Word
Hij is in het circus blijven staan.
Meaning
He remained standing in the circus.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hij is in het circus blijven staan.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
in
in
staan
to stand
Questions & Answers about Hij is in het circus blijven staan.
Why are there two infinitives (blijven and staan) at the end instead of a past participle like gebleven?
This is a special rule in Dutch. When you use the perfect tense with a verb like blijven (to remain/stay) linked to another action verb (like staan), you do not use a past participle. Instead, both verbs become infinitives at the end of the sentence. This is known as the double infinitive rule.
Why does the sentence use is as the helping verb instead of heeft?
The verb blijven always takes zijn (to be) as its helping verb in the perfect tense, not hebben (to have). So, even though it feels like you should say 'He has remained' in English, Dutch requires zijn here: Hij is... blijven staan.
Could I flip the verbs and say staan blijven instead of blijven staan?
No, the order is fixed. The verb that triggers the double infinitive rule (in this case, blijven) must come first, followed immediately by the action verb it describes (staan).
Why is the location (in het circus) placed in the middle of the sentence?
In a Dutch perfect tense sentence, the conjugated helping verb (is) takes the second position, and all other verbs are sent to the very end. The rest of the information, like the location in het circus, gets sandwiched in between.