Breakdown of Waarom heb je dat geld besteed?
hebben
to have
het geld
the money
dat
that (het-words)
waarom
why
je
you (unstressed form of jij)
besteden
to spend
Questions & Answers about Waarom heb je dat geld besteed?
Why doesn't the past participle besteed start with ge-?
The infinitive verb is besteden (to spend). Because it starts with the unstressed prefix be-, it is an inseparable verb. Inseparable verbs do not get the ge- prefix in their past participle form, so it is just besteed, not gebesteed.
Why does besteed end in a -d rather than a -t?
To find the ending, we look at the verb stem. If we remove -en from besteden, the last letter is d. Because d is not one of the voiceless consonants in the 't kofschip memory rule, the past participle gets a -d added. Dutch words never end in a double -dd, so it simply remains besteed.
Why is besteed at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence uses the present perfect tense. In Dutch, the helping verb (heb) takes the second position in the sentence (right after the question word Waarom), and the past participle (besteed) is pushed to the very end of the clause.
Why is it dat geld instead of die geld?
Geld is a neuter word (het geld). When you want to point out 'that' specific thing for a neuter word, you must use dat. If it were a de word, you would use die.
Could I use the verb uitgeven instead of besteden here?
Yes, you could say 'Waarom heb je dat geld uitgegeven?'. Uitgeven is very commonly used specifically for spending money. Besteden is a bit more general and can mean spending money, time, or even attention.
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