Breakdown of De bank heeft mij een lening beloofd.
een
a/an
hebben
to have
mij
me
beloven
to promise
de bank
the bank (financial institution)
de lening
the loan
Questions & Answers about De bank heeft mij een lening beloofd.
Why is the past participle beloofd instead of gebeloofd?
The verb beloven (to promise) starts with the unstressed prefix be-. In Dutch, verbs that start with prefixes like be-, ver-, ont-, or ge- are inseparable and do not get an extra ge- added to their past participle.
Why does beloofd end in a -d instead of a -t?
To find the ending for a past participle, we use the 't kofschip rule. If you remove the -en from the infinitive beloven, you get the stem belov-. Because the final letter v is not in the word 't kofschip, the past participle gets a -d. Notice that the spelling changes to an f in the final word beloofd, but the rule always looks at the original v from the infinitive.
Why are heeft and beloofd separated by the other words?
This is the standard word order for the present perfect tense in Dutch. The conjugated helping verb (heeft) takes the second position in the sentence, while the past participle (beloofd) is pushed all the way to the end.
Why does mij come before een lening?
mij (me) is the indirect object, and een lening (a loan) is the direct object. Just like in English, Dutch usually places the indirect object right before the direct object when you don't use a preposition like aan (to).
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