Breakdown of Ik weet dat de astroloog iets spannends heeft voorspeld.
ik
I
hebben
to have
weten
to know (a fact)
iets
something
Questions & Answers about Ik weet dat de astroloog iets spannends heeft voorspeld.
Can I say voorspeld heeft instead of heeft voorspeld at the end of the sentence?
Yes, both are perfectly fine! In a subordinate clause with a helper verb (heeft) and a past participle (voorspeld), you can choose their order. Putting the helper verb first is called the rode volgorde (red word order), and putting it after the participle is the groene volgorde (green word order).
Why is there an -s at the end of spannends?
When an adjective describes indefinite words like iets (something), niets (nothing), veel (much), or weinig (little), it gets an extra -s added to the end. That is why something exciting becomes iets spannends.
Why doesn't the past participle voorspeld have a ge- at the beginning?
Most past participles get a ge- prefix, but verbs that start with an inseparable prefix do not. The verb voorspellen (to predict) is inseparable, meaning the voor- is firmly attached to the verb, so its past participle is simply voorspeld instead of gevoorspeld.
Just as a refresher, why are the verbs heeft voorspeld pushed all the way to the end?
The word dat (that) always introduces a subordinate clause. As you may remember from earlier lessons, Dutch subordinate clauses require all of their verbs to be grouped together at the very end of the sentence.