Breakdown of Het museum werd in de negende eeuw opgericht.
in
in
negende
ninth (9th)
het museum
the museum
worden
to become
de eeuw
the century
oprichten
to found / to establish
Questions & Answers about Het museum werd in de negende eeuw opgericht.
Why does this sentence use werd instead of was for 'was founded'?
In Dutch, the passive voice is formed using the auxiliary verb worden (to become/to be) when describing an action that took place. Because the founding happened in the past, we use the simple past tense of worden, which is werd for a singular subject like het museum.
What is the dictionary form of opgericht and why does it have ge in the middle?
The infinitive is oprichten (to found or establish). This is a separable verb, made of the prefix op and the verb richten. When making the past participle of a separable verb, the standard ge- prefix gets squeezed between the separable part and the main verb, resulting in opgericht.
Why is the verb opgericht placed at the very end of the sentence?
This is a classic rule of Dutch word order. In a main clause, only the conjugated verb (here, werd) goes in the second position. Any other verbs, such as the past participle opgericht, are sent to the very end of the clause. This forms a 'verb bracket' around the rest of the information, which in this case is the time phrase in de negende eeuw.
How do you form ordinal numbers like negende (ninth)?
Most Dutch ordinal numbers are formed by adding -de or -ste to the regular number. For numbers from 2 to 19, you typically add -de (with 8th being an exception: achtste). So, negen (nine) simply becomes negende (ninth).
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