Question 1

Since I had to travel to the city hall to drop the photo off, why do we use heb instead of ben here?

Accepted Answer

While this lesson covers verbs of motion, afgeven (to hand over / drop off) describes the action you perform once you arrive, not the physical movement to get there. Furthermore, because it takes a direct object (deze pasfoto), it requires hebben. You would only use zijn to describe the journey itself, for example: Ik ben naar het stadhuis gereden.

Question 2

Why is the past participle afgegeven and not geafgeven?

Accepted Answer

afgeven is a separable verb consisting of the prefix af and the base verb geven. When making the past participle for a separable verb, the -ge- is inserted between the prefix and the base verb, resulting in afgegeven.

Question 3

Why use the preposition bij instead of naar or in for "at the city hall"?

Accepted Answer

We use bij (at) when talking about being located at an institution, business, or counter. You aren't expressing movement towards it here (which would be naar), and in het stadhuis would put extra focus on being physically inside the building rather than just interacting with the organization.

Question 4

How do I know whether to use deze or dit before pasfoto?

Accepted Answer

In compound nouns like pasfoto, the very last word determines the article. Because it is de foto, the whole compound is a de-word. For all de-words, you use deze to say "this". If you wanted to say "this city hall", you would use dit stadhuis because it is a het-word (het stadhuis).

Ik heb deze pasfoto bij het stadhuis afgegeven.

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