Questions & Answers about Waarom waren deze munten in de grot verborgen?
Why does the Dutch sentence use waren (were) when the English translation says "had been"?
In Dutch, the passive voice in perfect tenses uses the helper verb zijn (to be), not hebben (to have). Because this is the past perfect passive ("had been hidden"), we use the past tense of zijn. Since the subject deze munten is plural, the correct form is waren.
I expected the past participle for "hidden" to start with ge-. Why is it just verborgen?
The infinitive of the verb is verbergen (to hide). Verbs that already start with an unstressed prefix like ver-, be-, or ont- do not get an extra ge- prefix in their past participle form. It is also a strong (irregular) verb, so it gets a vowel change and ends in -en.
Why is verborgen placed at the very end of the sentence?
This follows standard Dutch word order. In a question starting with a question word (Waarom), the conjugated verb (waren) comes immediately after it. Any other verbs, such as the past participle verborgen, are pushed to the very end of the clause.
Could I say dit munten instead of deze munten?