Breakdown of We hoorden gisteren pas het eerste fragment van de tekst.
eerste
first (1st)
horen
to hear
gisteren
yesterday
van
from (possession, starting point) / made of
we
we (unstressed form of wij)
de tekst
the text
pas
only / not until (of time)
het fragment
the fragment
Questions & Answers about We hoorden gisteren pas het eerste fragment van de tekst.
How can I easily remember that fragment is a het word?
Nouns ending in the suffix -ment are almost always het words in Dutch. If you know this rule, you can safely guess het fragment, just like het moment, het argument, and het appartement.
Since fragment is a het word, why does the adjective eerste still get an -e ending?
Adjectives in front of a het word only drop the -e when they are used with the indefinite article een (a) or with no article at all. Because this sentence uses the definite article het (the), the adjective keeps the standard -e ending: het eerste fragment.
Why does the sentence use pas for 'only' instead of alleen?
When 'only' refers to time—meaning 'not until' or 'as recently as'—Dutch uses pas. If you used alleen, it would mean 'solely' or 'exclusively' (e.g., yesterday was the only day you heard it, rather than you didn't hear it until yesterday).
Why is the past tense hoorden instead of hoorten?
To form the simple past of regular verbs, you look at the last letter of the verb stem (hoor). Because the letter r is not in the consonant rule acronym 't kofschip, we add -den instead of -ten for the plural past tense.
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