Breakdown of Wij dachten dat de man onschuldig was. Hij heeft echter de diefstal bekend.
zijn
to be
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
de man
the man
wij
we
Questions & Answers about Wij dachten dat de man onschuldig was. Hij heeft echter de diefstal bekend.
Why is echter placed after the verb heeft instead of at the beginning of the sentence like "However" in English?
While you can technically start a Dutch sentence with echter (which would trigger verb inversion: Echter heeft hij...), this is often considered stylistically clunky. It is much more natural and idiomatic to place echter in the middle of the sentence, typically right after the conjugated verb (heeft).
Why is the past participle of bekennen just bekend without a ge- prefix?
Bekennen (to confess) starts with the unstressed prefix be-. Verbs that begin with inseparable prefixes such as be-, ver-, ont-, and ge- do not take an additional ge- prefix when forming their past participle.
Why does the first sentence use the simple past (dachten) while the second uses the present perfect (heeft bekend)?
The simple past (dachten) is used here to describe an ongoing state or belief during a period in the past. The present perfect (heeft bekend) highlights a single, completed action whose result is highly relevant to the present moment: his recent confession has shattered their previous belief.
Since man is a de-word, why doesn't the adjective onschuldig get an ending?