Questions & Answers about Wij zijn wezen roeien en zij zijn wezen vissen.
Why do we use wezen here instead of the normal past participle geweest?
In Dutch, when the perfect tense of zijn (to be) is combined with an activity verb (like roeien or vissen), the past participle geweest is replaced by the infinitive wezen. This is why you see zijn wezen roeien instead of zijn geweest roeien.
The English translation says 'went rowing', but zijn is present tense. Why not use the Dutch simple past?
This sentence is actually in the present perfect tense (literally 'We have been rowing'). While you could use the simple past (Wij gingen roeien), Dutch speakers heavily prefer this zijn wezen structure in spoken language to describe completed recreational outings or errands.
Why are the verbs wezen roeien and wezen vissen clustered at the very end of their clauses?
This is standard Dutch word order. In a main clause, the conjugated verb (here, zijn) takes the second position, and any other verbs in the phrase get pushed all the way to the end. Because en (and) is a coordinating conjunction, it starts a brand new main clause with the exact same word order rules for zij zijn wezen vissen.
Does wezen mean something else outside of this grammar structure?