Breakdown of Er is een show en wij zijn gaan kijken.
zijn
to be
een
a/an
en
and
wij
we
kijken
to watch
gaan
to go / to go off (of an alarm)
er
there (existential)
de show
the show
Questions & Answers about Er is een show en wij zijn gaan kijken.
Why is it gaan instead of the past participle gegaan?
This is the main rule of this lesson! When a verb of motion like gaan (to go) is used with another action verb like kijken (to watch) in the perfect tense, it does not turn into a past participle. Instead, both verbs stay in their full dictionary form (the infinitive). This is known as the double infinitive rule.
Why do we use zijn instead of hebben for the perfect tense here?
The helping verb is determined by the main action. Because gaan (to go) is a verb of motion that describes a change of location or state, it takes zijn instead of hebben to form the perfect tense.
Does wij zijn gaan kijken mean 'we are going to watch' or 'we went to watch'?
Why does the sentence start with Er is instead of Daar is?
When introducing the existence of something new or undefined (like een show), Dutch uses er as a dummy subject to mean 'there is'. You would only use daar is if you were physically pointing at a location, as in 'over there is a show'.
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