Breakdown of Omdat de koning vluchtte, werd de stad door het leger veroverd.
de stad
the city
worden
to become
omdat
because (subordinating)
vluchten
to flee
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
de koning
the king
het leger
the army
veroveren
to conquer
Questions & Answers about Omdat de koning vluchtte, werd de stad door het leger veroverd.
How is the simple past passive voice formed in this sentence?
We use werd (the simple past singular of the auxiliary verb worden) and the past participle veroverd. In Dutch, a past action that was done to the subject uses the past tense of worden, unlike English which uses the past tense of the verb to be (was).
Why does the second half of the sentence start with werd de stad instead of de stad werd?
How do we say "by the army" in a Dutch passive sentence?
We use the preposition door. Whenever you want to mention who or what is actually performing the action in a passive sentence, you introduce them with door (which often translates to "through", but means "by" in this context).
Why doesn't the past participle veroverd start with ge-?
The infinitive of the verb is veroveren. Verbs that already start with an unstressed prefix like ver-, be-, ge-, her-, or ont- do not get an extra ge- added to their past participle. It also gets a -d at the end because the last letter of the stem (the "r" in verover) is not in 't kofschip.
Why is the verb vluchtte pushed all the way to the end of its clause?
The word omdat (because) introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch, a subordinating conjunction always kicks the verb to the end of its own clause, right before the comma.
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