Breakdown of Ons kind heeft zich goed ontwikkeld.
het kind
the child
hebben
to have
ons
our
goed
good
zich ontwikkelen
to develop
Questions & Answers about Ons kind heeft zich goed ontwikkeld.
Why does this sentence use heeft instead of is for the present perfect?
In Dutch, all reflexive verbs like zich ontwikkelen (to develop oneself) always use the auxiliary verb hebben in the present perfect tense. You will never use zijn with a reflexive verb.
Why is zich placed right after heeft?
In a main clause in the present perfect, the reflexive pronoun usually comes immediately after the conjugated auxiliary verb (heeft). The past participle (ontwikkeld) is pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why do we use zich for ons kind?
Ons kind (our child) is a third-person singular subject, just like he, she, or it. In Dutch, the reflexive pronoun for all third-person subjects (both singular and plural) is always zich.
Why is it ons kind instead of onze kind?
Kind is a het word (het kind). When saying 'our' with a singular het word, you must use ons. For de words and all plural words, you would use onze.
Why does ontwikkeld end in a -d rather than a -t?
To make the past participle, we look at the stem of ontwikkelen, which ends in l. Because l is not a voiceless consonant (it is not in the memory rule 't kofschip or soft ketchup), the past participle gets a -d rather than a -t.
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