Breakdown of Het nieuwe beleid is gisteren goedgekeurd, hetgeen iedereen kalmeerde.
zijn
to be
nieuw
new
gisteren
yesterday
iedereen
everyone
goedkeuren
to approve
kalmeren
to calm down / to calm (someone) down
hetgeen
which / that which (referring to a whole clause)
het beleid
the policy (strategy, government, business)
Questions & Answers about Het nieuwe beleid is gisteren goedgekeurd, hetgeen iedereen kalmeerde.
Why do we use hetgeen here, and could I use something else?
Hetgeen is a formal relative pronoun used to refer back to an entire preceding clause (in this case, the approval of the policy). In everyday spoken Dutch, you would almost always use wat instead.
Why does the Dutch sentence use is goedgekeurd (present perfect) when the English translation says "was approved" (simple past)?
Dutch frequently uses the present perfect passive (formed with the auxiliary verb zijn) for completed actions, even when a specific time like gisteren (yesterday) is mentioned. English strictly requires the simple past with specific past time markers, but Dutch is much more flexible.
What grammatical role does hetgeen play in the second clause?
It acts as the subject of the relative clause, meaning the situation itself (the approval of the policy) did the calming. Iedereen is the direct object. Because hetgeen introduces a relative clause, it triggers subordinate word order, placing the verb kalmeerde at the very end.
How is the past participle goedgekeurd formed?
It comes from the separable verb goedkeuren (to approve). When forming the past participle of a separable verb, the standard ge- part is sandwiched between the separable prefix (goed) and the base verb, resulting in goedgekeurd.
Learn Het nieuwe beleid is gisteren goedgekeurd, hetgeen iedereen kalmeerde and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free