Breakdown of Na het bezwaar kreeg hij de boete vergoed.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
krijgen
to get (receive)
na
after (preposition)
vergoeden
to reimburse
Questions & Answers about Na het bezwaar kreeg hij de boete vergoed.
Why do we use kreeg ... vergoed here?
This sentence uses the benefactive passive. By combining a form of krijgen (to get) with the past participle vergoed (reimbursed), Dutch shows that the subject (hij) is the one benefiting from the action. Someone else did the reimbursing for him. It works just like the English structure 'he got the fine reimbursed'.
Could kreeg hij de boete just mean 'he received the fine'?
If the sentence ended there, yes! But the past participle vergoed at the very end completely changes the meaning. He didn't receive a new fine; he received the action of an old fine being paid back. This is why you always have to look at the end of a Dutch sentence to see if there is another verb changing the context!
Why is the word order kreeg hij instead of hij kreeg?
Because the sentence starts with the prepositional phrase Na het bezwaar (After the objection). In Dutch, starting a main clause with anything other than the subject triggers inversion, meaning the verb and subject must swap places.
Why does the past participle vergoed lack a ge- prefix?
The infinitive of the verb is vergoeden (to reimburse). Verbs that start with inseparable prefixes like ver-, be-, or ont- do not get an extra ge- prefix when forming the past participle.