Word
Werd de stad in de vorige eeuw bevrijd?
Meaning
Was the city liberated in the previous century?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Werd de stad in de vorige eeuw bevrijd?
in
in
de stad
the city
worden
to become
vorig
previous / last
Questions & Answers about Werd de stad in de vorige eeuw bevrijd?
Why do we use Werd instead of Was to translate 'Was'?
This sentence uses the simple past passive voice. In Dutch, when an action was done to the subject (the city was liberated by someone), we use the past tense of worden (werd/werden) combined with a past participle. Using was here would describe a finished state rather than the actual event of the liberation taking place.
Why doesn't the past participle bevrijd have a ge- at the beginning?
The infinitive of the verb is bevrijden (to liberate). Verbs that already start with fixed, unstressed prefixes like be-, ver-, ont-, or er- do not get an extra ge- added to their past participle.
Why is it vorige eeuw and not vorig eeuw?
Because eeuw (century) is a de-word (de eeuw). When an adjective comes before a noun that goes with de, we add an -e to the adjective. Therefore, vorig becomes vorige.
Why is bevrijd placed all the way at the end of the sentence?