Breakdown of Het vliegtuig is naar het vliegveld gevlogen.
het vliegtuig
the airplane
vliegen
to fly
het vliegveld
the airport
Questions & Answers about Het vliegtuig is naar het vliegveld gevlogen.
Why does this sentence use is instead of heeft for "has flown"?
In Dutch, the present perfect tense usually uses a form of hebben (to have). However, verbs that describe a physical change of location use zijn (to be) as their helping verb. Because the plane is traveling to a new place, we use is instead of heeft.
Why is the word gevlogen at the very end of the sentence?
This is a standard Dutch word order rule. In the present perfect tense, the helping verb (is) takes the second position in the sentence. The past participle (gevlogen) gets pushed all the way to the end.
Vliegtuig, vliegveld, and gevlogen all look very similar. Is that a coincidence?
Not at all! They all share the root of the verb vliegen (to fly), whose past participle is gevlogen. Dutch loves building compound words: a vliegtuig (airplane) literally means "fly-gear", and a vliegveld (airport) is a "fly-field".
Why do we use naar for "to" here?
When you are talking about moving toward a physical destination, like a building, an airport, or a city, you use the preposition naar.
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