Breakdown of De wedstrijd werd geannuleerd, want de straat was glad.
zijn
to be
want
because
worden
to become
de straat
the street
Questions & Answers about De wedstrijd werd geannuleerd, want de straat was glad.
Why is was in its normal place here instead of at the end of the sentence?
Want (because) is a coordinating conjunction, which joins two main clauses where the word order stays normal. If the sentence used a subordinating conjunction from your current lesson like tenzij (unless) or omdat (because), the verb would move to the end: ... tenzij de straat glad was.
Why use werd instead of was for "was cancelled"?
In Dutch, describing an action being done to something (the passive voice) uses the verb worden, and werd is its simple past tense. If you said De wedstrijd was geannuleerd, it would focus on the final state (the match had been cancelled) rather than the event of it getting cancelled.
Does glad mean "happy" like it does in English?
No, this is a common false friend! In Dutch, glad means "slippery" or "smooth" (which is why the match was cancelled). If you want to say "glad" or "happy", you should use blij.
Why does the past participle geannuleerd end in a -d?