Breakdown of Zij heeft haar bankpas gebruikt.
zij
she
hebben
to have
haar
her
gebruiken
to use
de bankpas
the debit card
Questions & Answers about Zij heeft haar bankpas gebruikt.
Why is the past participle gebruikt instead of gegebruikt?
The infinitive of the verb is gebruiken (to use). To form a regular past participle, you usually add ge- to the beginning. However, because gebruiken already starts with the unstressed prefix ge-, adding another one is not allowed. So, it simply stays gebruikt.
Why does gebruikt end with a -t and not a -d?
You can figure this out using the 't kofschip rule. The stem of gebruiken is gebruik, which ends in the letter k. Since k is one of the consonants in 't kofschip, the past participle gets a -t at the end.
Why does the word gebruikt go at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch sentences using the present perfect tense (like 'has used'), the helping verb (heeft) takes the second position in the sentence, and the past participle (gebruikt) gets pushed all the way to the end.
Is a bankpas the same as a credit card?
No, a bankpas (often also called a pinpas) is strictly a debit card. It is a compound word made from bank (bank) and pas (card/pass). If you want to talk about a credit card in Dutch, you would just use the word creditcard.
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