Breakdown of De brug werd in de oorlog verwoest.
in
in
worden
to become
de brug
the bridge
de oorlog
the war
verwoesten
to destroy
Questions & Answers about De brug werd in de oorlog verwoest.
Why do we use werd instead of was for the English word "was"?
English uses the verb "to be" for the passive voice ("was destroyed"), but Dutch uses the simple past of worden (werd for singular, werden for plural) to describe a passive action happening in the past. If you used the past tense of zijn here (De brug was verwoest), it would focus on the result, meaning the bridge was in a state of already being destroyed.
Why is verwoest at the very end of the sentence?
This follows standard Dutch word order. In a main clause, the conjugated auxiliary verb (werd) takes the second position, and any other verbs—like the past participle verwoest—are sent all the way to the end of the sentence. The extra details (in de oorlog) sit between them.
Why doesn't the past participle verwoest start with ge-?
Normally, past participles get the prefix ge-. However, if a verb already starts with an unstressed prefix like ver-, be-, ont-, or her-, it does not get an extra ge-. Since the infinitive of this verb is verwoesten (to destroy), the past participle skips the ge-.
How do you form the end of the past participle verwoest?
You look at the stem of the infinitive verb verwoesten. When you remove the -en, you are left with the stem verwoest. Because the stem already ends in a t, we don't need to add an extra -t or -d for the past participle. It just stays exactly like the stem: verwoest.
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