Breakdown of De kapotte lampen zijn vervangen.
zijn
to be
de lamp
the lamp
kapot
broken
vervangen
to replace
Questions & Answers about De kapotte lampen zijn vervangen.
Why does the sentence use zijn instead of hebben to say 'have been'?
In Dutch, the present perfect passive voice (used when an action was done to the subject by someone else) uses the helping verb zijn (to be). While English says "have been", Dutch essentially says "are" (zijn).
Where is the Dutch word for 'been' in this sentence?
It is completely left out! In English, we need "been" to make this passive sentence work. The Dutch word for "been/become" is geworden, but in the present perfect passive, Dutch grammar simply drops it. You only need zijn plus the past participle (vervangen).
Why is it spelled kapotte with a double 't'?
Because it describes a plural noun (lampen), the adjective kapot (broken) needs an -e ending. When adding this -e, you must double the t to keep the o sounding short. If it were written with one t (kapote), the o would stretch into a long vowel sound.
The word vervangen is the infinitive 'to replace'. Why is it also used here as the past participle 'replaced'?
Usually, a Dutch past participle gets a ge- at the beginning (like maken becoming gemaakt). However, verbs that already start with an unstressed prefix like ver-, be-, or ont- do not get an extra ge-. Because of this rule, the past participle of vervangen looks exactly like the infinitive!
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