Breakdown of De baas zei dat hij de klant had overtuigd voordat wij hadden beslist.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
wij
we
hebben
to have
zeggen
to say
de baas
the boss
de klant
the customer
dat
that (conjunction)
voordat
before
overtuigen
to convince
beslissen
to decide
Questions & Answers about De baas zei dat hij de klant had overtuigd voordat wij hadden beslist.
Why is the verb had overtuigd used here instead of heeft overtuigd?
This is the sequence of tenses in reported speech. If the boss's original words were "I have convinced the customer" (Ik heb de klant overtuigd), putting it into the past tense with "The boss said..." forces the reported part to shift one step further into the past. So, the present perfect (heeft overtuigd) shifts to the past perfect (had overtuigd).
Why are the verbs had and overtuigd at the very end of the dat clause?
The word dat introduces a subclause, which always pushes its verbs to the end. When you have an auxiliary verb (had) and a past participle (overtuigd) at the end of a subclause, you can actually place them in either order! Both had overtuigd and overtuigd had are completely correct in Dutch.
Why is hadden beslist also in the past perfect?
The boss is talking about two events that both happened before he spoke. His original statement was likely "I had convinced the customer before we decided" (Ik had de klant overtuigd voordat wij beslisten). When shifted into reported speech after a past-tense verb (zei), the already completed actions use the past perfect to clearly show they happened first.
Could I just say voor wij hadden beslist instead of using voordat?
In everyday spoken Dutch, people do sometimes use voor as a shortcut. However, voordat is the strictly correct word here because it is a conjunction (a word that links two clauses, each with a subject and verb). Voor is a preposition meant for nouns, like in voor de beslissing (before the decision).
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