Breakdown of Toen werd het kruispunt vernieuwd.
worden
to become
toen
when / then (in the past)
vernieuwen
to renew
het kruispunt
the intersection
Questions & Answers about Toen werd het kruispunt vernieuwd.
The lesson is about the present perfect passive with "zijn", so why does this sentence use "werd"?
This sentence is actually in the simple past passive (was renewed), not the present perfect passive (has been renewed). It uses werd (the past tense of worden) plus the past participle vernieuwd. If we used the present perfect passive from this lesson, it would be: Toen is het kruispunt vernieuwd.
Why is the verb before the subject here (werd het kruispunt)?
Because the sentence starts with the time word Toen (Then). Whenever you start a sentence with something other than the subject, the verb and subject swap places to keep the main verb in the second position. This is called inversion.
Why doesn't the past participle vernieuwd start with ge-?
The verb vernieuwen (to renew) starts with the fixed prefix ver-. Verbs that start with prefixes like be-, er-, her-, ont-, or ver- never get an extra ge- in their past participle.
How do we know to end vernieuwd with a d instead of a t?