about Nadat hij de verrassing had ingepakt, was het erg spannend.
Why does the second part of the sentence say was het instead of het was?
The sentence begins with a subclause (Nadat hij de verrassing had ingepakt). In Dutch, if you start a sentence with anything other than the subject, the main clause undergoes inversion. This means the verb must come first in the main clause to keep its 'second place' in the overall sentence structure, so we get was het.
Why are the verbs had ingepakt all the way at the end of the first part?
The word Nadat (after) is a subordinating conjunction. It introduces a subclause, and the rule for subclauses is that all verbs get pushed to the very end of that clause.
How is the past participle ingepakt (wrapped) formed?
It comes from the separable verb inpakken (to pack / to wrap). When you make the past participle of a separable verb, the standard ge- goes right in the middle, sandwiched between the prefix (in-) and the verb stem (-pakt), which gives us ingepakt.
We are learning about adding -s to adjectives. Why is it spannend here and not spannends?
You only add that -s when the adjective acts as a noun directly following words like iets, niets, wat, or veel (for example, iets spannends means 'something exciting'). In this sentence, spannend is just acting as a normal adjective describing the subject het (it), so it doesn't get the extra -s.
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