Word
Ze is wezen surfen toen het waaide.
Meaning
She went surfing when it was windy.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ze is wezen surfen toen het waaide.
zijn
to be
het
it
waaien
to blow (wind)
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Ze is wezen surfen toen het waaide.
Why does it say is wezen surfen instead of just heeft gesurft?
The combination of the auxiliary verb zijn (here as is) + wezen + an action infinitive is used to say someone went somewhere to do an activity and has since returned. Ze heeft gesurft just states the fact that she surfed, but Ze is wezen surfen specifically paints the picture of an outing: she went out to the water, surfed, and came back.
Isn't the past participle of "to be" normally geweest? Why use wezen here?
You are right that the normal past participle is geweest. However, Dutch has a special rule for the perfect tense when an auxiliary verb is combined with another verb's infinitive: the expected past participle turns into an infinitive itself. Wezen is an alternative infinitive form of zijn. So instead of the incorrect is geweest surfen, the rule changes it to is wezen surfen.
Could I use wanneer instead of toen to say "when it was windy"?
No, because this refers to a specific time in the past. In Dutch, you must use toen for a single event or defined period in the past. You use wanneer for questions ("When did she surf?") or for general/repeated conditions ("Whenever it is windy, she surfs").
The translation says "when it was windy", but is waaide an adjective here?