Breakdown of Een week geleden heb ik pizza gegeten.
hebben
to have
eten
to eat
de week
the week
de pizza
the pizza
geleden
ago
Questions & Answers about Een week geleden heb ik pizza gegeten.
The English translation says "I ate", but the Dutch uses heb gegeten ("have eaten"). Why?
In spoken and everyday Dutch, the present perfect tense (using hebben or zijn plus a past participle) is the most common way to talk about the past. English prefers the simple past ("I ate") for specific past times like "a week ago", but Dutch naturally sticks to the present perfect here.
What is the infinitive verb for gegeten, and why does it look like this?
The infinitive is eten (to eat). gegeten is an irregular past participle. Instead of following the normal rules, it adds ge- and an extra -g- to the stem. Because it is a high-frequency irregular verb, you just have to memorize this form.
Why is the word order heb ik instead of ik heb?
Because the sentence starts with the time phrase Een week geleden. In Dutch, the conjugated verb (here, heb) must be the second idea in the sentence. This rule forces the subject (ik) to swap places and go immediately after the verb.
How does the word geleden work in this sentence?
geleden translates to "ago". In Dutch, you always place it immediately after the length of time. So een week geleden means "a week ago", and you can use this exact same pattern for phrases like twee dagen geleden (two days ago).
Learn Een week geleden heb ik pizza gegeten and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free