Breakdown of Het team werd na de tegenslag door de manager aangemoedigd.
het team
the team
worden
to become
de manager
the manager
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
na
after (preposition)
de tegenslag
the setback
aanmoedigen
to encourage
Questions & Answers about Het team werd na de tegenslag door de manager aangemoedigd.
Why does the sentence use werd instead of was for 'was encouraged'?
In English, we use 'to be' for the passive voice ('was encouraged'). But in Dutch, a dynamic passive action uses the verb worden. Because this happened in the past, we use the simple past tense werd. If you used was here, it would describe a completed state (they had been encouraged), rather than the action of them being encouraged.
Why is na de tegenslag placed before door de manager?
Dutch generally follows the Time-Manner-Place rule for word order in the middle of a sentence. The phrase na de tegenslag tells us when the action happened (Time), so it naturally comes before the prepositional phrase explaining by whom the action was done (door de manager).
This lesson is about ondanks (despite). How would the sentence look if we used that instead of na?
You could easily swap them to change the meaning! The sentence would become Het team werd ondanks de tegenslag door de manager aangemoedigd (The team was encouraged by the manager despite the setback). Because ondanks functions as a preposition exactly like na, the word order doesn't change at all.
Look at the past participle aangemoedigd. Why is the -ge- placed in the middle of the word?
The infinitive verb is aanmoedigen (to encourage). This is a separable verb made of the prefix aan and the base verb moedigen (which relates to moed, meaning courage). When creating a past participle for a separable verb, the ge- always squeezes right between the prefix and the core verb!
Learn Het team werd na de tegenslag door de manager aangemoedigd 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