Het vonnis is gisteren door de rechtbank bevestigd.
The verdict was confirmed by the court yesterday.
Breakdown of Het vonnis is gisteren door de rechtbank bevestigd.
zijn
to be
gisteren
yesterday
bevestigen
to confirm
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
de rechtbank
the court (district court / court of law)
het vonnis
the verdict
Questions & Answers about Het vonnis is gisteren door de rechtbank bevestigd.
The English translation uses "was confirmed", but the Dutch sentence uses is ... bevestigd. Why not use werd ... bevestigd?
In Dutch, the present perfect passive (is bevestigd) is frequently used for fully completed past events, whereas English prefers the simple past ("was confirmed"). Using werd bevestigd is also grammatically correct but puts more focus on the action happening as a process in the past. Since this is a completed fact with a specific time (gisteren), is bevestigd is highly natural.
How would you rewrite this sentence using the formal obligation dienen te to mean "The verdict must be confirmed by the court today"?
You would write: Het vonnis dient vandaag door de rechtbank te worden bevestigd. Because the sentence describes a passive action, you combine the conjugated verb dient with the passive infinitive structure te worden bevestigd (to be confirmed).
Why does gisteren come before door de rechtbank?
This follows the standard Dutch word order guideline of "Time, Manner, Place". Gisteren indicates the time, while the agent door de rechtbank acts similarly to manner. Placing the time before the agent sounds the most natural in Dutch.
What is the function of door in this sentence?
In Dutch passive sentences, door translates to "by" and is used to introduce the agent of the action. Here, it tells us that the court (de rechtbank) is the entity that actually performed the confirmation.
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