Breakdown of Ze vertelde ons dat ze het excuus had gebruikt, omdat ze de reden was vergeten.
zijn
to be
hebben
to have
vergeten
to forget
gebruiken
to use
vertellen
to tell
ons
us (object)
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
dat
that (conjunction)
omdat
because (subordinating)
het excuus
the excuse (neutral / apology)
de reden
the reason
Questions & Answers about Ze vertelde ons dat ze het excuus had gebruikt, omdat ze de reden was vergeten.
Why do we use had gebruikt and was vergeten instead of the present perfect?
Because this is reported speech introduced by a past tense verb (vertelde). When you report what someone said in the past, the tenses in the reported part shift one step back in time. The original direct speech likely used the present perfect ("I have used... because I have forgotten"), so here it shifts to the past perfect (had gebruikt and was vergeten).
Why is it was vergeten instead of had vergeten?
The verb vergeten (to forget) usually takes the auxiliary verb zijn (to be) rather than hebben (to have) when you forget a piece of information or a reason. In the present perfect, "she has forgotten" is ze is vergeten. When shifted back to the past perfect for reported speech, is becomes was.
Why are the verbs pushed to the very end of both the dat and omdat parts of the sentence?
Both dat (that) and omdat (because) are conjunctions that introduce subordinate clauses. In Dutch, a subordinate clause always pushes its verbs to the end. That is why the verb combinations had gebruikt and was vergeten must come after their objects (het excuus and de reden).
In English we often say "She told us she had used the excuse," dropping the word "that." Can I drop dat in Dutch too?
No, you generally cannot drop dat in Dutch in this context. While English speakers frequently leave out "that" in reported speech, Dutch requires the conjunction dat to formally connect the main clause (Ze vertelde ons) to the reported subordinate clause.
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