Breakdown of We antwoordden dat we ermee stopten.
stoppen
to stop
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
dat
that (conjunction)
ermee
with it
antwoorden
to answer
Questions & Answers about We antwoordden dat we ermee stopten.
Why did we use the simple past stopten here, while the English translation says 'were quitting'?
This is the sequence of tenses in reported speech. Because the main reporting verb antwoordden is in the past tense, the verb in the dat-clause also shifts back a tense. The original direct quote would have been the present tense We stoppen ermee (We are quitting it). When shifted to the past, it becomes dat we ermee stopten. Dutch simply uses the simple past here rather than a continuous form.
Why is antwoordden spelled with a double 'd'?
To form the simple past of regular verbs, you add -de(n) or -te(n) to the stem. The stem of antwoorden is antwoord-, which already ends in a 'd'. Adding the plural past ending -den results in antwoord + den = antwoordden.
Why do we use ermee to mean 'it' in this sentence?
The Dutch verb for 'to quit' is stoppen met (literally 'to stop with'). In Dutch, you cannot say met het for 'with it'. Instead, these words combine and swap places to form the pronominal adverb ermee.
Why is the verb stopten placed at the very end of the sentence?
The word dat introduces a subordinate clause. A major rule of Dutch word order is that all verbs in a subordinate clause are pushed to the very end, placing stopten after ermee.
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